Where's the toilet... and sunny days!

Yesterday, an little evening criterium was on the cards to kick off the weekend however things didnt quite go to plan. Firstly though the legs were again a lot better than last weekend and so things are looking good for mondays big race over at Moncontour (featuring a 3km climb on the circuit which we cover about 15times i think... wicked!) so yea back to last night... after 1h45 steady in the morning with a few warm up sprints to get the legs going i was feeling good and rady for the evenings affairs, however once the race got going it wasnt my legs that were feeling dodgey, but the stomach. After an hours racing, half way through, i attacked on the hill of the circuit and got across to another lad just in front, we did 2laps flat out but in doing so i pushed my stomach over the edge and things really didnt feel right... put it another way, if i had kept on pushing i think i would have very soon changed the colour of my light colours bib shorts! So i swung over down the finish straight, found the nearest café and ... well ill spare you the details but i felt sorry for whoever was going to use the toilet after me!

All in all a disappointing evening. I'm never one for just pulling out of races of things aren't going well, actually bar crashing out, i think today is one of the only races if what THE only race i have abandoned the past two seasons out here! Oh well.

Things are feeling more normal again today and a light spin this morning again proved that the legs are feeling much better and a quick thrash round the town centre cobbled streets with a few local lads while making some rowdy noises and scaring a fair few pedestrians... sorry! has got me back in action and ready for monday. The rest of today will be spent on the beach with friends as the weather we have here at the moment is exceptional! Canon as they say over 'ere! Gud ol' froggies! Work on disguising the dodgey cycling tanlines a bit, grab an ice-cream and debate whether the girls at the beach are too young for us or not sounds like a good day out to me!

hope the weather is treating you as well as it is here, if not... tough sh*t! ;-)

tchussss

A day in the sun

First of all here's a couple of snaps from the finistère championships where the Bic wrapped up a convincing 1st through to 5th after a dominating 6-man team time trial of the front!

Left: Clement forcing the pace to get the break going.

Below: Voila! Break formed.

So on sunday i was down in a small town called Montamisé, near Poitiers, for the qualifying round of the Division 1 espoir + division 2 teams championship. The fact that it was a qualifying race made the tactics a little bizarre as the top 10 teams, on team classification of thier top 3 riders at the finish, go through to the final later on in the season. With saturday being a nice hot day we were hoping for similar conditions for race day and come the race it was nice, but too nice as the sun was the only thing in the sky and it proceeded at lunch time before the start the temperature guage in the car was already on 30degrees. We realised how hot it was when 2 inner-tubes burst as riders left their bikes in the sun for too long!

By the time the start came around i was happy to get rolling and get a breeze flowing by to cool me down a bit but things soon heated up again with the racing as i followed the first few attacks to make sure nothing went away from the gun. After sitting on a couple of moves it all came back together before the first of 11 times up the 3/400metre "wall" on the circuit, where over the top splits were already happening. The following lap a group of about 30 had formed off the front and we only had one rider represented so it was a case of jump on the front and tow it back. After 2laps of chasing we got them back in sight and after a long hard pull, i swung off at the bottom of the hill and braced myself for a bit of pain as i tried to hold onto the tail end of the bunch over the top. I realised that i was going backwards and eased up to go back to the car instead to get some bidons. After a cheeky bit of respite in the cars i got back through to the peloton a few kms later with out any problems. We had brought back the split and 14 had pulled away over the top of the hill with again 1 bic rider there so that was a better situation for us. They pulled out to 2mins30 after a few laps and it looked like a dangerous move as there were a lot of people suffering from the heat behind.

With about 5laps remaining and the gap sitting at 2mins 30 myself, clement and matthieu hammered it up and over the wall and found ourselvesaway with a fair gap. For company we had 2 other riders plus Ali Carr for a bit of english speaking company! However i think he was suffereing a bit as he imploded a few kms later! So then as 5 we put the hammer down and set about eating up their lead infront and in one lap took over a minute off their lead. However, the second time up the wall with them i was in some serious difficulty and they had to slow over the top so i could get back on. I decided i was only going to slow them down so took some big turns before pulling off and getting dropped on the finish hill. I rolled for a km or two before what was left of the peloton came across to me. From here there were 2laps to go and i knew that all goin well we were in a good position with 3 riders aiming for top 20 positions which would easily secure qualification for the final.

