Now then! busy last weekend with the three races back to back, but it was good timing to get me back towards after a week out with a nasty stomach. It started with 130kms on saturday, on mostly flat roads with 4 or 5 steep little climbs and a not too shabby field of riders. It took a while on the rolling roads for a break to get away and so the first half of the race was very quick, eventually it did split and i was driving in the front for most of it. But after around 120kms i hit a wall and blew spectacularly, for the last 10 or so kms i rode with the team car next to me; constantly handing me all the supplies of food and drink they had left, and finished probably a while down on the 20 or so that were in the front.
The following day i had recovered nicely, and started a criterium; that took place in a town centre and was 100 laps of just over a kilometer circuit with 200m of uphill ahead of the finish line. I attacked a lot of times as i usually do and ended up in the front with 8 guys; we lapped the field of 80 quite quickly and annoyingly many of them stayed with our group and were working for their teammates in the breakaway, chasing down everyone of my attacks. It was bloody frustrating and so i ended up sprinting in on the little hill for 3rd; a tidy little result coming back from illness.
The race on monday was a similar situation; a criterium which goes round a circuit so many times you worry for your mental health afterwards. This time i missed the break, but with an attack on the last lap i bridged to it alone and caught the group of ten on the line to finish 11th.
All in all i was happy; i felt better as the weekend went on, i got another podium place, i won some money for the rent in intermediate sprints; and after the weekend i recovered very quickly and feel stronger. I've done some good training these last couple of days coupled with a lot of sleeping, and the good form should eventually have chance to build, i'm trying anyway.
Next weekend i've been told there is not a right lot on, just sunday and a reet long drive to get there by the looks of it. So perhaps i'll take the weekend off and get some training in the mountains done for some of the races more suited to my characteristics in May.
On another note i have seen the time i set on the "steps" climb for eureka cycles has been bettered; well.... i'll be back!

Ayup sorry it's been a while since my last post, there are two main reasons for this; the first is that i have been lazy and the second is that i found a link to watch "the boat that guy built" and so watching this has taken some of my possible blog writing time. Poor excuses i know, but here it is anyway. The weekend before last was the last race i did, and it was a first category race, two hours away on the other side of the mountains to the west. So it was a bumpy drive in the team minibus a bit like the end of "the Italian job" maneuvering a bus round many hairpins with cracking views most of the way. When we set off at about 11 it was 30 degrees and blinding sunshine, however the other side of the summit at super besse was bloomin freezing and raining hard. So we arrived in a miserably wet town which i can't remember the name of and lined up along side 130 other guys who i think were also hoping for better weather judging by the faces, shivering and lack of warm clothing. We all soon forgot about the weather however and got on with the job which took place over 120kms on a 10km circuit, and coming towards the line for the finish i was away with three others with the peloton now split down to about 30 riders about to catch us. i was feeling good this day and i try not to look back at it too much because it's very irritating, but i(because i'm an idiot) thought there was still one lap to go and so didn't sprint (until i saw the lap board with about 20m to go) we were just caught by the peloton and i finished 8th. So we'll forget about this race.
The drive home however was as lovely in the other direction, and of course once we passed super besse on the way home it was 30 odd degrees and blinding sunshine! bloody typical.
The following week was much colder, and maybe it was partly this that led to me getting ill towards the end of the week. Whatever it was i had a few days laid in bed which unfortunately forced me to miss a very good weekend of racing, but woke up on tuesday feeling fresh and ready to hit em hard this weekend.
So there it is, three days of racing this weekend saturday, sunday and monday so plenty of trophy winning opportunities! and plenty to write about...

This week the weather has been awesome, i've been out on the bike tanning in 30 odd degrees every day. Can't complain really, training seems much easier when the weather's like this. At the weekend i had a first category race on Sunday, and with no elite cat race anywhere near, the field was large and a good quality. The first 50kms or so was absolutely pan flat, and so holding position was difficult in a big field but my team mates helped to keep me near the front for this section. A break of 10 or so riders went up the road very quickly but i was in good company with most of the favorites still in the peloton ahead of the five stiff climbs in the last 80kms. On the first climb, which was around 5-6kms all of the favorites were watching each other and one team was setting a moderate pace on the front, so i decided to attack and by the top i was with around 15 guys.
Now i told you that i did a bit of reconnaissance in the week, well i clearly didn't remember the route very well! as we descended there were a few attacks and i was a few seconds ahead with four other guys and the motorbikes who normally do a great job of directing the race, didn't do a great job. And so me and the other four missed a left turn and continued down the decent in the wrong direction for around a kilometer. i was pretty pissed when the guy on the motorbike told us this, so i had a good shout at him and got on with trying to get back to the peloton, it was a fair task, but i was on a damn good day, and after climbing back up, doing the decent( and having to stop after almost going wrong again) climbing the next 5km climb in the big ring alone after i'd got rid of the others, the team car came back and gave me a tow back up to the peloton which had regrouped behind the break of 10. At this point i was pretty stuffed and it was less than a kilometer to the next 5km climb, but i managed to hang in with the front group here and we were closing in on a break-away which was depleting in numbers. after this we had two steep 2km climbs which i was managing to feel better on and so gave an attack on the last climb, we separated to 5 guys over the top but a large amount of rain had fallen on the decent just ahead of us, so we were forced to crawl through the last 5km and it regrouped a bit. In the end i came in just behind the 5 remaining breakaway riders in a group of around 20 and ended up 16th.
It was frustrating as i felt good, but it must be difficult for the motorbikes to cover every turning and obstacle in a point to point race and so like everyone they will make mistakes sometimes, i just wish they wouldn't affect me.
Ah well same again next weekend except the course isn't as challenging, but i'm starting to get some form so i'll give it a good dig.
a bientot!