prix de Montrond

we were greeted with a real hot day today about 30 odd degrees so was good to see that summer has finaly arrived. the race was cat 1 and 126km over a 18km circuit with a 3km climb which wasnt that steep, you could go up in the big ring. i wasnt really expecting much of a result this race as iv just had the last week off as my grandparents came to visit me in morteau which was cool to see some family and to see some of the attractions around the area, probly the best would have been going to the Olympic museum in Lausanne. Any way the race started out different to normal as the first lap was really slow with barely any attacks and wasnt till the 2nd lap when the pace went on. i got into a good breakaway of about 15 riders but it wasnt feeling to good at all had no punch in the legs, but after a few more laps i started to come right and i was making all the good moves, then with 3 laps to go at the top of the hill the bunch caught us and i went with an attack over the top and got away with 4 guys and a few more bridged up. all the top teams were represented so i knew this was the winning move but our bunch was still to big so the attacks kept comming, on the last lap a group with the three main teams got away so it was left to me and one other team mate to chase them down. but it seemed i was the only one chasing then the last time up the hill my own team team mate who was 'to tired to work' dogged me and attacked and took 2 guys from our group. it was stupid as by this point the group in front was way to far ahead to catch and maybe if he helped me work to catch them then we may have caught them, but it seems the french dont like to do work on the front so not much i can do about it. i ended up 13 or 14 but i got a blue jersey for being the lead cat 2 rider in the challenge credit mutuel which is a series of cat 1 races and this race was the 4th in the series.

tour du Pays de Seyssel

This tour was real cool and promised to be a good course for me but unfortunatly the form didnt seem to be there for me .
stage 1
was a 105km stage with the first 60km flat and then 2 hard hills and then a hilltop finish. it was real windy so i went hard in the first 20km to try and form a good breakaway, so by the 20km mark i was in a break of about 10 guys so after driving it for a bit just to get the break a good gap i sat back, saving a bit for the hills. was pretty cruisy fro the first hill but got rolled at the top for the gpm points. the 2nd climb was a bit harder with more attacks but nothing got away until over the top some guy went off the front solo and got a big gap as no one seemed willing to chase with the final climb looming ahead. from the bottom the pace as on and i went with an attack of the guy who was leading the gpm and we had a good gap over the bunch until the road flatened out and we were caught, the road then kicked up again for the final 3km the same guy attacked again but i wasnt able to hold his wheel so he went off solo, by this point the bunch was down to 5riders and i was suffering, attacks went but we managed to stay together till the end where i got 3rd in the sprint so 5th for the stage. the guy that got away before the climb won. my legs felt like shit compared to how they were a couple of weeks ago as i should have been able to stay with the guy that got 2nd.

stage 2
this stage was a real cool 16.8 km tt that was block head wind the whole way and uphill about 3 or 4% for the first 10km. legs were feeling good warming up and then by my watch with still 7min to go till my start time the marshals were calling me saying i had all ready suposed to have gone so i started about 30 seconds late and then my speedo wasnt working and when you get something bad like that happen it ruins your motivation and i couldnt get any good rhythm. real gutted but not much i could do about it. i ended up 8th in the stage and 5th gc and if i hadnt lost the 30seconds i would have been in 2nd or 3rd.

stage 3
last stage was 95km with a hard 7km climb in the middle. it was super windy again and the first 40km was flat and a break of 15 got away which i missed. when we got to the climb the yellow jersey attacked and i went with him and we got up to the break which was pretty split up, we caught all of them except for 1 guy who got off the front of the break. the yellow jersey droped the pace a bit and a few guys managed to catch so the bunch got pretty big up the climb. again the legs felt average and everytime i attacked i was going into the red zone. the bunch stayed together till 500m to go the yellow jersey put it into the big chain ring and smashed it, i tried getting on his wheel but the legs had other ideas. so over the top i was caught by the bunch and yellow managed to bridge up to the guy in the front and they ended up wining by 30seconds. i just finished in the peloton of about 20 odd riders. so in gc i ended up 5th equal and 3rd U23. hopefully il have heaps better form for july as i have alot of good races.

