Giro del Capo (South Africa)

The sunny and beautifull parts of the world are giving some pretty sweet races these days. After the Australian races (Tour Down Under, Herald Sun, Geelong), and the Asian races (Tour of Taiwan, Tour de Langkawi) it is the turn of South Africa to give it's roads over to the multisolored pro peloton.

South Africa's biggest race, the UCI 2.2 Giro del Capo started yesterday. Darren Lill finished 9th in stage 1. He won this stage a few years ago and kept the leader's jersey to the end. This year however, he is riding in support of David George. Bit of a shame for Darren as he once AGAIN gives his services to another rider. When will he get to truely race for himself? Well actually fairly soon. The SA National team is putting together a team for the Tour of China, and Darren will be team leader... FINALLY!

Until then the Giro del Capo should bring us some great racing with a good international field, some stunning scenary and howfully some good results for our Lill South African Climber (or at least for his team).

boringgggg.....

Nothing much going on here. I've been in school, it's been raining.. uargh, I hate that. I can't really complain, JP had to race in that shit, and he had to do it with northern team who relish those conditions. Well there, you go. That pretty much sums the week up.

hmmmm.....

I'm back!!!

I've spent most of the week up in Castelsarrasin above Montauban at the team house, trying to help JP get settled in, and also doing some training. I've felt like shit all week though. Oh well.

I came home yesterday afternoon. I got in a nice 4 hour ride today, but still felt like shit. REally heavy. I just checked the weather and they are calling for snow tomorrow... so that's "top draw old chap".

Back to school monday, my racing season starts next sunday.
I'm tired!

bar code what?

So I started to check out Scotty G's (sounds like a rap singer.. "Scotty G") website on bar code entries and stuff... good lord. Only in France can you get a car that runs on red wine, well only in the US can you get bar-code registration. What is wrong with those ameircan's? Why do they have to keep coming up with nice easy ways of doing thing that increase efficiency? What's wrong with the good old French system on mailling in some scrap of paper that the organiser may or may not get in time...? Pfff.... actually in France the team enters you, but you know what I mean.

I'm going to have to sit down and read that interview properly some time. But first... Pizza and movie night!

And PS: a big thought goes out to G who's mom has just moved to New Mexican and she's feeling a little down.

shit intervals and red wine fuel

Pheww... had my doctor's appointment, finally! So now that my back has been seen to I feel like I've been beaten up. I'm scared to move in case it pops back out again. Oh well. So I have another appointment Friday anyway.

So I went out for a spin to see how I felt, did some hill intervals. I thought I was feeling OK until I hit the intervals... then I found out I was riding like shit today. JP was feeling pretty good, so that didn't help. :-)

Anyway, tonight is a Pizza and movie night at Jay's (Jean Yves, for those of you who know the film buff no introduction is needed; for those of you who have been over, well.. Jay is a film buff.) :-)

Here's something some of you might like, especially the Americans. One of my teammates apparently drive a total piece of shite Volkswagen Polo... that runs off... get this... RED WINE!!!!!! I haven't seen this thing yet, but I gotta check that out! It's Mathieu Lamonte's (the Credit Agricole dude), so... I'll even try and get some pics. Apparently if you sit behind it it actually smells like red wine.. great.. only in France!

Tomorrow I finally get my back checked out. I can't wait.. I'll finally be able to ride fully again. Fewww... great time, some back cracking action.

Montastruc (Monte se Truc)

Grand Prix de Montastruc. A pretty big early season race near Toulouse. A fairly warm day graced the race as a good field prepared for the 2006 edition of the race. Race distance: 140k or something, fairly standard.

Click on pics for a larger view.





Russian Pro Team Omnibike get ready



French Pro Team Jean Floc'h showed up with a dimished team, but managed a good showing


JP learns the importance of good positioning the hard way.




Navigators Pro Russian Oleg Grishkine graced the race with a far from impressive performance.


But it beats going round in circles at some US NRC Crit!

But who knows, maybe he got off the plane last night... or maybe there could be a spot for Darren over there sooner than we think.

Here Oleg wears the Russian National jersey.

John Parks and ex Credit Agricole rider Mathieu Lamote suffered the pace today.

While Julien Shick does a good race but sadly finishes in the field as he is caught

Swedish Aubervillier Pro John Nilson chases to get back on. This is the same team good old Patty Jonker raced for. Not sure Pat would recognize it... doubt he cares either... doesn't care about much does old Pat.. except sleeping "eyy".



CACastelssarasin Bouygues lead the chase group

Pro team Aubervillier (once known as Big Mat) lead the chase

CACastelssarasin cover the crash

AG2R Pro Stephane Pouilles rode a great race but was caught on the line and lost his 4th spot. Stephane joined AG2R at the end of last year, and will be splitting his time between the AG2R Develpment team (Albi Velo Sport) and the French National Team until August when he will join AG2R full time.

Stephane put in a great performance racing agresively and spending a lot of the day in the break, not bad for a sprinter!

At the end of the day the unbelievably strong Russian Omnibike team take the win with 19 year old ???? Kalashnikov. The team was all over the race today (as per usual). They covered every move, every group on the road, and got multiple riders in every break. Here the distroyed the main break to form a 3 man group in the final 10k of the race. With 2 Russians in the leading 3 man group they took the win "easily". The team has adepth, with youth such as today's winer ? Kolashnikov (what a name), Olympian Ivan Terrenin and many others who's names all sound pretty much the same. You can check their not so interesting website out on www.omnibike.ru Good luck.

More pictures might follow if I can be arsed to put them up. It gets a bit boring posting so many pics. :-)

Montastruc Training

Great. So my back is messed up again. I don't know what I did to it, but I'm totally blocked. It's so painful I wasn't able to sleep last night. Arghh... I hate this shit. I got an appointment with the doctor, but it's on Monday.

So yesterday (Thursda) I didn't have class, so JP and I went and joined some of the rest of the team to pre ride sunday's Grand Prix George Pinel course over in Montastruc. 7 of us hit the road with a follow car once again. It was rather cloudy, but it didn't rain on us. The course is mainly flat, and you ride along hill ridges for HOURS... it's a really hard Belgian style race. Lots of wind, open corners, narrow roads etc etc. There's only a couple hills, but they'll 1) be really hard as the race will hammer up them, 2) will be hard because of the change in rythem from 60k an hour on the flat to hitting a hill, and 3) the wind will play into it too. After a rather boring big loop you end up back in the start town for some small finishing loops that include a friggin WALL!!! This thing is steep and nasty.

The Montastruc wall.

Come sunday the wall will be covered in spectators 3 rows deep.

So... until monday I think I'll end up spending the days on my back with pain killers... great.

Today JP and I will probably nip into town and take care of some stuff. JP need to return something to a store in Albi; he's also got damaged threads on this crank arm, so we'll have to go to some bike shops and see if anyone has some kind of cheap crankset.

Anyway... I'm going back to South Park.

oh yeah.. how about that tour of cali.. huh.. heh.. great stuff. That's gonna be a great race. I hope cycling.tv gets coverage of it soon...

Nice... great.. yep.. uh huh

So JP got back last night. Turns out he actually had a couple pretty good races. Yesterday's stage 2 was cut short due to bad weather having brought down a tree or something... the race was even on national news because of the bad conditions. HE go in a couple a breaks etc.
Marion (our DS) sent me an e-mail and she seemed pretty happy with John, so, all is good.
There's plenty to tell, but JP will put up a post today probably on his own diary with more details.

Right now it is time for morning coffee and shit shooting....

... then some work and school.

Thursday some of the team are going to check out the Montastruc course. I won't be racing that event but I might joing them on recon as I think I'm free of classes that day. Should be sweet!

Rainshine

Today Alphonce called at some unearthly time in the morning to tell me he and Andouard (the custom frame manufacturer) were going on a ride and they'd come by and pic me up. By the time I had realized that annoying ringing was the phone, it was too late. So I got up in a daze, called him back and found out I had to eat and get my ass in gear pretty quickly to be ready in time.

So 5 of us rolled out for an EARLY ride. After about 20 mins it started raining on us big time. We were totally soacked. To make things worse I felt like crap on the bike. I could hardly pedal. After about 1 hour I loosen up and started to feel pretty good. I left the group in Albi and headed hom alone pushing pretty hard to get in a good workout. Not only was I now feeling pretty good, but the heavens seemed to copy me.. it turned from miserable rain to blinding sunshine. In fact the whole day has been that way. Rain, sun, rain ,sun, rain.

Hopefully JP didn't get any rain on the races down in the Basque country today. He just called to say they were on their way home. He should be back around 10 or 11pm.

I asked how the races had gone, he said "not too bad, erm.. interesting.. I mean, whatever, I'll tell you about it when I get back...". So there you have it. About as vague as it can be.

I'm tired.. hungry too. Ugh, tomorrow is school again. Pfff.... hey, at least the weather is slowly getting better these day. Woohoo, won't be long before we'll be riding in the sunshine and getting skin cancer. Sweet.

