The team at La Boucle se l'Artois



Far out the last few weeks have flew past so fast I can’t even think of how to start out explaining the last 4 or 5 races I have done. I’ll give you a few details of what I can remember.

La Boucle de l'Artois a tour in France, two days, three stages. We stayed in an old convent, amazing rooms, plasma TV’s, king size beds, spa bath, mini bar, and room service where all NOT include. Stage one and the team was represented in every move, I was in the early move of the day, being up the road until just before the finishing circuits, then VDB got away in the final, he finished in a small group, a few seconds up on the peleton. A time trial was first up on the second day, I pulled a below par time but our other two hit men Bert and VDB mustered up third and first in the stage and VDB was in yellow, leading the tour, instead of a black NZ skinsuit.The team was on the front for the afternoon stage, we dodged the crashes and rode well to stay out of trouble, we did a good job but we lost the lead by 20 seconds.

The ronde van Drenthe - it was just rubbish, that is putting it nicely. I managed 5 wheel changes, great wee treat when your racing over cobble stones.Had a few laughs the night before with the other guys and that was the most positive thing that came out of that race. Oh and all the chocolate I sneakily consumed.

My first Coupe de France was G.P de Denain, fellow kiwi Tim Gudsell was also on the start line and we had a chat and catch up during the race. A group of three riders when clear after 20mins and the race ended up being a bunch sprint, the guys pulled our sprinter, for the race up to the front so he gave it a shot but it was not to be today.

Had my first race in Germany on the 19th, “Rund um Duren” it’s a one day race just over the boarder of Holland. It had some climbs, flat sections, corners, descents then it finished with finishing circuits, five of them. We had a rider in the front group so the rest of the team and I sat in the bunch waiting to see if it would come back. It did, just before we arrived at the finishing circuits, so once again it was a bunch sprint of 90 guys. Not reall my thing but gave it a go. Pulled up 23rd in the sprint so watch out next time I’ll pull something better.

The typical Belgium spring weather finely kicked the arse of the European peleton today and every rider felt its wrath. Rain, wind, and cold temperatures where on the cards and everyone knew it as well.

Rolling out from Roeselare at 11:45 with body vests, rain jackets and multiple under shirts on was always going to happen on a day like today. From the start it was all on, pace was high, and wind seemed to be on high, as we twisted through most villages on route to Waregem from Roeselare.

A group went clear, but the weather didn’t and the peleton kept twisting through the villages to arrive at the bottom of the first cobble climb of the day “the Katteberg”. Feeling better then I did at the start I thought I might have found my race legs for the day, but as soon as we hit the second set of cobbles 2km later I fall and smashed my lever off and that was the day for me. 80 odd k for the day then in the bus for the rest. Slightly disappointed but will hopefully get another crack at it next year.

Morning of Dwars door Vlaanderen, nice treat to wake up to.

This is what happened to the lever, on my bike when i feel off. It was race over after that

Cinelli – Down Under 09 profile shot (left insert)


Beverbeek Classic, G.P Samyn, Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, Wanzele, Omloop van het Waasland, Nokere – Koerse, Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart have been about 50/50, whether it being finishing or getting through the races without any problems – like mechanicals, falling and so on…

The start to the European season is well under way and so far I’ve had 7 races and this is the first update to the website, I’ll give you a run down on how this team came about after the original team fell over in January when I was just about to leave for Europe.

Originallyl I was riding for Cinelli – OPD, I had signed a contract with them at the start of December, and everything seemed fine as I was completing the tests which they had requested. As my departure date got closer I started to hear that there were some problems with the UCI licenses for the team. A few things happened and eventually the team collapsed and I was teamless for a wee while. While the team was collapsing Nico Mattan was trying to find a new team for 4 of the Belgium riders and myself. In the middle of February Nico found a team which we could join and so we joined them. The team was Fuga-Down Under but with the new sponsors the team got re named Cinelli-Down Under and within a week of this being done we were at our first race.

With all this team stuff falling down around me and trying to gain a new team my pre season training took a bit of a hammering to say the least. I was in good company though, with my girlfriend Siobhan in Perth so I managed to spend sufficient amount of time in the sun and down at the beach. As soon as everything was finalized with Cinelli-Down Under I was on a plane to Europe and back into the swing of things.

