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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