There's a big party/night out/ thing on thursday for all the English majors... I don't know if I'll go. PRobably not, it'll mean getting home later, not being able to drink cos I'll be driving.. ugh. It would be cool to let everything go for once though. I know if I go I'll get plastered, spend the night god knows where, then regret it because I can't ride as well the next day. Riding is much more fun than drinking.. yeah, I'll go riding, screw the night out!

Steph', training for his operation


As for me.. I felt pretty dead for some reason today. Shame because it was a nice day out there. Stephane came over and we went out for a little spin. That suited us fine, I was tired and needed some recovery, and Steph' is getting operated on in a few days for a Hernia, so he wanted to take it easy.

Maybe my doctor's visit and "spinal trauma" yesterday combined with the riding tired me out...

Apart from that I ate shit loads of chocolate today.. hmmm.. .nice!






Sim takes one of his cutomary frequent pee stops.

News from racin' JP

I just spoke to JP. Today was his first BIG race with the Pros. He said things couldn't have gone worse. At the drop of the flag, there was a crash, he was cought behind it and spent the whole race playing catch up. The race ended with 5 finishing loops in town, he did 1 loop and dropped out. There are 200 riders on the start line of these races, and once you get dropped it is VERY hard to get back on. Even though the race caravan is VERY long in these races, with not only all the team cars, but sponsor cars, press cars, commisairs, VIPs etc etc, which all make it easier to get back on, it is still very hard. Trust me, I know, I was dropped quite a few times in those races a couple years ago, and bouncing through the caravan and getting back on is VERY hard. Even when you de get back on you have usually felt SO much energy on the road that you are pretty much doomed anyway.

They have luckily changed the format a bit from when I did those races, so now you can still race Sunday if you don't finish Saturday. That means that John can still race tomorrow's 2 stage. They were off to get some food, before a good nights sleep in preparation for day 2 of the Essor Basque tourture fest 2006! :-)

Pro teams present

My day ended with a trip to the Osteopath Doctor... this guy used to work with the National rowing team. He's strange, he always seems really grumpy, but he does a great job. He messed around the my back and pelvis, hopefully that will take care of my knee. I'll make sure I keep stretching it.

I just got of the phone to JP. They are still in the car (it is 8pm) driving from the Mediterranean to the Basque country. He seems OK, maybe a little apprehensive about these races. Just finishing these races is no mean feat. There will be 3 full blown UCI Pro teams: the French Jean Floc'h team, the Russian Dynamo team (With Olypian Ivan Terrenin and some guys who's name I can't remember who won Gold on the track in Athens) and the Belgian Flanders Team. Also there will be a who's who of top level amateur teams. The amateur teams are equivalent to US Divition 3 Pro teams... only with a bigger budget and usually better riders. You can check it out at http://www.essorbasque.com/ and you can find results on http://www.velomania.net/

There are usually also some Spanish team there, like Serbitzu and Euskadi, but it doesn't look like they will be there this time. In the past FDJ, AG2R and RAGT have also done it, but they must all be somewhere else... Tour of Portugal on Tour du Haut Var I guess.

Ok, I gotta go eat and stretch..
later y'all.

The Fench Jean Floc'h Team

Belgians Flanders

Russian team Omnibike Moscow

Miles apart.

As I've been sitting in Class all week, John Parks and the rest of the team have been pilling on the miles. The team did 160k on Monday including a Time Trial race in Spain... they did 170k on Tuesday, a 90k road race in Spain followed by 70k ride home to the hotel on Wednesday... I sat on my ass all 3 days! John seems to be getting on fine. I've spoken to him a few times, and also have been constant contact with Marion our Directeur Sportif. She's worried he will end up feeling left out because he doesn't speak the language... but I think JP knew that coming in. Other than that she says he's getting on fine. Some of the younger guys are getting tired, but it sounds like JP is still going strong. This weekend will be his first BIG race. And when I say big it is BIG.. there are some Pro teams there etc. So we'll see how that goes.

YEsterday rainned all day here, so I did intervals indoors. Today I met my buddy Alphonce for a ride. Alphonce (AB) is looking pretty good. He's seriouse about getting selected for the National MTB championships. One of the first selection races was this past weekend. AB won the race. It was his first victory at that level, and he isn't even on top form yet. Hopefully he'll get selected for Nationals, and he might even pull off a good ride there. Rumour has it that he will even get a brand new fully custom, hand built bike in time for Nationals.. SWEET!
Quite a few of you who've come over here know AB; he's a really cool guy and I would love to see him pull something special off!


The long road to fitness.



So I met AB for a ride, we got in 3 hours. At first I didn't feel great, but after a while I felt pretty solid. We did a loop with a bunch of short steep hills... I then left him in Albi and headed home via the hills of Carlus... these are a series of 4 hills that are at 9%. As soon as I got home I jumped on my TT bike and went out for a Time Trial test/interval. I did pretty well considering I already had 3 hours of riding under my belt. I averaged 288Watts.. I wanted to average 300Watts, but that's Ok. So I got in about 4 hours today.. not a bad day.

The Time Trial controle pannel: I like to get as much info durring myTT tests.


It was pretty windy out there today. I have noticed over the past couple years that I am unable to put out much wattage in a head wind. IF there is no wind or a tail wind I can put out big wattage, but not as a head wind. I've tried changing position, cadence etc.. but it chances nothing. Hmmm...

Tomorrow should be a long one.. but they are calling for rain, so we'll see.

I'm gonna go call JP and have a chat to him about tomorrow's race. These races really are big and pretty scary. They are like the biggest Pro races in the US. So I'll chat to him about a few things and see how he's feeling about tomorrow.

France is still a country of tradition: Sheepdogs are still common in these parts.

Life goes on.

Some days are like that.. there's something about life that just gets you down. Anyway, I had classes this morning, then came home and headed out for the usual ride. My knee was hurting a bit today. I got in a nice little 80k (50miles) under blue skies and sunshine. The first day in I don't know long that I was able to go out without having a wear a big winter hat.
It was good to get out, get some air, and try to change my thoughts a little. I felt like I was being followed all day, like I was in someone's shadow... I don't know, I can't explain it.

I called JP this evening to see how he's getting on. The team rode over to the Time Trial today, did the time trial, then rode home. Apparently it was a little longer than they had planned. John says they rode about 170k today.

The TT went OK, nothing special... the ride was good and he says he's settling in and getting on with people. It sounded like he was feeling a little better about everything, was finding his feet and getting to know the team, so that's good. Tomorrow they will be doing another fairly long ride, then race on Wednesday... I'll be sitting in school getting no faster at all!

Recovery... + JP head south.

After 2 pretty hard days of riding, today was a nice little recovery day. So JP and I spent the morning drinking coffee and watching TV. After that we went out for a nice little spin down by the Tarn river and around the lake at Ambialet, where John tried to improve his bike handling skills at a BMX park.





He still needs improvement!!!!






The good thing about recovery days is that you get to come home and sit on your butt with a big plate of steeming hot food. We threw together some rice and Omlets and headed back to the TV for some more relaxing. It's a hard life...

John packed his stuff up and we headed into Gaillac for a while to take care of a few tings, then met up with Christophe Cousinie who picked JP up to drive him down to the Border town of Amelie les Bains where the team training camp is. Again I'm not going because of school... Arghhhh!

As John drove off to spend 3 hours sitting in a car with someone he wasn't going to be able to say one word do seeing as he speaks no french, and Christophe (Couscous) speaks no english, I think John was actually pretty nervous. He's got a pretty heavy week ahead of him. Not only will he meet his teammates and have to try and fight the language barrier, but he will also be piling on the miles in the Pyrenees on the training camp, as well as doing his first races for his new team. Monday he races in Spain, Wednesday he races in Spain again, then he might race in the Basque country next weekend, not sure yet, they'll see how he does in Spain and go from there.

JP heads off to Spain with teammate Couscous.

ERhmmm.. riding.

Over the weekend JP and I have been hitting the roads. Nothing unusual about that for JP who's been piling on the miles all winter, but it's done me the world of good. Friday we headed out for 3 hours of hard riding, a lot of hills and some wind over towards the Cordes and Penne valley area. Then in the evening we had a totally wild night out!!! Oh yeah, we went out for a night on the town... we went out to BINGO!!!! hmmmm... it was good for John as it helped him learn his numbers, so now when the team yell over the radio some race numbers to follow, or KM markers John will know what's going on. We got it so totally late from our night in the city, in twas like midnight.. straight up.. for real.. midnight. Good lord we are SO wild down here in southern France. And that's not the best, the totaly hip and happening thing is that we STILL went out training the next day! Are we wild or what?!!!

So today (Saturday) we got up, had coffee, you know.. the tough life. Then we rode into Albi and joined a group ride. We got in a little over 3 hours, cam home, then went straight out for another easy spin, like 45 mins or so. I took my TT bike.