Arriving into Europe at 5:30 in the morning was freezing. I had a bit of time to spare before I had to get onto the eurostar, so I made my way to a café and had some porridge with banana and honey and plenty of coffee which was amazingly good and the warmth started to come back to my body after freezing for an hour on the tube.

Once I arrived I got in contact with Nico and I went out to meet some of my team mates for the season. Nico took me round to meet Frank VDB and Jean Marie, it was certainly good to meet Frank and I was a bit quiet when I met him, but after a beer I started to say a few words but not too many! Jean Marie is the mechanic who lives 10mins down the road and he put my bike together and fluffed it so it was mint for the first outing. A few days later I meet the rest of the team at a group training ride as well as a meal afterwards, which was a pasta fest.

Four days later we were at the First race of the season which was meant to be Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne but instead we were at Beverbeek Classic, seeing as this was the first race for Frank and the team the paparazzi was out to get us but mainly Frank and Nico. We got through the race, I got tangled up in the odd crash and made it to the finishing circuit and finished so was a good days’ riding under the belt. With getting on a new bike for the season there is always some teething problems and I had 2 and half weeks of it until I managed to get in to see Michiel Delva the man who does my bicycle position, he changed a few things and within a days ride my position was fixed and I noticed a difference straight away.

A few more races went past with up’s and down’s. Me smashing a set of carbon wheels and also managing to get flat tyres at vital parts of race - like in the final few kilometers of 2 races.

This weekend just been we had the Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart which was up in Holland, it was quite possibly the most eye opening race I have done. With having to watch out for round-a-bouts, concert poles, concert edges in the middle of the road, the road S’ing along a straight part of road, other riders, road signs, kerbs, holes, and other things which I can’t remember now. It was all over the show that’s for sure. I ended up getting piped and rode 130k for the day but I wasn’t really too worried about it, I managed to get out of Holland in one piece and without losing any skin.

Hopefully on Wednesday I’ll be able to get through the race with a good result and in one piece, we’ll have to see how things go.

having to kick myself in the head at 6a.m to get off to the race was not exactly the easiest thing for me to do. We had to do the drive down to the race the morning of and we arrived a good 2 hrs before the start. Being the last race of the season I wanted to try and sneak another win in before I run a muck with the end of season break.

I surprised myself a bit and got into the move which stayed away and then split up going into the last 30k. I put in the odd attack put the other 5 riders under a bit of pressure but nothing stuck and it came down to a sprint and to my amazement I wasn't 6th out of 6 but 5th.

We started the second day with a time trial which was little, I pulled out a time good enough to take the leaders jersey by a few second. The afternoon stage got under way and the wind kicked up so the peloton was split and guy where getting shell, the team was strong and we 5 in the front, a few attacks threatened my lead but the team pulled it back and I managed to get a few more seconds over the other riders which was hot going into the last day.

The sun was out and the last 160k of the race was in front of us to complete, the wind was still blowing and some how I was in the front group with no team mates…..with 50k to go a group came across which had one of my team mates in it, the attacks where going and I was covering the dangerous move’s a group got away and gained a few minutes, in that group was a GC threat and for the last 40k myself and my team mate chased the group of 10 riders to only loses the leaders jersey by 22seconds. Even though other teams where losing out as well no other team want to help and chase, after fisting myself for 40k to only loses by a small margin it was a bit of a disappointing.

Just before the last stage. Team mate was leading the young rider and i was leading the tour

Omloop van de Grensstreek was held a few days ago and I posted my 4th win of the season by crossing the line solo and wining my 35 seconds after an attack with 6 kilometers to go. The parcours covered some of belgiums most famous territory, by looping round the battle fields of world war one then climbing the famous kemmelburg, which is the climb that had the massive crash on in Gent - Wevelgem and Jimmy Casper got personal with the cobbles a few years back.

Once again the peleton was greeted with rain which made a few riders crash and climbing the cobbles rather tricky, as we where heading back to the finishing laps the wining move of 9 riders got away and with some encouraging words from my team mate and myself the break stayed clear of the peleton. On the finishing circuits not to much happened I put in a attack on lap 2 but that came back so I think everyone wanted it to come down to a sprint finish apart from me, a few other riders started to put in a few attack but it all came back and then with 6 kilometers I got a away and rode in to win the race.

My team mates rode great and we where amongst every move on the road, we rode at the head of the peleton and stayed out of trouble at the most dangerous times and got through the race with out falling.