Arriving france 2011

Ok well on the 23rd I was on a plane and back off to France, it is crazy how time flies it barely even felt like I was home for very long but I had an awsome time being home though and had some good racing aswell.
Anyway my plane flight was pretty good I even had a whole row of seats to my self from Auckland to LA so got to sleep most of the way. So I arrived in Lyon on the 24th and was picked up by the drector sportif he seems like a good guy but only speaks french so my french speaking skills were tested. I wasnt to bad I could understand most thing but its just the speaking part which is hardest, but hopefully that will be better soon.
My apartment is pretty good, its in a big apartment building and mine is on the 4th floor. It has 2 beds a single and a double, a kitchen with everthing and bathroom it also has a balcony. So at the moment im in here by myself but soon there will be a swiss guy who was also in my team last year will be staying in here aswell. At the moment I have no internet here which will hopefully be sorted out soon. To get free internet I have to walk to the Mc Donalds 800m down the road.
I also got my team bike and shoes yesterday. The bike is a look 586, I have taken it for one ride and it seems really good just making sure I have all my set up right. And iv got a full team service course over the weekend so im guessing we will get the race program for the year and all the new team kit etc.

O yea and did I mention its freezing here

tour de vineyards, elite nationals

Over the new years I was down in Nelson for the tour de vineyards as a build up for the elite nationals and it seemed to go alright considering id only been doing base miles.
I got in a break in the first stage which was a flat circuit race and managed to get a bit of time over the main bunch, but the good thing was I felt great and was able to do a lot of work and still have the legs to put in some attacks at the end trying to get away from my bunch but in the end was 8th or something in the sprint.
The 2nd stage had the finish at the top of takaka hill (14km climb) not much happened before the except a break got away about 20km from the hill and a few of the top guys got a good gap before the hill. But when we got to the hill I managed to have a good ride and catch them all except for Hayden Roulsten, I was in 4th till I faded a bit near the top and was just caught by a group at the top and had to settle for 7th. This put me in 6th on GC.
Next two days nothing much changed except a break got away on the 3rd stage and was aloud to get heaps of time and I lost a place on GC so I finished up in 7th.

So nationals rolled round 4 days after and it was a real cool race with awesome weather and a huge crowd turned out to watch.
My plan was to just sit in as the race was 180km and went up dyers pass (1.5km steep hill) 12 times. The race started out fairly slow and a break of about 10 got away within the first 4 laps but all of the main contenders were still in the bunch so I thought it would all come back together. I felt great for most the race as the field shrunk every time we went up the hill and by the 6th lap the main bunch was down to 15 with the bunch of 10 up the road.
Unfortunately on the 10th time up the hill I blew and was dropped, by this time there were less than 10 left in the group. I was disapointed as I only needed to hang in 2 laps more and I would have been in the top 5 U23, but easier said than done.
Well anyways before I leave for France id just like to thank Avanti Plus in Botany for all the help they have given me and especially Mike for letting me use one of his many bikes, its greatly appreciated!!