Racing on the Continent

www.tomcopeland.co.uk

2010-01-04T13:36:00.001+01:00

If you're still checking this blog for updates, stop and get move over to www.tomcopeland.co.uk

Its fully up and running now with regular updates.

I won't really be updating this blog here anymore.

Change

2009-12-23T14:37:00.003+01:00

So its been work-in-progress for a while there but the upgrade from this blog is getting there, well there's enough on there at the moment to make a worthwhile Opening so to speak.

So go along to www.tomcopeland.co.uk and have a look. Feel free to leave feedback as long as its productive! and save it in your favorites so you can just pop back everytime you're online!!

I'll keep it updated regularly so you can follow what i'm up to.

Go have a look.

NOW!

Lanza Part 2

2009-12-18T21:44:00.000+01:00

So after a bit of rain on Wednesday things got back to normal for Thursday and today with a BIG sun in the sky to get the tan lines back on track! Yesterday me and matt headed out for an awesome 5hr ride which pretty much took us on a complete tour of the island heading up north to get some nice long climbs in, where we bumped into 5 of the Rabobank fellas out doing what looked like hill reps… they were climbing a lot faster than us anyway. At the top of the climb clad in his Dutch national champs kit, looking the dogs nuts was Koos Moerenhout (spelling?!) just standing around shooting the sh1t with one of the DS’s I guess… lazy pros! So we soon dropped them and carried on turning down south and realising that since coming out the wind had picked up slightly, well a hellova lot actually! So there we were twatting it out side by side just trying to hold 10mph! Good times. Down the south of the island we caught some more good long climbs and looped back round to finish with about 20k’s of sweet tailwind to blow us back home and straight to the fridge to start stuffing our mouths in prep for tomorrow!

Wednesdays ride stats… 5h01 ; 88miles ; 5700 calories burnt ; 2100m of ascent ; 312 watts average (doesn’t mean much to me!)

After the epic day yesterday I stuffed myself silly and woke up this morning feeling wayyyy too bloated so I headed out for 1h15 before breakfast to burn off a bit of yesterdays grub. The weather wasn’t too bad I guess seeing as its 5inches of snow back home… at 9.45 this morning it was easily 20degrees in the sun!
I headed out again this afternoon with matt for a loop down to the National Park on the Island which is literally like riding through Mars, called Timanfaya Nt. Park. Sadly the clouds had moved in making it a bit cooler but this eve I think I still managed a bit of tan as my arms are steaming and red yet again! Good times.

Only 3days riding left out here before heading back home, and having seen photos from back home I’m not sure how much real training will be done given the amount of white stuff falling from the sky! Hopefully the flight will still be running!! I need to get back to finish off my Christmas shopping! Nothing like a last minute rush.

Right, I’m stealing internet here from the Germans living next door by picking up their wireless… the hitch is I can only pick up a good signal by sitting on their drive-way! I can hear some noises going on from their direction so best head off sharp-ish!

I’ll try and get a part 3 in before I leave, that’s if I’m not locked up in Lanza for wifi theft…

P.S. I’ll try get some snaps up too.

lanzarote - part one

2009-12-16T21:32:00.000+01:00

My lanzarote training camp started with the inevitable bun fight also known as « flying with EasyJet » ! and the hours leading up to the flight didn’t exactly put my in a great frame of mind to get my gloves on and join the party. My flight was a fairly early 8am take off meaning an early check-in and even earlier alarm call… that’s if I had had any sleep! I couldn’t manage to scrounge a lift off my parents, meaning I had to get the last train to Gatwick and find a comfy bench to try and get a bit of shut eye between 1 and 6am! Not going to happen!
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of spending the night in Gatwick airport… or any other one for that matter… its actually quite interesting! And thankfully Costa coffee is open all night, meaning that I could get stupidly buzzing on coffee to get me through the night.
The flight over all went to plan and before I knew it I was In the apartment getting settled and catching up with Matt. Oh and having left England with two t-shirts, jumper and coat I was soon stripping off, still being too hot in a t-shirt! I could get used to this!!

So day one was meant to be just get settled and chill out but after building the bike I just couldn’t resist getting out there in the sun… so 3hrs and 50odd miles later I rolled back in wearing short sleeved jersey and shorts… hold on its December?? This just didn’t feel right, but who’s complaining!

I’m writing this after 4 days of being here and so far, apart from today the weather has been wicked. Yesterday in particular I got some serious tan lines going again! And a bright red face where I’d just burnt! Give it a few days and ill be brown as … umm something nice and brown I guess.

So I did say “apart from today”, this is because the weather has turned a bit and today has been pretty much non-stop drizzle and during my 2h30 spin I hit some proper downpours. I was laughing out loud at one point as I rode through a town called “Florida” as someone upstairs turned the tap on big style … riding through florida in a rain shower but still being too hot in a long sleeve jersey. Madness.

So after a nice steady ride yesterday the plan is to get a good tour of the island in with a 4-5hr ride with Matt, hopefully bumping in to some Rabobank or Highroad-Columbia riders out on the road. So far I have crossed paths with a few of the Columbia guys, not Cavendish yet im afraid or any off the Dutch lads in orange.

In the last few days we have seen quite a bit of a dutch rider called Erik who rode for the continental team Trek Marco Polo this year and is still a pro in Holland next year. A proper nice bloke and someone I’ll hopefully cross paths with during the 2010 season.

So far then, I have clocked over 240miles and burnt 13,365 calories! That’s a lot of eating that needs to be done!

Best get on with it.

Enjoy the snow back home!

improvements

2009-12-01T11:56:00.003+01:00

have a look at http://www.tomcopeland.webs.com/

trying to expand into more than just a blog.

Keep tuned for updates. I'm off down the gym, will continue this afternoon.

t

More from Jens

2009-11-30T12:06:00.002+01:00

Not sure if i've posted this before but check it out... video of Jens Voight (LEGEND!) in hospital not long after he face planted the asphelt on stage 16 of the Tour de France this year. One of the most horrific crashes i've ever seen but nothing can stop this guy!

http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1217

Have a look.

My posts are like buses....

2009-11-30T11:36:00.003+01:00

... nothing comes for ages then more than one come at once!

A little training update. Last sunday i headed up to crawley for a ride with the Onelife Development Squad http://www.onelifedevelopmentsquad.com/. Was good to catch up with good mates on the ride but any fun turned pretty quickly to uncomfort, coldness, pain... anything describing the unhappy state i was in on my bike! The weather had turned from strong-ish winds with light rain to full blown gales and horizontal Hail smashing into our faces within about 10seconds! The delights of english weather! This lasted pretty much for the last hour of the 3hr+ ride... by the end we were racing to get back to the showers first!

Since then it hasn't really changed much, the wind has been nearly gale force since i can remember now and it has rained everyday! This has sparked my need to get out of this country... the solution... LANZAROTE!

Flights are booked, i'm getting out of here on the 13th december for 9days of riding in the sun with Matt Green. I'm flying out early in the morning to Arrecife then head down to the appartment we're renting in a small town called Guime, dont know much about Lanzarote apart from going there once when i was young but apparently the riding is pretty good out there, with club la santa a bit further north on the island where loads of training camps head out to avoid the crappy english weather. I'll have 9days of riding out there in the sun (it will b sunny no doubt about it!!) and as we are 10mins walk from the beach, maybe i'll have to top up the tan while im there!

Just to rub it in to anyone reading, i've just checked the weather forecast out there for this week... Today to friday SUN 23/24degrees; SATURDAY 26DEGREES SUN 9mph wind!

WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

ill take lots of photos to rub it in a little bit more! Just need to get through 2 weeks more shite weather over here first though!

alrite, a bientot,

Tom

Mudbath

2009-11-27T19:59:00.003+01:00

I cant get to grips with the mental weather we are having at the moment. The rain is only temporary but when it rains... u dont wanna b caught outside! With a MTB nite ride planned for wednesday evening after work with Kris from work a had a constant eye on the weather, and come the day things weren't looking great! Rain storms all day and pretty much gale-force winds were leaving doubts in our minds (Kris already tried to chicken out by not bringing his kit to work... pansy) but we decided it was time to man up and get out there!

Come 6.30 we were heading up over the downs at the start of the southdowns way with an aim to head over to Friston Forest taking in some good singletrack and without going mad... not being much of a mountain biker, the idea of riding with only a light on the handlebars to help you see where you're going was slightly daunting however once out there fully equipped with my "Exposure Toro Headlight" http://www.exposurelights.com/newsite/product/000016/toro/

coming in at a fairly hefty £275 (thanks to http://www.thetristore.com/ for letting me take it out for a test ride instead of emptying my wallet!) i was ready for anything.

We had a breif downpour and hail storm to clean the first caking of mud off head to toe, but after that we had a clear run all the way.

A puncture in the middle of the deep dark forest left us surrounded by silence in the darkness apart from a spooky owl somewhere nearby, a bit surreal but cool!

Once back going it wasnt long before kris started to hit the wall and since neither off us thought of bringing food or water ! he was soon crawling along. I had to feel sorry for him as he blew at the bottom of the longest hill on the ride but managed to get over it and roll back down towards town and Home! Me i turned off and carried on a bit over the hills and watched an awesome lightening storrm just out at sea... but i wasnt hanging around as the thunder seemed to be getting closer!

I can see myself as a bit of a mountain biker now! Check out the state of the bike after the ride.

Cant wait to get back out there! Bring on the MUD.

Thank you Ibbo Fund.

2009-11-21T17:15:00.002+01:00

Last night i was up in Epsom at an awesome restaurant called "Jimmy Spices", basically an all you can eat buffet with a choice of indian, chinese, american, or stir fry food which is cooked fresh in front of you after you've chosen what you want to put in it. Needless to say i walked out about 10kilos heavier than i was when i walked in!
More to the point, the reason i was having dinner was with everybody from the John Ibbotson fund to round up the year and to say a big thanks for all the help over the last 2 years in which they have supported me not only financially but also by providing a friendly voice at the end of the line if i ever had any problems out in France, the nation of cheating handballing twats... needed to get that one off my chest!

So yes, a BIG thanks to everyone there for their support and i wish them all the best for next year with the new "fund-ees"!

Check out the funds website at www.johnibbotsonfund.com

Training is really going again now with good road rides at the weekends and lots off cross training during the week... i feel like a bit of a triathlete with the swimming and running ... and the fact that im working in a Tri shop too! not good, next thing ill be clipping on some tri-bars and start riding round in a wetsuit ;) No offence to any triathletes reading obviously. especially you simon (simontunderwood.blogspot.com) if you read this!

ok, i gotta ride home now before it gets dark... bit late i think!

will do a good update soon,

a la prochaine

Its been a while.

2009-11-16T23:10:00.002+01:00

So... avid readers, if there are any left by now after having nothing to read about for a few weeks too long... an update on recent happenings in is order.

Since coming home at the end of october i have been back into the swing of life in the winter at home. I've been back training for a few weeks now which is mainly comprised of cross training with road rides happening at the weekends. The cross training includes running, Gym work, swimming and Mountain biking. I've been really enjoying mixing up training like this (under the guise of my new coach in france- the new DS of Bic2000) and it certainly gets you eager to get on the Road bike come the weekend whatever the weather!

I've also been working pretty hard since back, with 4days a week at the local bike shop www.thetristore.com , ok local triathlon shop but i dont know much about shoes to be honest!
This is mixed in with odd bar work shifts and training to complete my busy life.

Also, since about 10days ago, i've had Laurent LeGac staying, just as a mate but also so he can improve his english.

Oh yeah, last thursday evening while down the gym for a few hours in the evening i had my MTB nicked which really pissed me off! Mainly as i hadn't taken off my new ultegra pedals... even afta taking out the seat-post / saddle while in the gym... so if anyone sees somebody riding round on a black/red Specialized Hardrock with nice shiny silver shimano pedals but with no seat-post, rolling round eastbourne, feel free to swiftly take them out with your car and bring me my bike back!! Twat!

Right, rant over, time for bed. A good 45minute run followed by short turbo spin has got me good and tired. Gym session tomorrow, just wont be going by bike thats all.

bonne nuit!

not much going on.

2009-10-29T21:37:00.002+01:00

Not much going on at the moment here on the sunshine coast... the best thing is probably the weather at the moment which is pretty awesome. 17/18degrees at the moment in the day, not bad seeing as we had snow this time last year.

I've just about finished getting the winter bike ready for the off next week. New cables and bar tape to go on tomorrow and it will be complete. Good stuff.

So this is my 3rd week off the bike now and i'm pretty eager to get back out there. I've had 2 weeks of pretty much complete rest and this week i have started a bit of running and also riding the mtb to work and back!! Talking of work, i've been working at the local bike shop dozn here (triathlon shop really... www.thetristore.com) and god does it hurt my legs standing up all day! You would think that with the amount of hours i put in on the bike that they would at least do me the favour of holding out for a 9hr working day here and there... but no they have to feel like they are going to collapse from underneath me even before the lunch break. What a pansy!

Tommorow i've got a day off work and the weather is meant to be good again before turning a bit grim for the weekend so i might venture out on the MTB over the downs and get a ride in that way. I start on the road again officially from the 8th November but i'll be getting a few hours in next week just to get the bike set up perfect and get the legs ticking over... basically i cant wait that long!

I'm quickly going to shout out a mates blogspot for you to check out- his name is Kris and he's heading out early next year around the world...with just his bike for company! We can all follow his progress on here - www.riding-east.blogspot.com/ check it out.

