Well im sitting here pretty bored and realised I hadnt had an update for a seriously long time so here goes. This week has not been so great. Getting back from a wee break in paris to catch the last stage of the tour de france I arrived to no bike. It seems it was stolen from our garage while I was away so to be honest im pretty pissed. I've now gotta wait for a few days for some peices to arrive so i can rebuild my trek so i have a bike I can ride for the rest of the season. So a few more days off which im not so pleased about with only 8 weeks left in Belgian I'd like to make the most of the time.
On a positive note it has given me abit of time to get a couple of massey assignments completed so i guess its not all bad.
I've done afew races since I last posted but its quite a stretch for my memory to think back so i'll just put a report for the races I can remeber. The most recent race I can remember is the Tour De Province Luxembourg. This is a 4 stage tour with each stage around 150k on a fairly hilly terrain. This was my first tour so I was interested to see how I would go. The first stage started with a tempreture of 30 odd degrees so we were all expecting a hot hard day, the stage started with 5k flat before hitting a 15k climb. Ths climb wasnt super steep but as we hit the top we were hit by heavy rain and hail. I was struggling a wee bit due to allergies restricting my ability to breathe and got dropped with a biggish group 1k from the top but luckly we got back on, on the descent. I just settled in the bunch not feeling the greatest then at 100k the grupetto formed of around 40 riders and I was happy to get in this group and get to the finish. It had been hailing all day since 15k so we were all cold and happy to finish.
The 2nd stage was another hilly circut with 3 finishing circuts with a 1k climb to the finish. This stage was constant rain all day and for most of the stage I sat in the bunch fairly comfortable. We then hit the first time up the finish climb after 110k I ended up in the 2nd group and it stayed like this to the finish. I was feeling really good on this stage and I think had I had better positioning I would have been in the front group but thats just life I guess.
The 3rd stage is where it went pear shaped, It was all up or down for the first 40k and my gears wernt working so all i could ride was my biggest gear. This wasnt so great on the climbs and I ended up dropped and out of the race so not a great end to the tour.
Thats really the only race I can rember despite racing a few others. I will try update more often now. My excuse is that my computer blew up so I couldnt.
Josh
Friday, August 1, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Karma eh
Well its about time I had an update.
It has been a busy couple of weeks, and its raining outside with flooded roads so a good time for an update, so i will try and cover whats been happening and the couple of races ive done.
Since I last posted James came down for a week or so. I rode to Aachen to pick him up. Unfortuantly for him he had 2 crashes on the way home which was more funny than anything I think, and I will admite to laughing at his misfortune. Luckily he escaped with no injurys. I think this is when Karma decided to get me back and the next day I had my first crash in a while. It was a stupid crash really but it left me with abit less skin than i started the day with, and a very sore head. I guess I might have to start wearing a helmet from now on, but really it takes a couple of head injurys for me to learn a lesson, and we just got team cycling caps the other day, perfect for training in so i'll give myself one more chance before donning a helmet while training.
I then had a race which I cant remeber the name of but was a UCI 1.2 race so the biggest race I have done to date. The race was abit hilly for the first 60k before a flat section for 60k and then cobbles in the last 50k. The race didnt go great. I was feeling good for the first 60k and I was getting over the climbs with little difficulty and was feeling good. Then 5k before the first cobble section of 1.5k about 70k in there was a crash on a descent. I got held up by the crash and by the time we got round it we had to put a serious chase on to get back to the Peloton. We finally caught back on right at the start of the cobble section. I was already deep in the hurt from chasing on, and my lack of ability at riding the cobbles left me going straight out the ass. I was abit dissapointed because I think had I not been hurting so bad going into the cobbles I could have got through with the bunch and possibly gone ok for the rest of the race, but that racing and it just ended up being a 50k cruise to the finish line. So not the greatest race but things should improve.
