31/03

Today i had a sweet ride in the freezing cold, looked sunny out side when mathew and i left so didnt put on a huge amount of kit which was a very bad idea. We rode out to meet a team mate Clement and he took us up some awesome climbs. There are so many climbs around here it makes the waitaks look like nothing. by the time we got up to the highest point on our ride about 1180 metres altitude the weather turned for the worse, it started to snow on us and by that point i couldnt feel my hands or feet and we were barely half way, so the rest of the way we got rained on and then also got hailed on, was a solid 2 and half hours but was not the most enjoyable ride iv had.....
iv put up some pictures of some of the weeks sights on my rides

classique dole-lons-le-saunier

this race was a category one race and very very hard alot of the top teams were there, there was even the ag2r lamondiale u23 squad racing. it started with a short 4km time trial around the city the course was very tight wiht lots of sharp corners which meant alot of accelerations, the weather was awful it was very cold and pouring with rain so i decided to ride my road bike instead of the tt bike. this kind of time trial does not suit me so i wasnt expecting to do so well, i ended up coming in 45th out of 120 so pretty average. The race was 90km longand it was still very cold and wet, the cold made it very hard to race in as it really hurt ur lugs to breathe. The first 40km was flat and was on very open roads so there were very big cross winds i knew i had to be at the front because there would defianately be a split. ag2r were all at the front driving it and at about 25km i looked behind me and i was in a group of about 25 and the main peleton was 30 seconds back, but instead of everyone in the break working together they kept attaking the hole time this was nothing like in new zealand. the first hill came at 40km and i knew i did not have good legs by this point but i managed to stay with the break for 4 km of the climb but by then the attacks were to much for me and i started slipping back, the next group caught me at the top of the hill so i just sat in, but by 65km my legs were cooked so i sat up and rolled to the finish. i think not having ridden for such a long time didnt help as i didnt ride for a week before i left for france and neither did the big nights i had before i left or the plane flight. So after a few big rides this week i should start to come right.
sam

27/03/10

woke up to snow again this morning but the sun was out and melted it all pretty quick. had some good old nutela on toast for breakfast and played a bit of pro cycling manager, then by 10 the sun was shining and it was dry outside so me and mathew decided to go for our first ride. it was still bloody cold about 7degrees so had to wear ful winter kit leg warmers, jacket etc. mathew unpacked his bike and found he had a crack in his frame on the rear stays, not good. still went riding just did an easy 40km but the first 20km was a bloody strong head wind and with a bit of half wheeling it was a bit harder than just an 'easy spin'. good to get back on the bike tho and seemed like it had been forever since iv been on the bike. got my first race tomorro classique dole-lons-le-saunier U23 which is a 5km time trial in the morning then a 90km road race in the afternoon, theres to big climbs in the road race of about 6km each so will be interesting to see how i go.
sam

Arriving in France

so my journey has begun, im off to morteau in france to race for an ameture team, VCCMM. il try
keep this blog updated as much as i can and il try not to just talk about cycling haha.....

well i departed auckland airport on a 12 hour flight to san francisco on the 24th. it was really sad to leave everyone and thanks to everyone who came to see me off. my flight was pretty good i managed to sleep through most of it and i only watched 2 movies, it wasnt till i arrived in san francisco when i started to get some trouble. i was in the terminal waiting to board my flight about 50 minutes before i was due to board and i got a call over the loud speaker to go to security gate 1 which i had no idea where that was so after asking almost every person working there i found it, and they told me my bike boxes needed to be searched and i hade to supervise them. so some guy took me to some random place in the airport and he managed to get lost, then after a few fone calls he found my boxes and there was this fat lady there and she said to me they couldnt get into my boxes and that they must be locked from the inside but i kept saying to her all you have to do is un do the screws on the top (just so u know my boxes are aluminum boxes that my dad made and the top is screwed on) but she wouldnt listen to me, so by this point my flight was already boarding. the fat lady then told me to leave the room where the boxes were and wait out side, and she was saying i probly wouldnt make my flight, this is probly the most stressed iv been in a long time. bloody americans. Finaly she came out and said they got a screw driver and got the boxes open. she then said they would try get them onto my flight so i had to rush back through security and run to my depature gate, lukily they held the plane up for me and i was the last on.

my flight from san francisco to francfurt was awful it was a ten hour flight and the plane had no movies or inflight entertainment and my laptop hade no batery, and to top it of i was sitting next to this american nutcase who looked like a sleazy pedifile and kept his sunglasses on the whole flight and kept talking to himself and doing weird dance moves to his music. towards the end of the flight he asked me where i was from and then asked if weed was legal in NZ and then asked if i had any weed. i was quick to move away from as soon as we landed. i tried to learn some french on my ipod on the flight i must have listened to it for atleast 4hours but i dont think i learnt anything...
my flight to geneva was fine and i even got all my baggage, although one of the bike boxes only had 2 screws holding down the lid but im pretty sure i didnt lose anything

i was met at the airport by the team manager,oran, and another rider on the team, an australian who arrived a couple hours earlier than me. so we then had a 2 hour ride in the car to the town we are staying in, morteau. its pretty nice here heaps of old buildings and awsome mountains around it.
im staying in a flat above the teams office. the flat has 2 rooms with 2 beds in each, theres a lounge with a tv which oran said we will be getting heaps of english channels on monday, theres a kitchen with a brand new fridge and we have the cubords stocked up with food. im staying in the flat with the australian guy(mathew) and the other new zealander keiran is coming on the 8th of april.
got no internet here at the moment but should be geting it on wednesday, have to walk up to the library to get the internet