24 HEURES DU MANS VELO

So this weekend I had 8 hours of traveling to go to Le Mans for the 24 Heures Du Mans race. Basically this race is a 'fun' race something like round Taupo so a big range of levels with 1754 riders. The race itself was raced on the same race track as they use in the 24 Heures Du Mans for cars and you have a team of 2,4,6 or 8 riders and you change riders at different intervals for example we had a team of 4 and changed every 2 hours. The team with the most laps in 24 hours wins. The main reason we did this race was for our sponsors, Vulco (Vulco is a auto repair shop) , which were sponsors for the event and so was very important for us to win.

The race started on Saturday and was a scorcher of a day, around 35 degrees. I was scheduled to race 2nd, which meant I started at 5pm for my 2hour block. When I started the front group was all still together so about 30 minutes into my ride I attacked on the small climb on the lap which was about 500m long at 4percent. I managed to get away with 4 other guys and I rode with them for about 45 minutes but were a bit to slow for me so I ended up going alone for the last 45 minutes. By the end of my shift I was 3 minutes ahead of the bunch. Luckily our team had someone to take us to our hotel, which was 10 minutes away, to sleep for a couple hours before our next shift.

By the time I was back at the track for my next shift at 1am the team had finished what I had started and were 1 lap up on the field. This made my next ride a little easier as I could just sit in the bunch and follow any moves, which was lucky for me as I wasn't to keen on making a big effort in the middle of the night. It also had started raining during the night and the track was really slippery, I think I pretty much drifted around most of the corners.

My last shift was at 9am, so by this time the sun was out again, the track was dry and it wasn't too hot yet. At this point we were 1 lap up on 7 teams and 2 laps up on a dozen other teams. I was getting pretty bored sitting in the group so I attacked again and got away with one other guy who I knew as we have raced each other before and got about half way to lapping the field before I had to change again. So I had finished my part and the rest of the team easily got another lap and at the end we won by 2 laps to 2nd place. Also my Latvian team mate got the fastest lap time in 5minutes 14seconds, an average of 48km/h which also beat the previous record by 15 seconds. In the end I think we averaged around 41km/h for the whole race.

Super stoked to get 2nd win of the year although its not the biggest race a win is a win.



The start


Our director





Pit zone

First WIN of the season!

Well its my first blog post in almost a month, so sorry to any regulars. I have some good news! I have finally had some good luck and good legs, and I have won my first race in the first category!!Saint-Sernin-du-Bois
The race was on a small circuit of 2.5km that we did 40 times, and had a 500m hill that snaked through some forest.

It didnt seem like so much when you rode around it but after 40 times up it definitely took its toll, adding up to just under 1000m total elevation by the end. The race had about 60 odd starters so not a huge field but had some half decent riders there with one guy who has just got a stagiaire with AG2R.
For the first 10 laps I honestly felt like I wanted to pull out, the pace was really fast and I was feeling awful. I think it was because the race started quite late at 4pm and I wasnt warmed up properly. After the first 10 laps I started coming right and could lay down a few attacks. On the 16th lap I managed to get into a break away of 8 with 3 riders of the same team and I was the only one from my team. So this meant I was able to sit back a little and not do so much work. We managed to keep the gap to the peloton at about 40 seconds for most the race. At 10 laps to go the gap shot out as the peloton split up behind.
With 4 laps to go 1 guy from the break attacked on the hill and got away by himself, which was a good situation for me as it forced the team with 3 riders to do the work to bring him back. The next time up the hill when we were just about to catch the front guy I followed an attack of another rider and we bridged across to the front with one other, so we were 4 in the front. It stayed like this until the last time up the hill and one guy attacked right at the bottom which was easy to follow and about 100m from the top I launched my attack and managed to get away by myself. I pushed on to the end to win by a handful of seconds!
here are some articles on the race also
http://www.lejsl.com/sport-local/2011/08/10/un-kiwi-gagne-a-st-sernin

http://www.creusot-infos.com/article.php?sid=29609&mode=&order=0

http://www.creusot-infos.com/article.php?sid=29610&mode=&order=0








I havnt just been doing nothing the last month I have actually been quite busy so I havnt had the chance to write on here. Basically I think I will just try sum up what I have done.

I have had Brad Tilby practically living with me. He came down for the Tour de France then went to Italy for a few weeks. Its good to have someone to train with and I think for him it was a good chance to get away from the rain that Holland has been having. We have done some epic rides in the mountains around Lyon.

I have also done 10 other days of racing so a quick summary......