The next race I did was last night. The race was 50k away and our new visitor for the next 3 weeks Matt Sillars and I decided to catch the train to the race. We managed to get to the 6.30pm start easily and the race was good. It was a 5.2km circut to be done 20 times. 3k of the circut was on narrow 2m wide farm rodes which were dusty as. The narrow roads meant holding postion in the 110 rider feild was easy enough but moving up was made difficult. For most of the race I just rode 30-50th wheel and just followed the feild around. With 6 laps to go a group of 20 got up the road so i moved to the front to try and bridge up. After attacking a few times I soon realised my legs were average, and I wasnt going to be bridging solo so just rode the last 30k in the bunch. I started to crack abit with 20k to go but not wanting to waste a gel if I wasnt going to win I just battled through and finished 50th odd.
It was post race that our troubles started. I had it all planned that we would ride the 15k to the train station, catch the train to Trooz and ride the last 5k home at around 10.30pm. (It is still light to around 10.30). But again Karma got us and Matt had a random doping control. We ended up having to wait around an hour for this and instead of leaving the race at 9pm we left at 10.15pm. We managed to make it to the train station at 10.45 and just our luck a train to Leige was just leaving. We jumped on and arrived at Leige in the pitch darkness at 11.15pm. The problem was we had missed our connecting train to Trooz and there were no more trains there till 6am. We thought about riding the 30k home but at 11.30pm with no lights decided we didnt want to die. We made the choice to have a sleep in the train station till it got light then ride home. This was going swell until they shut the station at 1.30am and it was freezing cold outside. Thankfully the very last train of the night, leaving at 1.45am was going to Pepinster only 10k from home. So with few options we jumped on the train and arrived in Pepinster at 2am. We managed to ride home in the Darkness, and thankfully saw no cars and finally arrived home at 2.30am quite tired and cold.
It was an epic night but at least makes a story for the Grand kids one day, and something to write on the blog so not all bad.
Thats about all really Hope all is well
Sorry if its not a good read but I am still tired.
Peace out
Josh
It has been a busy couple of weeks, and its raining outside with flooded roads so a good time for an update, so i will try and cover whats been happening and the couple of races ive done.
Since I last posted James came down for a week or so. I rode to Aachen to pick him up. Unfortuantly for him he had 2 crashes on the way home which was more funny than anything I think, and I will admite to laughing at his misfortune. Luckily he escaped with no injurys. I think this is when Karma decided to get me back and the next day I had my first crash in a while. It was a stupid crash really but it left me with abit less skin than i started the day with, and a very sore head. I guess I might have to start wearing a helmet from now on, but really it takes a couple of head injurys for me to learn a lesson, and we just got team cycling caps the other day, perfect for training in so i'll give myself one more chance before donning a helmet while training.
I then had a race which I cant remeber the name of but was a UCI 1.2 race so the biggest race I have done to date. The race was abit hilly for the first 60k before a flat section for 60k and then cobbles in the last 50k. The race didnt go great. I was feeling good for the first 60k and I was getting over the climbs with little difficulty and was feeling good. Then 5k before the first cobble section of 1.5k about 70k in there was a crash on a descent. I got held up by the crash and by the time we got round it we had to put a serious chase on to get back to the Peloton. We finally caught back on right at the start of the cobble section. I was already deep in the hurt from chasing on, and my lack of ability at riding the cobbles left me going straight out the ass. I was abit dissapointed because I think had I not been hurting so bad going into the cobbles I could have got through with the bunch and possibly gone ok for the rest of the race, but that racing and it just ended up being a 50k cruise to the finish line. So not the greatest race but things should improve.
The next race I did was last night. The race was 50k away and our new visitor for the next 3 weeks Matt Sillars and I decided to catch the train to the race. We managed to get to the 6.30pm start easily and the race was good. It was a 5.2km circut to be done 20 times. 3k of the circut was on narrow 2m wide farm rodes which were dusty as. The narrow roads meant holding postion in the 110 rider feild was easy enough but moving up was made difficult. For most of the race I just rode 30-50th wheel and just followed the feild around. With 6 laps to go a group of 20 got up the road so i moved to the front to try and bridge up. After attacking a few times I soon realised my legs were average, and I wasnt going to be bridging solo so just rode the last 30k in the bunch. I started to crack abit with 20k to go but not wanting to waste a gel if I wasnt going to win I just battled through and finished 50th odd.
