Another day another race.

Grand Prix de Millac




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Seemingly lost in the middle of nowhere, the Grand Prix de Millac seemed like a small town race. But with riders from all over the region and the presence of the Estonian National team it wasn't just a village jaunt.

100km were on the menu in the form of 13 8km loops (or thereabouts). A few meters after the start finish line was a narrow and slightly sketchy descent, followed by 3 short but very steep climbs, before some flattish/gentle uphill all the way to the finish.

The Down Hill after the start in the trees was fast, furious and narrow

The pace from the gun was fast and furious, and on such a course staying near the front was very important. After being fairly active in the first 3 or 4 laps and none of the moves really sticking, a group went off the front without me in it. Most of the race was spent attacking and going off in small groups in pursuit of the front group.

In a 4 man group trying to get off the front.

The race was action packed with intermediate sprints and constant attacks. At one of the intermediate sprints I decided to partake in the sprint and go for a little money, as I was coming up on the outside left of the field, one of the Estonian riders somehow went over the bars and was projected a couple meters in the air. We were at full sprint pace and the road was rough. It was also in town and therefore was fairly narrow. As he landed he took another rider with him and they slid towards me. A second of hesitation went through my mind, do I brake hard and risk taking everyone down behind me, or do I try and go even faster and hope to get through the minute gap before they slide fully into my sprinting line. I accelerated and just made it through, still making second in the sprint and pocketing a little bit of cash on the way.

In the closing laps, sitting in and waiting for the finish

Come the end the race was split all over the course. Myself and one other guy leapt out of our group and joined the 1st chase group within 1 lap. Later I heard someone on the side of the road say how many rider were ahead of us, and I realized there were only 1 or maybe 2 spot available for points. I am in much need of ranking points at the moment and so I absolutely had to finish 1st of our group to take any points. As we came into the final few kms I expected someone to attack on the last little rise about 2k from the line. They did, another guy followed and I reacted as fast as I could (along with the rest of the group). As I got on their wheel I quickly countered and got off alone with 1k to go. at 58-60kph I was fairly confident they wouldn't catch me. I rounded the last corner and was about to pretty much drift the last few hundred meters to the line to take my few National Ranking points.

Not a great pic of me crossing the line ahead of the group for the last few National Ranking points available on the day

The race could have gone a lot better, but it was fun (sort of) and that's what matters.

The high point of the day however was on the drive home, where I drove past a sign to a town called "Arnac la Poste" which translates to "Con the Post office"... what a great name for a town. I wonder how that town got it's name? Maybe it was a town of mail frauders...

I'll be without internet from now on until about the end of the week, so... how I will cope I really don't know.:-)

Chrono Chatelleraudais AKA: The Time Trial

So there it was... The "big" day. Saturday, TT day, and also, maybe more importantly the day we had to go to the estate agents and sign all the papers etc for Gaelle's house. So after having breakfast in our room using bread and jam etc we had got from the supermarket last night (penny saving cheapskates) we headed off to the agency for a good hour of paper signing (everything in France takes longer). Just before walking into the agency I was finally communicated my TT start time, which was a huge relief because as things stood this morning we were only going to have 30mins for all the paperwork and even that was cutting things close.

So with the paper pushing done and out of the way we had lunch in the parking lot (more penny saving) and headed off to the TT.

I haven't been sleeping well this week, we've had long and stressful days, and my training has been far from ideal. And I am feeling it I must say.

After a good warm-up I headed to the start ramp and from here on in it gets pretty boring... I rolled down the start ramp and pedaled. I felt pretty shit at first and had a hard time getting my heart rate up. But about half way through I started to feel a little better.

The TT was 22km long and was, as is typical in Europe, "rolling"... ie: lots of hills, corners etc. It was cool, but painful.

1 guy passed me, and although I hoped it was the Polish National TT champ who was actually "only" finished 3rd, it was just some French guy. But it's OK, he finished 2nd.

