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.