You heard of Dirt Crits? Know about CycloCross?

well check out the new rage in France: CycloDirt TT!

All in all a good day, some 4 + hours of training.

Tomorrow John goes down to the team training camp in the Pyrenees. He'll race a TT in Spain monday, a road race in Spain Wednesday, then team training... then I will most likely do some BIG races the next weekend in the Basque country before coming back, either here or to the team house.

As for me, well I'll pack my big butt on a seat in class and do that thing... hmm.. :-(
If all goes well John has the opotunity to get selected by the team for the Tour of Majorca, a tour on one of the sunny spanish islands.. major cool race!!!! I'm SO jealouse!!!

The eagle has landed...

John Parks arrived a couple days ago. I've spent the last few days in class.
Today we went to Albi and got a bunch of stuff done. We had to get some medical tests done for John's license, get a few things taken care of. It took the whole day.

In the evening just before sun down we got out for a little spin, that was kind of good.

Sitting bike, but chairs mainly.

A week of mainly sitting on my ass listening to some dude drone on about something dreadfully dull, interrupted only by the odd class of something fun and actually interesting. As per everything in my life, it appears that even university is a world of extremes, either extremely dull, or extremely interesting. We only got one result back so far from that interminable spell of exams a little while ago, and it wasn’t good. It wasn’t disastrous, and it is in a subject that really isn’t my strong point… I think my French spelling let me down some, anyway…

So Thursday I got out on the bike finally to do some Simeon Green style training… if you don’t know what that is, it is a form of training dubbed “catch up training”. I always feel like I am behind everyone else who races, and I feel that every time I go out, it isn’t just to train, but to try and catch up. That’s a little unfair to myself and I think I need to get that thought out of my head. I’m generally doing a lot less riding than in the past, but I’m doing longer rides for this time of year and in the winter weather. Actually my asthma has improved over the past couple months, so I’m able to train better. I hope it lasts. So I got the new road bike out for only it’s second ride. In 4 degree weather I headed over to the beautiful town of Cordes that all of you who have been over know well (that’s the town with the cobbled climb). From there I rode on over Vaour


In the Aveyron valley, and headed back via the hills. A great ride with a fair bit of climbing, some great views enhanced by the snow still sitting by the site of the road on the more shaded sections.

After 3.5 hours I got home, took the TT bike out for a very short spin to check my position that I have been playing with (not happy, not more alterations) and then hit the weight bench. I somehow managed to smack my knee on the stem of the bike during a little sprint today, it hurt a bit… and then while lifting weights my knee made a rather scary noise a bit like material ripping. My legs really hurt on Friday. France's very own Stonehenge on the road to Vaour

Friday I did a little easy ride, spent some time working on my TT bike position, making sure everything was UCI legal etc.





Measuring up: fitting the bike into the UCI limits












Then I did some school work and finished off with a nice little trip to the movies.
Today (Saturday) I feel pretty rough. My back has been playing up again and my knee still hurts a bit. I’ll be heading out in the cold and wet weather for a 4 hour ride with a group in Albi today. I’ll start and see how my various body parts feel and take it from there.

Training camp part 2 was cancelled. Some of the team went crosscountry skiing at Plateau de Baille... I stayed at home and ate bagles! :-) it make a dent in my training plans.. oh well. Now it is back to school and I've been wondering again why I 'm there. It only takes a dull lecture for me to start telling myself I should be out there training.

The roads are still pretty bad. Down to single lane in places due to the mounds of snow. Tere's even snow in town still. I did see Faben Fraissigne out training however as I was going for lunch... bastard was out there training... Ugh.

Tomorrow is classes all day then hopefully the weather will be a little better and I can hit the road again Thursday when I have a little time off.

Ever wonder why CSC don’t do their training camp in Denmark?

Over the past few years more and more teams have been organizing their team training camps in sunnier climes. Most teams go to Spain, South Africa or some island of the Spanish coast, even amateur teams are doing this. However we at CAC Bouygues Telecom see this as something of an easy way out of some hard work. The early season races are often run in the cold and rain, so in order to harden the team up a little bit, the Team chose to run this weekend’s training camp in Norway!

This is a landmark... so now we only have to figure out which side of the sign the road is!... hmmm...

No… the snow has been really thick here. Once a mountain biker, always a mountain biker. Upon seeing all that snow out there I couldn’t resist going out and playing in it. I’m not supposed to ride in temperature below 5 degrees… so I got on my cyclocross bike and wend out in the –3 degree weather to slip, slide and skid around the French country-side. The roads where so white and thick with snow in places, that you couldn’t even see where the road was. I swear I was having to try and keep an eye on the ditch to make sure I was still on the road, and in places I really wasn’t sure where I was. Man it was SO much fun. I figured I don’t much MTBing anymore, so it might be good or my bike handling skills to get out there in the snow and ice. I was actually giggling out load to myself on today’s ride. There were hardly any cars out there, (except for a few in the ditch.) OK Pierre, take the next right... oups!

It was great fun!





As the day goes on the snow gets thicker… I don’t see us making it to tomorrow’s training camp either…

Don't panik, itz all-white.

This is the scene I woke up to this morning. A rear sight in this part of the world. I f I remember correctly the last time we saw even the slightest snow was 3 years ago… Maybe more I can’t remember. Well obviously day 1 of Team Training Camp Part 2 is off. I don’t know how many (if any) of the guys went up to the Team HQ last night, and if some of them did, I wonder what they will do today. I don’t know what the plan is for tomorrow, I guess we’ll see how the weather pans out today and if the roads clear for tomorrow. Either way there are a lot of covered and shaded valleys around where we ride on this Team Training Camp, so even the roads clear enough to ride a bit, it doesn’t seem like a great idea overall. So… I think today will be a nice day of sitting on the couch with a hot cup of coffee, a bagel and watching the snow slowly come down…

Freezing weather for new coach Sim...

Not a bad day today. I had a fairly relaxed morning, taking care of some stuff around here. Then Alphonce came over, we had a coffee etc and dusted off the bikes for a little ride. It has gone cold again here, so it was 2 degrees (Celcius!)... we wrapped up warm and I cracked out the new Ferus road bike for a pretty hard 85k in the cold. We worked hard in the cold and the wind, and felt pretty dead by the end. The bike feels good. I need to adjust my seat position and stuff, but I'm happy. However the Aluminum frame is pretty stiff, so when we do races in the hills (Pyrenees) with real descents and corners, I'll revert to my trusty Ti bike that corners like it's on rails... the rear triangle is much better for those FAST corners on bad roads.

Once home I wanted to eat and heat out for another little spin on the TT bike, but Alphonce was pretty dead, so we ate and called it a day.

For anyone interested I will be joining the Peaks Coaching group as a coach in about May time. I look forward to joining the gang, and hopefully helping some Virginia riders improve their riding and or racing. I'm pretty excited about this, I think it'll fun and interesting work!

An easy day tomorrow and some seriouse pain and suffering on Sat and Sun. The weather is called for freezing temperatures and rain thoughout the weekend, so I'm not looking forward to it. I'm not actually supposed to go out if it is below 5degrees as it messes with my lungs and affects my asthma long term... so we'll see what happens this weekend at training camp Part 2.

Toyz for the boyz

today was a nice sunny day, I did some riding but not as much as I should... today I got some new toys for the new season...

I can't wait to get that TT rig out there and cranking out that watts... looks like I 'm going to have to do some stem adjustments though... I need a longer stem, but it absolutely MUST be the same angle, I can't be any higher. There isn't mush out there really, so we'll see what I can rig up. The road bike will get its maden ride tomorrow with a long 90k ride with Alphonce... we'll see how it handles.

Team Training Camp Part 1

CACastelsarrasin Bouygues Telecom Training Camp Part 1

Basically set up over 2 weekends at the end of January, the Team training camp is one of the few times we will all be together as a team. Once the season starts we will basically be split into 3 race programs coving races from France to Majorca, and from Under 23 races to International Elite. Myself and a couple of other guys weren’t able to make Saturday’s standard team training camp ride, due to other obligations such as studies or the track season. Therefore a shorter 80k ride with some hills reps were on the menu. Saturday was a drizzly and gray day, so although the main group of the team were supposed to do 2 rides, they merged them into one. They started with some big gear hill reps, and extended the ride to cover 4.5 hours and 140k.

Most of the guys stayed at the team house over night, but some of us drove back up the on Sunday morning for the 2nd day of the training camp. We headed off with pretty much the full team, the only absentees were John Parks who is still in the US and has just come back from his own little training camp in Florida, and Christophe Cousinie who is still in Hospital. The full 16 or so team headed out on the roads around Montauban. We first had an “easy” 40km warm-up ride all together. Great warm-up ride at 31kph over some hills. Then we stopped and formed groups according to fitness and race schedule. Our 3 groups of about 5 or 6 riders then did four 20 minute team time trial intervals over varying terrain including some mean climbs around the Penne area in the Aveyron Valley. After each interval we all regrouped and rode all together again for about 10k. After only the second interval some people started grumbling about the intervals. I must say it wasn’t easy and at least I didn't feel alone in my "fear of the interval". On our last interval our little group caught the group ahead of us, which had left 2 minutes before us. We were rolling pretty well on that interval, probably knowing that it was out last one.

