Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Well its time for my weekly update and an exciting week it has been. Its involved road tripping racing and a real life game of mousetrap but I will get to that. We have finally found a new apartment and will be moving on friday which will be nice. As much fun as it has been living on a chicken farm I think a nice clean apartment will improve moral significantly. I might even be able to shake of this nagging cold I've had for the last 2 months. Hopefully anyway.
I'll start with a race report since it is fresh in my mind. The race was a 135km Kermesse in Kotersem. The course was a flat circut of 8ks to be done 16 times. The race started like any other. With the sound of a gun. And after 2ks I was dissapointed to see no first attack so I decided somebody had to do it so off I went. I managed to go solo for about 3k before turning a corner and surprisingly hitting 300m of the roughest cobbles in belgium. I hit them at about 50km/h and imediatlly my back wheel decides to go for a dance and is skiping back and forth across the road. Thankfully I was first to hit these cobbles because a surprise like that in the middle of the bunch wouldnt have been to much fun. Thankfully after the cobbles I looked back and 6 riders had attacked the peleton and had ridden across to me. We got into a rythem and for the next 5k we drilled it as hard as we could but we couldnt hold the peleton off and were caught after 10k. The next 2 laps went by and nothing really significant happened, then on lap 4 a break of 15 or so went up the road. It quickly got out to 20 secs and held there. Thankfully Ryan had made the break so I need not worry about it. After 20k of holding at 20 secs the peleton finally cracked and the break went away.
I then pretty much went to the front and slowed the bunch down as much as I could and followed and dangerous looking attacks. A few of the riders wernt to pleased with me slowing it down and I took a few headbutts and if you can believe it some guy tried to knee me. So if I ever see number 75 again hes gona be sorry. Anyway the race pretty much progressed like this for the next 10 laps with the occasional attack and the bumpy as cobbles for excitment, and the peleton just finished in a bunch kick which I was'nt really interested in and just rolled in at the back of the peleton. Ryan managed to finish 12th which is a good result considering the calibre of these races. I think we were 3 or so minutes down but not really to sure. But it was a good race and the form is definitly coming along nicely, plus I was finally able to ride the front the entire race so my bunch positioning has definitly improved which is a very important aspect of racing 200 guys.
Now onto the rest of the week... On Tuesday while out training with my teammate Jeon we decided to go for a trip to Maastricht. Maastricht is in the Nederlands but is only 50k away from home and was meant to be a really nice, and nice it was. It is crazy how different the Nederlands is even in 50k. It is so much cleaner and seems to have such a positive vibe. In Maastricht we did a spot of shopping and checked out the about 1000 shoe shops for some sweet pumas but still cant find the ones I want. I also ate raw fish which is something I plan to never do again. It is not the nicest thing ever and the taste of fish in your mouth for the next hour is kinda yuck. After the trip to Maastricht we did what everyone in europe has to do and that is check out the Red light District. It is pretty sick really, a whole lot seedy as guys in an alley way and some drugged fried prostitutes but youve gotta see it at least once. It was a good day though and were currently in the planning stages of our next road trip sometime next week so should be fun.
The one other thing this week worth mentioning is we have a mouse and he is a sly wee thing. We have tried a few homemade traps, we made homemade hooks outa pins and put cheese on them hooping to hook a mouse but he just ate around the hook. I then made a we trap with a cardboard box and a stick so when he pulled the stick he would get trapped in the box but this trap is yet to work. All those years of playing mouse trap didnt seen to help me at all but im gona catch him soon, just gotta outsmart a mouse first.
Anyhow thats about all thats happened really. Didnt get the chance to watch leige Bastonge leige which was abit dissapointing but had to race so what can you do. I'll try keep these updates weekly.
peace out homies
I'll start with a race report since it is fresh in my mind. The race was a 135km Kermesse in Kotersem. The course was a flat circut of 8ks to be done 16 times. The race started like any other. With the sound of a gun. And after 2ks I was dissapointed to see no first attack so I decided somebody had to do it so off I went. I managed to go solo for about 3k before turning a corner and surprisingly hitting 300m of the roughest cobbles in belgium. I hit them at about 50km/h and imediatlly my back wheel decides to go for a dance and is skiping back and forth across the road. Thankfully I was first to hit these cobbles because a surprise like that in the middle of the bunch wouldnt have been to much fun. Thankfully after the cobbles I looked back and 6 riders had attacked the peleton and had ridden across to me. We got into a rythem and for the next 5k we drilled it as hard as we could but we couldnt hold the peleton off and were caught after 10k. The next 2 laps went by and nothing really significant happened, then on lap 4 a break of 15 or so went up the road. It quickly got out to 20 secs and held there. Thankfully Ryan had made the break so I need not worry about it. After 20k of holding at 20 secs the peleton finally cracked and the break went away.
