Warrenton Cycling Center Antics

Pro riders usually have their name somewhere on their frame... but the gang at the cycling center took it one step further. You know you are special when you find this on your bike. The bastards where nice enough to stick this on my bike the other day. It took me a while before I noticed it. I'll get them back.

The Evil duo mastermind culprits.

It's a laugh a minute at the Cycling Center... The Gang (Radio and TV presenter Chuck Williams, Store manager Rick Paulson, and "Jock Strap" Todd Fetters) get down and boogie!

Apart from that. I had been getting in some really nice rides around the stunning state of Virginia, but a recent cold (Extremely cold) spell has pushed me inside by the heater... with a beer and the freaky shop company for entertainment. Oh well, only a couple weeks until the heat and sunburn of Australia!

Trouble in USA

It's been almost a month now since I landed in "Election land" and caught up with all my old friends in Warrenton. Things got off to a good start with nice weather and great rides, however things took a turn for the worse as I ran into a little trouble with the law. Evidently I was speeding going through town... on my bike! Yep, speed limits are really low in the US, only 40kph in town, go down a hill and you quickly break the speed limit. Anyway, the police caught up with me later in the day at the bike shop in town where I was hanging out.

Just a precaution sir, there's nothing to worry about... Do you currently have any weapons or needles on your person sir?

I argued that I didn't have a speedometer on my bike and had no idea how fast I was going, but the Officer wouldn't have it, even showing me the video with the speed display proving I was over the speed limit. Oh well... :-(

Sir, I have video of you breaking the speed limit right here...

Apart from that all is going well. I've been enjoying frequent rides with the locals, and although I've been fighting half of them as (much like the Aussies) they have a tendency to want to ride way too fast for my liking at this time of year, it's been fantastic to catch up with old riding buddies and local legends. Riding with an old Team mate from France and giving Chris (I won both your stupid blog competitions Sim) Hayes has also been great. Only down side of being over here (apart from the drivers who don't know how to drive) is the diet.

The weather still pretty good here, there was a clod spell of a little over a week, but I'm back to wearing a T-shirt again now, so that's good... and of course next on the books is the sunny, golden Aussie wonderland! Look out Shep, here comes the invasion again!

Season Ended

Well there we are, that's it, the season has officially ended. Yesterday was my last race, the TT champs. Sadly for us Air Cameroon went bust (again) and we weren't able to go to the Tour of Cameroon again this year, so the season wound down at yesterday's TT champs. Except for a couple of our guys who are heading off to the Tour du Burkina Faso with a "selection" team.

Having done nothing but boring crits since the Journalist World Champs I was really looking forward to this TT. Sadly I have been sick all week, so that put a bit of a dampener on things.

However come the day I felt fairly good, and even though my HeartRate was sky high and through the roof (I assume because of my being sick) I enjoyed myself and finished a respectable (though far from exceptional) 6th.

And that's it! Iin 2 day's time I'll be landing in good old Virginia USA. As we ride off into the distance and sunset, we look towards next year and what the future holds... with more "big" names is cycling to be announced as "positive" over the next few days, I'm still convinced I can call myself a "cyclist". There's not many of us around...

Journalist World Champs (5th and 7th)

Friday: Time Trial World Champs...

Dropped Chain with 2k to go(had to stop, get off bike etc), having past my 2min man at half distance. Broken seat that happend just after the start, I thought I'd crasked the frame or done something to the disc wheel... UGH. 7th! V dissapointed needless to say!

Saturday Road Race.

Horrificaly cold, wet, misty day, couldn't feel my hands... small group of 8 or so came to the line. Sadly it was doomed to finish in a sprint, so I was 5th... even more dissapointed this time as I think the win is well within my abilities...

I attacked a few times, partly to try and get away, but also to try and get warm. It was a very negative road race. But hey, C'est la vie.

Cameroon TV fame?!??!?!!