TOUR DU BOURBONNAIS CHAROLAIS

had a long 4hour drive to this tour. our team had 5 riders and it was the first race i have done without either Matt or Kieran so the whole weekend i had no one i could have a proper conversation with so made it a bit more difficult than normal and was a bit testing on my limited french vocab.
stage 1
well this stage was half good and half bad. After only 5km of racing the peloton was going down hill and i was in the front 10 and a guy in front of me went down and i went right over the top of him and then about half the field piled up behind me, a few riders hit me but it wasnt to bad. although id gone down pretty hard and ripped up my shoulder and back a bit, luckily my bike was fine. Because the crash was so big the race officials had stopped the race while everyone cleaned them selves up and got bikes back into working order, there were about 15 people abandon from the crash so i was pretty lucky. After about 20minutes the race was started again but i was having trouble putting pressure on my shoulder i crashed on so standing up and sprinting was a bit of a mission. The rest of the stage wasnt to bad though as i managed to pick up the KOM jersey. Unfortunately some guy managed to slip of the front with 20km to go and the peleton being pretty unorganised he managed to win by a minute so he was well up on GC. The trip to the ambulance at the end of the stage was a bit rough as the medic there didnt speak any english and was pretty ruthless as he sprayed my back with something and then started scrubing it to get all the gravel out and then started probing all my cuts and grazes and that was it. From what i could understand i think he wanted me to come back the next day aswell so something to look forward to tomorrow.

stage 2 morning
I didnt sleep to well before this stage as my grazes made it really uncomfortable so i didnt recover very well and to make it even better all there was for breakfast was bread with a bit of jam not exactly the best race food. the stage was short only 60km, i was focussing on keeping my KOM jersey as the all the people with points were close, but all the points were picked up by breakaways and everytime i tried to attack i had the whole peleton chase and the rest of my team werent interested in helping me chase down the breaks so i had to settle with getting no points and some guy managed to get on the same points as me so he got the jersey. the bunch came back together for the finish so i just finished in the peleton.

stage 3 afternoon
the last stage was 75km and mostly flat with a few pinches in the finishing circuits (5 times 6km) i missed the break again and along with it the chance to get the KOM jersey back so pretty disappointed. our team set up a bit of a chase to bring the break back as we had no one in it. then by the finishing circuits team mate Alex attacked on the first one i accelerated to go with him but the hole peleton followed me so i sat up and let him get away. he managed to bridge up to the break and then win the stage. so for me i got to sit in the bunch for the rest of the stage. Overall was a disapointing and annoying tour so real motivated to smash it in the tour next weekend

Sam

So should probly update for the last week. Well was a pretty average weekend of racing, i had a cat 1 criterium near germany on saturday night it had a hole heap of german teams and a few ex pros and most of them had legs the size of my waist. so for most the race i sat in the bunch occasionaly having a go off the front but i had no chance as there was 1 german team that was super strong and just controled the race so out of 70 starters i think 30 or 40 finished in the bunch.
2nd race on sunday was probly the most boring race iv had here so far was cat 2 with 40 starters and raced over a small 2km circuit with a dodgy wet corner that 2 of my team mates crashed on (was kinda funny as they were the only ones that went down but i shoudnt say that). anyway kieran got in the good break away at the start of the race so all i did was sit in the bunch and cover the odd attack, luckily kieran ended up winning which was good.
This weekend coming up iv got no races so first weekend off and we are thinking of going on an epic journey somewhere on the train and hopefully get away without paying for tickets as we usually do so should be fun. then the next 2 weekends iv got 2 tours which will be mean and ones got a time trial so will be getting the tt legs going again.