Once the intervals were done we all regrouped once more and rode the 40k (25 miles) back home together. I must say however that these recovery, warm-up warm-down sessions were a little NOT easy… oh well. At the end of the day we had 160k (100miles) on the clock in a little under 5 hours, and with some pretty good hills… Ok fine, they were climbs!

Next weekend is more of the same. This time I should be able to make it to both days for the full program. Saturday is once more 2 rides. Big gear hill reps in the morning, and some high cadence workouts in the afternoon to cover 140k; then another 160k on Sunday, but this time “harder.” I’m not sure what “harder” means, but I don’t like the sound of it!!! :-) Once again these training camps include a DS and team car that follows us the whole way with spare wheels, food, water and anything else we might need. We actually had both DSs (Directeur Sportif) with us, so that they can 1) tell us what to do and 2) both see how we are riding and how we relate to each other as a team.

It’s been good to get to know everyone, start learning the names and riding styles. After this training camp there is another training camp down by the Spanish border for a week. Sadly I won’t be able to make it to that training camp.

Overall training is going pretty good. I have just had a load of exams, and I didn’t touch the bike at all all of last week. So hitting a pretty good weekend of riding was interesting to see how my body reacted. I thought I would feel really bad, but I felt OK. Despite my studies it looks like I will be starting racing a little earlier than planned. I will be starting in the relatively lower ranked National races that are more in this general area. That suits me fine, as I’m not going to be ready for the big races half way across the country.

I tried to take some pictures during the rides, but it wasn’t really the sort of riding where you take pictures and look around at the countryside… so I apologize for the poor pictures. Also note that team don’t have their team bikes and new clothing yet, so in the pictures everyone looks a bit mix and match, patchwork-bike-team.

This week I will be getting in some good training locally, mainly alone and with Alphonce, then a couple rest days and back to Team Training Camp for part 2. After that it’s back to school. By that time John Parks should be here, so hopefully we’ll be able to get in some training together.

Tune in soon for an account of Training Camp part 2.

Thanks for reading.
Sim

a little down time

Today was my first day of trying to relax a bit after all that school exam stuff. I spent most of the day taking care of some stuff around the house I needed to do, some computer maintenence, cleaning, all that kind of fun stuff. Then Steph came over and we had a coffee and a little ride, where I got the great picture of what it looks like to be surprised by a camera... Tomorrow will be another short ride, just a couple hours with steph to get the legs moving and I should try and take care of some more stuff here at the homestead... Then Sunday it will be Team Traning Camp. Once I am totally free of school work next week, I'll try and hit the road big time again.

OK people.. just a few more exams and I'm done.. then it's training camp BIG time. I'm both looking FW to it and dreading it. I haven't ridding for so long it's going to hurt, but then again I need the training and it's going to be great to hit the bike again. Assuming the weather stays good of course!!!

I am SO stressed right now it's not funny. We'll see how I feel during training camp. I'd like to hit some motorpace ASAP, but not sure when and where... I need a driver. I'll try and get mom to do it, but she's pretty busy these days. Hmmm. lets see.. how else can I get back into shape rapidly.. hmmm... pizza and beer.. that's it!!!

Later y'all.
I'll keep you updated with if I actually manage to get into shape over the next couple weeks.

Mising it up. Plans for the future.

As seems to have been the case over the past few years of mixing cycling with real life, I have yet another jam packed season ahead of me. For the past 2 years I have been studying, taking planes at the last minute, and racing the day after a transcontinental flight. I suffered it in 2004, in 2005 and it doesn’t look like anything is going to change in this final school year. Along with racing and going to school, I have just got news that I will going to Italy in May for the Giro d’Italia. No, I won’t be racing it, but I’ll be working once more as a guide for Bikestyletours.com. However, May is when my finals are. My finals finish on the 19th, and I need to be in Italy on the… yep, you guessed it, on the 19th. I’m not totally sure how this is going to work out, but it looks like I’ll be sitting an exam and going straight to the airport to ride 130km a day after a couple weeks of exams with no training. It’s going to be both hell, and fun. I can’t wait. It’ll be great to be back in Italy, I haven’t been back there since a racing stint 2 years ago. If anyone out there reading this has booked a trip for the Giro with Biestyletous.com shoot me and e-mail and let me know.

In the meantime I am right in the middle of exams right now (we have 2 big exam sessions a year), I have to go to one in a minute in fact. I’m not getting in much riding these days. Last week I only did 2 rides: one was a 130km cold, windy, hilly and pretty fast ride on Saturday. It felt good to be out there. I have a team training camp at the end of the week. I’m really worried because I won’t have been riding for over a week, and it’s really going to hurt! Oh well, such is the way when you try and mix everything up, C’est la vie. I hope I get some good grades so that I can concentrate a little more on racing with a clear mind next month.

Things are also taking shape for my 2006-2007 winter. My plans to spend next winter in the Australian summer, working in a bike shop and riding and racing are slowly coming together. No Cyclocross over there, but I’ll make do with some sunshine instead. What a tough life! That’s going to be SO much fun!

So until next time with a Team Training Camp update, stay warm and stay riding…

Thanks for readying.
Sim

Feel free to e-mail Sim with questions or comments on: Jetlagsports@wanadoo.fr

wow, I actually rode my bike

Yesterday was a nice, sunny and relatively warm day, I did a little revision in the morning (mainly playing with my computer) and went into town in the afternoon to get some stuff. My whole day disappeared and I didn’t ride at all… Not very serious for someone who is supposed to be coming back to racing this year… oh well, what you gonna do…

Today was another warm, sunny day. Warm means 10 degrees (that’s about 50 for you Fahrenheiters)… I did a little work in the morning, spent a little too much time trying to sort out some problem with a camera driver on my desktop, then I ate and got in a good 4.5 hours. That was about 130k, and at a fair pace, with hills and lots of wind. I’ve never ridden that far at this time of year before… I guess I thought I needed to make up for yesterday. I also know that I am going to be embarrassing at the team training camps over the next few weeks, so I need to get in some miles.
Above is a pic of a couple of a couple guys from the group riding down the Tarn valley on today’s ride. Winter riding! Some guys were suffering and group kept getting split... here we wait for some back markers.

Friday 13th

HEY.. it's friday 13th... that's acutally lucky for me!!!!!

Oh, you gotta check this out. I saw a buddy of mine I hadn't seen for ages. HE used to race but now doesn't touch the bike. He's a weird guy. So he wants to see me because he's got "something" he wants to talk to me about. That scares me because last time he said that he had a business idea for the future and wanted me to help him out with it. His idea was to go to the UK, get a london bus and turn it into a sandwich stand/van over here in France. Actually not a bad idea in some way.. but dude.. where you gonna get a londong bus from. Anyway, so I Was scared. Eventually he came out with it. He wants to get his hands on british phone box. You know those big red british phone booths... but.. get this.. he wants to turn it into a toilet, and put this bloody thing in the middle of his living room.... I thought turning it into a shower in the bathroom might be a better idea. The guy's a totaly freak... how and where he gets his ideas I have no idea. My theory is that he's been smoking some pretty good stuff...

Watch this space for more stupid ideas of what to do with British red medal stereotypes...

Hey y'all...
I should be studying right now but instead I'm checking shit out for Australia next winter. Rental houses look expencive, but if I can find a job it might all work out. I'm also checking out pictures of the area.... shit, I can't wait to get over there, it looks SO cool. I'm sure if I can get a job in a bike job I'm going to have the best fun EVER!!! Looks like good riding around there too, so we'll see... right now it looks like a dream place.

I'm gonna have the best 6 months of my life sweating it out on the roads with the Kangaroos while everyone over here freezes there nads off... SUCKERS!!!!

I really neeed to keep up to date with this.

Frankly there isn't much going on right now. At least in cycling terms. I'm getting in little riding; the exam period started a couple days ago and goes on for a couple weeks. I've got exams every single day next week. I hope to get in a good ride on Saturday, 4 hours at a good pace: an endurance ride, then hopefully I can get in a couple of indoor interval rides so as not to loose even more form. But if it is raining or snowing on Sat, I really have difficulty seeing myself out there freezing my nads off when I could be sitting indoors.

John Parks gets here on the 7th of Feb, so that's pretty soon. I told a buddy of mine in school that John was ariving Feb 7th, he started laughing and said "yeah, so ain't gonna be doing ANY friggin' work then, you guys will be out riding every day and sitting around watching DVDs." I fear this guy knows us too well, I think that is exactly what we'll be doing. John's being here should get me out on the bike more and help me traing better. He's been training like a mad man and will be in race shape as soon as he gets here, so I'll have some catching up to do as well as school work.