The finish/podium bus

I rolled in in 9th spot, which wasn't bad. I improved by about 40 second on my time from 2 years ago, so that's OK. All that being said I wasn't overly happy with the result or the way I rode. I feel I could have done better. Oh well, there you go.

Now it's off to Buffalo Grill for a bit old feast before doing it all over again tomorrow... only this time it is a road race, that I will probably do a training.

Wednesday and Thursday up north

What a busy couple days. So I'm up in Chateauroux in what is actually central France, but for anyone who comes from the South of France, we call anything above Bordeaux "The North". So I'm in northern France, we've been looking for a house for Gaelle, and we have found one. It was a crazy couple days, but it all worked out in the end. During this time I didn't touch the bike.

So today Gaelle had to be in the town of Tours for 2 days of meetings. We arrived last night, and after dropping her off at her meetings I set off in typical Sim style with nothing but a few road numbers for guidance and went for a ride. I looked at the map in the car, figured out where I wanted to go and wrote the road numbers and main towns on a sticky paper and put it on my stem.

I felt pretty shitty on the bike, probably due to 2 busy days with very little sleep. The ride was nice but way too flat and windy for my liking. That flat shit kills me. Sitting on the bike in the same gear at the same speed for so long cracks me.

But I went through some great towns. First on my loop was the town of Villeperdue, which means LostTown... great! As it happens there was a chateaux in Villeperdue which was lived in. The place is HUGE and surrounded my a moat. Even the gardens and tennis court are surrounded by a moat. Imagine the heating bills of that massive place in winter. Stunning house!

After that I meandered around and wound my way through towns and villages until I came to town built on an island in the Indre river. Obviously the town has spread to both shores of the river... a great little town. As I headed out of this town I came across some cliff faces (God knows how, it's totally flippin' flat here) with houses built into the rock. No longer lived in of course, past inhabitants of the area had obviously used holes in the rock as their houses, and had built façades into the rock to make little houses. Sadly the pics haven't come out very well because all I had was my cell phone.

It was a shitty ride, but was great in terms of the towns and places I rode through.

Tomorrow will be an easy day on the bike before the TT on Saturday. Tomorrow (Friday) evening we will travel back down to Chateauroux, sign the papers for the house Sat morning and hope to god it goes quickly as we then have to go to the TT. I have a funny feeling I will not perform well in this TT... gee, I wonder why.. :-) But it'll fun!

Carcassonne Crit.

As most of you know crits are NOT my strong point, and they are about as far from my favorite type of event as you can get. But never the less there I was on the start line of the Carcassonne crit. 70km was the distance, and that should have spoken volumes to me about the event. Crits here are usually 80km minimum, so for an Elite crit, 70k was short. And here's why... it's hard!

2.2km loops, through this tiny town built on a hill side just outside the main town of Carcassonne. 12 corners per lap, tiny little streets with big walls and buildings on either side, a steep climb up to and past the finish line, and some of the worst roads I have ever seen.

80 riders stood at the start line, including the AG2R development team, 2 guys from the Asian Bridgestone Anchor Pro team, and a field of mainly french riders from all over France. Now although we have had a bad summer and a week of rain, the weather for this crit was a blisteringly hot 35 degrees, which after the past couple weeks was quite a shock to the system.

But the weather wasn't the only thing that was blisteringly hot. From the gun the pace was hideously high. I was a late registration for the event, and so I started right at the end of the pack. Starting positions aren't something you normally care about on the road, but with such a narrow course, it made a big big difference. The first 5-8 laps were SO fast and painful I thought I was going to drop out after only a few laps. Riders started dropping out from lap 1, and at least 2 or 3 dropped out every lap.