On Thursday the 21st I had Nocturne d’Albertville a night time criterium, where our team dominated. We had 4 of us in the break and we took 1st 2nd 3rd and 6th(I was 6th) and we also won almost every sprint preme so we ended up with about 300 euro each by the end of the night.

After that I had my parents arrive on the 24th of July and they stayed with me for 2 days before coming to watch me do a 5 day tour(I will write more about this in a later blog I dont wanna make this one to long). I was 28th in this tour.

I had another race 2 days after the tour where I pulled out....still a bit tired from the tour.

I had a race on the 7th that Brad also came to watch, and I was 12th in this race and I won heaps of wine, 5 bottles. Unfortunately I don't like wine.

And yea I think thats about it for me. Form is good

Thanks for reading

Bastille day and racing

Its rest day time today for me so time for a new post. I didn't have such a busy race schedule this week just two races, one on Thursday and one on Sunday.

There was a race on Thursday as it was Bastille day here in France which is a big national holiday which I'm not even sure why the celebrate it. Someone from the team told me it was celebrating democracy or something to do with war I'm not really sure. But anyway there is always a massive celebration in Paris with the military and stuff which was really impressive to watch on tv. In Lyon there were lots of fireworks every where. Martins and I went to a big firworks display with some of the guys from the team which was cool and we had planned to go to center Lyon after to check out the street parties that were supposed to be really good, but we didn't end up going unfortunately. So anyway during the day we had an elite national race only 10km down the road from the apartment, so was cool to just ride to the race for once. Was on a flat course with a stacked field. from the start i got into a promising break but only stayed away for a lap and when we were caught the next break to go was the one that stayed away and nobody from the team made it so we had to work on the front. From there I just thought I would ride the rest of the race for some good training and drill myself on the front with some of the team to catch the break. We ended up catching them with 3 laps to go and the guys we had sitting back didnt even attempt to make the next break which was so frustrating and none of the team got in the next winning break.

On Sunday I had another flat race just a regional cat 1. not to much to report except it poured with rain and it ended in a bunch finish and I rolled 21st in the sprint.

Tour du Pays Roannais and Tour de la Dordogne

So I have had a heap of racing after my break, I think 8 stages all together in 2 weeks, so I am going to keep this post short and summarize a lot as no one wants to read a novel and I don't want to write one.

Ok the Tour du pays Roannais (elite national) was my first race back after my holiday so I didn't have very high expectations as its always hard to get racing legs back after some time off the bike. first stage was a night criterium which was good fun and super fast think we averaged 47km/h, everyone finished together.
2nd stage was 160km and was incredibly hot around 35degrees and it wasn't ideal when I ran out of drink with 60km to go and wasn't able to drop back to the car for water as there were a few hills at the end that were important to stay at the front. Anyway last climb I was really suffering without any drink and I ended up in 2nd group ended up 32nd.
3rd stage was short and hilly and I just had no legs finished 40something.
4th and last stage was hilly again and I suffered a lot, same story no legs.
Ended the tour in 36th GC.

Next up I had an elite national tour in Bordeaux which I actually got the last minute call up for as a few riders decided to pull out for some reason, which was a bit annoying as Brad was still staying with me and I had to leave on Wednesday and he had a train back Holland on Friday. But Iv just heard from Brad that he loves staying at my luxurious apartment so much he is coming back for a week next Monday, hopefully this time I wont have to ditch him for half the week to go race...........
So had 5hour drive across France to Bordeaux where we were staying with all the other teams in a boarding school as all the students are on holidays at the moment.
The tour started on Thursday with a 160km stage with an undulating parcours. I was originally only supposed to help the "roulers" of our team but in the middle of the stage I was quite active in attacking on a hilly section and I found myself in the front group of 40 and the only one from my team. Unfortunately a group of 9 got off the front in the final 40km and I didnt get into it, so I rolled 32nd in the stage and all the rest of my team mates had lost 4 minutes or plus.
2nd stage was a 10km time trial and normally I would be really excited for a time trial but not so much when I have to ride an average tt bike and without shifters on the end of the aero bars. But I tried to forget about that and focus on a good ride. didnt feel to bad and ended up 40something about 30seconds down on the winner and moved up into the top 30 on GC.
Stage 3 was 160km and undulating again with a hard finishing circuit with 2km climb that we did 3 times. Most the stage I just sat in waiting for the finishing circuits and the peloton was controlled by the yellow jersey team. In the circuits I had a few good attacks off the front but never managed to stay away but the bunch splintered a bit and the group was down to 30 odd riders left to sprint for the win. I finished mid group but moved up to 23rd GC.
Last stage was 160km again much the same as the 2 previous road stages but an even harder finishing circuit with a small hill maybe 800m but really steep about 15percent, a real leg breaker. The stage was controlled by the yellow jersey team again with a break of 12 getting away at the start. I waited till the finishing circuits again. Was feeling ok but on the 3rd of 6 circuits I didn't have the legs to make it into the front 10 that got away on the hill which caught the remnants of the breakaway and stayed away till the end. I finished in the 2nd group but still managed to move up to 21st on GC, but still gutted I couldn't make the front group as I would have moved into the top 10 on GC.