Another thing to check out is www.bartape.net. If you don't already know of the site, it's got a load of videos from the Cervelo Test Team from here there and everywhere this season. If you got a bit of spare time on your hands check a few of them out.

Things are coming together for next year now. Laurent, Gwenael and myself are on the hunt for a house for next year near Brest. Oh and while talking of accomodation, my landlord from Quimper this year has decided he's going to try and shaft me for a big wad of money by claiming that there is loads of work to be done after i left the flat a few weeks ago. Let battle commence!

Home!

2009-10-22T12:21:00.002+02:00

All is winding down now i'm back home chilling out. I've just about unpacked - didn't realise how much stuff i had managed to accumulate over there in my "room"!

I would just like to post a quick message to anyone reading. Is there any one that would be interested in helping me out financially for the coming 2010 season as i head back out to Bic2000 for my second year in the Division 1 ranks, in the form of sponsorship - in return for the appropriate publicity of course - or does anybody know of any possible contacts that would be of interest. This isn't a call out for money, i just would like to know if anybody knows of any organisations which help out young aspiring sports people in pursuit of their dreams. I have applied to the Dave Rayner Fund but am not sure on my chances.

If so please contact me on tomcopeland11@hotmail.com .

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Tom Copeland

Heading home

2009-10-18T19:21:00.003+02:00

Well Paris - Tours came and went last sunday without a bang. The day was marked by strong crosswinds with the break clipping off in the first 10kms. Just after mid race the peloton, including yours truely, swithed into Grupetto mode... basically everyone has realised that the race will be decided by the guys up the road and there is no point attacking each other for another 90km just to snatch a 40th or 50th place. This made the day even longer with an already long day of 200km taking feeling even longer. With a lot of riders pulling out, i finished with a few mates from different teams and finished the race partly to get to know the special parcours for next year and also because i dont like pulling out of races! (Grupetto mode was switched off in the last 15odd kms as everyone started winding up to do a bunch kick for god knows what stupid placing... such a stupid place that i got involved and pulled out a good kick to come 5th in the sprint, placing me... a long way down but a few places infront of the lads id been laughing with for the last 90km!

So now its time to switch off for a few weeks and chillout doing stuff i dont really get to do during the season, such as eating a bit of whatever i feel like and going out to consume a rare beverage by the name of "alcohol"!

After getting changed and washed up after the race we got the chance to watch the pros finish. A storming ride by Philippe Gilbert, snatching the victory out of the hands of Tom Boonen in a three-man sprint finish.

This is my final week out here for the season as i'm heading back home in 3days for the winter, working, training, catching up with everybody and getting ready for a storming season in 2010!

It will come round quickly!

see you soon

the start of something... dont get your hopes up!

2009-10-09T14:11:00.003+02:00

Fabio Cannavaro, ex player of the year and world cup winner with Italy, currently playing with Juventus has failed a dope control for the banned substance Cortisone!

I'm sure this will soon be swept under the carpet and he'll be back playing in no-time. From what i've read, it was apparently part of a medicine he was given to treat a wasp sting... cough cough ok!

Lots of Italian cyclists being banned for doping at the moment, a footballer doing the same thing... unthought-of!

2009-10-08T11:28:00.002+02:00

I've just been working out how many days racing i've had this year... turns out i've done 73 days racing in total between the 19th february to the 11th october! Not bad and may explain the reason my legs have been on strike recently. This includes...

- 2 wins
- 10 top 10's.
- 3 UCI 2.2 stage races
- 9 stage races
- 1 National Champs
- Lots of travelling around france...
- A lot more kms covered on my Félino Gatopardo

Looking ahead to next season, i'll be staying with Bic2000 with a couple of major changes... firstly, i'll be leaving Quimper and heading up to Brest to a team house with a couple of other riders from the team, namely Laurent Le Gac and Gwenael Simon... Yvon is moving on as DS, to be replaced by Christophe Gouyon, arriving from Nogent DN1 so he already has a handful of experience given he is only 23!! A couple of new signings include Sylvain Cheval (Lorient) François Lancon (UC Nantes A.) and moving out are Matt Jeannès (Cotes D'armor) Vincent Rouxel (Not sure), Yann LeQueau (Leucimie Espoir Quimper), Arnaud Le Boulanger (hanging up his racing bike) and Clement is still waiting on a couple of Professional teams final decisions... good luck to him there.

Some details such as kit and equipment are already being sorted out... we will once again be riding Félino bikes, the Tigre frame, equipt with 2010 ultegra and the new ksyrium SL wheels with Aksium wheels for training. In terms of team kit, this is where things get a bit wacky!... the president has obviously developed a fetish for Rock Racing team kit as he wants to incorporate their designs in our kit for next season!!! minus the skulls and cross-bones etc but with the wacky colour designs. This with the already very "stand-out-ish" apple green colour will surely get some heads turning! Just have to wait and see.

I may also be getting involved in an interesting business enterprise ... to be confirmed in the next few days... watch this space.

keep spinning

Being a tourist in Paris!

2009-10-06T18:01:00.006+02:00

The Wilier TT Bike (above) was a real eye opener infront of the Lampre team bus (below). They didn't have the full range of bikes on show however as 3 had been stolen over night!

Another awesome TT bike, the BMC TT01 (above) and below the Pinarello Prince à la Valverde!

Moving out of the bike show... below is the Renault Megane Sport in the Renault Sport shop. Below that, a Renault racing machine!

Finally below is the Peugeot Sport Le Mans racing beast! This was one of the best shops with proper loud music giving it a really good atmosphere.

the end is nigh...

2009-10-06T13:25:00.002+02:00

What does nigh actually mean? the end of my season is nigh... ?! On writing this i am in my final week of the season with one final race to shine on... just a little 200km espoir classic Paris-Tours espoirs...normally i would be super up for a race like this however given my current form it may well just be a case of survival!

Last weekend is where i realised that a long season racing elites week in week out has finally taken its toll and to put it lightly i'm cooked!

The first of two races last weekend was a race which normally would be a good one for me being a tough circuit with a two good lumps to get over, and 28 laps making it a tough day... however after an active start i hit a bad patch after about an hour of racing. Going up the harder of the two hills i had no power and quickly went out the back. I carried on in a group just out the back and ended up a lap down... i still finished 22nd but it's the first time i've ever finished a lap down so took a hit on the self-esteem there. Two days after i was lining up on another tough local circuit race which had the same outcome with the legs not recovering from the efforts i was putting in... this time i pulled out after an hour of racing knowing that it wasnt my day and there was no point killing myself to stay in the peloton.
Following this weekend i took a few days off the bike and started preparing for Paris-connere, a 180km one day classic which i would use as training for the following weekends Paris-Tours.
Paris-Connere went pretty good seeing as i hadn't done many miles in the week and lacked a long ride, however i was active throughut, but missed the split of 20 odd riders in the crosswinds which went on to the finish. Behind i finished in the peloton, happy to have finished given over 100 of the 220 starters had dropped out. So thats the race reporting done...

... i went up to paris on the thursday before the race as, with Laurent Le Gac, we had managed to get 2 "press" passes to the Salon du Cycle - Monde de deux roues which is a big cycle show on the Champs Elysees with all the brands showing off their new products. I'll post up a few pics after this blog.
While in town we had a quick scoot round paris taking in the standard tourist spots and doing the shops up and down the Champs...like the Renault Sport shop which was by far my favorite!

pics to follow...

Dream Team + FITTY!!!

2009-09-22T21:36:00.002+02:00

Here's a photo before the start of the Ronde Mayennaise on sunday where we won the team prize making us Champions of France of Division 1 espoir teams and Division 2 teams. Good stuff. Below, after the podium with the stuffed teddy "Marsupilami" which we took home! Winners!

2009-09-17T18:24:00.002+02:00

The weekend just gonee was spent in the rather inhostile region known as La Manche... known for always being windy. And it didn't let us down for our flying visit! Clement, Matthieu, Laurent, Kevin Collin and myself were in the town of Cherbourg for the 3 days of... Cherbourg.

Stage 1 started off at break neck speed as we took off with a fat tail wind only to swing a right at the end of the road = Crosswind! It was at this point i realised that my radio wasn't working and i was getting no info on when and where the wind was. As a result i was very badly positioned and missed the first "echelon" as about 15/20 rode clear. Luckily for us (as all 5 of us missed it!) there were a few other teams who had missed it too and a hard chase back on got us back to square one, minus a fair chunk of the peloton i should note! The day was marked mainly by the wind and a lot of time was spend cursing at how the guy infront was always a lot smaller than me offering little wind resistance... a problem i will always have unfortunately! At about 20km to go on one of the final hills of the stage a small group went clear including Clement and they would hold a small advantage until the line over a chasing group of 40 odd including all but Kevin. Clement took 3rd for the stage at 9 seconds... race on!

Stage 2 was a steady stage until the final 40 odd kms as a break of 4 got away and stretched out to 8 minutes before and real chase was organised. With Clement 3rd we gave a helping hand and come the last 6km all was back together. We had protected clem well all day but i'd also said i was feeling great and i only had to do a small amount of work on the front to save my legs for the final hill 2kms from the finish which would be decisive. In the mad tussle for position at the base of the climb a hand full of riders hit the deck infront of me and i had nowhere to go... the split seconds where your saying to yourself "i'm going to crash... i'm going to crash..." passed and i nearly saved it by some swift breaking and turning however the guys behind obviously weren't as exceptionally skillful as myself ;) and they came flying into the back of me and joined the pile up. Game Over, for the stage at least. I was gutted to say the least. However up the road clement pretty much completed the job and took 2nd on the stage, missing out on yellow by 2 seconds as Arnaud Corteille of UC Nantes Atlantique just nicked it.
Damage report... chainring marks in my forearm and leg... road rash and bruised knee... broken shifter on the bike.

Stage 3 was a short 55km morning stage on a pretty much out and back route with a good wind to keep everyone on their toes. From the gun a small group of 14 got clear with me in and the stage would be spent with my 13 new made pals for the morning up until the finish line, however not without incident. The max advantage we had was 55 seconds but with a few teams missing out and the French champ present and at only 38 seconds on GC, Nantes were forced to ride behind. Everyone pulled through well and come 2 km to go the gap was at 20 seconds and the attacks were starting to kick off. It was around this time when the majority of the break didn't fancy following the course route to the left as the road looked rather nice straight ahead... yes we went the wrong way as the signallers on the corner were caught napping. A quick skid stop and U-turn got us back on track but with the peloton at about 5 seconds behind it was a mad dash to the line for the last km. It turns out one of the fellas in the break happened to take the left turn and he finished ahead with 4seconds to spare. On my part i had missed the 1km to go banner and was confused as to how far the finish was... until we swung a right and the finish was 100m infront. I finished 10th for the stage with the rest of the peloton arriving ontop of us on the line. Frustrating stage as i was feeling great.

Stage 4, the afternoon stage of 100km, was a fight from start to finish. I didnt have a great impact on the stage apart from a fair bit of riding on the front especially in the final 20km where we and Nantes got on the front to try to bring it back together for the finish. I imploded and swung off in the last 2km hoping clem could hold his position in the front and keep 2nd overall... however both himself and the yellow jersey got jumped and lost out to Kevin Lalouette from USSA Pavilly Barentin who took the overall by a slim 2second margin thanks to a final break in the last few kms. A third on GC and top 3 in the team classification plus a top 10 stage for myself rounded off a good weekend away.

I've tried looking for photos of the race but cant find any for the moment.

The following day, Monday, there was a local race which is part of the series Trophée Aven Moros in which i was lying 2nd overall. I was going to go along and watch the race nonetheless but just before we left i decided i would race... turns out even with legs shot to pieces after the weekends efforts i took 5th. Last year i got 2nd here arriving with Salva Vilchez... this year he was up the road and won alone. He's been off form for a few weeks now, however i can say from what i saw on monday that Salva Vilchez is back and he ain't pissing about!

A steady week is on the programme before heading off to the Mayenne region on saturday for the Boucles de la Mayenne on sunday. Another big one day elite race.

Until next time

Movie night.. and day

2009-09-05T12:05:00.005+02:00

Since i have been confined to my sick bed, hit by a seriously grave case of Man-Flu... get well soon letters are greatly appreciated... i have een hitting the movies big time. So instead of writing another dull race report commenting on how i didnt do this or didn't win that, i thought i'd give a little report of some cracking films i've caught up on.

First of all, i watched the new Iraq war film 'The Hurt Locker'. The story follows a small group of US soldiers who form an elite Army bomb squad in Iraq where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb. The film is full of suspense from the start right to the very end. It makes you realise what some of the guys out there go through day in day out and what a hostile environment it must be out there. I think i'm safer sticking in the saddle for the time being!

After this i caught up on Transformers 2 which i've been meaning to see since it came out. Following on from the first film which although was proper cheeeeesy, was a good watch nonetheless! It's hard to describe the film without giving too much away but it follows the constant battle between the bad transformers (the decepticons) against the band of good ones (the Autobots) led by Optimus Prime. Cought up in this carnage of metal is the Human Sam Witwicky and his "rather pretty!" girl friend.. the original founders of the transformers in the first film. The basic plot is ... the Good robots fight the Bad robots in an effort to save the bad ones from destroying earth! As i said... cheesy but still definately worth seeing! It's actually quite moving at a couple of moments... then i realised what i was watching and "manned up"!

