Freezing cold rain, my favourite...

One word that sums up this race was freezing!
We pretty much had all four seasons within the race with some snow before the start then sunny when we started then we were pelted with rain, then hit by some side wind followed by more sun then rain again.
So with it being so sunny at the start i thought the bad weather had cleared so i didnt wear as much kit as i should have so as soon as the rain (or maybe it was snow it was so cold) came about 1/3 of the way it went straight threw me and all i could think about was pulling out and getting warm, not the best feeling to have...
Somehow i made the splits in the crosswinds and dragged myself to the end of the race in the second group. But my team did well getting 3rd and 6th so that was good.
I think most people were feeling the cold as well as only 40 out of the 160 odd starters finished..

On saturday we also had our team presentation which was a lot of photos and a super long presentation with the sponsors etc, but was a good feed afterwards!



Also was awful to hear about the big earthquake in Christchurch, its hard to believe something like that can happen in New Zealand, and my thoughts go out to everyone in Christchurch!

GP du Pays d'Aix and Souvenir Jean Masse

For this weekend the first race I had was in Aix en Provence which is in the south of France so meant it was warm and sunny weather. The race was on a circuit we did 4 times and had 2 hills on it each a bout 4km with the 2nd one being a bit steeper. Being an elite national race there were about 150 riders at the start and was super fast for the first 50km, it didnt let up until a break of about 20ish riders got up the road.
There was only one guy from our team in it so we really needed someone else up there, luckily for me there was an italian team there that had no one in the break so they drove it from the bottom of the steeper hill on the 2nd lap and by the top there were only 7 of us left and about 10seconds off the back of the break and we caught them in the next few km.
Until the last lap not much happened, attacks went but they all came back. So the final selection was on the last hill where 4 guys got away, but for me it was race over for me as I hadnt eaten enough and I blew completely and crawled to the finish line for 30th place. Pretty ameture mistake so wasnt very happy..

After the race we drove to Marseille where we had a hotel for the night. Was pretty guttered we didnt get to have a better look around the city because it looked like an awesome place.

For Sundays race it was basically the same field as the day before but the course was super hilly. I also had a couple of team mates that were protecting me in the race, sheltering me from the wind and pulling me to the front etc. I recovered alright from the day before I wasnt 100percent recovered but pretty close.
For the first 100km I was just sitting in making sure I was near the front just in case there were any splits. Because it wasnt until the last 40km when we had 3 small circuits that were up and down the whole time with some really steep sections.
The bunch blew to pieces over the first lap and I was in a group of about 30 at the front. On the second time round a group of ten got away on a steep section at the top of one of the climbs about 15% gradient and I was so close to making the group I was only 5 or 10 meters of the back at the top of the climb but just couldnt close the gap, and so I was stuck with a group of about 15 that wouldnt do any work on the front and were slow on the hills. So I think I finished top 20 or 30 havnt seen results yet.
I was just so close to making that top group of ten on the climb it is just really really annoying me.

Ronde du Canigou

Well second race of the weekend and was supposed to be hilly.. well their were hills but it was way over exaggerated, there were two hills both not even steep and could go up in the big chain ring and the rest was flat so not as hard as i expected.
Still me and another guy in the team who is also a good climber were the leaders for the race which was really cool as i always had a team mate near me to protect me from the wind and pull me to the front and also they did a bit of work on the front to pull back a break away.
So the start of the race was flat for the first 20km then the first hill, which wasnt to hard but a small break got away and for the next 40km my team was on the front chasing them down and caught them at 50ish km which was the start of the next climb, there were a lot of attacks and i was able to follow them all even put in a few of my own but the road wasnt steep enough to split the bunch so by the top the bunch was down to 40ish riders and a few more made it back on on the decent.
From there till the finish was all flat so there was my chance gone to have a decent result. we still had me and 4 other guys in the bunch and one was a good sprinter so we were now working for him getting him to a good position for the finish.
for the last 40 km it was a over a windy circuit we did 3 times and a group of 20 split of the front with our sprinter in there so that was good and he ended up finishing fourth, but could have been better if he had a team mate with him.

