After sitting out last weekend’s local club race I was quite excited with having the chance to race two days on the weekend. The races were two criteriums and after reading the description of the circuit (three lanes and flowing) it seemed like it was going to be a good weekend of racing in preparation for speed week which is a few weeks away.
We pulled up to the start and I started to wonder where the three lane, flowing circuit was going to be raced, as all I could see was a massive car park with a heap of orange cones on it, with a roundabout and a hair pin all joined up with more orange cones. I had heard stories of criterium races being raced in a car park before but had never thought that that was ever going to be the case and that the stories were always embellished and over exaggerated. Having experienced it firsthand I know they were being quite literal. It is not something I want to repeat again in a hurry!
On a good day I can normally get round a corner ok but the guys in these criteriums seemed to motor around the corners somehow without coming off and gapping me by a few bike lengths every time and in the wet on Sunday it was even worse. So I didn’t last long, if you combined the time I rode on both the days it might equate to one of the day’s races.
Heath managed to pull off his first win of the year in the Saturday race so that was good for the team.
I've made the trip over to America and have joined up with "Team Hotel San Jose" and have been adapting to the new why of life riding the pushy over in Texas. Its a wee bit different but basically there are still your cliche people around the town, team, races, and places that we stay. The first race was a two day tour. I was glad when it finished, the team won the last stage in a sprint of eight riders but five of them where from the team so it was a given'. This weekend I have two races so will see how that goes.
Bunch sprints, chasing breaks down, and a bit of time trial practice. Both races finished in bunch sprint and in both races we (meaning the team) had to spend time on the front chasing a break down. Not the most exciting thing to do during a race but it had to be done or we wouldn’t have been in for a chance to win. Our sprinter put in some good sprints so our efforts were not wasted.
During Antwerpse Havenpijl the attacks were always going off the front and as I was timing my attack just as another attack had come back I managed to get away from the peleton. This would normally be a good thing but none else came with me and I was by myself for about 45mins until a group of 15 other riders came across. The most time I got was a bit over a minute. Just goes to show the condition is starting to head back in the right direction, let’s hope some results will start to come.
Managed to get some good photos over a cobble section when I was up the road by myself, the cobble section was about a kilometer long and the carbon wheels got a bit of a hammering but I got over them with out flatting.
It’s been a while since the last review of a race was posted or anything for that matter. It has been a busy and tiresome time. Since my last post I was about to go off to Ireland and race. Well I headed off to Ireland and race but only did two days of racing because my knee had started to play up again. This was due to my pelvis twisting and it was being very reluctant to stay in the correct position for multiple weeks after I got back to Belgium so there were many trips to get it corrected and ongoing physiotherapy to get myself back in the correct position again.
Putting together some good training while this was going on was far from ideal and made the following weeks training rather rubbish only doing 2hrs of races and not finishing a thing for a few weeks. Things started to come into line about a week and a half before the team and I were about to head to china to race in the tour of Qinghai High Lakes which is a 10 day tour that is at altitude, it ranges form 1900m-3900m this year and we were based at around 2500m most of the time apart form three day which we slept at 3000m.
Turning up to this race with less then ideal conditioning was always going to be a challenge and I found out it was hard to just get through the stages and to the finish in one piece. The climbs were long, hard, and there were many of them! It was most likely the best thing for me to get me back into some sort of shape for the second part of the season. Toward the end of the tour I started to find some legs and on the last day managed to get into the break away group then made the final split but once again the peleton didn’t let it go very far and the split got caught with 7 kilometers to go.
During the time I spent in china I saw some rather neat stuff from spending a few days in Beijing to riding up to some crazy villages in the mountains, to seeing dudes living in tents on top of massive mountains and the monks cruising round on motor bikes.
The travel took 2 days at each end to get there and back and basically wrecked ya. I got back and spent 4 days doing easy rides and then I raced again in Germany and the race Sparkassen Giro – Bochum. It was a 14 kilometre circuit and we rode round and round until we clocked up 180 kilometre and then it was a sprint for the line. The course had two small little climbs in it which slowly broke up the peleton and group of 50 or so riders got to the finishing line to contest the win. Due to my shocking bunch position on the last lap up the climb I got dropped and had to chase back on so I ended up about a minute down on the lead and kicked myself for my incompetence. It was a lesson learnt so hopefully no more.
For the next few months I have got my race plan sorted and will be back racing most weeks and training will be much more structured to finish off the season strongly. Next on the race plan is a pro kermese then another UCI one day race
Doubling up on things always seem heaps cooler then just doing things once, so when the DS asked whether I wanted to race two days instead of one I said “alright sounds good”.
First race was meiprijs – Ereprijs Victor De Bruyne or Hobokken to the locals. It ended out to be an ok race, in the way that my form is starting to came better. I spent 170ish of the 190ish kilometer off the front, first in a group of 3 then a group of 20 or so. The group was represented by most of the strong teams, but on the finishing laps the attacks started and it broke up, and the pace was not as steady as it was when the group was working together so it got caught with 8 kilometers to go, and I was not very impressed that we got caught. I had just ridden over to the front split of 5 and then looked back to see what was going on and there was the peleton - boo to the peleton. So I sat up and finished in the bunch and a bit tweaked from the days effort. That was normal when you’re tapping along at 45kmh for 4 hours.
The second day was up the top of Holland, not so exciting. Had to drive 3 hours after the first days racing then early start, but had a sweet breakfast spread at the hotel. I packed in enough food for 3 days that morning – awesome. The race was one to remember, not on a pleasant note though, as my team mate crashed and was in a coma for a few days, so it was not so good in that way. The race finished in a bunch sprint and in the last kilometer another bunch sprint crash, just not a thing I’m really up for and that is crashing in a bunch sprint at 50-60kmh, I left it to the others. Once the race had finished I found out about my team mate and was a bit taken aback by it, the crash happened when we were only going about 35kmh, was freaky that it happened like that.
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.