After a while things settled in a little bit as a group of 4 or 5 got off the front, including 1 or maybe 2 AG2R development guys, and 1 Bridgestone Anchor guy. I was sitting in the second group on the road. Already by this stage there were riders absolutely everywhere on the course. At about the half-way point I attacked off the 2nd group on the road and 3 of us went away, but only for 2 or 3 laps, then we were caught again. Even though we were caught there were still gaps in the group that consisted of about 20 riders... so I kept the pace high on the front and attacked round a couple corners, hoping to take a couple riders with me. I was alone. I quickly opened a considerable gap and was off towards the leaders. At first the crowds was cheering me on, but with the race in pieces all over the course, and with me frequently passing dropped riders, it wasn't long before the crowd obviously started to think I was just another dropped rider.

Sim went it alone... While Bridgestone Anchor had one guy off the front.

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After 12 or 15k off the front alone, and thankfully more recognition from the commentator than the crowd, I was suddenly caught again. I was caught by about 6 or 7 guys from the group I had attacked, everyone else was dropped in ones and twos all over the road. It was absolute carnage. My 15k off the front had been a little easier than in the group, because I was able to keep a steady pace and not deal with the stop start accelerations of a group, but that said I was maxed the whole time, way above my threshold. As the group caught me on the steep climb they attacked me directly. I held onto them for a few laps but was soon gapped. My efforts from earlier were taking their toll. So after a few more laps and a couple quick calculations which told me I was no longer going to be able to score any national ranking points, and that I was out of the money, it was time to pull over and get off the bike. By the time I stopped I think there were as many riders along the side of the road as there were crowds. I don't know how many people finished but it wasn't many. The winner lapped everyone at least once, except for 3 guys, and he lapped all but the top 10 riders twice. The guy was unbelievable. Bridgestone Anchor only had 1 guy left in the race, AG2R had maybe 3 out of 6 or 7 starters...

Well there, you go. Crits are crits. I actually enjoyed this one a little more, and thought the high HR workout was probably good training for the upcoming TTs.

Monday is an early start as I need to get in some intervals and pack my bags. We are headed up to northern France to find an apartment for my girlfriend. We only have 2 days to find it before she has to start work. It's going to be a crazy week. Sadly not the best preparation for the TT on Saturday. I'm not even sure I'll have time to ride this week (hence the intervals Monday morning).

Next week is TT and a northern road race on sunday, followed by the Pic de Nore hill climb the next weekend with a 1 day, 2 stage stage race on the sunday.

Fast approaching TT

Only a week to go until the Chrono Catelraudais, this Time Trial in northern/central France, (in the same are as the famous Chrono des Herbier TT). Actually I am making the most of having to go up there to accompany my girlfriend who has been sent up to that area for work. She passed her teacher's qualification and in France they send you to a school like they send soldiers to barracks. So we'll be moving her up to Chateauroux. It's going to be busy couple weeks. We're going to have to find her an apartment within 1 or 2 days. They only tell her where they are sending her 5 days before she starts work.


TTs, "I love them" (in Jens Voight overly excited accent)
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I like Time Trials and I look forward to getting back aboard my TT bike. I haven't done a TT for a couple months... last time was at the Tour des Chateaux et Coteaux stage race a couple weeks before the Tour. I haven't actually spent much time on the TT bike recently either. Obviously I didn't ride the TT bike while on our Bikestyle Tour de France trip and since I've been back I've been doing mainly hilly races. So although I'm looking forward to it, I'm not as totally pumped up about it as I usually am. I'm usually like a little kid before Christmas when it comes to TTs... until I roll down the start ramp of course, then I'm it all turns into pain and tunnel vision. :-)


No TT bike on the BikestyleTours Tour de France trip... good thing too, wouldn't want to ride a TT bike up Alpe D'Huez
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Sadly my Power Tap isn't working at the moment so I haven't been able to do any tests before this TT. I feel like I'm in pretty good shape at the moment and the results have been there too, so it would be interesting to see what the power read-outs were like. But there's not much I can do about it.