It was post race that our troubles started. I had it all planned that we would ride the 15k to the train station, catch the train to Trooz and ride the last 5k home at around 10.30pm. (It is still light to around 10.30). But again Karma got us and Matt had a random doping control. We ended up having to wait around an hour for this and instead of leaving the race at 9pm we left at 10.15pm. We managed to make it to the train station at 10.45 and just our luck a train to Leige was just leaving. We jumped on and arrived at Leige in the pitch darkness at 11.15pm. The problem was we had missed our connecting train to Trooz and there were no more trains there till 6am. We thought about riding the 30k home but at 11.30pm with no lights decided we didnt want to die. We made the choice to have a sleep in the train station till it got light then ride home. This was going swell until they shut the station at 1.30am and it was freezing cold outside. Thankfully the very last train of the night, leaving at 1.45am was going to Pepinster only 10k from home. So with few options we jumped on the train and arrived in Pepinster at 2am. We managed to ride home in the Darkness, and thankfully saw no cars and finally arrived home at 2.30am quite tired and cold.
It was an epic night but at least makes a story for the Grand kids one day, and something to write on the blog so not all bad.
Thats about all really Hope all is well
Sorry if its not a good read but I am still tired.
Peace out
Josh
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Well it will just be a short post this week
On saturday we lined up in a pro Kermesse, so there was the odd protour rider and a few pro contis. The race was 157km with 200 starters so was looking like it was going to be a good race.
Lining up, I noticed something was feeling loose so I jumped off and found my cranks were wobbly. I figured not alot I could do so planned on racing for abit then once the race slowed I was going to try and get a spare bike off the Mavic guys.
So we set off on our way, and during the first lap the only real thing of note was a big crash right behind me, and my one attempted attack which didnt come to much. Coming into the 2nd lap the pace slowed down so i figured now was my chance to get a spare bike. I drifted my way back through the team cars and finally, now 40sec behind the bunch I came across the mavic spares. I stopped and they pulled up to me, so I told them my cranks were loose and if I could have a spare bike. This was when I was told that sorry, we only give out wheels the Bikes are for show. I was abit ripped and by now being a good 2 minutes down it was race over.
I was a little disapointed because I was feeling good. But thats racing, hopefully my run of bad luck with stuff breaking on the bike is over. I now have 2 broken wheels, 2 broken seat collars, a loose crank and a broken chain, so whats next who knows. Ryan manged to roll in with the bunch and due to a good ride is now lining up in the Tour of Belgium starting on wednesday. Also fellow new Zealander Sam Eadie manged 8th in the race, and considering the calibre of riders this was an immpressive result, so good to see.
Thats about all really, hopefully can get a few more races in over the next month or so.
Peace
On saturday we lined up in a pro Kermesse, so there was the odd protour rider and a few pro contis. The race was 157km with 200 starters so was looking like it was going to be a good race.
Lining up, I noticed something was feeling loose so I jumped off and found my cranks were wobbly. I figured not alot I could do so planned on racing for abit then once the race slowed I was going to try and get a spare bike off the Mavic guys.
So we set off on our way, and during the first lap the only real thing of note was a big crash right behind me, and my one attempted attack which didnt come to much. Coming into the 2nd lap the pace slowed down so i figured now was my chance to get a spare bike. I drifted my way back through the team cars and finally, now 40sec behind the bunch I came across the mavic spares. I stopped and they pulled up to me, so I told them my cranks were loose and if I could have a spare bike. This was when I was told that sorry, we only give out wheels the Bikes are for show. I was abit ripped and by now being a good 2 minutes down it was race over.
I was a little disapointed because I was feeling good. But thats racing, hopefully my run of bad luck with stuff breaking on the bike is over. I now have 2 broken wheels, 2 broken seat collars, a loose crank and a broken chain, so whats next who knows. Ryan manged to roll in with the bunch and due to a good ride is now lining up in the Tour of Belgium starting on wednesday. Also fellow new Zealander Sam Eadie manged 8th in the race, and considering the calibre of riders this was an immpressive result, so good to see.