Come the finish, our rider in the break ended up in the back split and came 11th, clement 15th just behind their group then matthieu 24th in a group just behind clements. I rolled in with the peloton group i had sat in, which came in for about 35th place, where i came in near the back. All in all an ok day seeing as the legs were a lot better that last weekend so things are on the up, just suffered a bit in the heat as well and came away pretty red and burnt all over!

The winner was a certain ex-tour de france rider, Médéric Clain, previously with Cofidis having encountered a fair bit of "trouble" you could say along the way! I'll let you decide...

from cycling news in 2004:

Médéric Clain suspension lifted
The Disciplinary Commission of the French Cycling Federation FFC has lifted the suspension of ex-Cofidis rider Médéric Clain. The 27 year-old had been accused of doping infractions and suspended since April 1, 2004 after allegations from his then-teammates Philippe Gaumont and Robert Sassone. On November 3, before the FCC's commission, Clain maintained his claim that he had "bought and transported the products, but never used them.
"I was able to explain myself," the rider said about his meeting with the Commission. "I showed them my medical test results, spoke about the legal examination and about eight months of unemployment." Clain had been fired by his team Cofidis on May 4. "I am happy that my honesty has been recognised. If a team is looking for a clean rider, I am ready."
The other suspended Cofidis riders Philippe Gaumont and Robert Sassone, who said they had doped themselves with Clain during the 2003 season, still have to appear before the Disciplinary Commission.

catch up...

so i'm loosing my touch on updating the blog regularly... getting lazy! but just a quick update to let you know whats going on.

Last weekend was just a local weekend for saturday and sunday so i set off saturday on the 20km ride to the start only for the day to get off to a poor start and was maybe a sign of what to come! 5 km out of town a huge black cloud blew over and proceeded to empty itself on pretty much just me, just long enough so that when i'd pulled out and donned my rain cape it had all but moved on! Great. The race itself got off to a flying start os on the first lap i countered a team mates attack and was off with one other fella for the first several Kms until 3more bridged across and we were away. After pulling out to a minute after about 20/30kms i started to die fairly quickly. There were 2 consecutive short sharp climbs on the circuit and i just didnt have anything in the tank at all. The guys that i was in the break with are guys that i'm usually easily there with but today something was up! It was all i could do to sit up and wait for the counter a minute behind in which i found Matthieu for company. After a bit of recovery and the race nearing the end, with my old breakaway companions up the road for the win i again countered one of matthieus attacks and got away with 2 another guys till the finish. All in all 6th was an ok result seeing as i was in a serious hole all race and havent felt like that before! Not nice.
I had planned on riding back home but it wasnt going to happen!

Sunday, i wasnt exactly confident of my chances after saturdays performance and when a good looking break pinged off on the first lap i decided that i was going to race for primes (cash sprints within the race) instead of the race itself. I managed to nab 50€ and a box of Biscuits! for my efforts and finished in the counter, rolling in 20th for the day. Poor result but the legs were a bit better than yesterdays afforts so not down and out yet.

Monday, tuesday and wednesday i took off the bike before starting training again thursday in prep for sundays coupe de france race which should be a good one and hopefully i can turn things round a bit since last weekend.

On thursday, i travelled up to brest to go watch the Regional Finistère road champs. With Bic2000 being the biggest team in the region we were expected to get the result but when i got there on the 3rd of 12 laps to see a break of 6 up the road with no more than 6 bic riders!! i realised they were in for a good day! Seeing all the lads racing really made me want to be involved but not being a regional froggie i was sidelined to watch from the barriers. The final result was as expected after the storming start... Bic2000 riders taking 1st through to 5th, wrapping up the espoir and 2nd cat jerseys as well as of course the elite title going to Clement Mahé. All i had to show for the day was a sunburnt neck and burnt feet after a day in the sun! Yea!

