Not so motivated to write something about the tour so here are some pictures.
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| protecting the leaders jersey |
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Tour des Deux-Sèvres
Just a real quick update on this tour. was a super long drive away, like 6 or 7 hours travel in the car west of Lyon. So im pretty sure it was in a region called 'deux-sevres', and im just guessing that because it was the name of the race. Anyway the region of the race wasn't so important to me. The tour was 4 days, 3 days of 160km road races and on day with a 17km tt and 90km road race, all flat stages.
First stage was pretty windy and on a flat course. ended up splitting at the start and was real hard but all came back together at the end for a bunch sprint. had a few a goes in the stage but had no luck. And it rained.
Second stage it rained ... and rained and rained all day. this day had the tt in the morning and I was hoping for a good ride but just could find no rhythm the whole race and just felt crappy. think I was 30th or something. I then had a nap in the middle of the day and in the afternoon was a 90km stage. Bloody hell this was a sketchy stage because of the intense rain and the course was at times a bit technical so there were a lot of crashes. The worst came half way when about 50 people came down, we were going down a small decent on a straight piece of road and someone pulled their brakes too hard and just slid out taking out pretty much everyone behind them. I luckily missed it and finished the stage unscathed and in the first group. Incredibly lucky when I think back on it because if I had crashed and landed on my shoulder again it most probably would have broken again.
Third stage got in the main days breakaway of 10ish riders only to never get more then a minute because half the people didn't work for some reason, still dunno why. Because of that we were basically doomed from the start and got caught 20km from finish. I then finished in the bunch. Did I mention it rained again?....
Last stage nothing interesting, was controlled by yellow jersey team and all finished together again. It also poured down with rain again for the start of this stage, surprise surprise.
So to sum up was a very well organised tour lots of people watching and team presentations all the time. The racing was flat and hard so a good engine building tour for me. I think I have also worked out that about 80percent of the races iv done this year have been in the rain, and I'm not the only one complaining about it, comments like- "I think I have worn my rain jacket more than my short sleeved jersey in races this year" are very common in the peloton.
First stage was pretty windy and on a flat course. ended up splitting at the start and was real hard but all came back together at the end for a bunch sprint. had a few a goes in the stage but had no luck. And it rained.
Second stage it rained ... and rained and rained all day. this day had the tt in the morning and I was hoping for a good ride but just could find no rhythm the whole race and just felt crappy. think I was 30th or something. I then had a nap in the middle of the day and in the afternoon was a 90km stage. Bloody hell this was a sketchy stage because of the intense rain and the course was at times a bit technical so there were a lot of crashes. The worst came half way when about 50 people came down, we were going down a small decent on a straight piece of road and someone pulled their brakes too hard and just slid out taking out pretty much everyone behind them. I luckily missed it and finished the stage unscathed and in the first group. Incredibly lucky when I think back on it because if I had crashed and landed on my shoulder again it most probably would have broken again.
Third stage got in the main days breakaway of 10ish riders only to never get more then a minute because half the people didn't work for some reason, still dunno why. Because of that we were basically doomed from the start and got caught 20km from finish. I then finished in the bunch. Did I mention it rained again?....
Last stage nothing interesting, was controlled by yellow jersey team and all finished together again. It also poured down with rain again for the start of this stage, surprise surprise.
So to sum up was a very well organised tour lots of people watching and team presentations all the time. The racing was flat and hard so a good engine building tour for me. I think I have also worked out that about 80percent of the races iv done this year have been in the rain, and I'm not the only one complaining about it, comments like- "I think I have worn my rain jacket more than my short sleeved jersey in races this year" are very common in the peloton.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Grand prix du Canton de Glieze
This was the second race of the week for me and I was really motivated after a good performance in my last race. This race suited me a lot better too, it was on a 9 km circuit that had 2 climbs in it mostly low gradient but had a few steep pitches, we did this circuit 12 times and it was then 5 km on a separate circuit that went up a short steep climb to the finish.
From the start I was easily making every split in the peloton, but there would always be a group get away and then small groups from the peloton that would come across so after awhile the break away would basically be the main peloton. From there after each lap took its toll and the group got smaller and smaller. With three laps to go there were about 15 of us left including my team mate Axel. At this point I think we were one of the strongest so we were both attacking a lot. With 2 laps to go Axel got away by himself and I was just covering all the attacks from behind. Unfortunately I just didnt quite have enough on one of the steep parts of the climb after a big effort just before it to go with 3 guys that managed to bridge to Axel. In the end Axel won solo which was cool and I finished 2nd from the group behind in 6th place overall.
I was really happy to see Axel win and glad I could help him out a bit and still finish in a respectable place. The form is coming up really well and I got lots of racing coming up, with my next one being a 4day tour starting on Thursday.
From the start I was easily making every split in the peloton, but there would always be a group get away and then small groups from the peloton that would come across so after awhile the break away would basically be the main peloton. From there after each lap took its toll and the group got smaller and smaller. With three laps to go there were about 15 of us left including my team mate Axel. At this point I think we were one of the strongest so we were both attacking a lot. With 2 laps to go Axel got away by himself and I was just covering all the attacks from behind. Unfortunately I just didnt quite have enough on one of the steep parts of the climb after a big effort just before it to go with 3 guys that managed to bridge to Axel. In the end Axel won solo which was cool and I finished 2nd from the group behind in 6th place overall.
I was really happy to see Axel win and glad I could help him out a bit and still finish in a respectable place. The form is coming up really well and I got lots of racing coming up, with my next one being a 4day tour starting on Thursday.
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| Axel and I getting congratulations from our DS |
Saturday, July 7, 2012
New Update
Not quite sure where to start, because yet again it has been awhile since I have written on here. Seems this broken collar bone has kept me out of racing longer than I hoped and then when I was ready to race there was no racing on because of the french national champs.