Thats about all really, hopefully can get a few more races in over the next month or so.
Peace
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Germany Races
Well I'm sitting here at 11.15pm and cant sleep and find myself with a sudden motivation to update my blog. Which I have been meaning to do for a few days now.
The Races in Germany were 2 criteriums, 1 Saturday and 1 Sunday. Saturdays race was a 1.2km circut to be done 60 times for a total of 72ks or there abouts. The circut was an extremly difficult circut with a very steep 300m climb every lap, then downhill around a few corners then a 400m false flat to the finish line. Everytime up the climb I was sprinting at full capacity just to hold position and to make up any ground or follow the attacks I was ocasionally having to go into super sayan mode.
The race started with a neutral lap then coming across the line for the first time the 80 odd starters were off. The first time up the climb James attacked and went solo for the first 3-5 laps before being caught. I will admit to being in the box for those laps so kudos to James, but once he was brought back it settled down a wee bit. I was following a Sparkasse rider the only pro in the feild and figured if he moved it would be the one to go with. Well this seemed like a good idea but seems like the entire peleton knew he was the man to watch also, so every attack he attempted was covered, and he attacked alot in the first 30 laps. This constant chasing left a shattered peleton at halfway and there was probably only 40 guys left.
Halfway was when I decided it was time to stake my claim in the race. One guy was up the rode and had a good minute so was pretty much gona win but the race was still on for the minor placings. I attacked a few times and at one point was in a really good break of 6 riders and we were really smashing along but due to the nature of the course the peleton was able to bring us back. It was when we were brought back that some idiot tried to come under me on one of the corners. He came in way to hot and completly slid out, his bike sliding precariously close to me which was abit of a fright but funny seeing some guy slid across the road infront of you.
Coming into 5 laps to go I was feeling really good and was covering any dangerous looking attacks. With 1 lap to go the rider who had lapped the feild sprinted for the win and I used his draft to attack the bunch. I was going well but was abit cooked from a few to many attacks and got caught 500m to go and rolled in top 20. I was pretty stoked with my ride and James team manager was fizzing on our ride so its definitly been a boost to the confidence.
Sunday was abit of a differnt story. It was the same sort of course. 1,2km long with a tough climb up to the finish. It was 70 laps so 80 odd k. With a full comtingent of Pro team Sparkasse it was going to be a tough race. This showed after half of the 80 rider feild were dropped in the first 10k. I was feeling ok and just riding mid pack. After 35 laps I moved to the front and this is when things went bad. Sprinting up the hill my knee decided to poo itself and I was in considerable pain. I got to the top of the climb and decided it was best to stop than do anymore damage to my knee. So that was the end of my race. James had a goodie though and finished top 30 in a very difficult race.
My knee is algud now, its just muscle tightness so a good stretch has sorted it out but still a little dissapointing way to finish a race. But all in all a good weekend so I am happy with the form and with more improvements to still be made I am looking forward to the rest of the season.
My next race is a Kermess this weekend I think but not 100% sure. We will see.
Till next time.
The Races in Germany were 2 criteriums, 1 Saturday and 1 Sunday. Saturdays race was a 1.2km circut to be done 60 times for a total of 72ks or there abouts. The circut was an extremly difficult circut with a very steep 300m climb every lap, then downhill around a few corners then a 400m false flat to the finish line. Everytime up the climb I was sprinting at full capacity just to hold position and to make up any ground or follow the attacks I was ocasionally having to go into super sayan mode.
The race started with a neutral lap then coming across the line for the first time the 80 odd starters were off. The first time up the climb James attacked and went solo for the first 3-5 laps before being caught. I will admit to being in the box for those laps so kudos to James, but once he was brought back it settled down a wee bit. I was following a Sparkasse rider the only pro in the feild and figured if he moved it would be the one to go with. Well this seemed like a good idea but seems like the entire peleton knew he was the man to watch also, so every attack he attempted was covered, and he attacked alot in the first 30 laps. This constant chasing left a shattered peleton at halfway and there was probably only 40 guys left.