The adventure starts soon...
Back to the papers, books and..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs

better never than late

Good lord...

It was ONLY been 4 months since my last update... Sorry!!!! (like anyone reads this.. oh yeah, Mitch does! :-) )

Well not much going on.
I'll post something my new team and the team presentation sometime soon.. you know, like in the next 5 or 6 months....

Monday

John and I waited for Tim and Beth to get here, they arrived and stuffed their faces full of Chocolatines and coffee. They had a very long flight spaning 2 or 3 days depending on how you look at it. So as they went for a little nap, John and I went out to do some TT intervals. We felt crappy at first, but ended up feeling not too bad.

The races...

The races:
Due to a little finacial difficulty I was unable to race Sat’s Abos-Iraty Grand Prix de la Palombe race in this Pyrenees. So I took over as DS once more as John had the race of a lifetime.

We drove 3hours to the start a little past Pau in the Pyrenees. John had a good race and rode near the front all day. The pace was high and they covered over 40k in the fist 2 hours of racing over some rather “hilly” terrain!
I was in radio contact with John from the caravan. I gave him general info about the distance left etc, but listening to his responses I could tell he was riding well and feeling pretty happy about how the race was going. Then things got ugly! The race is a mountain top finish as it finishes atop the Col de Bagagi in the Basque country. This is the climb that the Tour went over in 2003 when Hamilton won the stage. It’s a very very steep climb. Hamilton used a conpact chainring for that climb. As soon as we hit the slopes of the Bagargi riders started popping off the back, and very soon the mountain was covered in riders. John was far from being first to drop. In fact he never really dropped as everyone was all over the mountain side. It took me a while to get up to John in the car. The commisaires kept us behind John’s group for a while as they considered that the main field. Eventually as things were getting really really strung out I was able to get alongside John and give him water, talk to him and see how he felt. I follow John all the way up the climb and kept talking to him either out the window or over the radio. The climb was absolutely brutal!!! He did most of the climb with the Basque National Champion, and he finished the race in the top 60… not bad for an all-rounder on a true climbers course. This is one I think John will remember for a long time. There aren’t very many true mountain top finish races around, and this is one of the hardest.

Sunday we were supposed to do the Pyrenean Regional TT Championships. We got up early and drove over to the race venue, only to find that for some reason they had not received our entries. As it was a TT there was no way they could take us on the day. So we sat in the car and had a very VERY disgruntled drive back home. I was really pissed as I was looking forward to that TT, and even more pissed because it means I didn’t race at all this weekend.

Still… Tim and Beth arrived on their Honeymoon Monday, so that livened things up a bit.

The week

John and I got in some good training this week. We got in a lot of intervals, some TT intervals and some shorter uphill intervals. We did a few double days, which was nice, and we got in a great ride to Penne and around Bruniquel. That was a great ride, and one I will have to take other people on because it is so beautiful and takes in a load of the area’s castles and walled cities.

Pic de Nore

This weekend saw two races go up the pic de Nore climb. Sat we climbed from Jalabet’s home town of Mazamet to the summit, and on Sunday we climbed from the other side in near Carrcassonne to the summit.
John felt a little down after Sat's race. He was fairly happy with Sat, though I was pissed off because we watched the break go up the road and did nothing... I tried to bridge but couldn't, so came back to the chase group where John attacked to bridge up as soon as I was back in, he sat in no mans land all day, at the end I kicked it away from my group to finish just behind him (7th and 8th). Sunday we went with the break, but these guys go SO fast up hill it was hang on until you drop. I dropped and set into my own rhythm, I ended up in a group of 4 when we reeled in John. We sat in on the steeper slopes, one guy went so I let the gap open a bit and bridged taking just john with me. We sat on him making breathing noises to make sure he wouldn't ask for any help. Then John started to get gapped, but I wanted him to hang on as I was planning to attack our guy with about 2k to go (it was around 8 or 9% slope at this stage), John dangled off the back for a little while, then got on. I attacked with 2k to go, john couldn't follow and the other guy stuck to me for a bit, so I kicked again and whipped it from side to side... I got a big gap real quick and held it to the finish, the other guy was picking up the speed, he came in next with John just behind him. We were around 12th and 13th or something like that. I was happy because we did all we could, but dissatisfied because I would like to do better… as usual. I'm not sure why John isn't happy though, because he didn't miss the break, he gave it all he had... so...

John actually cracked his frame, so that changed things a bit, as he will tell you bellow…

BY JOHN PARKS:

Well this past weekend did not go quite as planned, but it was a worthwhile experience nonetheless. We woke up Saturday morning to heavy rain and fog so driving three hours or more to the Pyrenees where the weather was sure to be worse seemed a little risky. Sim and I opted to try a different race about an hour or so away. The race was a mass start hill climb that started in the town of Mazamet (Laurent Jalibert?s home town) and rose 25k to the Pic de Nor, 1000m above the start line.
At the start I jumped out front and pulled the first few kilometers out of town and up the hill at pace just fast enough to discourage attacks. Just as I was pulling off a group of seven guys attacked and got a gap that Sim then tried to bridge. Not quite able to catch the lead group, Sim dropped back to the pack and as soon as we caught him I countered with my own attack. Unfortunately I was never able to bridge the gap between the leaders and the rest of the field and spent the remainder of the climb by myself in no mans land. Halfway up, I passed a member of the lead group being helped into an ambulance for whatever reason. An hour after I started, I reached the top several minutes behind the leaders in 7th place. Sim, in a group of about five, attacked 3k from the top and dropped the riders around him and crossed the line in 8th place about a minute behind me. All the race officials and locals seemed to really enjoy having the both of us their because neither of us are French. At the small awards ceremony after the race they even gave me a trophy for being the first foreign rider to reach to top.
On the descent back down, a couple times my crank seemed to slip a little or so that?s what I thought, so I just took it easy thinking I would just tighten it when we got home. The bad news came when we discovered that the chain stay was separating from the dropout and my frame was shot. Knowing we had a race the next day, that night Sim and I swapped all of my components on to aluminum Go Sport bike that Greg Sonnenburg had left here. Greg, if you read this, thanks, and I owe you. However, now you can always take pleasure in knowing that you own a bike that?s been raced in Europe.
The race on Sunday was similar to Saturday with many of the same riders, but we attacked the climb from the other side of the hill and finished at the same point. The backside of the climb was shorter but steeper which was not good for me. The pace started extremely fast and dropped most of the riders quickly. I held on for about two or three kilometers but was not able to maintain the pace. Once again I found myself on my own, this time occasionally being passed by a rider or two. Two-thirds up the climb I was caught by Sim and a small group of four others. I managed to sit in with them just as the grade got began to get steeper. All the riders in the group dropped except for Sim, another rider, and myself. About 1k from the top Sim had the legs to attack the other rider and get a few seconds gap and hold it to the finish with the other guy chasing and me coming in about 15-20 seconds back. Not a great day but we both still managed top twenty finishes. I guess not bad considering most of the other riders were from towns around the area, and are used to this type of terrain. By the way these climbs have Liam?s name written all over them.
Yesterday we took my frame to a local fame builder who said he could repair it no problem, so I should have it for the upcoming races this weekend. Thanks to everyone at the shop for jumping through whatever hoops to get a new bike to me. We are not exactly sure what races we are going to do this weekend but it may involve a road race that finished on a climb in the Pyrenees, and or a regional time trial championships, we?ll see. Thanks again for everything.

John P.

Northern Races

On this first weekend in September, John and I drove up to northern France for 2 TTs and a road race. We drove over 5 hours on Sat to a TT. The TTs were what I was most interested in. On Sat I was 12th on the 22k TT. It was very very hot, and on a hilly course. The TV was out there filming, so that was interesting. I averaged 43kph and put in a reasonable time. We then got back in the car and drove another 3 hours to spend the night with some friends of ours near the Nantes area.
Next morning we were up very early to drive about 1.5 hours to a stage race in Cholet. We did a TT in the morning, once again this was my main aim for the day, I didn’t really care much about the road race. I put in a fairly good time, and average 44kph on the 9k TT, however the time gaps were very tight, and it was only good enough for 31st place. I guess it was in the top 3rd of the peleton, but I was quite disappointed. Then we had some food and got on the bikes for the second stage of the race; a 112 km road race. Things started off fairly well, John and I seemed to ride quite well, and we both stayed near the front. I was pretty tired after my two TTs, and luckily for me (I thought) those northern boys don’t climb quite as fast as our Pyrenean riders. Still we hit a hill at the half-way point of the race, the race got strung out and that was the end of the race for me. John was just able to hang on long enough for the pace to settle down a bit, and then he rode a great race. He was in a group of about 7 or so, he looked strong and had a good ride to finish somewhere in the top 40.
Then it was back into the car to drive back to our friends’ place, spend the night, then have to most boring drive ever all the way back home in the driving rain.