I hope I can get a disk wheel from the team this time.
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15 mins of Fame

For those of you who haven't heard yet. Pro Cycling Magazine came out with us at Bikestyletours and rode the Port de Bales. This was a while ago of course, it was before the Tour. Anyway the article came out a little while ago, and so here is my fifteen minutes of fame... well, 15 minutes of something, not sure what but...






Spot the idiot: There he is on the left
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Anyway they did a great article, and it is available at your local newsagents, book store, friend's house, or bathroom if you are a bloke (why is it only blokes seem to read on the toilet...)

Anyone hunting for autographs please call my agent directly, his name is Bill Sheet, and you can e-mail him at B.S@FullOfIt.com
:-)

They also did another article, basically on us riding up a hill... that one should be out either in the Winter or in March 2008... so... don't hold your breath just yet.

The only way is up... unless you turn around of course!

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Intervals between the rain drops

Yesterday I slipped between the rain drops to get in a 2.5 hour ride. I had planned to go out again, but with the rain it didn't happen. Probably not a bad thing anyway, as I felt like crap on that ride.

So now onto today... rain rain rain. But I got out for a little under 3 hours and didn't get wet at all. I've been very lucky the past 2 days.

Some sun flowers are hoping there is still some summer to come

I headed out to the Cote de Boissel, the climb that heads out of Gaillac that was used in the 2003 Tour Time trial and that has also been used in the Midi Libre for example. It's not a proper "climb" but it's a nice steady 3km hill, and one I love to do hill reps on. Well... I don't LOVE to do them, but if I have to them, that tends to be my hill of choice.

I started off with 2 reps at full race pace, sitting down and keeping at very steady (though bloody painful) pace. I followed that with 2 reps at race pace again, but this time alternating between sitting fro 30 seconds, and standing for 30 seconds. That had been all I was going to do. That's usually hard enough. But for some reason I felt compelled to do more. So I did 2 more reps, this time in a big gear. 53x11 grinding up with a slightly lower hear rate... ie: just under race pace.

I felt pretty cooked by then, but felt like rewarding myself with an extra little 30 or 40k of easy spinning with some music.

I am quite happy with my day. This morning I didn't think I would get out at all due to this shocking weather... but it turned out OK in the end.

In other news, although I haven't heard from Giana in Austria for a while now, I finally got a hold of her World TT results from Wednesday, and I was VERY happy to see she finished 2nd. A great result considering she has only been back on the bike for about 2 months after a 3 year total absence from the sport and some serious health problems. I'm SO happy for her. I only wish I could have been there with her again to see her pull this off.

Congrats Giana, you rock.

Giana won the world title in 2004

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Ok, seeing as I am British I'm going to have to talk about the weather again. It looks like it will be clearing up and being somewhat summery again this weekend... which I bloody hope, because I have to stupid crits again this weekend, and crits are bad enough at the best of times, through in the rain as well... and Sim ain't a happy camper.

Belguim-Classic style August.

At this time of year you can race almost everyday of the week over here. Today I raced, and if I wanted to I could race again tomorrow, only I won't because I have an Osteo appointment tomorrow and it is usually best to rest after getting your back adjusted so as not pull everything back out of place right away.

So... It's August in Southern France, and continuing on from the worst summer we have EVER had here, we took the start of today's totally flat race under rainny conditions. Just to make things worse it was windy as heck too. Looked a lot more like a Belgian early season race than a soutern France August race I can tell you.

Race? in the rain, in August, you're having joke aren't you mate?
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I started the race with arm warmers, knee warners and a jacket. Within a few km I had taken off the rain jacket, and within about 25k I had taken off the knee warmers... Right around then it stopped raining and the wind was so strong that the road dries in no time at all, just in time for the heavens to open up again and soak us. :-(

Sim huffs and puffs at the bordom of going round in circles over an 8km loop in the rain and wind... "Is this thing over yet?"
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Anyway the race didn't go too badly, my plan had been to sit in and get in some training miles, which is exactly what I did. We had 2 guys in the 4 man break up the road and spent most of the time controling the field. Come the finish we put the whole team on the front and drilled it for the last 10km or so and lead out one of our sprinters for 5th place.