Halfway was when I decided it was time to stake my claim in the race. One guy was up the rode and had a good minute so was pretty much gona win but the race was still on for the minor placings. I attacked a few times and at one point was in a really good break of 6 riders and we were really smashing along but due to the nature of the course the peleton was able to bring us back. It was when we were brought back that some idiot tried to come under me on one of the corners. He came in way to hot and completly slid out, his bike sliding precariously close to me which was abit of a fright but funny seeing some guy slid across the road infront of you.
Coming into 5 laps to go I was feeling really good and was covering any dangerous looking attacks. With 1 lap to go the rider who had lapped the feild sprinted for the win and I used his draft to attack the bunch. I was going well but was abit cooked from a few to many attacks and got caught 500m to go and rolled in top 20. I was pretty stoked with my ride and James team manager was fizzing on our ride so its definitly been a boost to the confidence.
Sunday was abit of a differnt story. It was the same sort of course. 1,2km long with a tough climb up to the finish. It was 70 laps so 80 odd k. With a full comtingent of Pro team Sparkasse it was going to be a tough race. This showed after half of the 80 rider feild were dropped in the first 10k. I was feeling ok and just riding mid pack. After 35 laps I moved to the front and this is when things went bad. Sprinting up the hill my knee decided to poo itself and I was in considerable pain. I got to the top of the climb and decided it was best to stop than do anymore damage to my knee. So that was the end of my race. James had a goodie though and finished top 30 in a very difficult race.
My knee is algud now, its just muscle tightness so a good stretch has sorted it out but still a little dissapointing way to finish a race. But all in all a good weekend so I am happy with the form and with more improvements to still be made I am looking forward to the rest of the season.
My next race is a Kermess this weekend I think but not 100% sure. We will see.
Till next time.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Germany
Well this week I ventured to the country some call Germany, and others Deutchland. It was quite an epic journey and I will start from the begining. I had decided to ride to James' which according to a reliable source (google maps) was 125km away. I was giving myself 4.5 hours to get there and since James had a race and wasnt home till 6, I decided to leave a 2.30pm so he would be able to meet me somewhere.
The journey started off badly as I headed in the complete wrong direction as I left home and realised 5k later, and by the time I had turned around and had to travel back past home I had already done 10k for no gain. This was kinda depressing and I contemplated just going home but I journeyed on and decided maybe I would give myself 5 hours to get there. Little did I know that was only the begining of my problems.
I got to my first planned destination, Aachen which is right on the German-Belgium border. I got there with no major problems as we had ridden there a few times for training. But this is where all my problems began. Aachen is a big city and it took me a good 30 mins to find my way through it. I then began riding into small towns zigzagging my way north. After 4 hours I was still 80k away from Krefeld the fastest route and was getting a wee bit worried. Germany has no signs to places which is annoying so I had James texting me a list of towns to get to. This worked for a while and after 7 hours in the saddle i was only 40k away. Only problem was it was 9.30pm and getting quite dark. It was at this point I seriously considered having a kip on the side of the road since it was a warm night and starting afresh the next day. But with the thought of Krefeld on my mind I soldiered on and finally found a train station. I ended up jumping on the train the last 30k and arrived at 11pm abit tired.
Apart from the ride to Krefeld my week in Germany was good, I went and visited Julia our old exchange student who lived 50k away then on the way home we came across a WW2 Allied Cemetry. It was quite a somber place and you could feel the silence as we looked around. Of the 3000 odd graves 104 NZers where buried here so its quite a small world really.
We ventured around Krefeld city and its hundreds of shops which was a nice change from our bakery, marche, fritire, and pub in Belgium, and saw a few drug fried homeless people which is always abit funny/sad at the same time. But really we didnt do alot just relaxed and did abit of training so was a nice trip and broke the boredom of Belgium, so a few more trips are defenitly on the cards in the coming months.
