... Alps Training

A quick transfer over to the foot of Alp D'Huez to "Camping-Piscine" where we would be staying for the next week meant we arrived at the chalet first and got 1st call on our rooms. We couldn't quite work out how the group was going to be accomodated for as there were 11 of us staying there however the chalet being rented only had sleeping room for 6!! Slight problem we thought but the others came prepared with tents to put up just outside the chalet... problem solved, but i was happy to have a roof over my head and a proper bed to sleep in.

Monday morning after a lazy wake up due to the late arrival and a good breakfast we headed out in search of our first col for the week. Seeing as we were coming straight off the back of Dordogne we didn't want to over-do-it straight away so we headed out for a steady ride up the Croix-de-Fer... well over an hours climbing with it being about 23km in length! A nice wake up for the legs from the previous days racing! At the top there was only Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne-Schuller) and myself left from the group to sprint it out for the line... i wont mention who won but my excuse is the car slowing down infront. It was here that i had my first scare of the week as we turned to head back down to find the others, just as we started descending my front wheel blew out... properly exploded with the tyre coming straight off the rim! Luckily we were only just getting going and i pulled over easily but 10seconds later and i would have been doing 70kmh+ and the result would have been a lot different!

The following days consisted of 4hrs on tuesday where we did Alp D'huez, followed by the col up to Oz-en-Oisans, very similar to Alp D'Huez, and i carried on after the others up Col D'Ornon to go and see if Guy and Helen were home at http://www.kingofthemountains.co.uk/. A good catch up and a few chocolate brownies later! i made it back home.

Wednesday was our epic ride day where we covered the Croix de Fer, the Col de Mollard, the Telegraphe followed straight away by the Galibier (the latter of which is a real beast and made a lot worse with me getting the hunger knock on the lower slopes and very quickly going backwards!) I love riding in the mountains but when you're not feeling great they can be really horrible... i was rather pleased to reach the top to say the least! All in all i clocked 6h40 riding time for the day, not bad!

Thursday was a little easier than the day before with just a quick Alp D'Huez mass start time trial planned for the day. Knowing the legs were not too hot since the epic outing the day before i decided to have a laugh and attack from the start, sprinting up to the first corner and getting a good gap on all the others however i soon realised why everyone talks about taking it easy on the first couple of corners as i imploded and saw 4 riders ... an ex-pro a few yrs ago who went on to win; florian le corre 2nd; matt J 3rd and a belgian lad with full national kit and bike 4th leaving me to finish the climb alone and take 5th. We couldn't get back down the mountain quick enough to get straight in the pool at the camping site as the temperature was by now easily hitting 35degrees+.

Friday was the day for a rest day and worked out

well as firstly the weather turned a tad nasty and was snowing on top of the mountains!! and secondly it was the start of the French National Mountain Bike Champs at Oz-en-Oisans. A couple of local fellas from Quimper were competing in the tandem race... mad!... and they managed to steal 3rd place after a bad start which left them chasing all race.

Saturday was the elite national champs race which we went to go and watch just because the Olympic champion Julian Absalon was set to ride. The weather was again not great but Absalons class made up for that with a storming ride putting about 5minutes into 2nd place... just awesome! With the weather clearing up for a nice evening we headed up a smaller col opposite Huez which takes in the first couple of Kms of the Col D'Ornon before swinging a left and doing a good 10kms up a small road with wicked scenery all the way up. I headed up col d'ornon again after when all the rest went back to cook dinner... just for a bit more torture, love it though.

Sunday was time to say goodbye to Bourg D'Oisans... it had passed way too quickly but it was a great week with a bunch of top guys. We just had time to do a little exploring int he morning by heading up a little known col starting just behind the town which included a few tunnels which we had to walk through as they were pitch black! Slightly disconcerting especially on the descent!

The afternoon took in the drive down to Montellimar where the final part of the "holiday" was just beginning! The Etape du Tour...

Tour de la Dordogne

Seems like ages ago now that we headed down south for the 4day elite Tour of Dordogne. The team was comprised of Clém Mahé, Vinc Rouxel, both Matthieu and Thib Jeannès, Enric Le Bars et moi. I wasn't expecting too much form wise as i was coming off the back of a week off the bike and had only been back training for 4-5days.

Stage One was a bad day on my part. It started off well when i got across to the break about 30kms in but only to hit the first climb a couple of k's later and have no power on the climb... needless to say i got shelled with a few others and then started a long chase. We held the gap we had lost after the climb but couldn't close it so i sat up and waited for the counter which i heard was coming across with a Matthieu and Vincent in it. Once this group caught us the speed died off and no one really took control, with attacks going off all the time. I wasnt feeling in any way in good shape and was happy just to sit in and follow wheels. As we hit the finish circuits i punctured and with the team car up the road behind one of the splits with Vincent i was left with a crappy slow wheel change and then left on the road as the car sped off before i could even ask for a tow!

I chased for a bit but knew i was going nowhere. After several k's i got caught by the break as they put a lap into me. I finished off my last lap alone and pissed off, and came in about 10minutes down on the winner where as the group i was in when i punctured finished only around 3-4mins down. At least i wasnt in the Grupetto which arrived after i was changed and leaving in one of the team cars... at about 35mins down!

The following stage TT i did at about 90% as i was already way down on GC and knew there wasnt any chance of a top 10 given the lack of form.