A couple of other classics i've been working my way through are... The Bourne Identity, the second one and the third one! Probably about the 100th time i've done the trilogy but still awesome.

Next on the list, District 9, Ice-Age 3 (still haven't seen it!)... any other recomendations please post!

Also anyone got any ideas on stuff they want me to blog about outside the cycling scene...? Let me know.

Lunch time.

A+

Felt obliged to put up a photo of Megan Fox... Sam's girl in Transformers... enjoy.

this week

2009-09-03T17:27:00.003+02:00

This weekends stage race went off without much of a bang on my part, didn't manage to slip into either of the long breaks neither did i have a blistering TT... finishing in the mid-times where everyone bunches up behind the speed demons. However i wasn't just sitting in the peloton following wheels for two days as Clement was on some hot form and took 7th in the TT with 20seconds defecit going into the last stage so we were riding for him. He got away early on in the last stage but got brought back near the end while one rider, Dimitry Samokhvalov (see pic) clipped off on the final 2km hill finish to just nick enough time to take the Overall. Not a bad ride seeing as he took the first stage after clipping off in similar style too!

My final stage finished when i was in a split in the peloton on the final lap and i finished easy and saved a bit for mondays and tuesdays races too.

Monday went well with 3 of us from Bic getting away in a break of about 20. After about 30odd km's together the race was coming back behind us so we attacked together and took 7 others with us and pulled away again. With 55 seconds going into the final lap we knew it was done and we started to attack the break. In the end Ferjeux clipped off with 2 others and ended up taking 3rd... out of three! Not great but a podium none-the-less. Behind i helped Thibault take the sprint for 5th and i came 7th. With a few primes in the pocket too it wasnt a bad day out.

Tuesday started off with a light 45mins spin before breakfast to turn the legs over... this acts a bit like a massage and before breakfast means that the blood isn't in the stomach digesting food but is in the legs to help flush out the toxins from the day before. (apparently!)

It seemed to do some good as the legs felt pretty good for the first few laps of the race however they soon died and i was hanging on till the end of the race. I finished in the counter attack after the front group split and i could go with. We were racing for 11th and i took 14th. A hard day in the saddle!!

Since then things have gone downhill... i have contracted swine/bird/somekind of killer flu and have been feeling proper shite since yesterday evening. Movies in bed and lots of honey is on the cards... feel sorry for me!

Straight from the horses mouth..

2009-08-28T21:15:00.005+02:00

I've just been reading David Millars blog, the millar diaries on cyclingnews.com, and found a classic quote which reassures me on the odd rest day out here when time literally crawls by ...

"cyclists saying they're bored, man alive, we're the Jedi Masters of boredom, embracing and wallowing in it to degrees mere mortals can only try to imagine. It's part of the job description: the less one does off the bike, the better one is on the bike. Fact."

Click on the picture above for a link to the full blog. Good stuff.

Anyhow, i've just finished a little piece for Cycle Sport magazine which i'll post up when it comes out. Apart from that little has been done today. A 2hr spin this morning to open up the legs before starting a two-day elite stage race starting tomorrow, L'Agglo Tour de St. Breiuc (previously the Cabri Tour for those that have done it). Its looking like it will be a good race with a quality start list including the US U23 team with Peter Stetina who i have read a fair bit about being pretty shit-hot! US U23 TT champ, two years running. 150km tomorrow, 11km individual tt sunday morning followed by 100km final stage sunday morning. Bring it on.

Got a bit sidetracked there... o yea otherwise today i haven't done much. Coffee in town with some mates chatting about how we are going to rip it up tomorrow, who's going to win which stage, who's going to drop who... the usual! I've also just finished watching The Bourne Identity for the millionth time.

Bag needs packing and sleep needs to be had, thats all that needs doing for the rest of my evening. Hope yours has been a little more productive.

Ciao

Inglourious Basterds!

2009-08-28T12:32:00.005+02:00

New Quentin Tarantino film, a must see. Check out the trailer by clicking on the poster above... tried posting a video but it wont let me... so i'm getting smart and making a picture into a link!

I saw the whole film the other night (in french however) but understood the general idea and found it awesome, would be even better in english though.

I wont talk about the plot as not to spoil it, so just get your ass down the cinema and watch it.

In need of an update!

2009-08-25T16:27:00.007+02:00

ok, i've been busy, racing, visiting, being visited... lots to talk about!

(Left: Me and clem pulling the break along at G.P Plouay)

First things first... what have i raced since i last blogger... good question, i'm not even too sure myself! It's been a busy august thats for sure. following on from the kreiz breiz elites we headed back into the centre of brittany for the Mi Aout Bretonne, a 4day 2.2 stage race made up of mainly continental pro teams from here there and everywhere, again. One team which i was looking forward to racing against was Rapha Condor who were making the trip across the border with a strong squad who were just coming off the back of the Tour of Quinghai Lake in china which explains why they were all going well. Stage one got off to an alrite start as i slipped into a couple of early moves but missed the small break which slipped away before the peloton sat up for a little breather before kicking off near the finish circuits. The circuit included a 1km climb which easily averaged over 10% with a nasty false flat after and this caused the race to explode. The result was 2 riders, Frederik Wilmann (Joker Bianchi) and Niels Albert (BKCP Powerplus, world cyclocross champ) bridged up to the lead group and behind the peloton split in two with me safely in the first half finishing at 3mins in 33rd and the second half of the peloton at over 10mins.

Stage 2 was a super hard day where again the peloton blew to bits. I finished in 43rd after having bridged up to the front group with several others only to get shelled on the finish circuits. I rolled in at 8mins down with most of the field coming in at 24minutes, a long way behind.

Stage 3, what happened? ah yea that stage... the early break went up the road as usual and then the leaders wound it up towards the final 60/70km. I had a pretty uneventful day saving the legs for the final stage and finished in the peloton, a handful of seconds behind a small group which clipped off late on.

The final stage looked like a beast in the race manual and lived up to its name from the start. There was no neutralised section today and attacks came from the word go. After taking a couple of kms to get to the front i attacked immediately and got away in a small group with clement too. We bridged up to a few infront and gave it full gas holding a small gap. Gradually we started to pull away and built up a lead of a minute after about 40kms. We were still flat out and just to pull through on the front i was pretty much flat out... i didnt miss a turn though unlike a lot of hangers on at the back. The main guys pulling the break were me, clem, the belgian amateur champion who looked the business in his national jersey! chris newton and johann le bon (junior EU/world champ last yr and already turned pro at 18yrs old... a machine). However the gap started to fall as we hit the hills and the group split up and eventually got caught at about 70/80ks in. After my efforts there i was pretty much spent and gave it all i had just to finish as i knew i was on for a top 30 placing on GC, nothing superb but my first top 30 in a UCI 2.2... i wanted it quite bad! There was a short sharp climb on the final circuit and each time i managed to get up to the front as that by the time i got to the top i had dropped back to the rear end of the peloton. With people getting dropped everylap it was just a case of surviving. Survive i did and i rolled in safely to take 27th overall on GC. job done. First long break in a prorace too which was good and will definalety help.

Following on from this stage race i had one day off before i was down to ride a Coupe de France... a series of races for the top amateur clubs in france... basically the hardest amateur races here.

The DS didnt expect much and with 4 out of 6 coming off the back of the Mi Aout we were given the green light to just get stuck in and see how the legs are. The race went well with us getting 2 in the break for the day but the sprinters teams brought it back for a bunch kick where i tried to mix it up but only managed 33rd after exploding at about 50m out! We averaged over 44.5kmh for 180km so was pretty swift and together with the stage race it will help build on what is already some good form.

So that was last monday... since then i had a few days staying with Laurent Le Gac chilling out in Brest and at the beach before heading back to Quimper to meet my parents who were over for the weekend. Was nice to catch up with them and get pampered eating out at restaurants a couple of times!

They had come over to watch me do race the Grand Prix Plouay on saturday which i was pumped for and with them there i was extra motivated for a good result.

so after an early start... very early with the start being at 9am due to the Womens pro race being on in the afternoon, i took the start line under grey clouds along with 170 others. By the end of 3 of 7 laps the peloton was all back together and attacks were flying left right and centre. I clipped off in company of a Vendee U rider round the back and after a hard chase we bridged up to a group of 9 in front, which included Clement, Matthieu and Vincent. Looking good. We hammered it for a lap and had pulled out to 45 seconds however a lap later a large group came across to us and all the attacking started again. The group split in three with 11 riders going away with vinc, and me ending up in the back group and getting swallowed up by the peloton. The race was finished up front with the front group storming up the road, however my race wasnt over as i clipped off early on the final lap with two others and bridged across to the counter attack which was coming in for 15th place. I went from a long way out in the sprint ... trying to pull off a Boassen-Hagen! but ended up getting swamped in the closing metres and finished 24th, nothing special but not a disaster. The winner was the seasons top rider, Laurent Pichon who has mopped up 11 or so victories already with many being elite pro races. He has got his place on Bretagne-Schuller conti team pretty much sown up now. Good news for a really nice guy. O yea forgot to mention... the grey clouds got worse and we got soaked for more than half the race!

Back to normal life this week "sans" the parents and i'm now just getting ready for an elite 2day stage race this weekend, Cabri Tour.

veloresults.co.uk article

2009-08-08T11:20:00.002+02:00

www.veloresults.co.uk/2009/08/tom-copeland-an-introduction/

a cheeky little interview.

also, next week Mi AOut Bretonne start list:

http://www.directvelo.com/direct-velo/actualites/4304/mi-aout-bretonne-les-engages.html

Kreiz Breiz Elite

2009-08-03T15:15:00.006+02:00

Last weekend i raced the Kreiz Breiz Elite 3day stage race. A UCI 2.2 with a good field:

-ALBI VELO SPORT

-COTES D'ARMOR CYCLISME
-VC EVREUX

-AC LANESTER 56

-NEW HEEBRA LOMBARDEN
-AUBER 93
-DRAPAC PORSCHE CYCLING

-BRIDGESTONE ANCHOR JAPON

-BRETAGNE SCHULLER

-SUNWEB-PROJOB

-SUPER SPORT 35 ACNC
-CHAMBERY CYCLISME FORMATION

-VELOCE CLUB ROUEN 76

-VAN HEMERT GROEP DE JONGE RENNER
-UCI CONTINENTAL CYCLING TEAM JO PIELS

-KATYUSHA

-BEVEREN 2000 QUICK STEP

-BIC 2000

-US STE AUSTREBERTHE PAVILLY BARENTIN

-VCP LORIENT

-TEAM WILO AGEM 72

-ENTENTE SUD GASCOGNE

-UNION CYCLISTE BRIOCHINE

-CYCLING TEAM BOURGAS

-KROLSTONE CYCLING TEAM

-SEVENSTONES CYCLING TEAM

-HENNEBONT CYCLISME

Stage 1 Saturday 175km:

I wasnt feeling great legs wise today mainly due to not having fully recovered from the Alps trip in which we got home 3 days prior to leaving for the KBE. Luckily the stage didnt have a large impact on the GC with Dimitri Champion and Guillaume Mallé holding off the peloton by 20seconds with Champion taking the win in his bling national french champs kit. I finished safely in the bunch and luckily avoided a nastly crash about 6kms out. None of us from Bic came down.

Stage 2: Sunday morning 97km.

Today was a split day with pretty much 100km in both the morning and the afternoon so you couldnt give it everything in the morning to be dead in the afternoon yet the race split up pretty well in the morning stage with a large break of about 25 going clear about lid way through. I got in one of 2 early moves but we were only allowed about a 20second gap before we were reeled in after about 10kms out front. The split happened on one of the KOM's and i was caught napping really. The break had some big fire power in and the teams not represented behind were having trouble keeping a check on it. As we hit the finish circuits, the first time up the climb on the circuit the peloton split up with a small group going clear. At the same time i think all of the Cycling team Jo Piels riders went straight out the other end after chasing hard all day. A few laps later and i got away and across to a small chase group. We caught another counter and were chasing about 1minute 30 behind the main break up front. It stayed this way at the finish with the peloton loosing over 6minutes ont the stage whereas my group came in just under 2minutes down.

Stage 3 Sunday Afternoon 99km:

This was bizarre. Having headed back to the digs and re-fuelling... and trying to have a quick nap with the dodgey russians from Katyusha next door making a proper racket... we were back on the bike spinning it out on the way to the start of the third stage and the second on the same day.

The stage started fast with not much getting away. I was in a move of 5 which at first we were allowed to go free but counter attacks behind brought us back after not too long out front. The pace was kept high as we took in some tough hills and i was happy just to be sticking in the top end of the peloton. The highlight of the stage, well i say highlight it was more the most painful part, was the Mur-de-Bretagne, 1.5km climb on a dead straight road with a 10% average...It was here that the race really started to split and over the top i was in the front split of about 30odd which didnt work together and all regrouped by the bottom of the descent (the ds was quite happily telling us how many riders were getting shelled ut the back and forgot to tell us that the road kicked up again sharp-style straight after the descent... so there i was looking like a fool as i took off on the twisty bits in poursuite of a small break just ûp the road, only to see the road rear up infront of me... i found myself back in the peloton in a flash!

Two riders clipped off at about 30km out and the peloton was happy just to ride tempo behind. The two puled out to four minutes as we hit the finish laps and stayed clear to contest the win with the sprint coming in about two minutes later. Janek Tombak, Bourgas CC, clipped off on the last lap to steal the yellow jersey by a few seconds going into the final stage.