Don't ask me how I found this, but it's quite funny. I guess this person singing is something of a celebrity in Cameroon. Anyway, you see a bit of Castelsarrasin jersey right at the start, then if you have the patients to listen the rather repetitive music for a while, you eventually see a bit of coverage from last year's Tour of Cameroon... the quality is pretty poor, but a very keen eye can spot some Castelsarrasin riders and an even keener eye might even be able to spot me for a billionth of a second...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VhqPrqByJ9w

Obelix in Wales

Sim Green dons the Pez Cycling (AKA Obelix) kit and hits the roads of hilly Wales. Probably not the best world cycling destination, Wales has plenty of quiet roads, stunning views and fantastic colours to offer cyclists.

Land of the wet yet beautiful
I started racing bikes as a Junior in the UK. The UK is where I first turned a crank in anger as a young mountain-biker. Having raced in Europe the US and the UK, I still maintain, believe it or not, that the UK has the best Mountain Biking I’ve ever come across… or maybe Santa Rosa… Anyway, there’s GREAT MTBing in the UK, no doubt about it! However, I have avoided the “land of the wet and miserable” as I call it, like the plague over the last 7 or so years. I have memories of training in the UK in August in tights and thick winter jackets. So when I recently found out I was going to be spending 10 days in Wales at the end of August, I wasn’t exactly jumping out of my skinsuit to go.

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday rain…
Despite my “glass half empty” attitude, it wasn’t long before I was forced to turn the glass upside-down and take on a “glass half full” view of things. On my first day in Wales, I put on my leg warmers, my long sleeved jersey and my winter hat and headed out the door to ride on the wrong side of the road with a slight grimace aimed at the low lying clouds. Within 40mins of riding however, I was forced to smile. I struggled up a stupidly steep narrow British country lane to find myself in front of a stunning Welsh Vista. As the clouds clung to the hills in the distance, a lonely Red British phone box overlooked an otherwise deserted pond. What the phone box was doing out in the middle of nowhere I still haven’t quite figured out. But needless to say, that from this moment on, despite the chilly weather, I was keen to discover what else Wales had to offer to cyclists.

Roads
Although the UK is hugely overpopulated, vast expanses of the countryside are still untouched and left to lye in stunning natural beauty, only to be disturbed by the odd sheep munching away at the emerald green grass, of the sound of a freewheel zipping past. A portion of my 10 day visit took me up to the coastline of North Wales and around the area of Snowdonia. Although British roads are heavily used, there is a plethora of quiet side roads at your disposal. And even when you are forced to ride on the busier roads, the British, in their typically hesitant and gentlemanly mannered ways, are courteous and respectful of bike riders (who wouldn’t be after the recent performance of the Brits in Beijing?)

Mountains or Hills?
Although the UK doesn’t have any proper mountains, there are plenty of short, very steep hills to kick you when you are down. A sign post during an afternoon ride announcing 25% seems to be engrained in my mind. Coastlines often offer stunning views, and Wales is no exception. There is plenty upon which to feast your sun-starved eyes as you meander along rolling country lanes. Winding my way through the slightly busier roads of Snowdonia, I couldn’t help but think of what a great place it would be to hold a big international stage race. Lots of nice long climbs, great views, and the whole lot steeped in the history and local flavor of quaint old mining villages.

When to go?
The UK might not be the first place you think of when planning a cycling holiday, but it’s well worth a visit. When is the best time of year to go? Well, it’s up to you, you can either go in winter, when it’s wet and cold, or in the summer, when it’s… wet and cold. You must go prepared. It WILL rain, and it WILL be a little chilly, but take a few worm riding clothes and soak up the… atmosphere. Even as I returned to my sun-melted 35 degree roads of southern France, I must admit, my trip to Wales was well worth it, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go again. Maybe see you there next time.

Wales

Friday 15th: Grand Prix Castelsagrat

I was in the right move, in the break all day, I formed the 13 man break, but was lacking punch when the going got tough. I could hold on and follow fine, but the intermediate sprints and attacks are where I felt my lack of form.


In the end I watched 4 riders ride away with 10k to go and couldn't jump with them... then I tried but couldn't jump on the last hill coming up to the finish.

What's going on back there? Have I done any damage yet?

In the end I was 8th and very dissapointed. Actually that's pretty good for someone who hasn't raced in over a month and a half... but it was frustrating not having any kick at all.... it'll come back with a bit of racing and training

Col de Latrape - Cirque de Cagateille Pyrenees Race.

