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….