Stage 4 Monday 178km:

I was feeling good this morning and was set on getting out front in the break for the day however this is never that easy. It was looking good for a while as i got away with fellow alps companion Jean-Marc Bideau only for the yellow jersey to jump across and spell the end of our escapade! Immediately after, french amateur champ Samuel Plouhinec countered taking 5others with him and me at about 5 metres behind the last rider... it stayed this way with the 5metres gradually becoming 10, 20 and then they were gone. A little déja vu from the Tour of Brittany but this time it was me having reacted a second too late instead of a complete twat letting the wheel go to purposely drop me as their team didnt like the way we were riding.

The race came back together on the finish laps and was non-stop attacking. I had a go with about 10km to go and at first had champion, two belgian a russian for company before i countered again and took just a belgian with who was suffering a bit too much and could hardly pull through so we didnt last long. The stage finished with two riders clipping off one of which was at 2seconds on GC and so he stole Yellow in the last few kms... serves Tombak right for chasing me and Jean-Marc down at the start when we were no threat on GC! Fool.

Me, i finished in what was left on the peloton and took 39th on GC... nothing special but an improvement on Tour of Brittany.

Next stop is the Mi Aout another 2.2 12th-15th august. Rapha Condor are making the trip across the channel for it ... should be interesting!

ok, will find something different to blog about soon rather than just a dragged out race report!

Soooorry

... Etape du Tour

2009-08-01T10:23:00.006+02:00

5am Monday July 20th, Montellimar:

A big green monster emerges out of his cave as the first morning light glints off the dewy grass... WAIT thats me getting out of the tent at an insanely early hour in the morning!

So as where was i... yes a super early start would normally spell disaster for me as i am not a morning guy even on a good day, however today was different. There was definately excitement in the air... and some other dodgey smells too when you put 11 guys together in close proximity your bound to make some kind of flammable gases. After attacking a bit of breakfast and prepping the bike for todays outing i headed off to the start village in search of a coffee to kick start the machine! Half an hour later i had managed to find some of the other lads and was on my way to the start. This was where the coffee came in handy! We had spoken about how there were bound to be some idiots who didnt really know how to handly a bike in amongst the 10,000 odd starters but i didnt quite realise how dodgey some people really were... in the kilometre or so between my coffee stop and finding our starting pen i saw at least three crashes! We hadnt even started the race and there were guys hitting the deck! Oh dear.

- Côte de Citelle 5,2 km at 3,9 %

-Col d'Ey 6,3 km at 5 %

-Col de Fontaube 4,7 km at 4,3 %

-Col de Notre-Dame des Abeilles 7,8 km at 4 %

-Mont Ventoux par Bédoin 21,2 km at 7,6 %

Anyway, i managed to make it to our starting pen without incident, numbers 2200-2600 or something like that, and waited for the off.

5,4,3,2,1... GOOOO! 10 minutes later we clip in and start to roll forward!

To catch up on lost time, 3 of us took off and started our 3up time trial for the day. By the top of the first small col we must have already passed nearly a thousand people but there was still a long way to go and large gaps started appearing between one group and the next. So we got into the routine of towing a large group of riders unwilling to even pull through once and then attacking then (and dropping them i should add!) on each little climb we could find.

There was one depressing stretch of road in a valley with a headwind where we honestly must have had at least 200 riders strung out in a long line behind us... nobody even tried to come help us on the front! We soon droppped them though as we hit the second climb of the day!

After a good 60odd kilometres we caught up with Matthieu Jeannès and Benoit Jouanigot from our group who had managed to jump fence at the start and get off in the top 600, cheeky bastads! (Matthieu had managed to come unstuck and hit the deck as a rider pulled over infront of him on one of the climbs).

So now we had two more riders to add to our chaingang. After about 120/130km we got tired off pulling for all the other riders and eased off deciding just to ride on the hills. In the group i managed to find some friendly english faces including Henry Furniss, rides for WindyMilla in the UK, and also Yanto Barker (premier calendar rider in the UK for Le Col Colnago http://www.lecol.net/). As the k's clicked by, we were getting nearer and nearer to the leg breaker for the day... the final leg of the race up Mont Ventoux. You could actually see it towering above you after about 130kms but we didnt hit the bottom slopes until about 150km in.

The bottom started well as a few of us rode away from the group we were in however i started to pay for our time trial through out the day as the slopes veered upwards. This is where the torture started! I wasnt in a good state and by now the sun was properly beating down, between 35-40degrees apparently on the climb. I had also run out of water after deciding now to stop at the feed station at the bottom of the climb. A good several kms in and i realised i was in a bit of trouble as all the guys i had passed in the last 10odd kms started to crawl past me again.

I decided to stop at one of the caravans parked on the road which happened to have a local brittany number plate, hoping they would recognise the Brest kit, and ask for some water. I dont know who the guy was but he saved my day there!! Proper legend, as he quickly ran into his caravan and whipped out an ice cold big 1.5litre bottle of water... "can i keep it?", "of course, good luck Bic2000!" Get in. i downed the bottle in about two gulps and within minutes i felt fresh again! Another few kms up the road and i stopped for the last time to fill up my bottles at the feed station just before the road opens up into a desert on to of the mountain.

Feeling good now, i decided to put the hammer down and see if i could catch all the people who had passed me when i was hanging out of my arse! And one by one i passed everyone, the last two of which were Yanto Barker who i passed in the last 2km and also Florian Le Corre from our group who had passed me and left me for dead after about 4or5km of the climb. I told him to stick behind me as i was on a mission but i dropped him in the last km as the road kicked up again.

200m to go, swing a steep right hand turn hairpin, kick up over the top ... game over. "FINISH". Man i was gald to see that sign!

So that was my first experience of the Mont Ventoux and it was HARD! Probably the hardest mountain i had done all week. But a wicked climb nonetheless.

5 hours 45 minutes 42 seconds. My time for the day. A fair way off the winner Dimitri Champions time of 5hr 09mins but not too bad seeing as i never even saw the front of the race. That placed me 105th over the line and 74th on actual time rankings given the delay between the real start and when my group started. Shame i couldn't get in the top 100 but was still a really good day out.

Jean-Marc Bideau from our group managed 2nd behind his team mate Champion so at least we had a rider on the podium too! A certain Cedric Vasseur just beat me to the line 14seconds ahead and took 102nd.

An awesome day on the bike but i was sure glad to get to the top of the Ventoux!

There were 7396 finishers from a near 10,000 starters with the last man coming in at 11hrs 05mins 38seconds, with some riders taking up to 4hrs to get up the Ventoux... i did 1h30 with 2 stops. That must have been torture!!

... Alps Training

2009-07-29T20:20:00.007+02:00

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

2009-07-29T17:29:00.007+02:00

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...

2009-07-28T20:34:00.002+02:00

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

2009-07-03T13:01:00.005+02:00

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.

The Main Man!

2009-06-15T15:51:00.005+02:00

Good short video of the machine that is Jens Voigt! CHECK IT OUT... this guy is awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UncELpyKQLU

First WIN finally.

2009-06-15T10:22:00.003+02:00

In a wierd sort of way i knew that i was going to win on saturday, don t ask me how but i just "felt "it i guess! I knew i was feeling good and was prepared, well kind of, i had already raced the tuesday and thursday evenings before and rode 30kms to the race, but on the start line i felt ready. When signing on i found out that i had the Green Jersey for leading the animateur competition as the race is part of a series ... my reputation as a new-found sprinter just keeps growing! (However i was at least 4th on the classement but 1st had the yellow jersey and 2nd and 3rd were not there). The race was 20 laps of a 5.5 km circuit with a false flat after the finish which takes its toll but apart from that a fairly flat circuit. After 3laps i started to think about the first animateur sprint on the 5th lap and ended up clipping off with 3others. We quickly pulled out a little gap and i nabbed the animateur sprint as well as a few primes in the following laps, however the break was missing a rider from Lanester who had at least 7 or 8 back in the bunch and were sure to organise a chase so i didnt really give too much to the break as it was still early days (this is something that last year i would have tripped up on straight away... getting in an early break and just killing it and myself!) Finally after 4 or 5laps off the front it all came back together and for the following several laps not much happened for a little while. Attacks came and went but nothing stuck until about 7laps to go when a small group clipped off round the finish following a prime and i jumped across with another fella on the drag and soon there was 12 of us rolling though pretty well with all of the teams in the race represented so it looked good. I cleaned up the final animateur meaning i had kept my jersey winning 2 out of the 3 on offer and also picked up 2 of 3 climbers jersey sprints putting me second overall in this classement following the race.

As we hit the second to last lap a cheeky fella attacked and ended up splitting the break, leaving seven of us in front to fight it out. Then come the last lap the standard attacks continued but i was biding my time and trying not to get involved in chasing anything down until 2km to go someone attacked and at first nobody jumped. He got a little gap and then a certain Cyrille Massé from Hennebont (i rode with him at VSQuimper last season) jumped and i jumped on his wheel. He ended up towing me up to the guy infront and just as we got to his wheel i jumped them both and put my head down... 1km to go... doesnt sound like much but it felt like a lifetime... i had a little gap but nothing spectacular as all six were back together behind and as i had a quick peek round one guy was giving it his worth to bring me back. From there i didnt look back again until the final 50metres when i knew i had it in the bag and sat up for the celebration, letting them edge a little closer behind just for good effect! Now celebration as your winning is a major part of how classy your win looks (i cant speak to much about this as i have been lacking in the winning departement) but i did a good job of messing my celebration up! Just as i flung my arms up and out i encountered a small but well positioned bump in the road which made me slip forward on my saddle ... fortunately i didnt come off and take out the rest of the riders in the break, i just looked a bit unconfortable in some of the photos coming across the line! The most important thing is though that i came across before the others! Makes a change, but a good one and i know that it will send my confidence through the roof when it comes to the final stages of races now knowing that i can win.

Following this, i'm having a couple of days off the bike then will be back on it on tuesday with another semi-nocturne wednesday where i'll be ready to work on my celebration again. Then thursday i leave for a place called Aurillac for a two-day three-stage race starting on saturday.

Ciao for now

Scandal!

2009-06-12T20:48:00.002+02:00

Following on from Katyusha's Antonio Coloms' positive test for EPO the other day... still awaiting conformation of his B-sample but lets be honest, he's fooked!... i happened to read that the UCI will be releasing the names of an "undisclosed number of professional riders" who have been caught out by the new biological passport system which as i understand follows the riders blood haematocrit levels etc from controls and compares them to their other values throughout the season as to see if there is a large difference ... hence a product has been taken to raise said level.

An article on cyclingnews.com is saying that the names could be released as early as Monday next week (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/jun09/jun10news2) i'm thinking some big names might be about to miss out on this years Tour de France.

Was asking myself though, why is it that they release the names of busted riders just before the Tour de France each year? I know that they have to be released some time but it seems like they like to hold the suspence until the cycling worlds eyes are all focusing on who will be turning up on the start line for the tour ... or this year who won't be on the start line is a better question. This is when cycling has most worldwide attention and therefore releasing doped riders names at this time helps to further taint the sport. Joe Public already sees the sport and the Tour as a scandal... the UCI isn't helping itself in my opinion. But thats my opinion. Random post i know but beats a race report day in day out!

Auray Semi Nocturne

2009-06-12T15:05:00.004+02:00

After a quick start to affairs a break clipped away after 3 of 35 laps and quickly there were nine or ten guys infront pulling away, half a lap later i slammed it on the only hill on the course and with another fella bridged the gap after a couple of Kms of pain. Several laps of fast through and off and me had pulled out to about 40seconds, on this tight course pretty much game over. I also had Matthieu for company and Yann back in the peloton to follow and of the moves back there. As we neared the end everyone started getting jumpy. Matt clipped off with two others and pulled out a little gap with me following anyone that moved behind... and getting a few angry words in the process, but they were brought back after about a lap and so it was my turn to jump and i took one other guy with me (who had the cheek to jump me for a measly 20€ prime after i had done over half a laps work with him crying on my wheel) but we soon got a good rhythm going and pulled out to about 5+ seconds. However after nearly three laps with three to go i clipped a pedal on one of the corners and nearly lost it completely. I ended up on the pavement but just about upright but had unclipped a foot int he process and with this we were brought back. The following counter attack was the move which stayed away and matt slipped in it but unfortunately ended up 4th, just off the podium. I was left following wheels behind for the last few laps and cleaned up the group sprint to the line... there were only about 6 of us but still for me to be winning any kind of sprint is quite a feat! That gave me 7th for the evening and a few cash primes to pay for some grub tomorrow.

So 5th on tuesday and 7th thursday and the legs getting better each day i'm starting to feel confident again... next race saturday, not a high class field so i have to take advantage and nab that long awaited win. It's coming...

Who says tall people cant corner... however this is the corner i nearly stacked it when away with a few laps to go! In the photo above, me and Matthieu dishing out some pain.

A 5th but not a good 5th...

2009-06-11T09:38:00.004+02:00

Tuesday just gone was one of the local events hosted by our club and therefore a must win race for us really. It was a 90km nocturne of 60 x 1.5km laps around a twisty but not too technical circuits including a sweeping downhill followed by a long uphill drag to the line.

There isn't that much to say about the race itself apart from we cocked up pretty bad and ended up getting 2nd 3rd and 5th (myself coming 5th) but allowing Laurent Pichon to nab the top podium spot. Needless to say the DS wasnt in the best of moods after the race.