prix de St Geosmes

this was a real small race with only 40 starters and was on a 2km circuit 50 times round. dont know what i was doing at the start so i missed the break of 6, but team mate kieran was in it so was just sitting in the bunch covering attacks and about half way the director said we had to start chasing as kieran wasnt going to well in the break, so me and matt got on the front and just went as hard as we could which was real cool as we busted up the peleton but at the same time smashed ourselves, i just thought of it as a training ride and just sat on the front for as long as i could till i was stuffed. we almost caught the break then alex from our team who was just sitting on bridged across to what was left of the break and then ended up winning the sprint so was real good to do heaps of work and then see alex get the win. we also picked up a few sprint primes along the way so a bit of extra cash is always good.

prix de Prevessin-Moens

so finally got my first win in france after a lot of 2nds and 3rds and i defianatley didnt think id be in with a chance as it was a dead flat 4.7km course and i was just feeling crap the first half of the race.
There were 100 odd starters so was a pretty big peleton and the course was prety tight in some parts so was hard to move up if u got stuck in the middle, i think the race was 95km long. for the first 45km i was just feeling crap and going with a few attacks but nothing would stay away. then the group just sat up at about 50km in and 2 guys attacked and i was on the front so i just followed them and when i looked back no one was chasing and we built up a pretty big gap. the 2 guys i was with werent pulling very strong laps so 20km to go i attacked them and they couldnt follow so the last 20km i did solo and by the finish i was about 30 seconds ahead of what was left of the peleton. so was pretty cool to win solo and all the people cheering along the course helped me along so good day.

tour du jura

stage 1 800m up hill tt
this stage was pretty cool it was flat for about 200m then 600m uphill at about 15% gradient and the whole way up the hill there were people lining the road cheering and alot were dressed up as random things like there was some guy dressed up as an angel and a group of old ladies all dressed as cows.i had an alright time nothing special
though as it was a bit short for me suited the sprinters more. I was 30th i think and the guy that won was a mountain biker that was 2nd in the U23 world champs and he smashed everyone he beat me by like 10 seconds.

stage 2 65km
This stage started on saturday and was only short as we had a stage in the afternoon aswell. It was all flat and with a pretty big field 130 odd riders it was a mission trying to hold a good position in the bunch so for the most the race i was mid pack as i didnt really think much would happen. then about 10km from the finish there was a cross wind section that wasnt really that strong but some muppet dropped a wheel and a group of 30 were out front and i didnt make the split so i tried bridging solo but didnt make it. so kieran prety much sat on the front and we only just managed to catch them at the end so luckily i still got bunch time.

stage 3 75km
this stage was pretty hilly so was a chance to move up on GC. this time i made sure i was at the front of the peleton the whole way. at about 25km in a couple guys got of the front and then a few groups of 2s and 3s brdged up to them making a pretty big break up the road, i was origanly going to try brdge acrross to them on the big climb that was coming up but the bunch was creeping, so i went with 2 guys that attacked and we managed to get accross to the front group after 5km of chasing. the break was pretty big maybe 30riders so the whole time it was attack, sit up, attack untill we dropped a few riders. by this point though the yellow jersey got up to us so he covered most of the atacks which was good. about 20km from the end i started to get a real bad stomach ache which was annoying. a group of three managed to get away from our group at about 10km to go. the finish was at the bottom of a 5km hill and at the botom it was a mess with 2 sharp turns and riders goin the wrong way and almost hitting barriers and i got caught up in it a bit so i came in 21st with 2 riders ahead of my bunch. so this moved me up to 13th on GC not to bad but real hilly stage tomorrow.

stage 4 130km
the first 65 km was pretty easy mostly falt with a few rollers. there was an early break of 8 guys so the team with the yellow jersey, cc etupes, were doing all the chasing so was pretty cruisy. the first climb was 10km but wasnt very steep and the bunch stayed together. the last 40km were real hard there were 3 3km real steep climbs, on the first one we caught the break, then 2 guys snuck off the front on the flat. the 2nd hill was real hard and the peleton blew to bits, i was in the front group of 5 going over the top, but on the decent my group was caught by a few more guys. the last hill was 10km from the finish and we got pretty close to the break but didnt quite catch them, i finished 8th on the stage and moved up to 10th on GC.