Sitting at the back spinning the legs. It was easier than I had anticipated.
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The guys in the break didn't win and so they got yelled at by some of our guys. We could have cought them if we had wanted and maybe had a sprinter win or sent someone else off the front for the win (me?) :-) I felt bad for them. They finished 3rd and 4th but they gave it their all, it's not like they TRIED not to win. Besides.. it was just a flippin' circuit race. Admitedly my team was the organizer so you always like to win your own race.

So there you go... what next? Well rain ALL week.. can you believe that? Crazzy!!!

Around very early september I should be going up north for a big TT. I did it a couple years ago and it was pretty hard. I'll make the most of it to get in a road race the next day as well. Then it will be back down here for a race up the Pic de Nore. Usually a 2 day stage race I'll only be able to do the first day as my team is organizing a 1 day (2 stage) stage race the next day, and I have to go to that, esspecailly as I am Pyrenees Champ. Bit of a shame really, I like the pic de Nore stage race, I won the 1st stage last year and finished 4th I think on stage 2, which put me in 1st or 2nd overall (I don't actually remember)... but I like that sort of race. Kind of like the 2 races I won this past week... Uphill mountain finishes seem to suit me this year.

Well, until next time...

no race but race pace.

With only two days to go before the final round of the Pyrenean climbs series this Saturday a few of us got together for a little spin.

Thursday, the day after that grueling uphill TT Alphonce, Steph and myself got together for what was supposed to be a nice little endurance ride. Alphonce is doing the last round of the series, and so is Steph, but Steph is a little bit less fit than Alphonce and myself... so Alphonce and I were trying to test eachother out on every climb we came across to get a feeling of how things would go come the big day Saturday.

So at the end of the day we had 130km of climbs with proper, full on race pace accents. The ride is a GREAT ride taking you down into the Aveyron Valley and the walled/hilltop cities. But we came back pretty buggered. Steph got in a little over 100k seeing as he lives in Gaillac with is a little down the road, meaning he got in a little under 30k less than the rest of us.

Ahhh.. but what a great day it was. Really enjoyed it. It's a tough life. :-)

Today is a nice easy recovery day. I'll ride into Gaillac and spend some time setting up Steph's new computer, then ride home, have lunch, get my bike ready, maybe have a nap....

2 wins in 5 days.

Just got in from another race. A hill climb TT which was fucking hideous!!!! 21% sections and it was HARD. 6k uphill TT. Average Heartrate was 179 (my max is 188).
Don't really know how, I must be in OK shame at the moment because I won again. (despite terrible back problems at the moment, going to see Doc on tuesday).

So there you go. Another win, thus I am leading the Pyrenean Climb series; one round left (this coming Sat)... Hmmm.... this time no beret for the win, but lots of wine and sausage and pate and cheese.... !!!! :-) Great stuff... I'd better go sample it!

On the way home I picked up my mom from that airport as she has been in the UK since I got back from the Tour. The weather is great here, nice and hot and sunny. So.... off to have a beer and some sausage then.... "so long suckers..."

Back home!!

Hi all, I'm back. Have been back from the Tour a little while actually.

I look really moody in this pic. Not sure what that's about. Probably because Craig killed me up Alpe d'Huez a few hours earlier. (Killed me by going so slow of course ;-) )

I didn't do a very good job of keeping up the Bikestyle blog, but there were a couple of events (some bikes got stolen) that meant I really wasn't sure what to write... so I didn't write anything. Apart from that it was a really good trip.

Being back home has been great as well. A few days after getting back I did a crit, which I was very proud to finish. As most of you know I hate crits and usually drop out due to boredom.
Then on Saturday I won a race in the Pyrenees, which finished uphill (up a climb more like)... so that was very nice!

I'm going to another race in the Pyrenees tomorrow morning, again with an uphill finish, so hopefully I'll do well there also.