My race panned out quite well after i started the race's break after 4laps by attacking on the drag finish and after a few laps 13 of us were away including 5 from Bic2000!! However, then numbers game didnt play to our advantage as the other riders in the break didnt want to contribute much to the pulling on the front, plus the primes on the finish helped to kill off any sort of rhythm we had built up so after holding a maximum of 45seconds, we were finally brought back with 11laps to go. A few attacks followed before 4laps to go when Clement clipped off with Laurent Pichon and quickly opened up a good gap. However it was in Clems interest to sit on Laurent as at the moment he is unbeatable at the finish and has already got his pro stagiere place lined up for the coming months... however Clem must have given too much and as the junction was made on the final corner at about 500m to go, Pichon jumped away and held a tiny gap to the line as the bunch sprint opened up behind. Between myself and a Cotes D'armor rider we got a lead out going behind for our speedsters and on the night we came out on top with their fella coming in 4th while i just managed to hold on to 5th. Not a bad sprint by me considering my twig like caracteristics.

Tuesday was the first race of the week since last fridays Pro-Criterium which turned out to be a bit of a procession. I'm next racing Thursday night and Saturday afternoon so with some good rides between i'll be set for a good hard weeks training before taking a few days rest Sunday, Monday before winding things up heading into the national champs in two weekends time.

Between this week and heading home i've also got a two day Elite stage race somewhere in France called Aurillac...? I'll just get in the team car next friday and see where we end up stopping! All i've been told is that its pretty hilly round there. Should be a blast.

Sorry haven't blogged for a while...

ciao

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

2009-05-30T13:12:00.004+02:00

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

2009-05-26T13:18:00.003+02:00

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...

2009-05-23T09:45:00.002+02:00

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

2009-05-11T21:13:00.003+02:00

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

2009-05-08T12:00:00.006+02:00

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!

2009-05-03T17:31:00.001+02:00

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

Day 3.... 4 and 5!

2009-04-29T22:16:00.001+02:00

Day3: Brittany pulled out all the stops today to make it one hell of a tough day in the saddle! From the off it started raining and with a fairly stiff crosswind all day we were in for a fun one. I can keep this short because there isn’t much to shout about on my part as after about 60km I realized I had left my legs back in the hotel as the cold settled in. Before this I was going fine, up the front, followed a couple of moves generally comfortable but I was soon in trouble. I couldn’t tell you what happened in the second half of the race as I was either sitting just on the back (of what was a pretty well strung out peloton all day) if not I was just surviving in the cars. Twice I dropped back into the cars but made it back into the peloton before the final hill before the finish circuits on which I found the grupetto and rolled in for the last 25/30km’s eventually coming in 17minutes down but happy to have finished for the day. As it happens there was already a grupetto after about 25km’s in the crosswinds so I wasn’t even in the last group, and with 18abandons for the day you could tell the weather had taken its toll! Roll on tomorrow, more of the same apparently. The winner for the day was Laurent Mangel from the local continental team Besson Sojason, taking a solo win 22seconds in front of a small group, after which team leader Clement Mahé rolled in amongst the 2nd group at just over a minute.

Day4: After a rough day yesterday I wasn’t sure how I was going to be going today and had a slight fear of going pop early on if the cold had properly nailed me yesterday! However after a brisk start with a powerful break of four clipping away early on, things calmed a little as the teams hit the front too reel in the break. With mainly a head wind it was fairly easy to sit in and get the legs back. The stage today had six good KOM’s on which I found I was climbing fairly well. However after a short but very sharp climb our team leader was stuck in a split behind and I decided to hang around to give him a hand. After a hard chase back on with a few other riders we got back on to the back of the peloton but my legs were hanging. A small group of us were then gapped at the back of the peloton and another chase was on. We got back on to the back of the group again but just as soon as we hit a wall where the grupetto formed over the top and that was it for the day. Last 40/50km’s easy, or so I thought. I think some of the guys with me wanted to get home quickly.

Day 5: 170km today with a few good KOM’s thrown in for good measure. After a fast start I got myself across to a split of about 30odd and we soon pulled out a good gap but there were too many sitters on and the group split in 2 with Clement and myself in the 2nd half, the wrong half! After trying to close the gap and realizing it wasn’t going to happen we were swallowed up by the peloton and the chase was on straight away as there were some motors in the front group. After the last KOM at 100km in we hit the front with the gap at just under two minutes and gave a helping hand to the leaders team as we weren’t represented up front either. I re-found my legs that I had lost the previous two days and spent the next 30odd km with six or seven others and brought the gap down to 40seconds on the entry to the finish circuits. However while giving it some on the front, we caused some splits behind one of which included our team sprinter but we didn’t wait as he wasn’t feeling top. On the finish laps the sprinters teams took over and closed the gap but Jimmy Engoulevent attacked his breakaway companions and held his gap to the line with the sprint for second arriving on his wheel on the line. I finished cool in 41st position of what was left of the peloton and all in all had a good day on the bike. Promising for tomorrows 24km TT.

day 2

2009-04-26T22:29:00.000+02:00

Day2: After being broken in fairly convincingly yesterday, I was in for a pretty tough stage two. My orders before the start were to get in an early break, or at least try which I had a couple of digs at, once getting away in a small group including Rob Hayles not long after the start, but nothing was sticking. The fat tailwind didn’t help affairs and kept the pace high with an average of 48.5kmh in the first 90minutes. Nothing gained more than 15 or 20 seconds on the small twisty country roads until about 80km in when two riders gradually pulled away. This called for a nature break in the peloton and their gap soon grew to a max of eight minutes. The Rabobank TGV hit the front and the pace was back on. Not long after someone turned the tap on and the skies properly. This caused a bit of mayhem including a big crash with at least 20 odd riders hitting the deck. Luckily I was a little way in front and just heard the carnage behind instead of seeing it… apparently not nice! He pace then remained high until the finish laps where the break still had about five minutes and looked set to take the stage. The finish circuits were up one side of the town and down the other… steep and twisty decent with lots of slippy white pedestrian crossings… not my forte. After losing it a bit on the downhill and then having to re-close the gaps on the uphill the legs soon gave way and i was quickly in the second group being passed by the cars and getting the order to ease-up till the finish. This allowed for a quick catch up for some of the GB lads in the group before we finally rolled in, 7mins down, with the break of two holding over three minutes by the finish! Chapeau. Tomorrow, lots of small country lanes, lots of wind and rain forecast… set to be another eye-opener. Just got to keep trying for the break to get the jersey on the TV, keep everyone happy. If only it was that easy.

Day 1

2009-04-25T22:00:00.002+02:00

To keep this simple my end instead of doing 2 tour de bretagne blogs i'm going to copy and paste one i'm doing for a certain well known UK cycling mag on here too so here goes:

Day 1: New type of racing this Pro malarkey for me! Well it’s still pushing the pedals, but not like the big amateur races I’m used to. It was good to catch up with a few English faces today though as there is a composite GB team here with some old faces from junior years. Anyway… the race. Break of 5 went not too long after the start and then it was feet up for 60k’s where I was tempted to fall asleep from time to time! No, I soon woke up when the race ripped to shreds on a cross wind section and with a crash helping to split the bunch, I was in chasing in the 2nd split. We chased all the way to the finish making contact with the leaders about 5/6km out only for my legs to die while chasing splits at 3k’s out in the crosswinds. I went on to lose 1min20 in the final 3km to the front group of about 40/50 odd, pretty gutted to be honest! With only 3 cat2 (easiest apparently!) climbs today, it was a relatively flat fast stage leaving the wind to do its job, tomorrow though starts to gain some gradient with the finish circuits sure to do some damage with a nasty climb each lap. Legs up now, massage next, then dinner! O yea, the winner was Dennis Van Winden from Rabobank.

Quick update...

2009-04-22T22:29:00.007+02:00

Just thought i'd drop in quickly to blab on a bit on how this weeks gone. Pretty sweet to be honest. Mainly because the weather has been spot on, tshirt, shorts and thongs today! (thongs as in flip-flops of course!) The weekend managed to pass quite quickly even though i wasnt racing, mainly because i could watch 2 local pro races on saturday and sunday. The first, Tour du Finistere starts and finishes in Quimper so was obliged to get out of my hovel and pedal up to meet the rest of the lads out on the finish circuits. The race itself was won by Dimitri Champion from the local conti team Bretagne Schuller in impressive solo style after attacking Voeckler (spelling?! sorry thomas) and co a fair few k's out.

Sunday, the Tro Bro Leon, was a case of legs up and watch it on the tele as it was about an hour and a half away from here, so after an easy 3hr spin on the TT bike and a quick top up of the tan lines (they're coming on a beaut now!) i sat back , cracked open a Bud (hahaha yea right, more like necked a delicious recovery shake and watched how its really done! The race is like a mini paris roubaix however instead of cobbles, they ride on mud/dirt tracks. There's about 24 in total and they made for some good watching, especially when a local training friend from Roubaix Lille Metropole took a pretty hilarious slow-motion tumble over the barriers into the field while trying to cut a corner too tight! He wont live that one down for a while!! The race was rapped up in a sprint finish, with the last breakaway rider getting passed at about 150metres to go, poor sod! Le Vainquer was a one Said Haddou.

The rest of this week has been spent on finishing touches with training before racing from saturday, with a rather hard session on monday and a trip today up to the TT course for the 6th stage. I equiped myself well with lots of directions on firstly how to find the start and then where to head out after that but i knew that it wasnt going to be straight forward! It just never is! To cut a long story short (i need to as i wanna go to bed) i managed to get lost in the start town Douarnenez which really isnt very big at all! and then when i finally found where it started i couldn't work out the first Km or 2! At one point i was heading down a mud path with bomb like craters dotted all over the place thinking .... this isnt a very good TT course... until the road ended abruptly and i nearly ended up riding into a farm barn... "think i went the wrong way back there".

After a few tries i was on the right track and proceeded to find my way correctly round whqt is going to be a testing but pretty fast circuit. Its based on mainly country lanes with a few main roads but the first few km's are mainly uphill so it'll be a case of pacing yourself early and then really winding it up in the 2nd half as it gets a lot quicker on the way back. All in all i think that i could go well there, however i dont expect any kind of real result given the company. We'll see!

Tomorrow i've got an easy rest day which ill spend packing before we head out at 4pm friday avo. I'm really up for it now, especially not racing this weekend it's given me more hunger to get back to speed. I'm sure after a few days of breathing out of my arse i wont be looking forward to the following stages as much but for the moment i can be excited!

11pm! Time for beauty sleep... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

p.s. this is one reason why everybody should do some sort of physical activity:

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!

Stuff...

2009-04-18T14:44:00.004+02:00

found another action shot of the horse in the peloton at the Circuit du Méné on monday! Big strong fella he was!

Also, the teams for the Tour of Brittany have been announced and are as follows:

BRETAGNE SCHULLER

BESSON CHAUSSURES SOJASUN

ROUBAIX LILLE METROPOLE

TEAM U NANTES ATALANTIQUE (amateur)

COTES D’ARMOR CYCLISME / MAITRE JACQUES (amateur)

S.C.O DIJON (amateur)

C.C NOGENT SUR OISE (amateur)

VENDEE U (amateur)

BREST IROISE CYCLISME 2000 (amateur)

VAN VLIET EBH ELSHOF (Pays Bas)

RABOBANK (Pays Bas)

TEAM CAPINORDIC (Danemark)

AMORE & VITA MC DONALDS (U.S.A)

JONG VLAANDEREN BAUKNECHT lotto- Museeuw bikes (Belgique)

JOKER BIANCHI (Norvège)

EQA-MEITAN HOMPO-GRAPHITE DESIGN (Japon)

C.C BOURGAS (Bulgarie)

LOTTO BODYSOL PCW (Belgique)

KATYUSHA CONTINENTAL TEAM (Russie)

EQUIPE NATIONALE D’ALLEMAGNE (Allemagne)

EQUIPE NATIONALE DE GRANDE BRETAGNE (Grande Bretagne)

BEVEREN 2000 / QUICK STEP (Belgique)

going to b a good one

Bad blogger!

2009-04-16T11:06:00.003+02:00

Ok so i know i did a pretty pants job at updating while i've been away since saturday but .... actually dont really have a reason apart from never got round to it! Sorry!

ok so saturday was Circuit D'Armorique, 15 laps of about 8.5km circuit, pretty flat with a bit of wind to mix things up a bit. After what seemed like a personal photo shoot on the start line for Johan Le Bon (junior european/world champ) we set off ... flat out. On the second lap 4riders were just starting to pull away without a Bic2000 in it so to the front we went and put the hammer down to bring them back. After pulling off the front to take a breather as more riders got to the front, i dropped slightly too far back and while doing so a split of 19 formed just off the front and immediately pulled away. We had 3 riders up front but i was annoyed to have just missed the main move as they pulled out to a minute very quickly. I followed a couple of attacks in the next few laps but they were out of sight out of mind up front and with a big race the following day, many of the teams behind gave up the chase and pulled out. With 4laps to go i followed an attack by cedric hervé from cotes d'armor and with 2more tagging along, we clipped away to the finish. Knowing the race was already up we weren't really giving it full gas but in the last few km's of the final lap we were coming up on a group of about 10 infront. I just thought this was a group at a lap down however as we caught them just after the finish line i realised it was the 2nd half of the main break which had split in 2!! They were riding for 10th place and we came home just behind for 20th with me taking 22nd for the day.