BY JOHN PARKS

I hope things are going good, and that everyone at the shop is doing well. As I had expected, this trip has turned out to be anything but a vacation. It is very clear however that coming will be worth every penny both in experience and in fitness training. Sim and I are living a cyclist life in its truest form by training every day, eating lots of pasta, and driving all over the country to race on the weekends. Last weekend we drove seven hours up to northern France for a 22k TT on Saturday and a two stage race on Sunday which included an 8k TT in the morning, a 112 road race in the afternoon, and two speeding tickets. Unlike Sim, I was not extremely interested in the time trials, but focused more on doing well in the road race.
Things operate quite a bit different over here when it comes to races in many ways. One example of this is that categories really don?t mean a whole lot over here. In many of the races, riders are simply grouped together so beginners can be racing against riders who were pro the previous year as well as juniors. This however does not make the race any slower or any less aggressive.
The Saturday TT was impressive in that it had the full production to include a covered start house and ramp, an announcer that introduced each rider and called out times as they crossed the finish line, and team cars to follow each rider on the course. A TV crew was also on hand to film a few of the starts including mine for local broadcast. The officials asked me questions while I was waiting in the start house but after I told them I didn?t speak French, all they did was make gestures and laugh. What are the odds they were saying something derogatory. The Sunday TT was not quite as elaborate but was still beyond what we are used to in the states. I didn’t give great performances in either event nor was I trying to so I couldn’t really judge my fitness with the other riders, but Sim seemed to do fairly well. The road race was another story.
Those boys were fast!
After we rolled out of the town and crossed the official start line, several riders attacked and from that point on, there was either someone attacking, or group of people off the front. Halfway through, the race got strung out over the top of a small climb and for many riders including Sim that was all it took to put them off the back. At some point during the race I looked down at my flight deck and saw that I was going twenty-five mph, up a hill, and it was still below the average speed for the race. I can?t recall the last time I had to work so hard just to stay in a race. I cannot stress enough how fast and aggressive these guys are. The racecourse had us come back into town, then make eight loops around the town. The weather was hot and I was running out of water, so luckily as we came back through town, Sim was there to hand me a couple bottles or I would not have finished for sure. In true form, I felt better as the race went on and by the end felt quite strong but by then the race had already been won by two team mates who crossed the line hand in hand, several minutes before my group reached the finish. Eighty some riders started the race, about fifty finished and I crossed the line somewhere in the mid thirties felling quite pleased with my performance given the sircumstances.
Another hard weekend starts tomorrow with a 90k road race in the Pyrenees that includes two col?s, and a 20k mass start hill climb on Sunday. Other than that, everything else has been great. We went over to a town close to use today and saw a stage finish of the Tour de Lavenier, which was impressive. Americans are representing pretty well this year.

rainin' on mah pirayd

As I’m sure you have all seen, there is some rather bad weather going around. Parts of Switzerland and Austria are under feet and feet of water, there’s bad flooding all over the place. Well although my little home of Cadalen southern France is known for being bloody hot and the home drought conditions, we have also been suffering from this bad batch of weather. This last week has been crappy to say the least. We’ve had covered skies, and even a few drops of rain. Get this; a couple days ago I went out for a fast ride with Alphonce, we were wearing arm warmers… unheard of for this part of the world at this time of year. I must say I miss my melted roads, I like suffering from a permanent state of severe dehydration. It’s actually even drizzling right now as I type. So… as I’m sure you can guess, knowing me as you all do, I’ve been pretty demoralized this week and have had trouble getting out on the bike. I’ve also damaged my left shoulder a bit, so I can’t lift much and it hurts resting on the bars on anything longer than a 1 hour ride.

So apart from my hard and fast ride with my training buddy Alphonce on Sunday and a recovery ride yesterday, there isn’t much else to say… I’m not even sure if I’ll do my intervals today, going out in the rain just doesn’t appeal to me, sorry, but there is a good reason I hated England… hours and hours and hours on end of riding in the freezing cold British August rain has made me feel like I’ve had my fair share of rain riding to last me a lifetime.

Right… hopefully there’ll be more to tell y’all about next time.
Oh yeah, I hope you all followed Jeremiah Bishops recent exploits at the Snowshoe round of the NORBA MTB series, he’s kicking some big old ass and it’s good to see. Keep it up JB, the big BIG one is just around the corner.

Back to my ROOTS...

Sunday:
Today I went to do a Mountain Bike race. It started at the top of the Superbagnere ski resort in the high Pyrenees. Very hot, lots of Altitude… . It sucked-ass! The course was shit, mainly field crossings, some off camber singletrack that had a sheer drop on one side, (but a lot of climbing that was good) blah blah blah. I got hit by a tourist on the course going down an uphill section, he came round the corner and rode straight into me, the race lasted almost 3 hours, about 70% of the field didn't finish, I crashed twice = inflamed knee and inflamed ankle, finished 4th (but didn't know it) didn't hang around at the end and went straight home ie: missed out on some 4th place money.

Catching up.

This week I’ve been feeling a bit rough. My knee and ankle have been hurting. Tuesday I got in 4 hours again, with some TT intervals in the morning and a long ride in the evening, Intervals on Wednesday, Thursday it rained so I did 2 hours of intervals instead of my planned 3 or 4 hour ride. It’s been nice to have our visitor, I like having people around.

Sunday I did yet another Mountain Bike race. I don’t know what is happening to me but I’m getting slowly back into Mountain Bike racing. I say slowly because I suck at it now. I’m fairly fit so I can hold my own, but my technical riding is just plain embarrassing. So raced the Rialet MTB race. I came home a little disappointed, but I’m not sure why because I did quite well. I was 5th. Alphonce was 2nd, so that was really good to see him up there kicking some assio. There were some good riders there, including the Espoir women’s French National Champ who I think was 5th or something at worlds. I felt really bad because I had never heard of her. The day went well, I didn’t crash or anything, but I did notice I can hardly turn corners on my MTB, and I’m really slow when we hit technical stuff. (When I say really slow, I mean comparatively of course. I used to be a very technical and smooth rider…)

Thursday
Well yesterday I finished all the kitchen work. I did the plumbing, built a sink structure and work surface etc etc. Yesterday Pat and I went to the Sidobre to get some bits of black granit work surface to finish it all off. It’s been a lot of work, but I’m really happy with it. The kitchen now looks like a kitchen, where as before (as most of you know) it looked yucky and crap.

I’ve been feeling very tired this week, but still getting in my rides and intervals.. I’m guessing I’ll either flop this weekend and the tiredness will catch up with, maybe even as a cold; or I’ll pull through and feel really good… who knows.

This coming weekend I’m either doing a road race in the name of Jalabert, or a Mountain Bike race in the Pyrenees. As usual I can’t decide…

Visitors:
So… I’m waiting to see in this seasons (expected) revelation John Parks is going to come over to do some racing. If he does we’ll do some racing in northern France, the Pyrenees, some TTs etc.

Tim Dingus and his new wife Beth will be arriving for their honeymoon on September 19th. That’ll be really fun and good to see them again.

In October we should have 3 people coming over to ride for a week. One of them is Rick Martinez… so those of you wondering “what’s happened to Rick” well I might be able to tell you in a little while. I’m not totally sure if they are coming over, but that’s the plan.

Oh… silly me, I forgot to mention some… we have some people coming for about a week I think arriving on Tuesday, and I think we have some old colleagues on Pat’s from England arriving some time in October… the usually Green visitor spree… I love it.
Anyone else wanna come over? :-)

Thursday

Yesterday I did hill rep intervals. 1 minute intervals at 500 watts, and 30 second hill sprints at over 600 watts. It hurt. But today I spent the morning doing some cleaning work as I have destroyed a big concrete structure in the kitchen. I’m going to redo the kitchen. This evening we have a friend coming for a few day to visit.
So I went out and met Stephane at the Café in Gaillac. We stopped and had a quick drink, then did that gorgeous (in both meanings of the word) Bruniquel loop with quite a bit of climbing. I did intervals on the hills and felt really good for the first time in bloody ages. When we got home to Gaillac, Steph went home, and I carried on to finish off with something 4.5 hours and 120k.

Tuesday August 2nd

Today I did some intervals in the morning, then went out for a ride in the evening with Stephane. The weather is nice, the days a warm (hot actually). It was a good day, I got in 4 hours.

Saturday

Yesterday I did nothing, had a day off the bike. I’m racing Sunday and the ace starts at the top of a Pyrenean ski resort.. that makes me a little nervous. It’s a Mountain Bike race, and once again I haven’t ridden the MTB in a long time… so I’m going back to my good old race preparation methods of a few years back: hard work during the week, followed by 2 easy days before the race. We’ll see how it goes.

