Fatigué

This week i'm mostly doing very little other than eating and sleeping which i've been very busy with, after last week which was a very hard week of training followed by two races at the weekend. The first race on Saturday was the gp st. etienne which is about as bigger race as you get as an amateur in France in the elite catagory, so i had expected it to be hard as well as pretty hilly. It was hard and it was pretty hilly, there were a lot of attacks on the climb which was done four times, some of which were done by me, but nothing stayed away and so it ended in a bunch sprint won by a fella called Yannick Martinez. i felt ok though and so went home content with how i had ridden although a little disappointed. it was however nice to see some other English guys at the race in the shape of My good friend Jack Kirk, and Kieren Frend who i haven't raced since first year junior, it proves it was an unlucky day for the English, when both of them withdrew after crashing or being caught behind a crash, which i can understand after what was a very sketchy race.
The following day was a first rather than elite category and so the field, although still a good level with 140 riders was not a demanding as the day before, and it took place on a rolling course so not usually the kind of terrain that would suit me. But as luck would have it i ended up in the right place at the right time and was in the front group of twelve after a hard section where the race split to pieces. unfortunately it was the work of one team which caused this split and i ended up with seven of them in the front group, and with no real climbs it was difficult to split it up. Never the less i tried and eventually after a number of rain soaked, wind swept kilometers i was in front with two riders of the same team who persisted to attack and counter attack me all the way to line, and i ended the race in third. It was disappointing not to win, but i finished the weekend happy that i was getting into fitness ahead of some of the more mountainous races which i have targeted a bit further into the season.
But for now i'm a little tired and so am watching lot's of my favorite show "how i met your mother" while outside it seems to be getting all the rain for the rest of the year out of the way as i do that, perfect.
Just the one race this weekend a first cat which comes close to where i live, so i did a recon yesterday with some local guys. The last half of the race is pretty lumpy with some tough climbing near the finish, hopefully i'll be nicely recovered for that one.

the season begins...

..a little later than planned as There was a problem with my application for a racing licence, but better late than never. There has also been a bit of time without a blog as my new apartment didn't have internet and that took some time to sort out.
But here it is my first blog from Issoire, and so far it's been great here the town is right in the mountains of the massif central so training here is great, there are a few good guys to train with and it has been great fun exploring a new place and finding new roads to ride on. The team is great as well, they have all tried to make me feel welcome and on Saturday we had our first race together.
The race was an elite category race with a 5km climb which we climbed 5 times. It was hard work and i made a good race of it and was always on the attack on the climb, but my fitness isn't quite there yet, and there was a headwind on the climb which made it difficult to separate the group and so i ended the day around 15th.
On Sunday i was at it again, this time in a criterium, a 2.2km flat circuit done 40 times. This kind of race is never great for me, but was perfect as training to get into race fitness, and again i made a race of it always racing aggressively, but couldn't prevent a bunch sprint and finished in the peloton.
Not a great weekend for results but i got a lot from the weekend and am continuing to train hard. Next Saturday is the GP St Etienne elite race which looks very tough, so i'm hoping to go well there, and the following day is a mostly flat first category race, so that should help get me to top form.