Sunday was a trip over to Redon-Redon, the next of the early season Brittany Classics, and one of the last. 160km on rolling roads with light winds and a sunny day to top it off was on the programme. My orders for the day were to get in the early breaks so the team didnt have to ride until the finish circuits where the race would most probably be decided. So off i went from the flag and did my job. Nothing was sticking and after each try the legs were getting a little more frustrated! After about 60km, with everything more or less together, we turned up at the foot of a beast of a wall... about 5 or 6 hundred metres at over 15%. Over the top about 10riders had clipped off and looked strong with some big hitters in the mix... but no Bic2000... so on the front i jumped and gave a quick call down the radio for a little help with the chase and i had people breathing down my neck who were looking to slow down the chase in anyway possible. bastads. This meant twatting it on the front until anybody else came up the front. A few km's later i gave another desperate yelp down the radio for some help shouting the odd "putain" for extra effect!! This must have done the trick i think as eventually the reinforcements rolled up and lent a hand... finally! With a combined Bic2000 and Team WiloAgem chase the break gradually came back and soon after a counter went with Clement Mahe there for the guys in green. Finally, i could take the foot off the gas! The break stayed away right until the sprint where it was passed in the last few hundred metres... dammit! I pulled the plug in the sprint and rolled in mid-peloton to save what was left in the tank for tomorrow.

After a good meal and massage on sunday eve at the team digs, Laurent, Matthieu, Vincent, Gwenael, Enric and myself set out early monday morning for the 6km TT prologue. My start time of 9.03 was bad enough but when i rolled out to test the course in the cold mist at 8.15, i realised that i had left something very important back at the digs... my legs! I Headed back ad tried to get in a good warm up on the turbo but i couldnt get into it. I gave what i had in the 6k's but knew it was a poor time as i rolled across the line. I ended up doing 9min 12 with the winner (Vendee U rider - french U23 cyclocross world champ and junior cross world champ last yr) coming in with 8min15. 57 seconds over about 6km... that was pretty pants on my part! The afternoon started with the same legs as i had the morning but after sitting in confortably for the first 30 odd k's they started to turn for the better. The race then soon got very interesting as you can see in the photo below!!

It jumped out of its field as we were passing by and did the folling 5 or 6 kms in amongst the riders! It was pretty mad but some crazy riders didnt seem to realise that there was an f'ing big horse racing with us now as the rode up and down past it like it wasnt there! After causing a few splits in the peloton and nearly taking the King of the Mountains points, out unwelcome friend turned off and let us get on with our race.

About 10km before the finish circuits we headed up a stinger of a hill which ripped up the peloton, or what was left of it. A small group clipped off and i was in the 2nd chase group with Vincent and Gwen. Gwen was racing for the 1st time the weekend so had fresh legs and was feeling strong so i took some big pulls on the front and brought bridged us up to the front group. This made a group of about 30 with us 3 included as we hit the finish circuits (3 short but hard laps). After a lap or so another group behind with Laurent in came across and this is how we finished. There were 3 riders just off the front and our top finisher was Vincent in 12th, with myself coming in near the back of the sprint, pretty nailed to be honest! Racing against fresh legs with 3races already in mine made for a hard day but i was quite pleased with how i went.

Monday night me and matthieu stayed in a Campanile hotel (aka french travel lodge) with very good food in the form of a eat as much as you like starter and desert buffet which we obliterated! Then tuesday morning, Vincent, Clement, Ferjeux Beauny, Yvon (DS), George (mechano) and Ludo (masseur) joined to make up the dream team for the tour of brittany. (laurent would have been there but couldnt make it).

Tuesday we rode the 140km en ligne section for stage 4 which is going to be HARD! A constantly rolling parcours with a few big or steep hills with make for a hard day with the expected field of riders.

Then wednesday we headed out for a split training day with 2hrs in the morning and just over 2hrs in the avo ... in heavy cold rain for the 3rd stage. The atmosphere in the team is really upbeat and we have a really good group so all in all its looking really good for the tour and now its just a case of ticking over until we head down to Nantes next friday. I cant wait!

Frustrating race...

2009-04-07T15:46:00.003+02:00

Going to keep this one short as there isn't much to say apart from that i wasted good legs on sunday! I did a bit too much early on by attacking and getting in breaks with nothing sticking then paid for it later on the finish circuits. I managed to help get matthieu in the winning break from which he got 3rd after going solo on the last lap but getting caught only a couple of k's out. I eventually got in a small counter and finished around 20th. A pants result from what i was capable of on the day. I still have a lot to learn!

Training this week is fairly light as i've got a big weekend ahead. I'll put some updates as i go hopefully if we have internet access at the hotels.

King Of The Mountains

2009-04-03T12:54:00.004+02:00

I've added a new link on the left to the Best Cycling Holiday chalet in the alps in my opinion! Aptly named King of the Mountains and situated just up from Bourg D'Oisans in the sere region, it's run by Guy and Helyn who offer amazing food perfect for before and after a great slog up and down the best mountains the alps have to offer. I am a personal fan of the amazing home made Cakes!

I'm not sure if i still hold their guests Alp D'Huez time record but i did for a while and as i'm just working out when i can get down there for a training break during this season, i am already thinking of resetting that title!

The chalet is about 10/15km from Alp D'Huez and not far from most of the other well known beasts!

Check out their website for more info at http://www.kingofthemountains.co.uk/

Week of pain, little gain and a bit of McCrap!

2009-04-03T11:02:00.005+02:00

This week started with a cheeky pizza restaurant on monday night but with some interesting company; team mates for the evening were Matthieu and thibault from Bic, as well as a rider from Bbox Bouygues Telecom, Bretagne Schuller and also Roubaix Lille metropole, all local lads and training pals from time to time. This made for interesting table talk as recent races they'd just come abck from included Criterium International and Castilla-y-Leon with Leipheimer/contador mopping up the competition.

On the way home however, their professional attitude was put on the backburner for the eve as we rolled up at McDonalds as they wanted to get a quick McFlurry! Tut Tut! I however was the only one not to over some Mc Crap! ;-) (more of a KFC man to be honest!)

After our monday night antics, tuesday was pre-race day and 2 hrs were on the programme with 45mins behind the scooter tempo. However i was in a pretty grim state all round. Managed to pick up a cold after the weekend, and today it had moved to my head making me feel shite! Then when i headed out on the vélo the legs were non-existant! Smallchainring (aka granny ring) felt like churning 53-11 ... in non-cycling terms imagine a nice gentle stroll, but say a horse on your back! Felt something like this! Although the scooter effort did manage to loosen up the legs a bit making it not all doom and gloom looking ahead to wednesdays race.

Race Day: Rolling out today for the lads in green were Clement, Matthieu, Vincent, brothers Glenn and Yann and myself, making for a small but strong team or so we thought! The race started under warm blue skies but the the classic brittany wind was out in force again. From the start i knew the legs weren't great but still found myself following an early move before getting shelled on a hill before returning back to the calm of the peloton. I found my rhythm and started feeling gradually better when a break of 10/12 clipped off without any of us in it. This called for a quick jump onto the front and some pain to be dished out all round. As it turned out, we started chasing as we hit a long straight road with a nice cross wind so we were soon joined by Cotes D'Armor and Bretagne Schuller in trying to bring back the break while also splitting the peloton up behind. This quickly had an effect with the DS shouting down the earpieces to keep the hammer down and lots of people were getting shelled behind. One of the riders doing some huge turns up front was Lilian Jegou from Schuller, easily pulling through at 4or5 kmh faster than anyone else! So after bringing back the break we tried to keep the pace ûp but some of the groups came back together and more attacks started.

Later on after what can only be described as a wall (see photo... im somewhere a lot further back i think!) which we all slogged up, the race split to sh1t and the break of the day went. I was way too far back on the hill and could do nothing! However i attacked later on and ended up doing a 3up time trial with Matthieu and Yann Guyot from C-D'armor for the last 20km, nearly getting up to the break after closing down about a 45second gap however they pulled away in the last 5-10k's leaving us to finish between the front and the peloton for about 30th place! Not great! Again on my part i know where i went wrong in being way too far back as we hit the bottom of the "wall" and was catching up all the way after that!

An easy few days now before my first non-elite race of the season, a 1,2,3 cat race at Pontivy, home turf for Salva Vilchez and co, and a race which always gets a good field so should be a good race and hopefully if i stop riding like a plonker i can get the good result that i know i deserve!

Gotta go put the washing on!

Enjoy the sunshine (if its sunny where u are that is... lovely here, blue skies, 18degrees! sweeeeeeeet)

Tom

Ce Weekend.

2009-03-31T10:10:00.003+02:00

Saturdays Gilbert Bousquet was a right little toughie! I had heard a lot before about it being a proper "guerrier" race (warrior!) with open exposed roads over the hilltops with lots of wind and usually lots of rain, however this last element managed to hold it in for the majority of the day, only letting out a little drizzle on the last several km's. It was a top amateur field lined up with 3 Belgian teams and the Russian team in the mix.

It started off well for me as after the first few k's i found myself sitting in the front line following attacks nd wheels however i guess i got complacent as not long after i was well and truely swamped on either side just on the approach to a long straight road with.... the all time greatest hit... Crosswinds! And today these bastads were out in force trust me! So i got re-aquainted with my new friend "gutter" and proceeded to spend a fair amount of time with him in early in the race!

After managing to move up a bit, i could see that a group had clipped off the front and were starting to pull away... actually no, they had pulled away as they were very soon out of sight! A quick check on the radio and we had Clement and Matthieu in the front, with 20 others for company. This was the break for the day and gradually things calmed down behind... for a little while at least!

We soon then hit the long open climbs of the Monts D'Arrée, well known around these parts and luckily i knew them too having spent a couple of days riding them on out early season training camp. A good positioning saw me sitting behind the Lombarden train (belgian) who weren't well represented upfront. As we headed over the tops to the exposed moors it was back int he gutter as the russian team put the hammer down. This shelled a lot of riders and we formed a first peloton and gradually started coming back to the group in front. In this group here, laurent and me survived and sat in the wheels until the finish laps where the gap was down to 40seconds, however attacks soon started left right and centre and the chase was up. The gap grew and they were away again up front. Up there, clement managed to make the front split of riders from which the 2 russians in the group (just happening to be twin brothers too!) rode away and won hand in hand! Not a bad family race memory i imagine! Clement finished 11th, and Matthieu 13th chasing on his own. I finished in the 2nd counter attack behind the break so somewhere between 30th/35th. I rolled across the line conserving what was left in the tank for round 2 tomorrow!

Sunday then was Boucles Guégonnaises, another elite race with the a similar field to the day bafore with the belgians and the russians staying over for the party. A full field of 205 riders rolled out for 105 km en ligne followed by 8 laps of 7+km. The plus side about todays race was that i wouldnt be seeing so much of yesterdays friend and the wind had dropped considerably!

So pretty much from the flag a group of 12 went away, we had one rider there, Enric, so we sat in behind as the break wasnt too much to worry about with several bigger teams having missed it, including Cotes D'Armor, 2 of the Belgians outfits.They pulled out to 3mins 30 before any riding really took place in which time i had a little "crevaison" (puncture) and dropped back for that. As the pace was slow i wound my way back through the cars nice and easily with several riders who had taken the same moment to have a "nature break". After about 75km the race started to hot up with a succesion of hard hills to get over. The pace on the front caused a split in the peloton with all of us making the front group confortably. These hills then lead us on to the finish circuit where the real war started. Infront, our man popped and eventually found himself abandoning from cramps, but his job was done, allowing us to sit in easy behind. As the finish laps passed i found myself getting stronger and did some towing on the fron to bring back a couple of moves and having the odd dig to bridge a gap of attack. But it was all together behind with 2laps to go, and there were still 4 riders left out front from the original break... long day in the wind for those lads! A small break crept away then as we neared the finish hill, a 5/600metre uphill drag to the line, i decided to torture mylegs for a while to get across to a good looking attack of a few big hitters. I got across after nearly the line however attacks ruined any sort of chance of us staying away. I kept on going with a few riders and found myself in 3rd wheel down the back straight with the bunch lined out behind. A short little hill followed on which i had one last big dig to see if i could break some elastic behind however 2 russian riders found their way with me, one infront, one behind. As the one infront (yesterdays winning brother) put the hammer down i started to lost his wheel and looked back to flick on the rider behind who just happened to be his brother/team mate who gave me a shake of the head which i took as "your on your own son!" As i proceeded to pop, several riders came past and it regrouped at about 2km out, sitting about 10seconds behind the leading 4 still. This lull allowed me to get back into the mix and as close to the front as i could before it hit the finish drag where all i could do was followed wheels and rolled in for 29th. The bunch caught the break on the line however 3 of the 4 held onto the top 3 places and the 4th was swallowed up in the last several metres! Pretty gutting for him i imagine. So the winner for the day was a Belgian, followed by a different russian, and our first rider was Vincent in 12th place. We would normally have tried to set the sprint up for resident sprinter Yann LeQuéau but he fell heavily on saturdays race and was happy to finish sunday (he did pretty well to even finish seeing as he properly stacked in on saturday, snapping his handlebars in half after hitting some road furniture... according to him he was looking away chatting to another rider at the time!!)

So another weekend passed and another weekend of improvement. I was happy with how it went however i know from how my legs were at the end of sundays race that i can be aiming for at least top 20's in all these races now. Just have to ride more intelligently i think!