I also had a couple of races up there but they will be included in my next post
Hope all is well
Chur
The journey started off badly as I headed in the complete wrong direction as I left home and realised 5k later, and by the time I had turned around and had to travel back past home I had already done 10k for no gain. This was kinda depressing and I contemplated just going home but I journeyed on and decided maybe I would give myself 5 hours to get there. Little did I know that was only the begining of my problems.
I got to my first planned destination, Aachen which is right on the German-Belgium border. I got there with no major problems as we had ridden there a few times for training. But this is where all my problems began. Aachen is a big city and it took me a good 30 mins to find my way through it. I then began riding into small towns zigzagging my way north. After 4 hours I was still 80k away from Krefeld the fastest route and was getting a wee bit worried. Germany has no signs to places which is annoying so I had James texting me a list of towns to get to. This worked for a while and after 7 hours in the saddle i was only 40k away. Only problem was it was 9.30pm and getting quite dark. It was at this point I seriously considered having a kip on the side of the road since it was a warm night and starting afresh the next day. But with the thought of Krefeld on my mind I soldiered on and finally found a train station. I ended up jumping on the train the last 30k and arrived at 11pm abit tired.
Apart from the ride to Krefeld my week in Germany was good, I went and visited Julia our old exchange student who lived 50k away then on the way home we came across a WW2 Allied Cemetry. It was quite a somber place and you could feel the silence as we looked around. Of the 3000 odd graves 104 NZers where buried here so its quite a small world really.
We ventured around Krefeld city and its hundreds of shops which was a nice change from our bakery, marche, fritire, and pub in Belgium, and saw a few drug fried homeless people which is always abit funny/sad at the same time. But really we didnt do alot just relaxed and did abit of training so was a nice trip and broke the boredom of Belgium, so a few more trips are defenitly on the cards in the coming months.
I also had a couple of races up there but they will be included in my next post
Hope all is well
Chur
Saturday, May 10, 2008
GP Marteen Wynants
Hi All
Well today I raced GP Marteen Wynants. It was a kermesse in a place called Helchteren, about 1 hours drive from home. The race was to be 118k or 18 laps of a 6.5?k circut. The circut was a tight quite dodgy circut with a few well placed roundabouts to help lift the heart rate, and some quite narrow roads.
I started the race pretty much in the last 10 wheels and with 120 starters on a tight technical circut it was going to be tough to move up. During the first few laps I managed to move my way up to the front half of the feild and with Ryan trying to make the early move and my legs feeling like a sack of shit I was content to stay there, for the time being anyway. The pace was kept fairly high for the next few laps and even after countless attempts no breaks were sticking. I was quite pleased with this as my legs had finally come to life and I was actually on a quite good day. After making possibily the greatest passing manouvere of my cycling career, by hitting it up the inside of the pelo as we came into a 180 degree corner and just hoping like hell I wasnt about to get chopped I managed to make up 50 odd wheels in the space of 100 metres and finally found myself at the front after 6 laps. For the next few laps I had a few digs and followed anything that looked promising but nothing could break the hold of the peleton and after 2 laps of continuisly attacking I was in need of a rest and within 1km had drifted back to the last 1/3rd of the bunch.
It was now that I saw what sort of toll the pace had taken on the bunch and a good 20-30 guys had already been dropped so I was glad to see that all the attacking had at least come to something. I just cruised along for the next 4 laps going about the normal things you do in a Bike race; Day dream, have a snack and abuse the odd guy. It was during my daydreaming phase that quite a funny thing happened really. We were going through the feed and some guy had dropped his bottle. Not paying to much attention I hit the bottle at 50km/h and the top flew off and smacked some guy in the head, This brought me a wee chuckle as I carried on, on my way.
After 12 laps had been done, and still no breakaway I decided to have a few more digs. My legs were feeling really good so I was pretty motivated to try and get something away. I managed to make a few small breaks and some of them seemed promising but we always seemed to get brought back. I managed to stay at the front and follow a few more attacks for the next 3 laps but still nothing was getting away so figured I'd save my energy till the last lap and try and have a dig then.