I met Stephane again this morning for an easy spin to shake the legs out. I didn’t feel too good, but “tomorrow is the next day” as a wise man once said.. (hmmmm…..)
Until next time….

thursday

I’ve spent a couple of strange days. I’ve been feeling tired, and I’ve also been watching 2 guys I’ve been racing with for a few years do their first pro race with AG2R. Both are local guys. Some people are just really talented and exceptional in this sport, but I don’t believe these guys are. I’ve had a hard time seeing them get results in their first pro, when just a few weeks ago I was racing with them, and they are not exceptional. I’m really jealous. Even though I’ve decided to finish school, and I haven’t been training properly, I’m still jealous.

Anyway; today I went out for a ride with Stephane. I’ve spent the last 2 days doing intervals. It really hurt doing intervals after spending 3 weeks with Bikestyletours.com doing very long but also very low intercity rides. I met Stephane at the café in Gaillac, and we sat and had a coffee for a little while, watched the world go by etc. Then we got on the bikes and did my much loved Bruniquel loop where you ride along the tops of hills with great views, before plummeting down into the Aveyron gorges. It was a great sunny day. I did a bunch of 30second 450W intervals on the climbs and felt pretty good. Once we headed back into Gaillac after 80k, I left Stephane and prolonged the ride a little. So I did 4.5 hours, about 120k. I really enjoyed the ride and felt pretty good. It was one of those rides that you long for for months… the kind of ride that reminds you what riding should really be about: great views, good fun, good company etc.

Thursday

I’ve spent a couple of strange days. I’ve been feeling tired, and I’ve also been watching 2 guys I’ve been racing with for a few years do their first pro race with AG2R. Both are local guys. Some people are just really talented and exceptional in this sport, but I don’t believe these guys are. I’ve had a hard time seeing them get results in their first pro, when just a few weeks ago I was racing with them, and they are not exceptional. I’m really jealous. Even though I’ve decided to finish school, and I haven’t been training properly, I’m still jealous.

Anyway; today I went out for a ride with Stephane. I’ve spent the last 2 days doing intervals. It really hurt doing intervals after spending 3 weeks with Bikestyletours.com doing very long but also very low intercity rides. I met Stephane at the café in Gaillac, and we sat and had a coffee for a little while, watched the world go by etc. Then we got on the bikes and did my much loved Bruniquel loop where you ride along the tops of hills with great views, before plummeting down into the Aveyron gorges. It was a great sunny day. I did a bunch of 30second 450W intervals on the climbs and felt pretty good. Once we headed back into Gaillac after 80k, I left Stephane and prolonged the ride a little. So I did 4.5 hours, about 120k. I really enjoyed the ride and felt pretty good. It was one of those rides that you long for for months… the kind of ride that reminds you what riding should really be about: great views, good fun, good company etc.

“Needleless” back treatment…

I found a Doc to treat me yesterday evening. They gave me hundreds of little injections in my back. About an injection for every square cm of my back... the whole back, and even my neck got loads of injections… I handled it quite well considering I’m scared of needles (no wonder I suck at cycling)… after that they put my through a bunch of adjustments and I felt a bit better. I couldn’t get to sleep last night, and this morning my back was really stiff and after the treatment. So I’m not racing today of course. I’m sitting around trying not to move my back too much.

I’m also a bit sick. I seemed to get a bit sick just before come back home from the Bikestyle trip. That’s what happens when you share a bus with loads of people, move hotel every day etc etc. My lungs are full of phlegm and it feels remarkably like the thing I had about 3 weeks ago after that MTB race. Maybe if I could get some consistent training through the winter months, I could stay healthy during the season.. or maybe I just have a weak body.. I don’t know.

I’m going to go for an easy 1 hour spin and see how I feel… come home, enjoy a meal out on the balcony, and go out for another ride in the afternoon if I don’t feel too bad.Shit I hate this... I hate feeling like this.

good, or no good... ??

2 days in the Pyrenees was really good. However… although fun it wasn’t all great. The 1st day I got the there I went out on the MTB and got lost on the Aspin mountain.. then got caught in some rain as I had ridden down into the neighboring valley. I felt really shit on the bike, but I figured that was just due to the past 2 weeks of long rides. So on the second day I got up early, had breakfast and headed out on the road bike to do both sides of the Aspin followed by the Tourmalet. It was incredibly hot… I did both sides of the Aspin and started the Toumalet but soon realized it wasn’t a good idea. I was feeling really rough. It’s my back once again. The pain even on the bike was excruciating and it was a hindrance to my breathing. Once I got back to the tent, I realized just in how much pain I was. I had assumed it was the mountain hurting me. Unable to move, I lay down for most of the day with my lungs constantly wheezing with asthma. I didn’t sleep last night either.. not only was the breathing just too hard to sleep, but massive mountain thunder storms came down and flooded the tent… oh well. This morning I got up and packed everything up wet into the car. I’ll hang it out to dry over the next couple days. My first priority is finding a doctor to sort my back out. I was planning on racing the MTB tomorrow, but that looks very unlikely, unless I can find some that can treat me this afternoon… Ugh… such is life with my fucked up back… it’s been years, but I’m really starting to realize that I need to be careful.. if I can’t get some serious treatment I’m going to be bedridden in the next few years. Someone has already said I have the back of a 70 year old… Ugh

And he’s off again. Pyrenees training camp.

Right, it’s nice weather out there, so I’m taking my MTB and road bike with the power-tap and I’m going to spend a few days camping at the foot of the Aspin and the Tourmalet. I’ll probably do 2 rides a day, 1 MTB and 1 road.
When I was in that area about a week ago I told myself I really had to go back with the tent and the MTB, hang out, relax and ride some mean trails. So here I go… so long suckers………

Back in the game mate...

Well here we go… I’m back. I got back in yesterday afternoon, I flew from Paris to Toulouse, got home and went for a ride with Stephane. We did a nice little 2+ hour ride. I’m really really tired from all the riding we did with Bikestyletours.com. It was a great trip with some really cool people. I met lots of new people and have found out a lot more about Aussies. They are a great nation of people, nothing phases them, they don’t care, they roll with the punches, suck it up and laugh at everything. We had some great townsign sprints, great rides in the mountains and sadly, even a couple of crashes.

I’ve ridden 20 hours a week for the past two weeks. Lots of the rides were slow, but with the mountains they were still quite hard. I put in a LOT of hours in the saddle that’s for sure. Some of the rides were fast, with lots of accelerations etc. Some of the guys on the trips were ex-racers, some were current racers, and so there was a group that was really tearing it up on the incredibly hot roads of France.

I have just spent 3 days up north finishing in Paris (and many days in the mountains before that) where it was raining. So today was a bit of a shock to me when I awoke to some really REALLY hot weather. I did a recovery ride today, but it was so hot that even when there was a breeze, it was like air coming out of an oven… just bloody hot.

I’m going to try an MTB race this weekend I think, then some road next weekend… we’ll see what kind of shape I’m in. I’ve got a good base now, but I’m sure I need intervals etc.

Right.. “off to bed hey, get an early night hey mate” as Pat Jonkers would say..

SHREWWWS and roots MTB racing.

Sunday I did the Midi Libre MTB race in the Gard area of France. It was a return to my roots… remember… roots… shrews…?! No? Well, you had to be a part of the Subaru MTB series with me back in 1999. Oh well.

So I was up at 4am to get to the race over in the middle of noplace in the Seveen something region of France. It was a big race (I found out once I got there)… I was just going to ride around with my buddy Alphonce. So, there were some good guys there, guys from Lapierre, Maxxis etc. I guess some of the guys who didn’t want to go to the World Cup in Canada. There were 170 of us on the start line. Wow, for an MTB race… and that’s just in my category. Seeing as the race was part of a series, I had to start way back on the start line as it was my first race. It was one big loop, and get this, it was such a hard race, that it took us almost 3.5 hours to do the 45km loop!!! Anyway, I surprised myself and managed to finish 12th. I was very happy with myself. Maybe I should put the result down to my careful choice of equipment. I got my bike loaded with all the aerodynamic advantages I could… I used spinergy wheels.. etc… OK fine, so I went down to the basement before the race and pulled up my dusty MTB, it just so happened to have those wheels on it… great, they are heavy and it was a very VERY hilly course. Duh!
Maybe I’ll start MTB racing again….

My thoughts go out to Jeremiah who flatted while in 4th place at the Canada World Cup on Sunday…. That’s gotta suck!!! I’m gonna be looking out for the big man himself at the next round this coming weekend… lets all hope he has a flawless ride and pulls of the result he deserves! He’s obviously in good shape, so… Go JB.
If JB stopped fucking around on his MTB though, I bet he could save himself some serious electricity bills with the watts that bastard puts out! Hook his turbo-trainer up to a capacitor… use his wheel as a fan to cool the house down… ecologically sound Bishop housing.
Have I been drinking?

hoooooooooo..........

Shit me… Have I mentioned it’s hot over here…?!

