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.

Spain Training camp

Well I'm back from a week of training camp in Spain.

It was a really good week, even though I was sick the whole time, lost my voice and felt pretty crappy.

Apparently the rain in Spain doesn't mainly fall on the plane... it also falls on the coast! A week of very slow miles in the rain with a few nicer days here and there won't have helped my cold, but at least it was good fun and I met some great people. And of course there were a few beers to go with the endless miles logged on the bike.

No Shepherd, I am NOT lost. We are looking at the map BEFORE the ride has started!

Our resort/hotel for a week, with endless all-you-can-eat food, great views and great roads to ride on. Life could be worse!

Racin'n'Snowin!

Shhhhtttt. I'm not supposed to be wearing that blue clothing, it's not my team kit, but it was so cold I went back to the car before the start and put on all the clothing I had. Keep in quiet though! ;)

(Click on pics for larger image)

Sunday's race: Had 4 hours sleep night before as I awoke in the night and couldn't get back to sleep because of my cold. On the start line it was 4 degrees (I went back and piled on all the clothes I had... not many.) shortly after the start it hailed... it hailed twice during the race, SNOWED 3 times, rained... was very very windy... basically... it was all a bit Belgian with a sadistic twist. The roads were small, covered in mud, some weren't even fully paved, we ended the race looking like we had ridden a wet and muddy Tour of Flanders (which was on today BTW).

A group went off the front and after a while I dragged a few other guys up to it. It seemed to take ages to bridge up there. Then by the half-way point in the race I got dropped from the 10-12 man break. I got dropped ON A CLIMB would you believe!!! Shocking!!!

Sim got dropped from the break on a climb

But there you go, I wasn't feeling too hot, my legs didn't seem to move, and as everyone knows, I hate the cold weather with a vengeance! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. So I was back in the chase group. :-(

Bridging back up to the front of the race on wet and dangerous corners through town and through noramally beautiful vinyards

As things progressed and we got nearer the end of the race I somehow got myself away from the chase group and back up to the sharp end of the race, which was now the small remnants of the break, and, with 2 k to go I was chasing alone trying to catch 2 guys in front of me (1 guy was off the front solo for the win). I caught the 2 guys ahead of me right on the line, but there were too many spectators not behind the barriers and I couldn't pass. I wanted to pass them on the right, but it was blocked, the left was blocked, I even tried to go through the middle of the 2 riders but by then we were on the line. So I got 6th.

Blocked at the finish

Not bad really, especially as that kind of weather REALLY doesn't suit me, it's early in the season, I'm sick and I'm not even properly race fit yet.

Apart from the horrific weather, the race did yield some stunning views of the Sancerrois vineyards and hills.

It's off to (hopefully) sunny Spain next week for a week long training camp. Anything beats the snow of northern France!

Freezin' Racin' Belgium Style

There's nothing like coming back from "hot'n'heavy" Aus to race in the freezing rain and horrific winds.

Sunday's race was something else. It remained dry until we got on the start line. A couple drops came down during the Neutral zone and by about 30k into the race, it was raining hard and freezing cold.
I felt surprisingly "easy" for a race of this size, at this time of the year and considering my fitness and lack of racing. In the end however the rain and cold got the better of me! I had a really bad head-ach from the cold, and I couldn't feel my hands, my arms, or my toes... my teeth were chattering at over 160beats per minute. Believe it or not it took me 2 hours after the race to feel my heals again. Yep, my HEELS. I was so cold my bones were hurting. Strange!
Anyway, my teammate Guillaume Soula won the race, I finished just outside the National Ranking Points in 21st spot, but still in the money. Over 100 riders started (not many probably due to the rain), and only 30 or so finished. The race was dealt with from the back... as people got shelled they where eaten away by the cold and miserable conditions... a typical Belgian style race of attrition (only with hills). Only 3 of us from the team finished. So I wasn't too disappointed with my first real race of the season; especially considering I thought I'd get shelled from the early season races and my aim was just to see if I could finish.

"Gigi" takes out his first race of the season...

Apart from that I've been getting in some good rides overall. For some reason I've been creeping on the bike though, I feel like I'm hardly moving in training. Might be my body still trying to get used to temperatures, or maybe I've got something of a cold... not sure, but that's cycling I guess. I may go down to Spain for a little training camp around mid April, we'll see.