Heading out for 1h30 now in prep for tommorow and then i head off after lunchtime for the 5hr drive down south to Poitiers where we stay tonight before taking the start line at 13h30 tomorrow avo.

Will pop up some photos of the Regional champs when i get back.

Weekend

alritey then, this weekend. Friday down at hennebont turned out to be a bit grim as the legs were pretty heavy and i didnt have any zipp so i ended up just finishing in the counter behind a break of about 15 in which we had two riders so not all doom and gloom although they didnt do anything between them! I sat in for a sprint as i know this is what i need to work on and actually pulled off quite a good one for me. I came 3rd from a group of about 15-20, and know that i pulled out into the wind and started my sprint way too early so live and learn which is the idea right!

Then sundays race at Serent was set to be better having had much better sensations in the legs when training saturday. With a field of 170 and 130kms of rolling/hilly terain to be covered with 30km of 7laps of a hard finish circuit, it was set to be a tough one. My plan before was to keep my nose dry before the circuit and just follow and major moves until then, before updating my plan on how the legs were going. This changed about 60km in when a good looking break of about 12 got away just before the long climb of the Cadoudal. I attacked a couple of kms before the foot and started the climb 30seconds behind the break. I got to about 10-15seconds behind with another rider before starting to flag a bit and seeing the peloton closing fast behind i decided to ease off the gas as it looked like it would all come back together over the top. I got caught, as we crested the climb, by what turned out to be a split but then had someone swing over infront of me and clip my front wheel... "PING" there goes a spoke. A quick pull over to the side and dismount was made although really wasnt needed when i looked back... lots of little groups spread down the road with the cars a fair way back too, damn it! So after a short tea break at the side of the road the groups rolled by and the convoy rolled in and a quick wheel change was made, finally! I quickly made my way back through the cars and onto the back group as settled in as all the groups were coming back together luckily enough for me. Come the finish laps, all was back together and so the battle commenced with attacks going left, right and centre (well maybe not litterally as riding off the side of the road isn't the best way to try to win a bike race) and soon what was left of the peloton was being whittled down. Come 3 laps to go 5 riders were up the road and i was starting to feel good but kicking myself for missing the break, mainly due to placement, as it contained local favorite Salva Vilchez and also Johan LeBon. However the latter suffered a serious engine failure and was soon passed by pretty much every group on the road, leaving the 4 out front. I knew that it was dangerous upfront and attacked on one of the two climbs on the circuit and got away with another so then the chase was on. We pulled them back a fair bit but couldn't make the difference and a counter group finally came across to us by the bell lap. I had another big dig at 4km to go on the same climb as before and 4 of us pulled away only to be caught, by the hennebont lead out train for last years team mate Ben the aussie, in the last two kms. This left me pretty bollaxed for the sprint in which i rolled in mid/end of the group for a meagre 18th place. Not great but i was pleased with how the legs had improved from friday.

An easy week now with a good ride wednesday on the circuit for saturdays local race and the rest just easy should set me up well for saturday and sunday.

Other news, i have been a bit of a naughty boy and get myself flashed by a fixed speed camera last week. Oops. To make matters worse it was in the car that the DS from last years club lends to me from time to time so needless to say i wasnt in his best books! All settled now and we're just sorting out the paper work to say it was me driving not him. The stupid thing about it is that its on a stretch of road where the speed limit changed from 110kmh to 90kmh for a brief stretch, and the bastads snuck a speed camera in there without telling me! Having missed the sign saying 90.... in huge red letters.... i duely made sure that i was doing 110 and not speeding as i saw the camera approaching but yet FLASH. "hmmm thats strange" then i see the second sign saying that the speed limit is now changing from 90 to 110 again.... muppet!