Right.. off to have a beer and sit on the balcony. :-)

I'll write more about the GREAT bikestyle trip at the Tour this year. No kidding I think it was the best trip yet. I had SOOO much fun... loved it. It was also GREAT to hook up with Craig from Aus again and shoot the shit, and great to make some new friends!

On a slightly different note a special thought goes out to Giana who should be in Europe (Austria I think) right now getting ready for the World's TT. "Go G, I hope you have fun, would be great if you won again, but above all enjoy yourself!"

Hi all
For those interested I will be bloggin on the bikestyle web-site and you can follow the tour from there.
www.bikestyletours.com

Or go straight to it.
http://www.bikestyletours.com/121-trip-starts-tomorrow

Thanks for reading

Could I have been National Champ?

I'll start off with the National Champ thing. As I won the Midi Pyrenees champs I was an automatic selection for the National Championships. Because it was held in an area that wouldn't suit me, and because the region wasn't going to pay for all of it, I chose not to go. I wondered if I would regret it...

So today I saw the results of these national Champs.. Although they took place last week I just hadn't looked at them. So... here's some food for thought. The winner of the National Championships is from this area... at the regional champs that I won, he was 3rd. So I would have had it in me... hmmm... But then again it was held under rain apparently.

Still, it is great for our region to keep the National jersey local (a local guy had it last year as well), and it is good really that 1 person doesn't get both regional and national jerseys, otherwise one of them doesn't get worn for a whole season and that is sad.

On other news Mr. Shepherd our repeat offender on Bikestyle Tours has arrived in France a week before his trip. Talk about keen to get his butt over here. :-)
We'll be picking him up in only a few days now....

Well what can I say.... it is THAT time of year again. JULY, TOUR TIME. The sun is shining the Tour is on TV seemingly 24/7 and the days are a rush to get out on the bike early so as not to miss too much "Sitting on the couch with the Tour" time. It's a magical time of year.

Yesterday's prologue was GREAT, today's stage was just what we needed to get us back in the Tour swing.

So yesterday Steph came over for a ride. We had planned a 3+ hour ride, but a relative of his was in hospital so we cut it short. But it was a great ride none the less, sunflowers, sunshine and the usual great views this part of France has to offer.

No racing for me this weekend as it is touriste/Tour time with Bikestyletours.com. But I'm not on the Tour yet, so it was a nice relaxed morning. Breakfast and out on the bike for my first "real" ride in a week. A good 3+ hours around the Vaour, Bruniquel, Puycelci area which I love SOOOO much.

A great ride in the sun, came home through Gaillac to the smell of Bar B Qs and empty streets... there really is no misstaking lunch time in France.... everything closes and everyone goes to lunch.

I cam home to find Pat and Gaelle stripping wallpaper off the hall wall in front of the bathroom. Not sure what that's about. Time for something new I guess. So I got showered and went to the kitchen to get lunch ready to the sounds of the Tour on TV in the background. Then we all sat down and watched the Tour on TV with lunch, followed by coffee and chocolate. Good god it's a great life!!!!! Just make sure you never call me while the Tour is on.... Tour on TV is sacred time! :-)

Well they call for a couple days of rain... we'll see. Until next time....

a day on the road

A fairly busy couple days. Yesterday I spent the day in Toulouse getting bike racks and cell phone card for Bikestyle. Funny how some small things can take a whole day. I felt like I spent the whole day in the car on the road... But I did get to go out for a short ride in the evening with Bob down in Mazamet. So that was a relief.

Here are a couple pics from that ride. Mazamet has a some great riding!!!

Just outside of Mazamet is a nice gauge that you would never know was there.

Tour Time Trial preview... OUCH!

The last few days have been quite busy. I spent a couple days replacing my computer hard drives and reformatting computers. Computer things always take longer than you would think, and so I was up until about 2am for a couple nights running. Then just as I was doing that we lost internet here for a day or 2, which was a pain because I thought I had done something wrong with the computers and kept trying to fix it. It took me a little while to find out it was our ISP that had the problem, not me.