I tried to come back racing on the 15th of june, hoping that all would be ok enough to just go easy in the bunch and finish, then I would be able to start a big objective of mine the tour du Pays Savioe the following weekend. Although it wasnt to be and the shoulder and the legs werent quite ready. I finished but was dropped about half way into the stage and didnt start the following day.
The next weeks all I was able to do was training as best as I could with my shoulder only limiting me a little but it was always getting better each day. But I was very motivated to get back some good form so I was doing a lot of big rides and extremely eager to start racing again.
It was good to have my dad come visit me last week as he was in europe for work so he came by Lyon to stay with me for a couple of days. Was very cool one day we rented a car and drove to Grenoble so I could ride some famous alpine climbs there. I did Alp d'Huez and few of the other long climbs around there also, we had some amazing weather about 35degrees and I did 75km with 3500m vertical meters was pretty epic. The second to last day my dad was here he came to watch my 2nd race back. It was a regional cat 1 race on a 6km circuit 18times. It was a bizzare day because the previous days there had been extremely hot weather and then for the race the weather took a complete U-turn, pouring with rain and down to 13degrees. I wanted to test myself a bit in this race and did so by going in the early break with 4 others and was really pushing myself and really feeling that I hadnt raced in awhile. At about midway our group was eventually caught by a group of ten and that ruined our rhythm and everyone was attacking all over the show and I had nothing and ended up dropping back to the main peloton and finished with them.
I had my next race was yesterday night (friday) it was a nocturn criterium so the race didnt start till 7.30pm. I had a bit of drama in getting there. I went to the race with a guy who helps out the club a bit and he is 75 and I think he is half blind because he drives everywhere at 50km/h and sometimes randomly brakes when there is nothing on the road infront of us... anyway we got to the town where the race was but he didnt know exactly where the start was so we spent the next hour driving around trying to find it. I pretty much thought I wasnt going to make the start, but luckily we found it with 5 minutes remaining before the start so I changed as quick as possible, got to the start line just as the commentator was about to set everyone off. I got my number and luckily he held up the start a few minutes to wait for me. But still because I was late I only had my training wheels with 60psi in each (I would normally run 120psi for a race). Anyway I started and was motivated. I made all the early moves and eventually was in a group of 15 ahead of the peloton. With so many people it wasnt working together so well so I got away with 3 others including 1 team mate. We worked together really well for the next 60km. then in the final 10km I got away with 1 other guy and we got to the finish together and unfortunately he beat me in the final sprint, but I was still happy with second but obviously a little disappointing to miss a win.
Hopefully this will be the start of some good results to come, I am starting to feel really good and I hope I can transfer that into results. The final months of the season will be important for me after missing alot of races during the middle of the season so I am very motivated for my upcoming races.
I tried to come back racing on the 15th of june, hoping that all would be ok enough to just go easy in the bunch and finish, then I would be able to start a big objective of mine the tour du Pays Savioe the following weekend. Although it wasnt to be and the shoulder and the legs werent quite ready. I finished but was dropped about half way into the stage and didnt start the following day.
The next weeks all I was able to do was training as best as I could with my shoulder only limiting me a little but it was always getting better each day. But I was very motivated to get back some good form so I was doing a lot of big rides and extremely eager to start racing again.
It was good to have my dad come visit me last week as he was in europe for work so he came by Lyon to stay with me for a couple of days. Was very cool one day we rented a car and drove to Grenoble so I could ride some famous alpine climbs there. I did Alp d'Huez and few of the other long climbs around there also, we had some amazing weather about 35degrees and I did 75km with 3500m vertical meters was pretty epic. The second to last day my dad was here he came to watch my 2nd race back. It was a regional cat 1 race on a 6km circuit 18times. It was a bizzare day because the previous days there had been extremely hot weather and then for the race the weather took a complete U-turn, pouring with rain and down to 13degrees. I wanted to test myself a bit in this race and did so by going in the early break with 4 others and was really pushing myself and really feeling that I hadnt raced in awhile. At about midway our group was eventually caught by a group of ten and that ruined our rhythm and everyone was attacking all over the show and I had nothing and ended up dropping back to the main peloton and finished with them.
I had my next race was yesterday night (friday) it was a nocturn criterium so the race didnt start till 7.30pm. I had a bit of drama in getting there. I went to the race with a guy who helps out the club a bit and he is 75 and I think he is half blind because he drives everywhere at 50km/h and sometimes randomly brakes when there is nothing on the road infront of us... anyway we got to the town where the race was but he didnt know exactly where the start was so we spent the next hour driving around trying to find it. I pretty much thought I wasnt going to make the start, but luckily we found it with 5 minutes remaining before the start so I changed as quick as possible, got to the start line just as the commentator was about to set everyone off. I got my number and luckily he held up the start a few minutes to wait for me. But still because I was late I only had my training wheels with 60psi in each (I would normally run 120psi for a race). Anyway I started and was motivated. I made all the early moves and eventually was in a group of 15 ahead of the peloton. With so many people it wasnt working together so well so I got away with 3 others including 1 team mate. We worked together really well for the next 60km. then in the final 10km I got away with 1 other guy and we got to the finish together and unfortunately he beat me in the final sprint, but I was still happy with second but obviously a little disappointing to miss a win.
Hopefully this will be the start of some good results to come, I am starting to feel really good and I hope I can transfer that into results. The final months of the season will be important for me after missing alot of races during the middle of the season so I am very motivated for my upcoming races.
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| A coffee stop ride with Chris Ward, the waitress thought it would be a good idea to put an ashtray on our table after we arrived...... |
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