So up next is another elite race this wednesday (tomorrow!), and only one race this weekend, Pontivy, on sunday. This not being an elite race, only 1,2,3 i should be in for a good result.

Also some good news this weekend, i got my place confirmed for the Tour of Brittany which i am very happy about! This being a preliminary goal for my early season. So everything is now leading up towards that, racing/training... bring it on!

O and the good weather is back this week. Dont think it will be as hot as before but sun is out all weel apparently so that is enough for me!

Keep following,

Tom

Complaints about la F-R-A-N-C-E...

2009-03-25T20:24:00.004+01:00

Numero uno: La Poste!

Affectionately known back home as the Post Office. Generally this french service is passable, however ... de temps en temps ... its pretty dire at best! The prime example being a present sent for my birthday (18th feb) from a certain matt green (see web site links). So he probably sat there for a long time thinking "ungrateful bastad, not saying thanks", however this parcel just happened to turn up in my postbox yesterday morning... 24th march... about one and a half months after being sent! Not bad service!

Another habit they have is stuffing handfuls of "pub" (crap advertising!) into my postbox nearly everyother day... anything from supermarkets to bra designers ... made interesting reading the other day!). Now most people here slap a big sign on their box reading "pas de pub, merci"... roughly translated as stop putting your f'ing crap in my box, please!

I've been tempted to follow suit but i live in hope that once in a while something will be dropped in that will keep me entertained! Although on waiting for this, i am doing my part in destroying half the atmosphere!

numero 2: Peeing in public

I'm not really against this as i do my fair share while out training, however i think there is a line which only the french could cross! Today while in town, i caught sight of a regular looking guy (by this i mean not some stinking, alcy hobo!) having a quick wazz up against the church in the town square as dozens of people walked past without even a raised eyebrow! I can remember training with my dad a few years back when we rode for a bit with a french guy before he made a break only for us to pass him a few clicks up the road taking a pee on the town highstreet! No shame!

numero 3: Phone credit

This just annoys me out of inconveinience and the fact that its a french money making scheme... basically what happens is when you have a french sim card and you buy some credit, you only have a limited amount of time to use it before it is wiped off your phone! How stupid is that!

numero 4: Priorité à droite!

This silly french driving law gives the right of way to motorists turning onto the road you are on from the right. These places seem to pop up when you are least expecting so you can imagine my surprise last season when just popping out down the supermarché when all of a sudden i'm licking the steering wheel as i've slammed the breaks on as cars come flying out the junction right into my path... just plain stupid!

Oh and on this point, a similar peeve is the STOP signsat junctions at which it illegal if you don't come to a halt before turning, even if you can plainly see there is nothing coming either way... as i again found out last year when out on a ride as apparently this rule also applies to cyclists as mr gendarme policeman was waiting just round the corner to catch such severe criminals as me... however a quick few words in english saying i dont have a clue what you're on about mister! and they soon waved me on!

I could go on but i wont bore you any more! It's not all doom and gloom over here though as there are many things for which france beats england hands down in... one of which being the Far Breton (Flan with prunes) which the local bakers make across the street!! Yummmy!

Fleche de Locminé

2009-03-24T13:46:00.002+01:00

All in all a much better race this weekend compared to last as the arm behaved and i managed to find some sort of legs again since the fall. It started off pretty calm before i followed a couple of moves as things came and went but nothing stuck much. The whole en-ligne followed a similar pattern until about 60km when a longish crosswind section split things up a bit. For once i was using my head and sat tight in the first echelon letting AC Lanester do the work. Always nice when you turn around and see a bit split having not really pushed too hard on the pedals, however the cross wind section soon turned into a longish climb meaning No Hiding!! there was me and Clement up front in the small group that had formed with some other hitters and teams represented but the chase was still on behind. We nailed it up the climb but lost the rhythm over the top and it started to re-group. 2 riders clipped off at this point and went on to spend the next 80k's along out front. Once they were gone it calmed down and everything came back together. As we neared the finish circuits there was a group of about 10, with no-body much to worry about, chasing the 2 out front, and i was in a split of 7 chasing at a minute behind the 10. We got across as we hit the finish circuits and the attacks started straight away. I followed a couple of moves but then heard down the radio that our team was leading the chase behind as we were only 2 in a group of about 20 up front, without our leader Clement who was going well so it was time to follow wheels. After the 2nd or 3rd finish lap it all came back together and a counter went immediately whiched turned out to be the winning move, luckily with Clement in it. They went on to catch the 2 still out front with 2 laps to go (there was 8 finish lapsof 7km each) and Clement countered with Salva Vilchez, a well known "strong" rider round brittany! Unfortunately he dropped clem on the final lap and clem was then passed by the 2 chasers, including last yrs junior world champ (johan le bon), who has a 4th and a 3rd in his first 2 elite/pro races! not a bad start! Clem finished 4th with Vlichez taking the honours alone, and behind i was in a group (the peloton having exploded over the final several laps) with most of our lads going for 18th place. I didnt even try mix it up in the sprint not wanting to risk anything for that type of position and rolled in 41st for the day. Pretty happy with how it went as i was in moves throughout and only faded on the finish laps after 2weeks of little training so i know things are back on the up now!

To top it off the nice weather is still here! Yesterday, monday, i had a nice easy 1h30 spin with some of the local lads, and today i have done a 2hr steady ride this morning on the TT bike to get back used to the position with a couple of TT's lined up in april, and i've got several intervals to do in a second 2hr ride this afternoon. Tomorrow is a 5hr steady/easy ride before a rest on thursday then prep for saturday and sundays alite epics! both are meant to be really gruelling races with lots of wind and lots of up and down over the hills so should be a good weekend!

For next month it looks like im on for the Tour of Brittany (not yet confirmed but pretty much), which gives me a programme running up to it of 3 one day races on the 11th/12th/13th (on the 13th it is a national espoir series race with a tt in the morning followed by road stage in the avo) so 4races in 3days followed by 2days team training of reconnaisance (spelling?!) rides for some of the Tour stages. Then no races the Weekend of the 18/19th, start resting up! Never done a weeks stage race before so am well up for it! Looking at the last 2winners you know its a hard race... Edvald Boassen Hagen vs Lars Boom in 2007 with boom coming out top, then 2008 Coen Vermeltfoort (paris roubaix espoir winner 08) again of Rabobank Continental. Haven't yet seen a full team list for '09 so will post it up when i do.

Rite i'm done waffling... gunna go eat some more before i ride again this avo. random stuff... i'm regained my obsession with the tv series lost, having found a stream site on the web and am already mid-way series 2 though after only starting last week!! Went out to the cinema last nite with some friends to see a french film called "Coco". I think it would have been better if i wasnt able to understand it as it was pretty pants to be honest! Was meant to be a comedy but even the gags were lame! Mayb all french films are like that?! ill stick to my dvd collection i think!

ok clocking out... time for more Lost too. I've just run out of golden grahams :-(

Photo finish

2009-03-21T21:11:00.003+01:00

What a win! talking about cavendish in Milan San Remo today! That was pretty epic. After 298k's of racing, it was decided by the smallest of margins, within millimetres... that is part of what makes this sport so exciting.

Back to reality... race on tomorrow. Fleche de Locmine, the next of the Brittany elite classics. Hopefully i'll have further recovered with my elbow and can actually get involved instead of being held back by not being able to really attack out the saddle! It has been a lot better this week, however on thursday i decided that i'd book in to see the doc to get his verdict as it still wont straighten or bend fully and its not pain that is stopping it, it just wont budge... so i wanted to find out if i can do something to help it along or just to see what he thought really. He had a feel and a poke and made some umms and arrs and said he wanted me to get some more xrays done to soon to see how it is now after nearly 2weeks since i crashed. So saturday morning i was down the radiology centre getting an update... the verdict... nothing broken (again) but there is a lot of fluid on the elbow, caused by a traumatism?!, which is restricting movement and helping cause the pain and discomfort. The remedy... time! The good news though was that i'd be ok to keep racing as long as i keep it protected. Green light to me!

Conforting to know that there isnt anything broken in there that i'm worsening by not resting which is why i think i went to the doc in the first place, to get the green light.

All in all i've had a pretty good week for training. The weather has been superb, reaching up in the low 20's which seems a bit mad for march but i'm not complaining, let me get a headstart on 2009 tan lines!! Of which they were on show for a good steady 5hr ride on wednesday, followed by 2h30 ride with darren tiffen and aussie ben, round the plouay course. Brought back memories... painful ones to, of racing there last year... that course is pretty unforgiving and i'm already looking forward to smashing round it again in august but this time knowing what is round each corner and being in with a shot at a top result.

Friday was a rest day but couldnt resist the sun so went out for a very easy leg spin for 1h30, followed by 2hrs today with a couple of efforts to open up the legs for tomorrow.

Dont think there is much else on in Brittany tomorrow so think everyone will be back on the start line again... there is a full field of 200 entered and we had a full team of about 15 entered so between us we should definately get a top result at the finish, hopefully the win! I've had a few texts from the other lads today saying that i need to put on my "cav legs" tomorrow!! not sure about matching the sprinting ability but ill be there at the finish to empty the tank and try to get there before the others. Someone has to win it... lets make that someone me!

Good luck to anyone racing tomorrow, if not then enjoy the last of the sun as i think it's meant to turn a little for the worse come early next week. :-(

The weather turns nasty just as another stage race comes onto the tv (well its on the french channel i've got!) where sean's out at the Castilla y Leon with an all star line up including Contador, Leipheimer and Armstrong who between them must be odds on for the victory. But then again i thought that about Paris Nice.

Oh yea nearly forgot to mention... i'm in cycling weekly this week, make sure you check it out!

Ill post again on monday hopefully for sundays race report.

Summer's early!

2009-03-17T17:09:00.005+01:00

Yea ok i did say i'd blog yesterday avo but only got round to it today... been milking the sunshine instead of sitting indoors tapping away at the keyboard! As i write, i can still taste the coffee's i've just been slurping while sitting in the sunshine reading "L'Equipe", feeling like a proper frenchie!! L'equipe is the standard national sports paper, dedicated to only that, and its one of the main stream papers in frnace... makes a change to back home! Its pretty easy to understand and usually has at least a full page or even a double spread about whats going on in the cycling world. That is one thing that really annoys me back in the UK is the complete lack of coverage of cycling in the mainstream papers. (the rant has started!) In my crib! back in Eastbourne, the usual paper is the Daily Mail, apparently full of crap but arent they all! and even when the the Grand Tours are on with british riders competing somedays there is absolutely no mention at all. Poor show! Not sure on most of the other papers but i can't imagine there would be much difference.

Anyway, back to business, Sunday, Race on! Well the weekend was meant to have started with the "Louison Bobet" on saturday but the recovery situation with the arm was still ongoing and it was decided that i miss saturday and just do sundays "Circuit du Morbihan". On saturday the lads had a fairly good showing covering the breaks and then getting Clement (el capitano) in the main move after about 80k's. However it didnt look too promising as the group he was in was about 20strong, with mainly pros so he had his work cut out. As it happened a group of 7 clipped away and stayed away for the win. Jimmy Engoulevent soloed home (see below) followed by pro's taking 2nd through to 5th. 6th and first amateur was one of my local Quimper training partners and last season team-mate Yoann David who pulled a storming ride. Clement finished in 12th as 1st Bic2000 rider home with the others in the peleton bar Laurent LeGac who had a crash and pulled out on the finish circuits.

My day was a little less eventful with a nice steady 2hrs including a tempo 45minute leg stretcher behind the scooter with some race pace intervals to open up the legs for tomorrows efforts. The sensations in the legs were good but the arm did still hurt when out the saddle.

Sunday i woke to blue skies and little wind which made for perfect racing! After standard pre-race breifing i was again allowed free-reign as not a lot was expected of me due to the lack of training this week and not knowing how the arm would hold out over 160k's racing. It kicked off with an early attack but lillian jegou and 3others which although early days wasn't one to miss out on so as i was up near the front as it went it was up to me to bring it back which made for a good early leg stretcher! The race then stayed together with break s not getting more than 30seconds before the race reached the finish circuits (there were some eventful moments for me before this though, the main one being about 5/600metres of cobbled town street which did a good job of rattling the hell out of my arm just to make sure i was fully awake! Ouch!) The finish circuits weren't super hard but the last k had a short sharp climb followed by a false flat to the finish which, to be smashed 9times, took its toll! The race truely exploded on the finish laps with constant attacks and the main move going before me but i wasn't able to go with as we had 3 in it (clem, matthieu and laurent) out of the 10 so it looked good. i was then under orders down the radio to sit in front wheels and follow any attacks behind the break.... okey dokey! there were a few digs before Lorient took up the chase on the front of the main group. i sat in behind and watched them gradually pull it back to about 10/15seconds which was when all hell broke loose. I followed a couple of attacks before semi-exploding quite convincingly while watching about 15riders bridge across. That was curtains behind then as they pulled to about a minute by the finish and our group was left for 26th place. I rolled in 31st with one battered arm and a pair of nackered legs beneath! I wasnt too dissapointed with my ride, although i should have been in the front group, given the preparation and the busted arm. Team wise, clement finished 8th just behind 5that had clipped away nearing the finish. Matthieu was 12th and then the rest were in my group of behind.

I can feel that my form and confidence is building as i get more races under my belt and i know that once i get back to full health ill be back up the front. This is where i can see a marked difference already from last year as i was racing the elite races to finish as well as possible whereas now i am actually racing them proper, getting involved and learning from each one.