I have been taking it rather easy in terms of riding recently. Making sure I am fully recovered from a good batch of racing. That said you can't sit on your ass all day long. On Saturday we had a "dress rehearsal" of the Tour de France Albi Time Trial. A couple of us motorpaced over to Albi where the day really got going. Obviously I know the course and have already ridden it a few times in my life. But never have I ridden it in it's Tour de France format, and never in full flight on a TT bike. The course is hard. It was a really hot day, which it often is in Albi, so it could be like that come the day.

The 1st third of the course is a steady uphill drag which will sap your energy.

Steady uphill out of Albi

The 2nd third of the course is where things get interesting. You shoot down a fairly good descent, where there are a couple of corners the riders will really need to keep an eye on.

The long descent takes you into the town of Ambialet. As you exit Ambialet you ride the only 3km of flat of this 54km TT before shooting left and hitting a hard tree shaded climb.

The climb is fairly steep. In full TT flight the riders will be riding up it at about 30kph and it will only take about 6 mins, but it's a hard climb.

From the top of the climb it is all downhill on a wide open road. Not a descent but downhill. Here the riders will need to use some BIG gear and the speeds will be really fast and they head back into Albi for the stage finish. It ain't gonna be easy. VERY hard TT... this is one to watch on TV for sure!!!


That was a hard day, and just to make it a little bit harder I rode home, giving me over 4 hours of riding on the Time Trial bike. I was pretty tired that evening I will tell you.

So National Champs was yesterday. As some of you may know I was automatically selected for Nationals thanks to my regional championship win. But I didn't go for various reasons. And as most of you also probably know I am not a big fan of Christophe Morron's, so I wasn't overly happy to see him take the French National Champs. But whether I like him or not, he's had a very impressive month and is obviously in great form. Lets see what he can do at the Tour this year. He might be good for an solid overall performance. He won't win because in the past couple of years he's lost a lot of him TTing ability.... but he might dynamite that race somewhat.... great, so we'll have to listen to more of his terribly repetitive interviews. :-(

Until next time.... be well!

Build up to the Tour de France

As the Pro peleton gets ready for the Tour de France by racing National Champs, I'm getting ready for the Tour by lying in bed and drinking coffee. I've had a fairly good batch of racing recently, and I must admit I'm feeling really really worn out.

A few weeks ago I was very happy to ride off the front on the final climb to claim the Pyrenees Championships. After that I got wear my new jersey as Champion in a stage race near Lourdes. This was a pretty cool stage race with some mean stages. The Time Trial stage was rolling for the most part, but finished up the first KM of Hautacam. I was happy with 7th place in the TT stage. Another stage went up over the Col du Soulor and then finished up the climb to Cauteret. I was well placed up the Soulor in the 6 man lead group after bridging up to them about half way up the climb. Then I lost it on the very wet descent with dodgy crabon rim breaking and never got back on. I also cracked on the final climb to the finish in Cauteret. But I was still 11th overall so that wasn't too bad. As a recovery ride the day after the tour I rode up Hautacam to see what all the fuss was about. Hmm.... recovery hey?!?

Then last week I did a stage race near Bezier. On paper it wasn't a hard stage race and I had planned to focus on he the Time Trial stage and hoped to go for the King of the Moutains jersey. The TT stage I managed, but the Mountains jersey... well.. I never even saw it. The first stage was actually very hard. There was a small group off the front when I went off on a short steep climb in the final 6 or 7 km and took one other person with me. So I was 8th on that stage. The Time Trial stage went well as I rode to 3rd place on my beloved TT bike. The Mountain stage went a bit wrong and we really screwed it up as a team. Spend the day chasing. I eventually cracked on the last climb of the day. I just about managed to hang on and took the group sprint for the line. It was a long uphill drag to the finish. I don't actually know where I or we as a team finished on the final stage or in the overall. I'll post that when I find out. But overall it was a fairly good showing.