A Race in the pyrenees taking us up the Col de Latrape and onto the Cirque de Cagateille where the finish line sat atop this little known Pyrenean mountain.

I wasn't feeling great going into this race, but seeing as I won it last year, I kept a little hope in the back of my mind that I might be able to pull something off. Sadly that wasn't to be the case. I decided the guy to watch was probably the guy emblazoned in Credit Agricole National Champion colors, and a guy in a decidedly Aussie looking jersey from Marseille who was second to me last year, and won the overall Pyrenean Hill Climb series (I wasn't able to do the last round as I was at the Tour of Cameroon).

Sadly things didn't go quite as planned and no one really wanted to work. We watched a group of 3 ride up the road and they held it all the way to the line.

Work damn you!!!

As soon as we hit the final climb on our way to the mountain top finish, I could feel I didn't have my climbing legs of last season. The Credit Agricole guy attacked, looked behind him for a second, which is when I countered him. In the end I finish 5th, feeling like crap. I was pretty disappointed overall. Although 5th really isn't bad after about a month and a half without racing, I think it was the way I felt on the climbs that disappointed me. Oh well, there you go.

I then spend a few days in the Pyrenees riding but never felt very good. I just hope I find some form again soon!
Maybe all that slow Bikestyle riding during the Tour wasn't the best way to spend July. ;-)

Shep-A-Horror competition winner announced!

Much MUCH later that advertised, the Shep Face-a-Horror competition is closed. It has taken us a very long time to decide on he winner due to the amount of bribes received. A bidding war ensued and we can now finally announce the winner. The winner is:
Later entrant but always a crowd favorite: CHRIS HAYES.

It was very close between 3 times New Zealand National Time Trial Champion Evan Pilkinton and "I beat Tyler Hamilton in a Stage Race/Used to race and training with Armstrong/Chann McRae ain't got nothing next to me yo" Chris "BAMF" Hayes. But sadly, Hayes has a better job and could bribe us a lot more than youngster Evan Pilkington.

Well there you have it. A Pez-Cyclingnews hat will be coming your Chris... in fact it will most likely be hand delivered to your front door in the coming months!

BEER?

Ahhhh the Tour de France....

Beer anyone?

SHEP FACE'O HORROR COMPETITION

This just in, hot off the press. New COMPETITION announced!!!

Craig "Shep" Shepherd, Wannabe Tri-fagElite and accountant extraordinaire tried his hand at bike racing last night. "The Stig" jumped in the deep end (of the washing machine) and entered a Crit. And look at that, like every good employee he's wearing his Bikestyle clothing, what a Pro he is.


The competition is this:
Looking at Craig's face during this crit, is he:

a) having so much fun he's laughing like a 12 year old school girl.

b) crapping himself because he's overshot the corner and is about to hit that curb right under his nose

c) in so much pain that his face is distorted almost as much as it will be when he joins me for a week of riding my local hills full gas at the end of this month.

Post your answers in the Comments section. Only 1 answer per entrant. (Craig Shepherd is not permitted to enter!)

The Competition will end on June 16th, and the lucky winner will get a Pezcyclingnews cycling hat, second place will get a post-card, and third place will get a kick in the teeth.

In the even of more than one entrant... I mean more than one correct answer, we will draw the winner out of a hat, and the person with the correct answer who has paid me the most will be declared the winner.

Thank you for entering.
;-)

POWER-Tap!!!

Oh Yeah baby! There it is! The new Beast, the "Work of Art that Works" to use Maglite's rather appropriate slogan.

In the words of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin "Sheeey's a Beauuuutry, Mayyyte!"

I got my grubby little hands on this Friday afternoon... within hours it was built up and on the bike for a quick pre-race 50k spin... by Saturday it had been given a true and thorough test at the International 58th Boucles Du Tarn... a very stiff and trustworthy wheel that gave me all the data I needed I pull off my best result in my Favorite race of all time... Well... I'm being a bit geeky now. Not that my eyes were fixed to the unit the whole time, but it was nice to be able to pace myself a little better on the climbs... for a nice little Normalized average wattage of 298W over a mere 3.5 hours. What wasn't nice was watching the wattage shoot up to over 1200W every 30 to 40 seconds during the first 45minutes or so of the race... the first hour was at 47kph average... hmmm... didn't feel that bad. ;-)

I'm excited... THANK YOU POWER-TAP!