Sunday is RaceDay

I'm not sure how, but I got in my minimum amount of miles for the week, despite the cold and wet.

While out on a ride Thursday, I came across this gem of a photo. It's actually not an uncommon sight in France. We generally drive a fair bit faster than the US and AUS, and I guess the roads are smaller... The funny thing is, French drivers are really good when it comes to sharing the road with cyclists. Cyclists have been on the roads over here for as long as cars have excited... and yet, there's something about this picture that makes you wonder.


Sunday = Race day.
Well here it is. Sunday is my first race of the season. They are calling for pretty bad weather on sunday, so it will be interesting to say the least. I have pretty high ambitions for this event. My aim is to finish. ;-) Probably a harder task than it sounds. That will be my fairly uneventful aim for most of the early season events, until I get fitter and the sun starts coming out.
The rest of the team however will have a pretty good change at pulling off a result. A few of the guys are going really well in this early season. Hopefully they'll get in the break early and the rest of us can sit around and follow wheels. Of course "following wheels" sounds easier than it actually is...

In the meantime, Darren Lill will be doing the Criterium International. A race he could probably do something in if it weren't absolutely freezing and pissing with rain up there at the moment. Not the South African's favourite weather. When I say do "something" in, I mean got for the most aggressive rider, or go on a long break that might get him the Mountains (hills really) jersey. The Criterium International is too flat to really suit his abilities.

Sunday is also the Mooloolaba Triathlon, which I would have liked to be able to watch from the coffee shop, or do the bike leg of. Good luck to Craig who's doing the big leg as part of a team entry in the Tri.

The Mooloolaba Triathlon, it could be held it a worse setting!

Sunday is also the MTB Graulhet round of the Midi Pyrenees MTB series which my mate Alphonce is in. With any luck we'll be able to hook up for a drink after the event (if I get back from my race in time).

Well, the sun is out (but it's still COLD) and I'd better go clean my bike.

Castelsarrasin Olympic Bid???

Speaking of races, Sunday my team mate Scott Lyttle won a round of the French Cup (Coupe de France) which is a huge result for the Kiwi.

On even Bigger news however, Scotty Lyttle has been shortlisted for the Olympics. HUGE! It's a long road to Pekin, but Jesus I hope he can do it!

110k round the basement.

The cold, rain and snow has forced me down into the basement for my training. A few years ago back in the US I came out of a winter training in the basement and had a phenomenal season on the Mountain Bike. Oddly enough, that was the same year Tim Johnson emerged from his basement to grab a bronze medal at the U23 Cyclocross World Championships... This is the thought I kept at the forefront of my mind as I clocked up 110k sitting in the basement.
Tomorrow I will most likely have to do the same thing, as they are calling for yet more rain and cold. The forecast for this weekend and thus for this weekend's race is looking pretty good however.

Chill

Similarly to the cold bottles of Chill beer that filled Shep's fridge, the Chill here is just as cold, just as wet, but nowhere near as refreshing.

Today is supposed to be my first race, but I'm debating "weather" to go or not. The temperatures are WAY below normal for this time of year, and they are calling for snow today. The race is slightly further south in the general direction of the Pyrenees... so snow is more likely down that way. I feel like a massive slacker if I don't go though.

Winter Lingers

(click on pic for larger image)

If only someone in Australia had bought my Ferrus bike, I might have enough money to fly back over for a few more weeks and avoid this cold spell. Actually, someone yesterday said: "You could have extended your stay, just changed your ticket to come back a couple weeks later." I could have killed them! Why didn't I think of that???? Of course Shep would have probably had a heart-attack at the idea, having put up with me for 4 months, I think 1 or 2 more weeks would have been the straw that broke his back.

I've got in a couple rides, but nothing major, the motivation to go out there and pound out some solid training miles has dropped as quickly as the mercury in the thermometer. Instead I have resorted to drinking coffee and eating chocolatines (French breakfast pastry).

I still don't have my car. It is down at Lawrie Cranley's in his garage in Mazamet. I should go and get my beloved red rust-bucket today. Jump leads will be the order of the day as it will take a good hour I reckon to get the old beater going.