Coming into 1 lap to go I was up to about 20th wheel and was sitting good, unfortunatly coming into the first corner we got swamped and I ended up mid pack. I tried to move up during the lap but as it was probably the fastest lap of the race and with everyone else trying to move up it was difficult. Coming into 1k to go I was about 50th wheel and with an uphill head wind drag for the final kilometre and the road narrowing from 3 lanes to 1 with 400m to go it was always going to be dodgy. I decided to play it safe and just cruised in at the back of the bunch finishing with some insignificant placing. The winner managed to sneak away with 2ks to go and won by a few seconds with the bunch sprinting for 2nd.
All in all it was a good race and I had really good legs which was nice and means I am only getting stronger. I have another race on Monday which is a public holiday in Belgium for some reason, then I may be racing a 3 day tour Triptye Ardennes next weekend but am not sure of the selections yet, but if not I will ride to Germany and stay with James for a few days and eat all his food.
Hope all is well
Just keeping it real.
Well today I raced GP Marteen Wynants. It was a kermesse in a place called Helchteren, about 1 hours drive from home. The race was to be 118k or 18 laps of a 6.5?k circut. The circut was a tight quite dodgy circut with a few well placed roundabouts to help lift the heart rate, and some quite narrow roads.
I started the race pretty much in the last 10 wheels and with 120 starters on a tight technical circut it was going to be tough to move up. During the first few laps I managed to move my way up to the front half of the feild and with Ryan trying to make the early move and my legs feeling like a sack of shit I was content to stay there, for the time being anyway. The pace was kept fairly high for the next few laps and even after countless attempts no breaks were sticking. I was quite pleased with this as my legs had finally come to life and I was actually on a quite good day. After making possibily the greatest passing manouvere of my cycling career, by hitting it up the inside of the pelo as we came into a 180 degree corner and just hoping like hell I wasnt about to get chopped I managed to make up 50 odd wheels in the space of 100 metres and finally found myself at the front after 6 laps. For the next few laps I had a few digs and followed anything that looked promising but nothing could break the hold of the peleton and after 2 laps of continuisly attacking I was in need of a rest and within 1km had drifted back to the last 1/3rd of the bunch.
It was now that I saw what sort of toll the pace had taken on the bunch and a good 20-30 guys had already been dropped so I was glad to see that all the attacking had at least come to something. I just cruised along for the next 4 laps going about the normal things you do in a Bike race; Day dream, have a snack and abuse the odd guy. It was during my daydreaming phase that quite a funny thing happened really. We were going through the feed and some guy had dropped his bottle. Not paying to much attention I hit the bottle at 50km/h and the top flew off and smacked some guy in the head, This brought me a wee chuckle as I carried on, on my way.
After 12 laps had been done, and still no breakaway I decided to have a few more digs. My legs were feeling really good so I was pretty motivated to try and get something away. I managed to make a few small breaks and some of them seemed promising but we always seemed to get brought back. I managed to stay at the front and follow a few more attacks for the next 3 laps but still nothing was getting away so figured I'd save my energy till the last lap and try and have a dig then.
Coming into 1 lap to go I was up to about 20th wheel and was sitting good, unfortunatly coming into the first corner we got swamped and I ended up mid pack. I tried to move up during the lap but as it was probably the fastest lap of the race and with everyone else trying to move up it was difficult. Coming into 1k to go I was about 50th wheel and with an uphill head wind drag for the final kilometre and the road narrowing from 3 lanes to 1 with 400m to go it was always going to be dodgy. I decided to play it safe and just cruised in at the back of the bunch finishing with some insignificant placing. The winner managed to sneak away with 2ks to go and won by a few seconds with the bunch sprinting for 2nd.
All in all it was a good race and I had really good legs which was nice and means I am only getting stronger. I have another race on Monday which is a public holiday in Belgium for some reason, then I may be racing a 3 day tour Triptye Ardennes next weekend but am not sure of the selections yet, but if not I will ride to Germany and stay with James for a few days and eat all his food.
Hope all is well
Just keeping it real.
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