(Thank you also to French divition of Power-Tap MatSport for a great and friendly serice!)

Can you hear that??? I think it's coming from the grape vine...

My home is surrounded by vineyards. It's not only a grate place to live, but a grape place... oups, sorry, a great place to ride. Whether out on a short local recovery ride, or on the way back from a long grueling training session, no matter which way you come home, you cannot avoid riding through lush and carefully manicured vineyards.

The Gaillac wine region isn't France's most well known, but that is because they stick to very small, traditional, homegrown wine making methods, and the Cave de Tescou boasts some tasty little nummers... or should I say numbers, depends how many you've had I guess.

Now let me tell you (MR CRAIG SHEPHERD)... there are NO screw-top bottles of wine around these parts. Each parcel of land is different, and each wine has it's terroire, non of your mass produced, every bottle tastes the same wine here. I know I might be banging on about this a bit, but everyone knows I wine a lot.

Shhhhhhhtttt.... can you hear that? Listen!!! Hear it?...

Tour de L'Ariege (Pyrenees)

OUCH! 3 stages, Big mountain passes and nothing but rain and crashes. Hmmm.... Still a fantastic race!!! How often is it that you get to race over the huge mountain passes of the Pyrenees?

Stage 1: last minute pannick

It rained the whole time. I was planning to go for the King of the Mountains in this Tour, and try for a top 10 overall. But from stage 1 I could tell I wasn’t feeling great. I made it over the first climb of the race in 3rd spot, and got myself a few Mountains points, but that would be it sadly. The stage actually finished in a crazy uphill mass(ish)-sprint on soaking wet cobbles in a twisty little Pyrenean town. A Police motorbike in the final 1km blocked us, and my teammate Hugo and I had to stop, unclip, get around him and sprint like mad so as not to loose any time for the overall. Our team walked away with the green jersey at the end of the day, and the rest of us all in the peloton, safe and sound... well, except for a few scrapes and bruises.

(Eric got the Gree Jersey on Stage 1)

Stage 2: Sill in with a chance


Stage 2 would be surprisingly similar to stage 1. I felt as if I had dead legs and just wasn’t performing right. One of our guys crashed, another got a flat and 3 of our boys went back to help him and were forced to chase for most of the race in the team cars. It once again all finished in a very surprising uphill mass sprint. Two of us from the team finished in the Peloton and were therefore still well poised for the overall classification. However some rider were already 20minutes down overall. So although a sprint finish, the Pyrenees roads of the Ariege were starting to take their toll.
Stage 3: the BIG mountains

Still a little snow up at altitude...

The big one. 4 mountains on the day, 2 mountains of well over 1000meters, the final 2 climbs coming in the last 30km of the race, and the finish up the top of the Mont d’Olmes ski station at 1700meters. Things didn’t go quite to plan once again, and I was the only one from the team vaguly able to follow the pace over the climbs. As I crested the second to last climb alone just outside the top 20 and shot down the wet descent I was reminded of the dangers of cycling. There were riders all over the road, some standing by cars their bikes over the other side of the road. Some climbing back over the edge of the road to the bikes that lay under barriers at the side of the road… it was carnage. Speaking of carnage, we then hit the final climb. 17km of climbing through the clouds and in the rain to the finish were snow still sat at the side of roads. I really wasn’t feeling right, and my team car could see it as clear as day. They kept coming up along side me and encouraging me, reminding me that this sort of terrain is what I’m made for, but for some reason I just couldn’t get my heartrate up.

National Champion and King of the Mountains jersey winner Glacial (FRA, Tarbes) rolled in over 20minutes back on the last stage.

At the end of the day I finished 19th on the stage and 18th over, we came away from the race soaking wet, with 3 inured riders from crashes, 2 abandons, one cracked collar bone and a lot of doubts in our minds.