Here's the picture of me from the speed camera, i had time to lean out and give a cheeky moony to the camera! If you look closely u can see i'm smiling ;-)

this week

Haven't dont a non-race report blog in a while now so i'll drop a quick one now while i've got a minute (not that i'm pushed for time much out here!)

Today, in about an hour, i'm heading off down to Hennebont for a 1/2/3 circuit race. Hopefully i'll notice and be able to take advantage of the step down in difficulty from what i've been doing recently and make the most of it but its still going to be a hard race. The local host team, Hennebont Cyclisme, has 17riders entered and will do their best to control it for one of their top riders. However with a few other big names cropping up on the start list, for example Johan le Bon, it should be an interesting day. For me, this will be a test to see how well i have recovered since Brittany finished a week ago. Training has been going well but the legs have been going from amazing one day to dead the nexThist so i'll have to see how the form goes today. I think that things will come around a bit more for sundays 1st cat race where i am gunning for a result as the course is hard and splits happen on the finish circuit with two hard hills each lap. Watch this space...

This week i had a visitor here in the form of my girlfriend from the UK over from sunday to thursday. It made a nice change to have someone else around the flat and fortunately we had nice weather so a lot of time was spent introducing her to the diffent cafés round Quimper. As you do.

I'll pop a quick post up this evening on how the race goes this afternoon. For now, i need to go give my machine a quick clean up.

A tout à l'heure,

Above: Cathing up with Eric Rowsell riding for GB at the Tour.

Left: This became an important ritual before every stage... making the most of the free coffee after the sign on/presentation!

Below: The dream team! (left to right: Matthieu, me, Clement, Yann, Vincent, Laurent)

Stages 6 and 7... finished!

Day 6: Woke up this morning to heavy rain and grey clouds… just what you need to get pumped for 24kms of pain! The forecast was set to get better as the day went on and for once it lived up to its word with the sun coming out by the start of affairs. My TT was pretty poor and doesn’t need much describing really as it all came down to me losing all motivation when I got passed after about 10kms. After that I couldn’t really dig too deep and ended up with a poor time and position. Out of the team our top finisher was 35th so nothing to shout about really. However the talking point of the day was the winner, Timofey Kritskey, a Russian from Katyusha who put 47seconds into second place and about 55seconds into Engoulevent in third. Impressive. The legs are feeling much better this eve after a light and fairly easy day so hopefully I can do something tomorrow to finish off on a good note.

Day 7: Well I wanted to do something and I won’t be forgetting today’s stage for a while that’s for sure. After a flat out start, everything came back together after about 30kms. Three riders had just clipped off the front and I was well placed in the bunch and managed to jump across, taking a few riders with and forming what turned out to be the break of the day. However it wasn’t to last that long for me as inexperience in these sorts of races let me down about ten kilometers later. We were still hammering it as the bunch were chasing at about 20seconds when we hit the second KOM on which my legs started to scream. I was in second to last wheel with Engoulevent behind when I started to lose the wheel in front. I tried to flick him though but he wasn’t moving from my wheel. I knew what was coming next as when we crested the climb he jumped me and bridged across leaving me chasing alone behind. They soon started to pull away and after a few kilometers chasing I got swallowed up by the chasing bunch. Nothing changed before the finish circuits where war broke out with attempt to snatch the jersey of the leaders back but all came to nothing as most of the break was caught and what was left of the bunch came in about 10seconds after the leading three. On the last lap our team leader clement punctured and I was next to him so I stopped to give him a wheel but he wanted to wait for the car instead which therefore wrote off both of our chances of any placing at the finish as neither of us got back on and ended up finishing the last lap fairly steady to roll in about 60th a few minutes down. All in all its been a good tour, the first week long race I’ve done and the first 2.2 also. It’s been a steep learning curve with ups and downs and I have learnt a lot in a week and feel more confident in myself coming out of it. Now I’ll have a few days to recover then hopefully I can profit from a week of racing over 160km a day to give me some killer form to get my first win of the season and also my first win on French soil. Thanks for following. Tom