Ohhh, coffee calls!

Sim's Fashion tips

"This weeeeeek,..... Ayyy'Avvvv been mostly wearinnnn'........ "
For those of you who don't know The Fast Show, this will be meaningless. But never mind, here are the latest fashion tips from the heart of Europe's Fashion Hotbed...


Multi-Cultural-Wear is all the rage these days. Notice the Peasant's French beret combined with the Tourist Aussie sweat-shirt. Cheap and nasty synthetic French cycling team tracksuit bottoms are in big time for 2008, and the combining of them with cheap and nasty yet eye catching bright blue crocks has had heads turning from New York to Milan. A name has not yet been given to this new 2008 fashion favorite, but designers world wide are sifting through endless suggestions. Designers favorites thus far include: Dork, Idiot, Muppet, "No-Style" and, So You Think You Can Dress-yourself Australia.

Can you pull this off? Because I sure as hell can't, (much to Georgio Armani's relief!)

A cold welcome

After 30 hours flying and a little difficulty to tear myself away from the warmth of the weather and the people on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, I am back on home soil. I must say there are some people I will really miss over there. Being home is quite nice, but it’s also very strange. It doesn’t feel like I ever left, and I almost wonder if I really did spend 4 months in Australia? Seeing the high, snow covered Pyrenees from the plane as we approached Toulouse was quite exciting. Eating chocolatines and having a baguette was very exciting.

Quite a rude awakening being home. It’s sunny and blue skies, but it’s rather cold for my liking. The first thing I did getting off the plane, was go for a nice 2+ hour ride. It was odd being back on home roads, and everything fell right back into place; navigating the area was easy, the roads were good and the drivers pleasant… and above all, I had the freedom of not slapping a helmet on my head.

Before and After

Before the flight: hot and sweaty with big red thing on head. After the Flight: cold and cold with hat on head.

I saw a few holes in the road, but was relieved not hear the panic stricken scream of “HOOOOOOLLLLE!”, however I was saddened not to hear to chit-chat and banter of people like Evan, Tahlia, “Coffee Luke”, and the infamous story king “Astana Dave” Keevers.

Once again I want to thank Craig “The Stig” Shepherd for his infinite kindness, hospitality and banter/piss taking. How long will it be before Shep is out on the bike again, maybe even wearing a yellow and red jersey, will depend on how many beers are left in the fridge.

Thanks also to “TdF Wendy” (Wendy rode the Women’s Tour de France a few year ago; Respect!) for driving me up to the race the Sunday before I left.

I know what we should do.. have a “training camp” with all the usual Sunshine Coast suspects over here for some riding, mountain climbing (sorry Evan) and pastry eating fun. How about it?

SingaBored

Well, I'm sitting in Singapore airport... bored out of my brain.... going to miss the coffee club and good company tomorrow morning... oh, a plane, oh... another one.. hmmm

Snaking through Australia

Over the past couple weeks of riding around I seem to have come across a fair few snakes. Being a total tourist I can't resist stopping, getting as close as I can without soiling myself, and taking pictures. Sadly I haven't been able to get pics of a lot of the snakes, either because there are too many cars for me to stop, or because I'm just too tired on the bike, or because my photo-subject is a little too feisty and scary for me to get close enough for a pic on my tiny little cell-phone camera. Craig (AKA Stig) keeps taking the piss out of me for stopping to take pictures of "road-kill" as he puts it (even when they are alive), but what does he know, he takes pics of graveyards and buildings when he's in France... Tourists.

This bright green/yellow blighter was pretty much on the front doorstep

Stripyus Snakeus

Biggus Buggery

I've been getting a fair few miles in. Although they called for yet more rain, this week has actually been quite nice. I'm still not in race shape, but after a few races of sitting in and getting in the rhythm for training, I should hopefully be fit for May... hmmm.. famous last words. Time will tell.

I can't believe it is less than a week before I leave now. I've really had a great time and I'm going to miss a lot of people here. I am thus going to make the most of my final few days here and spend all day sitting at the cafe with whoever is stupid enough to want to sit there with me.

I'm really looking forward to that 30 hour flight. :-(