That was pretty much the last time I got to wear my Pyrenees Champion Jersey, as the Championships are on June 8th. Everyone will be trying to take the jersey off my back, even my own bloody teamates... Bastard. :)

Darren Lill wins in Mt Hood

Great News over my morning coffee! My "home boy", South African Darren Lill (BMC racing) won today's stage in the Mount Hood stage race in the US, narrowly beating Australia's Rory Sutherland to the line. Darren pulled off a great "coup double" by winning the stage and taking over the yellow jersey. He's only leading Sutherland by 1 second, however today (friday)'s stage is a hilly mountain stage. Darren won this stage of the race last year, and his chances of keeping, or even increasing his grip on the overall lead of race are therefore much strong (what with him being a climber and all). I also came across this TV interview with Darren from the great people at the Velonews.com web-site. Here Darren is being interviewed after a long day in the breakaway of a stage of the 2007 Tour of Missouri.

http://www.velonews.com/vntv/?Art_ID=1613

Good luck to Darren for the rest of Mt Hood!

Darren's secret to success? Loads of home made Jam from my very own plumb tree in the back garden. Shhhtttt, keep it to yourselves! The UCI doesn't test for Jam (yet). :-)

Tight legs in Chateaux de la Loire

A busy couple days up here in Central France. Sunday's race was a big disappointment for me with my crank coming loose at the half way point and forcing a much hated DNF. Despite the DNF my legs felt pretty shot that evening, but hoping to ride into form for the next 2 weekends I headed out Monday morning and got in a nice 3+ hours for bit over a 100km, going West to the Chateaux de la Loire part of France, and going past the stunning Chateau Chenonceau. I did the same thing Tuesday morning as well. Wednesday I had a much needed 2 hours massage. It's been a while since I've had a massage and due to a broken leg when I was younger and a crash in the US in 2004 that displaced my pelvis and saw me visiting my Osteopath regularly for about 2 years, I have very very tight ITBs on both legs. It usually takes about 2 or 3 weeks on very regular massage to loosen them up, so hopefully I can get that taken care of this year.

I have FINALLY started doing short intervals. The time of year has come where there are a few short circuit races which mean lots of accelerations, and some hilly stage races where I'll need good accelerations to follow attacks or go for the King of the Mountains jersey, so I've been going out and doing very short rides but with regular 30second all out sprints. It's a bit late actually to be starting those now, but better late than never.

A Week dissapointment.

Well that was a waste of time. Wasn't feeling great but was doing ok, always at the front and off in the breaks that mattered. And that in a CRIT would you believe. The kind of thing I suck at because of all the repeat accelerations. I probably would have done ok and scored a couple points at least, but my bloody crank came loose of all things. A bit odd, but there you go, so I was out of the race at the half way point. Oh well, that's the way it is.

Add that to last weekend's stage race which started with a poor Time Trial where I finished 17th but still within 30seconds of the winner, followed by a road race that saw me and my young teammate Hugo get away in a chase group trying to bridge across to the 7 mean break... we worked bloody hard for some 60 odd km, we had 42seconds ont he peleton with 6 or 7k to go, which had been a pretty stable gap all day. And the course was really hard. Then with 2k to go we could see the peloton behind us and they caught us with 1km to go. What a dissapointment and waste of a day's very hard work. Hugo, who was in line for the White jersey of best young rider thanks to our chase group, ended up missing on that jersey, and I missed out on sneeking into the top 10 overall.

Team Time Trial Champs Silver

Last weekend went ok, and I felt really strong, went off and tried to bridge up but "only" got 9th. Then yesterday (Thursday) was the Pyrenees Team Time Trial Champs, we hadn't ridden a TTT together with these 4 riders in the past, so it was a bit touch and go. But with a couple of more experienced TTT riders we put in a good effort, got the Silver medal and might have clinched our selection for National TTT champs, and possibly even Road and ITT champs. So watch this space, we/I might be headed over to this year's Alpine (I think) National Champs.

What a bunch...

Right, only a day before a Stage race near home, then off north for a couple races... I hope I start feeling better as I didn't feel great at the TTT and haven't felt great all week.