Well it has been a wee while since I last filed a posting…….not such a good idea cause now I’ve got to remember what I’ve been up to. I attempted to race in two kermises which was rather a shock to the system, I managed to finish them, but going full out for 120km was different to what I was used to.

Once the kermises were out of the road, I headed to the Ardennes to get in some climbing before a three day tour which was in the same area. It was the first time I had headed across to the Ardennes and I stayed with another New Zealander for a few days. The roads are so different compared to Flanders. No concrete slabs and you're not passing through a village every 2km. The climbs are not too bad either. The longest climb I rode was a bit over 20mins, which is not bad for Belg. I also rode cole la redoute a few times which is ridden in Liège – Bastogne – Liège. After I spent four days in the Ardennes I returned back to Roeselare for a few days of recovery before heading back down for the race Triptique Ardennes. The race kicked off on the Friday with a road stage, then one stage on Saturday, and a split day on Sunday with a time trial in the morning. Every road stage had at least 10 climbs in it and most of the climbs had hill points up for grabs. This made some of the climbs a tad faster then normal. The first day was all go from the start with the stage kicking into a climb after 3 or so kilometers. After that climb I never saw the front again until I found out that the team had no riders in the front break so we rode hard for 5km and the 1:30min gap was closed. Everybody from the team made it to the finish in the front group and we tried to get a lead out going but it came to nothing. The second stage was only 120km but extremely hard and no matter where you rode in the peleton it was just as tuff. I was struck with some unfortunate luck and punctured at the bottom of a 15% climb. Once I got a the wheel I continued on my way but only to realize I was dead last on the road and the peleton had split up into zillions of groups. I managed to ride up through the groups to the third group over the following 30km and finished with a few of my teammates. While I had been riding back up to the third group my team mate was on the attack and finished solo to put him into the lead by 50sec. Sunday started with an early awakening as we had to make it to the start of the time trial for a 9 o’clock start. The course was rather miserable with a 2km climb after 500 meters. The guys in the team went well with four in the top ten. In the afternoon I was on tempo duty which was a hoot. I rode the front for 70 or so kilometers until we got the break back to a 10sec gap on this dirty wee hill then I got piped. It was only 40km to the finish and there were plenty of guys to sit on to the finish. Well that is what I thought...Even though the group was well behind the leaders for some reason they thought that they would be able to ride back across and the little buggers were putting in some attacks up the climbs. This didn’t sit too well with me so a few riders copped an ear-full then I just sat up and rode to the finish line. I strolled in 10mins down but my team mates had won everything, the director was happy and so was the team. After I got back to from the race I had a mate from school come over for a few days and we kicked round Roeselare. I wasted some days of training so I've decide to have my mid season break now and I’ll get back on my bike next week and start to build towards the second half of the season. Hopefully some magic results will follow. The pictures are of a ride I did in the Ardennes which passed some of the old Second World War sites and I kept seeing these yellow flowers and wasn't too sure what they are and I still don’t know what they are but I look mint in them….

Tour de Bretagne another seven day tour. It started on the Friday and finished on the Thursday and I was glad that it did. The first two stages were rather enjoyable, apart from being on the rivet a few times. It was nice and sunny and they finished in bunch sprints. The next five days were quite difficult. Every stage finished with local laps around the finishing town so the local French cycling enthusiast could come out and clap on the riders as they passed by in the normally wet conditions. 

As the race developed and days went by, a long break was eventually going to happen and on the fourth day it happened. Myself and my teammate made the group and the break took 26 minutes and that was the start of the general classification getting sorted out. The top 30 riders were all within 30 seconds of each other and the following day Benoît Poilvet managed to ride to the finish line solo and get 1:20 minute up on the other riders. With everybody still so close on the general classification the time trial was going to sort out the final positions. I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to post a good time in the time trial which was the second to last stage and hopefully get into the top five. But this was not to happen. I had a bit of a shocker and didn’t perform. I managed just to get into tenth and was 24 seconds off being in the top five. Going into the last stage I was hoping that I might be able to get away in a break but the leading two teams kept everything together until the seven uncomfortable finishing laps. The lap was a 6 kilometer circuit with a 2 kilometer climb in it with a kilometer of it being cobbled. Every lap I thought that I had good bunch position but that was never the case and I found myself chasing to get back up to the front most laps. There was only a small group left with one lap to go and Beveren had five riders in it. My teammate got a gap going into the cobble section and managed to finish 2nd with the three other riders finishing well up there and I finished just off the back of the front group and managed to keep my tenth place overall. During the week of racing we managed to pull top fives in most stages and sometimes multiple riders in the top 10. The team was strong and it seemed we were only getting better as the week went on. The guys helped me out when needed which was great, hopefully the result in the next tour can be slightly better.