So now an easy week for me and two more races next weekend, both elite national(top ameture racing in france).

COURSES au SOLEIL 2nd weekend, Tramontane

I've had a real good week at the team training camp, we have done a lot of riding and I've got to know all the guys in the team including all the staff and its a good environment here so im happy. Also decided my race program for the first half of the season with the director sportif and iv got a lot of hard races coming up but because im doing most of the top races im mostly racing just once a week which is good as i don't want to burn out.




Anyway the first race of the weekend, again had heaps of starters (almost 200 again) and the course was completly flat except for one hill at 75km of the 122km but not very steep. But before the start it was good seeing two other kiwi guys racing aswell so was good to have a chat.
Start of the race was super fast and never let up so it was important to hold position at the front with such a big field. luckily there was no wind so it stayed together till the hill, although the hill wasnt very hard i got into a break of about 15 guys over the top and we had about a 50second gap. We were rolling together really well and with alot of the big teams represented I thought we might have a good chance to stay away but unfortunatly we were caught with only 7km to go. I ended up finishing midway through the bunch. The race average was 47km/h so really fast.
Tomorrow is supposed to be really hilly so looking forward to it. Also at the moment im the best climber in the team so there is a bit of pressure on me to have a good result so hopefully might have the team working for me as well but will find out in the breifing in the morning.

Finish line

First race- COURSES au SOLEIL

Arrived in spain all good and was stoked to find out the next week is gunna be good weather! So that will be a change.
Anyway the whole team is staying in a hotel in a small place called Amelie les Bains which is still in france but on the spanish border, and I will be staying here till the 14th.
So first race on saturday wasnt the best but it was a warm 20degrees. The race was 130km and pan flat and their were almost 200 riders so a massive field. I started the race mid pack and right from the start the pace was on and there were crosswinds.. not good when im in the mid back of the field so after 30km of riding in the gutter barely moving, the bunch statred spliting all over the show and I was caught out on the wrong on of the split. Most of the bunch came back together but my bunch didnt so I was stuck with 50 guys to ride the rest of the stage. Game over.
The next day I made sure I was always at the front I didnt want a repaet of the day before. Sundays race was 130km again but this time atleast had some hills, a lot of them, from 50km there was 50km of constantly up and down so something better suited for me. For the first 50k not much happened and made sure I was at the front just in case something did. At the start of the hills I was feeling great and just watched as the bunch got smaller. Nearing the end of the climbs a small group of 3 guys got away over the top of one the hills and I was just behind in a group of 4 but I kept screwing up my corning as im still getting used to euro braking (having the brakes round the opposite way) and I drifted back to the group behind and missed all the guys that bridged across to them.
So with about 10 or 15 up the road and about the same in my group and all flat to the finish it was going to be hard to catch as most the guys in my group also had team mates up the road, so there were only 5 of us in the front tring to pull back the front but it never hapend and we finished about a minute behind. I finifhed in 28th and first from my team.
Pretty disapointed as should have been up the front as I was clibing well enough just my decending let my down. So now time to focus on next weekends races.

Settling in

Thought id just put up some pics of where I am living at the moment





also when its super cold i do a lot of this



Im settling in pretty well now finaly figured out how to use my washing machine and I have found all the shops, everything seems to be nice and close so just walking distance to supermarket etc. The only thing is im just still waiting on internet which is annoying but its on its way.
So in the weekend I had r rides with the whole team which was good. We even did 5 and a half hours in zero degrees on sunday which was hard (because of the cold and because they were smashing it too).
Also im off to Spain on Friday and I have my first race there on saturday and also a race on sunday. Then iv got a training camp during the week also in Spain (which I hope will be much warmer) and the 2 more races over that weekend, so hard week on its way but looking forward to it.