Tour du Faso

October 2010, which according to UCI rules is part of the 2011 season and all UCI points amassed will be counted in 2011.

The Tour du Faso is an interesting race. Taking place over 10 days in the central African country of Burkina Faso, things didn't start great for the team. Some issues with flights had us spending an unexpected night in Paris without any luggage. We then flew out to Burkina Faso via Niger (a banned country for French people at the time due to kidnappings), getting to Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso) just minutes before team presentation. We all got our bikes upon arrival, but some were missing luggage, which was not recovered until about 4 stages into the race.

We got there, put on some kit and went straight to Team Presentation, not even having time to lather up with any anti-mosquito spray to fight off the malaria mozzies...


Stage 1 started at 6am with a long bus trip to the start. With our legs still shot from the flight, we headed off on stage 1, where Guiguig finished 2nd just behind Dutch National Champ Peter Van Agtmaal. A good start to the Tour.

Stage 2 had us all devoted to Zibi going for the sprint.

We sat on the front for 40km controlling the field and breakaway until the order came to ramp it up. Dorian and I were the first to pop having done 80% of the work on the from for the past few hours... as we rolled in slowly and alone for the final 15 or 20k, the rest of the boys took over at the front and brought back the break just in time for Zibi (already wearing the Pink Points jersey) to win the stage. Another Great day!

Racing in Africa, I love it! There's something and special about it!

Stage 3 started a little less well for me. I passed out at Breakfast and was helped back to my room where I spent some solid time on the toilet as well as throwing up. Having not been able to eat anything, and feeling beyond rough I had to sit in a bus for over an hour to the stage start. This was one of the longest stages of the race at 160 something K. The team warned the Doctor that I wasn't well and told him to keep an eye on me. I held on for a while, yoyoing off the back of teh race seemingly constantly until I finally popped with 60k to go. I rode alone through the Sahel desert for 40k. It was 47 degrees in the shade (which is interesting because there is no shade out there) and I was alone... no water, no one around and sick. My only company where a few military guards with AK47s dotted along the course as protection following some Al Qaida threats on the race. My body started to shut down, and i eventually came across a French ride on the ride of the road, totally fried. We sat on the side of the road waiting for the ambulance. That was the end of our Tour. Julien finished 2nd on the stage and was looking pretty good for the GC.

A somewhat unclassy live TV interview, totally fried I tell the TV I've diarrhea... that's class...

I couldn't eat or drink a think for over 24hrs... by which time I was put on a plane home. Burkina Faso is an interesting and risky race. From day 1 guys were just falling down at the hotel and being taken to hospital and shipped home. You get sick very easilly over there, and just a bit sick... really REALLY sick.

The team went on to win the GC with Julien and everyone rode unbelievably. I was very very sad not to be there. Guigui finished 4th on GC and Zibi brought home the sprinter's jersey!

Thursday's Team TT champs

For some reason I feel like this picture sums up our Team Time Trial pretty well.

We were 1 rider short, it was pissing with rain, and the course was skkkketchyyyy to say the least.

Fitness catch-up

Getting there.

So, after a great week of training camp in Spain, where I finally got in some miles, I’m back home and seem to be getting somewhat near to something vaguely resembling fitness!

Spain was just great. A great resort with lots of great food. Fantastic views, and nothing to do all day but ride, eat, sleep and drink beer.

I really really needed this trip to spain. After day 3 I felt myeslef finally push through that barriers, and from then on I just seemed to feel better and better.

Race gone wrong.
On the way home from Spain we stopped off just over the border into France and did a little 1 day stage race.
I thought the morning TT had gone well (despite showing up to the start ramp with 30second to go, with my oversocks and other crap in my hands; I shuved my oversock and shit into my skinsuit, did it up and was gone for a few minutes of pain) but it didn’t got as well as I had thought. I was 28th in the morning TT, and wanted to be top 20 at least.

The afternoon road race was a bit of a shitter! It was actually a circuit race, or 20k loops. There was a massive hill after 7k of downhill. The field split on the first climb, and I was struggled but made it into the first half. That was positive but I had had to work pretty hard to make it into a group I would normally have walked into. Over the course of the next 20 or so km, I kept getting dropped up every climb, sitting in the team cars for ages and jumping back into the field. Until I finally bit the bullet, realized I was too whipped from training camp and was out and ready to go home after only 40k of racing! Oh well…

From the moment I got home however, I’ve been feeling stronger and stronger, finally getting in some solid training. Of course how this translates to racing is yet to be seem. I haven’t started including intervals into my training yet, and I’m about to enter my first big block of racing, which I’m a little nervous about.

In Prep for the main aims of my season at the end of May and early June, I’m going to be loading up the races. Hopefully this will get me into shape after the long and crappy US winter! My main worry is going to be 2 back to back 1 day stage races. That’s 4 races in 2 days! Not to mention the travel in between and the early starts and late finishes. For about 3 weeks I’m going to be hitting at least 3 races a week, sometimes more. It’s SOO gonna suck, but it should be fun, and I’ll either be ready for the real stage races in the Pyrenees, or I won’t.

this ride blew me away!