I then pretty much went to the front and slowed the bunch down as much as I could and followed and dangerous looking attacks. A few of the riders wernt to pleased with me slowing it down and I took a few headbutts and if you can believe it some guy tried to knee me. So if I ever see number 75 again hes gona be sorry. Anyway the race pretty much progressed like this for the next 10 laps with the occasional attack and the bumpy as cobbles for excitment, and the peleton just finished in a bunch kick which I was'nt really interested in and just rolled in at the back of the peleton. Ryan managed to finish 12th which is a good result considering the calibre of these races. I think we were 3 or so minutes down but not really to sure. But it was a good race and the form is definitly coming along nicely, plus I was finally able to ride the front the entire race so my bunch positioning has definitly improved which is a very important aspect of racing 200 guys.
Now onto the rest of the week... On Tuesday while out training with my teammate Jeon we decided to go for a trip to Maastricht. Maastricht is in the Nederlands but is only 50k away from home and was meant to be a really nice, and nice it was. It is crazy how different the Nederlands is even in 50k. It is so much cleaner and seems to have such a positive vibe. In Maastricht we did a spot of shopping and checked out the about 1000 shoe shops for some sweet pumas but still cant find the ones I want. I also ate raw fish which is something I plan to never do again. It is not the nicest thing ever and the taste of fish in your mouth for the next hour is kinda yuck. After the trip to Maastricht we did what everyone in europe has to do and that is check out the Red light District. It is pretty sick really, a whole lot seedy as guys in an alley way and some drugged fried prostitutes but youve gotta see it at least once. It was a good day though and were currently in the planning stages of our next road trip sometime next week so should be fun.
The one other thing this week worth mentioning is we have a mouse and he is a sly wee thing. We have tried a few homemade traps, we made homemade hooks outa pins and put cheese on them hooping to hook a mouse but he just ate around the hook. I then made a we trap with a cardboard box and a stick so when he pulled the stick he would get trapped in the box but this trap is yet to work. All those years of playing mouse trap didnt seen to help me at all but im gona catch him soon, just gotta outsmart a mouse first.
Anyhow thats about all thats happened really. Didnt get the chance to watch leige Bastonge leige which was abit dissapointing but had to race so what can you do. I'll try keep these updates weekly.
peace out homies
Monday, April 21, 2008
Well now that I have jumped on the blog bandwagon I thought I better keep the updates coming. That and the fact I now have internet which not having for 2 months has really sucked.
Today was an epic day. Monday always seems to be the most painful. It started as usual with a recovery ride of an hour after yesterdays race. We just had a nice ride to Spa and back. It was a balmy 18 degrees which is almost the warmest day we've had and I was able to ride in only a shirt and shorts which is a nice change from the winter jacket we normally have to wear. On the way home the Euskatel Pro tour team rode past in the opposite direction training for Leige. It was funny to see all those wee spanish climbers wrapped up it in there full winter kit and we received a few funny looks from them at the lack of clothing we were wearing. I guess going from the spanish winter of 25-30 degrees to our 0-20 degrees was abit of a shock to them.
Now I said today was the most painful day and this is due to it being marche day. Or supermarket shopping if you will. It is a 2k walk with 600m up a seriously steep hill. We each had 3 8kg bags to carry home. It was probably the deepest in the box I have been in during this entire trip, my arms were never designed to carry weight long distances. It required many stops on the way but im hoping by the time I come back to NZ I will be able to go no stops but will just have to wait and see. Im glad to be home though the grocerys are still sitting in there sacs waiting to be put away but that can wait. Ive got 2 months of internet to catch up on.
We'll thats my day not really that epic but im bored, and after watching the mighty ducks trilogy about 5 times already theres not alot to do. Anyway hope everybodys well, Trainings going well and hopefully with a few more big weeks my form will be on up.
Chur
Today was an epic day. Monday always seems to be the most painful. It started as usual with a recovery ride of an hour after yesterdays race. We just had a nice ride to Spa and back. It was a balmy 18 degrees which is almost the warmest day we've had and I was able to ride in only a shirt and shorts which is a nice change from the winter jacket we normally have to wear. On the way home the Euskatel Pro tour team rode past in the opposite direction training for Leige. It was funny to see all those wee spanish climbers wrapped up it in there full winter kit and we received a few funny looks from them at the lack of clothing we were wearing. I guess going from the spanish winter of 25-30 degrees to our 0-20 degrees was abit of a shock to them.
Now I said today was the most painful day and this is due to it being marche day. Or supermarket shopping if you will. It is a 2k walk with 600m up a seriously steep hill. We each had 3 8kg bags to carry home. It was probably the deepest in the box I have been in during this entire trip, my arms were never designed to carry weight long distances. It required many stops on the way but im hoping by the time I come back to NZ I will be able to go no stops but will just have to wait and see. Im glad to be home though the grocerys are still sitting in there sacs waiting to be put away but that can wait. Ive got 2 months of internet to catch up on.
We'll thats my day not really that epic but im bored, and after watching the mighty ducks trilogy about 5 times already theres not alot to do. Anyway hope everybodys well, Trainings going well and hopefully with a few more big weeks my form will be on up.