Stage 3 came down to a sprint behind a late break of 8, where i shut my eyes and got my elbows out to give the sprint a shot! I managed to hold the wheel of the Espoir French Champ behind his UC Nantes Atlantique leadout train and burnt him in the sprint to come 20th. Not too bad and would have been better had there not been a following car turning off the finish straight as we arrived causing the bunch to get dead tight and i lost a fair few places as im not exactly used to doing the sprints but i still enjoyed it! The winner was a Mr Samuel Plouhinec, the national french amateur champion, who also won the TT the day before, still on awesome form after winning the national champs 10days previously.

The final stage, was an interesting one, 170km with some hard climbs in and several ridersla close on the GC. I got in a couple of early moves but nothing was really sticking. As we hit the finish circuits for the final 30odd kms the race had come back together and on the first of 3times up the short but very sharp climb round the back of the circuit Clem got away with 2others, one of which was at 2seconds on GC. The yellow jersey only had one team mate left and between them they tried hard to close the gap but nothing came of it. On the last time up the climb the yellow jersey exploded and went out of the back of what was left of the peleton containing me Matt and Vinc. We had done a fairly good job of controlling the group with Clem up the road and just hoped he could pull off the win... which he didnt let us down with. He took the win from the three up sprint with our group coming in for about 15th place around a minute behind where Vinc gave me a little lead out and i think i nipped in the top 20.

Clém was pretty extatic and had reason to be as this was his best result of the season so far and the type of results he needs to be getting to turn pro next season which is his main goal for the year.

All in all a good weekend ending on a big high. For me, Matthieu, Thibault and fellow Breton Supersport Rider Florian Le Corre, a quick turn around was needed as we were heading straight from Dordogne to the Alps... Bourg D'Oisans to be precise, the foot of alp d'huez. It was going to be a long night...

I need to update this... i no. Been very busy lots to talk about... going back a bit now though, 2 weeks a go Tour de Dordogne Elite, then a weeks training in the alps. Etape du tour on monday then this weekend just gone Kreiz Breiz Elite 3day 4stage 2.2 pro.

will blog tomorrow as hav a rest day so not much to do.

keep reading...

A lot to catch up on

Following the title a lot has happened since i last blogged... and many people have let me know that its time for an update (simon wen you read this you have to update too...)

Ok so i'll start from the beginning... when i was a young boy... o wait wrong story; on about the 18th of June 5 of the Bic2000 elite headed down south for the Tour of the CABA. This would be the first race of the season or maybe ever that i have raced up "Cols" or mountains to normal people. All in all the trip was a great success, with Clement on some top form and getting 3rd on the 1st stage, taking yellow after we won the Team Time Trial stage 2, we didnt just win it we dominated! i took the white jersey in the proceedings and we headed into the final stage with a job to do. It included a little 8km col to start off the day which i headed to the front and loved every second of riding tempo all the way up it... even better feeling was when i realised that by the top the peloton was only about half the size of what it was at the bottom. not bad. Over the top we let a little break clip off with no big hitters in it and just controlled the stage. The second col was longer than the first and there were some fireworks. Laurent and myself ended up riding over the top and killing it on the decent... taking more than a few risks descending these tiny country roads not knowing where we were going on the exit of each corner... good fun though. To show how fast we descended, the break was at about 2mins at the top and by the bottom they had just over a minute. Clem then decided the best form of defense was attack and clipped off with about 20km to go on a little "wall" on which i died and lost the white jersey, but he caught the break with a couple of others and went on to come 2nd on the stage arriving for the win. Shame i lost the white but i loved riding for the yellow and DS and Clem definately appreciated the work we put in all through the day. After a long drive home the following day, i got home monday evening giving me little time for a quick spin and a quick suitcase turnaround for my journey home (england home) the following morning where i was heading back for the nationals and a little break.





I had a good time at home and it was nice to just relax and catch up withfriends and family. The weekend of 27/28th june there was still a job to do... The British National Champs. I was well p for this race and the superb weather paved the way for what was set to be the highest profile national champs line up pretty much ever. The course was a good one too, set in and around abergavenny, wales, we had a 50mile en ligne section including the infamous Tumble Mountain to be mounted! then 50miles of finish circuits round abergavenny itself.

Saturday i headed out for a nice steady ride in the afternoon to rekky a bit of the course and decided to take a spin up the tumble. It seemed like a good idea until about halfway up where it was just spinning round my head how hard this hill was going to be tomorrow!

The race itself started fast... very fast actually. I had a little dig off the front and bridged up to 2 fellas hanging off the front, however David Millar had decided to jump on my wheel and this spelt Game Over for this move as the group behind gradually came back up to us. It took me quite a long time to recover from this effort and while dropping back through the peloton in the wheels i got caught behind a stupid crash. A long chase followed and once we caught the peloton again two things dawned on me... 1: We only had about 10km to go before the bottom of the Tumble and 2: the Peloton is looking rather small! Turns out a split of 32 had buggered off up the road and behind we were just going backwards. Come the tumble things heated up again. I managed to find some sort of climbing legs and stuck up near the front, heading over the top in the front group of about 15/20. We hit the finish circuits not far behind the main break group infront, but infront of that again there were 4 riders a long way up the road... Dan Lloyd, Chris Froome, Peter Kennaugh and Kristian House. By the finish we had mopped up a fair few riders and arrived for 20th place with me getting 28th and 9th U23, not a great ride but quite happy i managed to salvage something after thinking it was game over after about 50km!

In front chris froome had attacked his 3 companions at every possible opportunity and deserved the win however Kristian House surprised the ProTour favorites to steal the win in a tight sprint with Dan Lloyd taking 2nd and Kennaugh 3rd (1st U23)

The next few days i had been resting and making the most of the sun and watching Andy Murray play some amazing tennis seeing as he's british. And then yesterday i arrived back in Quimper. Back to the day job. Back on the Bike.