Yep, there are fat guys in France too...

So now I am trying to recover a little. Before the Tour near Bezier I was exhausted and spent the week feeling terrible. I did well in the Tour but I think the fatigue has accumulated and I want to make sure I am well rested for the Tour trip with Bikestyle. The trips are actually very demanding. The riding, although usually fairly slow, is long hours on the bike. The start times are early and the nights are usually late. OK fine, so they are late because you hang out at the Bar drinking beer with everyone... yeah yeah.. tough life. :-)

Weather has been shit here. So I'm going to wait for the sunny parts of the day and go for some medium length easy rides. Ohhh... time for more coffee.

Lonnnnggg time

Good lord. It's been over a year, and so much has happened since then. Well, on the request on Mr Sagan and Mr Sonnenburg, I've opened the blogger and am dusting off the screen.

Chances are that all the interesting things I could have to write about have actually already happenend this year and there won't be much more to write about.

Racing has been going rather well. I'm very happy with this year so far and I hope it keeps going this way. Even if things don't keep going I have already had a good year, so I have nothing to loose.

I've been really busy recently. The Tour de France is fast aproaching and I this year I am more involved than ever with Bikestyletours.com. So I'll be heading off in a little over a week for the Tour. That means no more racing for me for over a month. I'll do a lot of long miles but they will be pretty slow, so racing in August is going to be touch and go. We'll see what my fitness is like when it comes to it.

Well that'll do for today. I'll try and update this daily... hmmm.. yeah right, lets say every 2 or 3 days then.

I might be doing a Bikestyletours blog durring the tour, so watch this space to find out more about that. Don't watch this space too much though because you might find yourself watching it for a whole year with nothing changing. I am SUCH a slacker.

Just in case anyone actually reads this. Hi to Mitch you was a regular (rather THE regular), and also hi to Craig who will be giving me shit for a month durring our Tour trip. For those of you who don't know Craig, he is a regular on the Bikestyle Tour trips and is coming back this year for his 3rd or 4th trip. I can't keep count. Every year I rip the piss out of him more and more, and yet he keeps coming back. It's a bit like a science experiment... see how far you can go before something cracks. ;-)

Craig has been going on and on and on at me asking for race reports... well, here you go Craig, I'm still holding out on you on the race reports, but in the mean time you can read race reports from year gone by when I did nothing, won nothing and pretty much sucked all year long.

And as I know most people like photos on these sorts of things... here's a pic for pic's sake.

In fact if you can guess what it is a picture of and where it was taken, there just might be an autographed peice of scrap paper for the lucky winner.. so get your answer in quick. Not sure who it will be autogaphed by yet.. that you'll just have to hope you win to find out. :-)

Actually that's not a bad idea. Maybe I'll do some kind of game like this durring the Tour. Win a Bikestyle had if you can guess what the picture is.. hmm....

Selling the Ferrus

Hi everyone,

It's only a little over a week until I fly back home, and I thought that if I can sell my bike before leaving it might make my travels easier. The bike is a 2007 Ferrus, and I got it in early June 2007.

Ferrus is a small French company named after a town in the south of France called Castelferrus. (details below)

So if anyone is interested , shoot me an e-mail or give me a call.

Bike: Ferrus Aluminium with Carbon Chain stays and Seat stays.
Size: 56cm center to top (51cm C-C)
TopTube:56cm
Fork: Ferrus Carbon with Aluminium steerer tube.
Stem: Deda Zero 100 (polished)
Bar: Deda Newton (polished)
Seat Post: Syncros
Seat: San Marco Concor Ti.
Groupset: Full 10 speed Ultegra equipped, with Dura Ace shifters.
Front wheel: Fulcrum Racing 3
Rear wheel: Mavic Aksium Race
Weight: between 8 and 9kg (can't quite remember sorry)