Summer Plans

So… I’m trying to figure out my summer. Right now it looks like I’ll be working following the Tour in July, then coming back home and doing the Ronde du Gard Elite stage race here in France in August. It’s a 5 day event… but it’s a French style stage race… none of your crits or circuit race bullshit! J It’s 5 days of 130kms per day… in a hilly area of France… and in bloody HOT weather… OUCH.
Then it looks like I will be going to the US where I will do the Virginia State Time Trial Championships as well as the MABRA Time Trial Championships. This will be interesting as my thing is more short Time Trials. These are both 40k TTs. Although our road races are longer here, our TTs are shorter, so it’ll be interesting to see how I do. It looks like I will only arrive in the US 2 days before the TTs (they are back to back Sat, Sun) so the jetlag will no doubt have an effect. Then it looks like there is a small chance that I might do the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont, and then the Univest Grand Prix, a UCI event in Pennsylvania.
Of course the main reason for my going back to the US is for Tim’s wedding.. yep.. that’s right.. the “drunk” is getting married… “who’da thunk it.” J
So.. that’s the plan for now… of course I’ll probably change my plans a hundred times between now and August, but that’s normal… some things never change.

July

I will be away again in July, working for Bikestyletours.com during the Tour de France. I have to get myself and my bike up to Paris for the 8th. I’m looking forwards to riding around and sharing this great riding country with the people on the bikestyletours.com trips. It should be a great TDF… I can’t wait!

Grounded

My thoughts go out to Greg who’s lying at home with a dislocated arm that he sustained upon his return from Airbus training a few weeks ago. Poor Greg is going to be housebound during the Tour de France… I’m sure we all feel really bad for the poor guy. We’ll be thinking of you there Greg, sitting in front of OLN, watching the Tour with a big old Belgian Beer in your one good hand. Maybe we should all come round in case you need to change the volume on the TV and your hand is already filled with a beer bottle.

Sadly Greg is unable to ride his beautiful carbon Lemond bike however… It’s Ok Greg.. I’ll put in the miles for you. :-) (well.. actually I think John Parks is putting in the miles for all of us!)

The last couple days

Well here we are again.. it’s summer! The weather is blisteringly hot… the roads are melting and my bike tires are dragging tar back into the house after every ride. I’m getting through litres and liters of water a day, and the sunscreen has become as vital as the air we breath.

I thought that once I had finished with school, I would have a lot more time to catch up with this sort of stuff.. but that hasn’t been the case.

Yesterday I went out on an MTB ride in the morning (I’m racing the MTB Midi Libre this weekend) and I discovered a stunning view. After riding through a bunch of fields, I found myself on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the Tarn, with a view that covered everything from Albi to Gaillac. In the distance I could see the heat hazed Mazamet Black mountains. I couldn’t see the Pyrenees though, it was too hot.

So after my MTB ride, I came home and had lunch on the balcony. Even though I sat in the shade (of course) it was a sweat fest of a lunch. Then I relaxed a little bit with a coffee to digest, before heading out for a 50k ride on my time trial bike in the afternoon. I chose a hilly loop as I wanted to really get a feel for the TT bike on hills (it sucks). So I headed out in possibly the hottest weather we’ve had yet, with only one water bottle. I did the hilly ride in 1h30, but when I got home I actually got a little scared. I was in a bit of a state. My body wasn’t reacting too well to the effort and fatigue from the ride in such heat… I think I pushed a bit too hard considering I was already tired and obviously dehydrated… still.. it was fun and a cool ride. So to cool off, I went over to hang out in a friend’s swimming pool in the evening.

After a stifling night, I woke up this morning feeling crappy. I’ve consumed VAST quantities of fluids since yesterday evening. It’s stupid hot again, and I’m about to head out for a ride. I was planning on doing my very hilly 100k loop, but seeing as there are no places to stop and get water on that loop, I’m going to do a different one.

Dead Tired. Need rest.

Well here we go again. The seriously hot weather is back. I love it.. it’s so hot you can’t do anything.

After 2 straight weeks of intervals, TT intervals, uphill sprint intervals and motorpacing, I rode Plateau de Beille and col du Chioula with my buddy Alphonce on Friday. I was so so tired. The intervals really took their toll. I was totally totally dead Friday evening. Yesterday I did 2 hours easy, and now today I’m heading down to the mountains again to watch the Route du Sud (where TIAA-Creff are racing) but mainly to ride the Col du Portillon with Stephane. Depending on how he feels, we might do it twice, and we might add the col de Peyresourde. After that I think will force myself to take 2 much needed and deserved recovery days.

Next week I plan on going down to Limoux for a couple days, and hanging out with James Hewitt, a British cyclist racing for the Bouygues Telecom development team Castelsarasin. We’ll hang out, drink coffee, and ride a little… but we’ll mainly do some relaxing and “battery recharging”.
So until next time.. A bientot.

still alive?

woahoooo.. it's about time I updated this thing!!!
I've busy as a .... erm.. well.. I've been busy! University, training, racing... drinking coffee... you know how it is!

Rick MArtinez emerged the other day... so it was good to hear from him...

Ok, I'll try and keep this thing unpdated a little more...

Later y'all
Grim Seen

Return to the USA countdown.

Only a few day before I jump onto a plan with my beloved bike to leave some quality Michelin rubber on the roads of Virginia. The weather here has turned a bit crap, and it is chilly and wet again. It’s OK though, I’ve been getting in some big rides, so I was planning on a slightly easier week anyway. I’ll also be doing the Carlo Dolan Crit on the 17th in the US. I’m looking forward to getting into the US peleton again. I hate Crits, but it’ll be good for me. It will be interesting to see how I feel, racing just 2 days after getting off the plane.
Sunday I am doing a 140k race down in the foothills of the Pyrenees. I was looking forward to this, but they are calling for snow and rain. I need to race, and I really want to race. I also really want to get in a couple of longish races, but I don’t want to crash and risk messing up my trip. If anything goes wrong, I’ll only have 3 days to recover. So my plan is to sit in and get some miles, I’ll pull out after 100k if it is too hairy… ie: if I see 4 or 5 crashes by the 100k point, I’ll get in the car. (I say that now, but I’m when it comes down to it, I’ll really think “Oh good, I’m staying in, 5 crashes means less people…”)

Stay Tuned.

Tour of Shenandoah:

I’m coming over to the US to do the Tour of Shenandoah with the Trek VW team. I’m really looking forward to the race. Usually this would be my kind of race, long point-to-point mountain stages. If only it were later in the year, and I could have spend some serious time in the Pyrenees riding my favorite climbs. Sadly that’s not the case… so I’m a little unsure about my fitness.

I’m really excited about the race. This is going to be one of the first times we have a clear leader, and everyone will have a clear job to do. This is more the kind of racing I like and look for. I don’t like racing for myself, that’s not how I think. I hope I’ll be strong enough to put my climbing experience to good use.

Thanks to Jeremiah Bishop for spending a LOT of time putting this composite team together and taking care of so many things.

Scott Gibbons:

Scott Gibbons has come and left. We had a great time riding and racing. We did a TimeTrial and a stage race. Scotts first few day here saw us ride in the rain and SNOW… only to get suntans a few days later. We did some great rides, Scott managed to crash every day he was here… well… almost… Scott saved it every time, but it was close. I don’t think a day went by without Scott either running into my rear wheel or going off the road into the ditch. See what happens when you mess around Scott.

The racing was good. We got to stand next to each other on the podium of the TT we did. Good start to the season for both of us. In the Stage race we did, we finished pretty much next to each other, and had fun doing Borat impressions. Pour French guys didn’t know what was going on. Scott has returned to the US and has been racing well. This is the second time he’s been over to race here in France, and he says racing here has taught him to be far more aggressive in the races back home, and see racing in a totally different light. Go for it Scott… attack! It’s better than sitting in the main field and finishing in anonymity.
Hope you can come back over here soon Scott!

1st 1st in 2005

Scott Gibbons and I went out to Carcassonne to do a Time trial, that was part of a team style duathlon sort of event.
The cold weather has started to move out now and today was a warm and sunny one.
The course was really hilly, with lots of STEEP climbs and lots of courners. It was very hard to ride the course on a Time Trial bike.

We ended the event by standing on the podium. Scott was 2nd, and I was 1st. It couldn’t have been a better finish with both of us so close to each other.

The event was a reassuring test for next week stage race (also very very hilly).

After the race we headed in to the old city of Carcassonne for some tourist activities. That means some visiting, photo taking, but mainly coffee drinking in the cafes.

Stuck in Airport.

Scott Gibbons finally got here today, after spending something like a 12 hour delay sitting in Amsterdam airport stuck by the snow.
It was a total nightmare trip for Scott.

To make things worse, his bike was even more delayed, and didn’t get here until a few days later.

Stuck in Airport.

Scott Gibbons finally got here today, after spending something like a 12 hour delay sitting in Amsterdam airport stuck by the snow.
It was a total nightmare trip for Scott.

To make things worse, his bike was even more delayed, and didn’t get here until a few days later.