We’ve had a load of nice warm and sunny days recently, in the 20+ degrees (that 1 589 876F for your imperialists, actually it’s 70+), so I’ve been enjoying some time on the bike… I seem to be over whatever I had the last couple weeks and am healthy again, so that’s nice.

We raced Sunday, though Adrian got knocked in the final sprint for 2^nd place by Bbox’s Arnault Labbe, Adrien had a broken collar bone and is out for a while. They crashed in the final 1km, so Adrien still got his mountains jersey. I rode around in general anonymity once again. Killed myself getting Adrian back up to the front group when the peloton split into lots of little groups in the first 3^rd or so of the race, but that’s about all there is to say about that day on the bike.

Yesterday (Monday) I headed out for a recovery ride. Suddenly looked up to find a Helicopter hovering right infront of me above the road, low enough to make my hair blow! It hovered around, circled me numerous times. I was getting scared for a while, then remembered I wasn’t in the US and figured it was probably just some half drunk from lunchtime-Wine Frenchman looking for a place to have a coffee or a few Pastis! So I ignore him (as much as I could). He came back about 30mins later and did figure of 8s over me. So…. Maybe he found somewhere for some Pastis and had a few too many!

Today was fun. I headed out for a few intervals on the TT bike, got about 10mins up the road and it suddenly pissed down with rain. I thought I’d tough it out, like a true hardman-Belgian wannaby; cobbles-for-teeth northern cyclist… until I got blown off the road and into the ditch by the horrific wind… quick U turn and I was sitting on the trainer indoors, in the dry and warm in no time!!! Forget hardman Belgians, I’m French, skinny(ish) and about as close to a Belgian Hardman as an overcooked limp noodle in a 3 day old bucket of tepid water!

Late in posting and Late in fitness

OK... we're back. It's been a while. Life has been a little hectic recently.

Getting back home to France on Jan 10th was nice. Nice because the airport on out stop-over in Germany was under snow, and even home (south of France) was all-white when we landed. We weren't sure if anyone was going to be able to pick us up. The weather since has been touch and go. A few nice and warm days allowing some good training, chopped up by very cold and snowy days that have you stuck indoors loosing the tiny little bit of fitness you thought you'd got.

The good thing about being home was a few training camps. It was good to catch up with everyone, and interesting to see what everyone had been doing over the winter. Evidently I wasn't the only one to have travelled. Though I think I was the only one to be stupid enough to travel somewhere that wasn't warm. On our first training camp, everyone seemed to be pretty much getting off the plane: from Australia, north Africa, Portugal and the US for me.

The season has kicked off somewhat gingerly for me. I always like to do my first 4 or 5 races of the season just sitting in, with no aim at all, just to get in some race miles. The first race went as can be expected, the second went similarly too, but I was a little disappointed. That being said, it's been pretty cold here, and I think I caught something during the first race, because I was sick all week and was not in great shape for the second race. I'm therefore having a weekend off when I should have been doing the Trophee des Bastides in Dordogne I think. I'll rest up, hopefully get better and be able to get in a few rides before my next race. Things are going to be a very slow start this year. My total lack of riding over the winter in the US has set me back a bit, and I've done very little in the way of actual training over the past few weeks obviously... there's still time as I once again want to be fit in May and June, but there's a lot of work ahead of us sadly. I'm currently where I was in the first week of January last year. C'est la vie I guess.

the three stooges

The snow and ice has been plaguing us with it's presence here in Virginia for quite some time now. Riding has become very difficult, with temperatures in the -10C and ice covering the roads. I have been pretty much off the bike since December and am not enjoying that fact.

With a slightly warmer day on the radar a little while ago, a few of us jumped at the opportunity to get in a few miles. Chris Gould, John Parks, John Neusbaum and myself met up in Warrenton at 11am for a couple hours of riding and chatting. It was cold as heck. All was going well until we came across a stretch of road with some snow in the middle. We rode on either side of the little stretch of snow, until Chris Gould who was first in line hit some black ice as we headed up a slight incline. His rear wheel went one way, he went the other and hit the floor. I was right behind him and found myself sliding across the ice in now time, eventually turning onto my feet and hands and eventually coming to a stop just in time to see John Parks on his back sliding towards me and only coming to a stop once he got tangled up with my bike on the side of the road. John had some road rash on his butt and forw-arm, Chris cut his chin pretty deep and cut his jersey upon his chest. I got nothing. I think I was wearing so many layers (2 jerseys, 2 thick thermal jackets etc) that I was more like a michelin man bouncy-ball when I hit the ground. No one was seriously hurt, least of all John Neusbaum who didn't even see fit to hit the ground with us and join in the fun. The rest of the ride was fine, though we kept getting nervous every time we saw a shaded dark patch on the road. The crash scene was quite comedic. The three of us crashing looked like cards going down one after the other. The Three Stooges indeed!

Moral of the story is: don't ride in cold countries. I'm going to start a petition to ban cold weather. There are so many other rules and regulations in the US that I figure no one would even notice this one... and if anyone opposes my idea, I'll just sue them. :-)

I'll be back in France on Monday, where the temperatures are a little better.... but it is raining. :-(

Stay safe people, and stay out of the cold!