In other news I'm pretty excited about my parents coming to France to visit me for a week on the 24th of July.

And also my Latvian team mate is the new Latvian National champion!

Brad Tilby: Part 2 - Marseilles, Montpellier and Sete

Brad Tilby: Part 2 - Marseilles, Montpellier and Sete: "This is part 2, if you haven't had a read of part 1 do that first For Part 2 of our trip we headed down to Marseilles. This is about a 2hr..."

Brad has written the 2nd part of our trip on his blog so you can have a read there

South of France - Monaco, Nice, Antibes and Cannes

On Monday Brad came down to Lyon to start our summer vacation.
The plan for the first 6 days from there was full on as we were both having a week off the bike because its cycling nationals over here and of course foreigners can't race. We had decided to do a whirlwind trip of the South of France

On Tuesday Brad and I took the TGV fast train from Lyon to Nice. Its about a 4 hour train ride that cuts through the middle of France and then follows the coast from Marseilles up to Nice. The plan was to stay in Antibes. Antibes sits half way between Cannes and Nice and was to be our base for the next 3 days.


Brad managed to find a camp ground that was 50m from the waterfront, 50 meters from the train stop and most importantly wasn't expensive.

On the Wednesday we headed to Monaco. From everything you hear and see, this is the place to go. Everything is on a grand scale and within 5 minutes of arriving there we saw 2 Porsches and a Ferrari. The place is most famous for its wealth, its marina and the Formula One.....the later had been on just 2 weeks ago.


The view looking down on the city


One of the boat marinas

Our plan was to do a city tour as its such a hilly place. They have noddy trains that give English commentary so this seemed the easiest option. From here we walked to some of the key attractions. One place that was on the must do list was the Oceanographic Aquarium. This is both a museum and a aquarium and was run by Jacques Cousteau for 30 years. They had some really crazy fish in this place.


The museum is built on the cliff side


Transparent fish


Moray Eel

For the afternoon we continued to walk around more of the city and the marinas. This place is really hilly and you end up doing a lot of walking

It got so hot in the afternoon that we decided to take a swim in the sea. The water there is clear and pretty amazing. Nothing says class than 2 people from NZ just going for a lazy swim in their boxers.... Oh well


We went swimming just around from this place on a little beach

On the way back from Monaco we stopped in at Nice for dinner and to have a look around. This is really the hub of the Cote D'Azur region and one of the most recognised places. Our thoughts however were its a little overrated to the other places we visited. The beach was horrible and the shops were like any western city

On Thursday we headed down to Cannes. This place is most famous for the Movie festival so it was worth a stop through the cinema area to see the red carpet. I had done a fair bit of reading before we went and we decided to take the ferry over to the island of St Marguerite. The beaches here were supposed to be less crowded (summer time and school holidays here) and free (most nice beaches in the Cote D'Azur are not free and can cost up to 30 euro a day pp). This area didn't disappoint and we found a pretty cool inlet that had only a few people. One of the funniest stories from our trip was when 2 french girls turned up and decided to do their own modeling shoot in the water. Priceless....and we were in tears watching (yes, photos below)


Cannes red carpet


Island of Saint Marguerite


Me noticing the girls.....they are in the background and you need to zoom


One of the many modeling pics, they other girl has the camera around the corner. Sorry we missed the pic of the moody head turn....while lying the water but believe us when we say it was some funny shit.


Again more walking. I think we racked up close to 10k a day

Back in Cannes we did some more sight seeing, monuments, castles and churches. Leaving Cannes we managed to get the wrong train. We got on the direct train to Nice and not the local stop train. This meant another trip to Nice so we decided to stay and have dinner and another look around. The great thing about France is the train conductors are useless and you can ride the trains for free quite often. I think out of the 8 or so times we took the local train we never got asked for tickets

This is part one to our trip. I will write the next 3 cities in the next day. Hopefully that is a small insight in to what we did and saw. There is so much you could write about. I also have a post below with a link to the whole album from the trip.

photos Summer holiday, south france

click on the photo and you can see the whole album^^