Chur
Finally an Update
Hi all
Sorry for the lack of posts but a serious lack of internet and a strong case of CBF has resulted in no recent postings so im going to try make up for it with this one. I should really be doing some massey but to lets be realistic im one to leave things to the last minute so im sure it can wait. I'll try to cover all the races ive done but to be honest I cant really remember the details of some of them so I might just have to make up some details so they sound abit more exciting.
I'll start with my latest race so at least the first couple of paragraphs are interesting because I can remember what happened and then by the time im making stuff up you will have gone to far and will read on. My latest race was Zelik-Galmarden. A UCI 1.12 170km Top comp. This is disputibly the toughest amatuer race of the season and with 9 cobbled climbs and 7 sealed ones I was about to find out why. A quick history on this race, 7 of the last 10 winners have become profesional and past winners included Tom Boonen and Kevin Ista. The race started off as normal and after 7 weeks I am finally able to ride the front of a 200 rider field. For the first 30k I was trying to make the early break but I was never able to break the grasp of the peleton and after a few attempts decided it was better to save my energy for the major difficulty of the day the Cote de Muur a cobbled climb about 2km in lenth 55km into the race.
5Km before the climb it became a shit fight for the front and I found myself continuosly moving backwards before the climb. Coming into the climb I was mid pack before things went from bad to worse 500m before the climb we had to make a 180 degree turn and due to 200 guys all trying to make there way round as fast as possible the inevitable happened and there was a crash holding up the back half of the field. I managed to make my way round but hit the climb in the last 10 wheels, not really the best place to be. I powered my way up the climb and made up a few wheels before rounding the steepest corner of the climb where it narrows to about 2m wide and being stopped in my tracks by a wall of riders, seems there had been another crash. There were guys falling off everywhere and most of us had dismounted and proceded to run up the climb, pity I hadnt put my running shoes on because cleats dont really create that much grip on slippery cobbles/pave. I ended up running for about 100m before remounting my bike and completing the climb.
I went over the top with a group of 30 or so and we preceded to chase the peleton, we had been chasing for about 1k when we hit another climb, we could see the peleton about 20secs ahead of us so I attacked the group and attempted to bridge up, I got to within 5secs before my legs decided to stop listening to my brain and as I crested the top I was about 15 secs down with the group of 30 10 secs behind me. On the descent they caught me and we chased for another 2k before hitting the Bosberg another cobbled climb. By this point we were about 40secs down and I had given up hope of catching the peleton, our group rode up the climb and we ended up riding to the finish where it was race over.
The previous race was a kermesse near Tienen. This race was 120k and is a step down from the interclub races I have been doing. Not to say this race was easy we still averged 44km/h and on some pretty average roads filled with rivets just wide enough for a wheel and a whole lot of potholes. The race was abit weird in the fact the break didnt go until 90ks due to one team bringing everything back regardless of whether they had team mates in the attacks or not. I tried a few times to get away but was un succesfull and pretty much rode the entire race mid pack just practising moving up the group as this is my major weakness. Apart from riding into a few rivets which scared the shit outta me and hitting a few potholes making me think my Velo will be lucky to survive a season in Belgium it was a pretty uneventful race and I finished mid pack not wanting to risk anything sprinting for 10th place. It is crazy to see some guys sprint for 80th place and the risks they take just to make up a few places .
The race before this was a criterium in germany. I manged to catch up with james which was cool and it was cool to be racing each other again after 7 weeks. The race was a good one for me it was 80k I think 40 or 50 laps of a circuit. I felt good but unluckly missed the break of about 10 guys and being the only VC Ardennes rider in the race there was no chance of bringing it back. I sat back for the middle part of the race and decided to see what I could do with 5 laps to go. I proceded to make my way to the front and put in a few digs. With 3 laps to go we could actually see the early break and there was a real chance of it coming back. I made a promising break of 7 riders but 3 of them had team mates already up the road and wouldnt lap so we were brought back 1k later. I had a few more digs but coming into a lap to go I was spent and just sat back and rolled in at the back of the pack abit dissapointed but satisfyed with my day.
I've now come to the point where I cant really remember any of the other races ive done. My memory is seriously bad thanks to a whole load of concussions. So I think ill just flag talking about them. I could make stuff up all day but ive been writing for 30mins and cant really be bothered writing more.
So instead I will try to update my blog more often, now that I have finally invested in some internet.
My next race is a kermesse on Saturday and possibly another on Sunday. The only problem is the professionals are racing Leige Bastonge Leige this sunday and the parcours are right on our doorstep so im thinking I would rather watch that up the famous Cote de La Redoute (a seriously steep climb 20k away) so ill see what happens. But come sunday I will most likely have a race update from saturday and a report on what its like watching the pros live. I will try put some pics of the pros up on sunday. We might even go as far as spray painting the road but we just have to find out how illegal it is first.
Anyway thats enough of me ranting.
Peace out
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