I read on BritishCycling too about the Bikeline 2-day being cancelled by police, a real shame for all involved but another blunt example of britains joe-public view towards cycling. Glad i'm not racing there.

Also this weekend, a one-up for me over here as england smashed france in the 6nations rugby!! Slight bragging rights there, even though we have been piss-poor so far!

The start to this week has been a lot better than last weeks and an easy ride in the sunshine (17degrees of it!) was on the cards for monday. I found after the efforts and the road rattling the shit out of my arm that it was pretty sore when riding on monday but today (tuesday) has been a rest day so hopefully it will be feeling better tomorrow for a long steady ride in what is forecast to be the hottest day of the week, 18degrees ... does that count as short sleeve jersey to work on the tan lines??! We shall see...

A la prochaine, Jens

(link to race finish video http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8otf7_video-arrivee-du-circuit-du-morbiha_sport)

Update coming....

2009-03-16T11:16:00.004+01:00

870 odd visits since i put the visiter counter on the blog on 3rd march! Not bad, it cant be that boring what i write on here then! Weekends race report to come this afternoon...

The winner yesterday was Cyrille Monnerais of Bretagne Schuller continental team (Francais de Jeux 2008), Clement Mahé (Bic2000) 8th, Matthieu Jeannes 11th, me 31st :-)

Cycling Style Etiquette

2009-03-12T20:36:00.005+01:00

While recently browsing the interweb during a period of "recovery" (i.e. pre/post training lying around doing not much at all!) i stumbled across an article on PezCycling News which made me chuckle! So i thought i'd share the love ... as you do!

Here are some of the best bits which although funny are also very true... you can easily look like a proper muppet on ur bike, stick to some simple rules nd your rolling in style! Take heed chippers...

Helmets. Face it, helmets just aren’t cool. Nothing looks more pro than the tour rider cruising down the boulevard wearing nothing but a broken-in cycling cap. However, concussions and drooling out the side of your mouth are really lame, so wear your helmet. But for heaven’s sake, take it off when you walk into the coffee shop! Are you afraid of slipping and hitting your head on the counter? When worn, the helmet should be tilted as far forward on your head as possible and never at an angle. Cockeyed helmets are a sure sign of an amateur.

To look Euro-cool, make sure to always wear your sunglasses on the outside of your helmet straps so the television cameras can see the brand logo on the ear pieces.

Legs. We’ve all been asked a million times, why do cyclists shave their legs? Our answers range from aerodynamics to massage to wound care. But we all know the real reason. It makes us look smooth (in more way than one)! So whip out the shaving cream and the Bic

and mow the lawn. I'll add: High socks even in training, NO GYM OR ANKLE SOCKS FFS!!

The Kit. Your jersey must match your shorts, which must match your arm warmers, which must match your socks. But under no circumstances should a replica pro team kit or a national/world champion kit be worn unless you’ve earned it. The only acceptable team kit is your own club kit.

To look cool if you don’t belong to a club or a team, wear a stock Castelli or Assos kit but don’t mix and match. To be Euro-cool, wear the kit of an obscure European amateur team, but only if you have a story about how you spent the winter riding with them in Majorca to go along with it.

Clipping out. Hard to believe, but this one actually deserves its own paragraph. One of the easiest ways to determine the experience level of a cyclist is to see how early they clip out before coming to a stop. A novice rider will clip out as much as a block before a stop sign or red light. To look cool, let the bike come to a full stop before clipping out. To look Eurocool, never clip out. Track stands are the only acceptable way to wait at a red light.

Group Ride Etiquette. Have you ever seen a pro team on a training ride? Side by side, shoulder to shoulder, quietly zipping along. Then, there is the club ride. You actually hear it before you see it. Slowing! Right Side! Stopping! Rolling! Hole! Then you see it. 25 riders spread out over an entire city block, three, sometimes four, wide.Keep your group ride cool with the following four rules of thumb. 1) Never ride more than two abreast. 2) Never allow more than six inches distance between your front wheel to the rear wheel of the rider in front of you. 3) Maintain a distance, no more than 12 inches from your shoulder to the shoulder of the rider next to you. 4) It only takes one person to call things out. This should be the person at the front of the pack.

To look Euro-cool, only ride with other cyclists wearing the exact same kit.

Carbon Wheels. Carbon wheels are for racing! Never under any circumstances should they be brought out on a training ride. Training wheels should be strong and heavy with lots and lots of spokes. Carbon wheels say to the group, I’m not strong enough to do this ride without my $2,000 feather weight wheels. If you have the money to tear up a carbon wheel set on the road, then you’d be better off spending it on a coach who will get you fit enough to keep up with the group ride on regular training wheels.

Cat 4 Marks. Otherwise known as a chain tattoo, this is what we called them back in the day before Category 5 existed. Nothing gives away a rookie faster than a black streak of grease on their calf. The experienced rider can actually get through an entire ride without rubbing up and down on their dirty chain.

Just a couple of snippets there but i think u get the idea! And please remember, I don’t write these rules, I only live by them.

Injury update.

2009-03-12T18:04:00.004+01:00

just a quick update on how its going since sundays attempt at trying to mount a bollard at speed ... on my bike. Dont try it trust me.
monday was pretty painful and i spent most of it sitting around in the sling and just resting really. Then tuesday i gave the turbo a go in the morning and found that i could ride fine with it in the sling... also got the neighbours feeling sorry for me as the walked by! So tuesday i did 2 easy spinning sessions of 45mins each to get the legs going again after the weekend.

Wednesday there was quite a lot of improvement and a lot more movement in my arm. I did a 2hr turbo session.... extremely dull but betten than not training! I was able to hold the bars this time but could not pull ont hem when trying to do a short intense effort, so i did a few longer less intense intervals to get the HR up with a very optimistic eye still on the weekend races!!

Then today (thursday) has seen another large improvement and i can now pretty much straighten the arm, but it will not bend fully yet. I have been reading up on it on the interweb and i think from what it feels like to me, that the damage may be on the tendons behind the elbow... tricep tendons... as that is where it hurts when flexing/extending the arm, instead of the bad damage being the fracture which i think must be small seeing the progress i have made in the last few days alone.
So feeling better today i ventured out on the road, fully equipped with 3 mitts on my left hand compared to one on my right just for added padding to take out any impacts from the road. i can hold the bars normally and felt strong on the ride however i cant really get out the saddle and accelerate as that arm movement causes pain. Hopefully though this will improve by the weekend meaning i can at least take the start line for sundays elite classic, Circuit du Morbihan, but unfortunately i will be resting it the day before so missing out on another classic, Souvenir Louison Bobet.

I'm hoping that the improvements will continue each day as they have so by sunday ill be good to go.

I hate being injured. Luckily i haven't had any serious injuries since i started riding but i have come to realise that small injuries such as this one come with the sport and sadly they are bound to happen so better to get one out the way now then!

i'm going to put a post up soon about an article i read recently on Pez cycling about cycling ettiquete rules... a funny read but soo true!

watch this space..

JENS

pour les francais ... je essayerai à faire une traduction! Alors... tous que j'ai dit ci-dessus est à dire que après ma chute dimanche, je uis beaucoup mieux et l'entrainement est bien passé sur l'hometrainer mardi et mecredi (mais c'était vachement enneyeux!) et puis aujourd'hui (jeudi) j'ai fait un sorti de 2heures et demi sur la route et c'était pas trop douloureux! Le seul problème est que je peux pas tirer sur le guidon alors je peux pas faire des intesités hors de la selle où grimper vite hors selle... mais j'éspère que ca va ameliorer encore par le weekend quand je pense que je vais prendre le départ Dimanche au Circuit du Morbihan, mais malheuresement pas samedi au Louison Bobet.

A+, JENS

Time for a little break... (stupid pun!)

2009-03-09T10:44:00.004+01:00

manche atlantique 2009 will definately be one i remember but not for the reasons i was hoping for going into the race. About 70-80k's into the race i hit a fixed bollard in the middle of the road as we swung through a small town and hit the deck quite hard on my left arm. I got back on and after a few quick adjustements the chase was on. I got to about 50-100m off the back of the peloton before the crosswinds put me to shame and i was then left in no mans land! the cars then came past and nobody seemed to want to help me today. so after chasing for about 20/30K's i finally reached the finish circuits of which we had 7 to do, each time with a decent hill finish... about 1.5k's long. It was this hill that finally killed me off as the pain in my arm kicked in and i couldnt really move it much so after one lap of the circuit i pulled out when passing the team vans. The team doc checked it out twisting it this way and that way... and his verdict was that it may well be broken and i need to go and get some xrays done very soon. So after watching the end of the race ... in envy... i headed off to Quimper hospital where i spent most of the eve waiting and people watching before finally being seen to only to be told after some xrays that they werent sure if i'd broken my elbow... they thought that it was just a fracture. couple of painkillers and a sling later and i was home. but sleeping last night wasnt fun at all!

a quick note about the race... team wise, matthieu jeannes pulled off a stormer getting away after about 30/40k's with 2 Besson team pro's and they stayed away till the finish circuits, however he lost contact on the finish circuits and was swallowed up with only a couple of laps to go. his 2 breakaway companions held 2mins30 advantage at the finish after a super impressive display of strength! chapeau.
also racing were the brits at fougeres, matt jones, ali carr, nathan edmundson and rob orr. Matt and ali both finished in what was left of the shreds of the peloton after the race was ripped to pieces with crosswinds and the hill finish. a good ride by both.

for me now, well the docs recomended about 10days off the bike but that seems pretty mad! ill hav a few days rest till i get some more movement back (can move it more this morning that i cud last nite) then maybe ill be on the turbo by mid week. hopefully anyway!

hope that your weekend went a bit better than mine!

until next time,
the semi-cripple.

(right: the finish, above: matthieu in the break on finish circuits)

Stark contrast!

2009-03-04T22:56:00.003+01:00

This week has been a hell of a lot better than the last so far and it can only get better with a good race at the weekend. Since the race on sunday i have my appetite back to normal which means a lot of eating has been going on to compensate for the extreme lack of it last week. As an idea of how much my digestion slowed in the race on sunday, i took a High5 caffeine gel as we entered the finish circuits... 30/40km to go but the caffeine only hit home once home that evening after the race!! well that was worth every penny for a sleepless night then!
no, since then alls been good. monday me and some of the lads from the team went out for a fairly brisk 4hrs in anger after sundays poor show, then a rest day followed which consisted of a walk round town and..... that was about it actually! I did get round to watching Slumdog Millionaire, the new bollywood blockbuster produced by Danny Boyle (also produced such films as Trainspotting, 28days later, The Beach to name a few) and that film made my day! Its about a slumdog (i didnt no what this was until watching the film but its just a child from the slums in india, living on and from the streets) who grows up in the slums in india and it follows his life in poverty and hardship ... this kid is one tough guy!... until he is a teen and gets a break on india's no1 tv show... "who wants to be a millionaire", i wont give too much away but the show would be his escape to freedom and also his opportunity to get the girl he has been after since the slums. Its not straightforward tho.
All in all a brilliant film, one of the best i have seen in a long time, so good ill probably watch it again tomorrow as the weather forecast is 90-110kmh winds with heavy showers, so apart from poking my nose out for 3hrs with a few set intervals to do, ill be rapped up indoors, watching again!

Then wednesday, which is today, i had 4hrs with several set intervals to do including my strength endurance hill reps which involves finding a 5minute hill and smashing it at 50rpm (53-11!), descend, then smash it again at 90-100rpm (down a few sprockets!). descend again.... this is one set complete... REPEAT 3TIMES IF YOU PLEASE... = mal au pattes (pain in the legs)! include 3sets of 15mins 70-80% hr then you got a fairly good ride. i did my intervals eitherside of riding with a few local lads... the David frères, Yoann (AC Lanester) and Nico (Cotes D'Armor), and Matthieu Halleguen (also Cotes D'Armor but soon to be Pro with Bretagne Schuller). werent going to hard here so had a good catch up on sundays race... Matthieu was in the days break and came 3rd after going all out at 1.5km... guts for glory! nice guy, pretty mad though... but very strong. The best part of the day was getting home as just as i put my bike in the shed, a bike rain storm came over and didnt stop for a good 15mins! Timing to perfection! sweet.

this eve has been pretty chilled, ben cooked up a huge chicken risotto with loads of veg ... all gone! Bah oui! however this means that it's me who has to do the washing up... hmm that can wait till morning!

just been thinking about the race on sunday and getting excited for it already. in training this week i have felt really strong and especially today on the hill reps it seemed i was going deeped and fasted than the last time. I know from how i'm riding that i am much stronger and still progressing so i just have to put this into practice now! Sunday's start list has been put up, a few big teams there, enough to make whats going to be a very hard race but i know i can be up there and i know i will be so watch this space.
link to the start list : http://www.directvelo.com/direct-velo/actualites/2265/manche-atlantique-les-engages.html
russian national team, Bretagne Schuller and Besson Chaussures are the big teams of note.

one last point... a link to this blog has been put up on the team site www.bic2000.net which means i may have a few french readers who dont have a clue what all this means (i've already had some asking to translate for them) so i mite start to add some entries in my attempt at written french which could be interesting! So if next time its u reading thinking that the site language has changed... dont worry, ill write it in english as well.

pour les français... je vais faire des prochaines "blogs" en francais aussi... de temps en temps! peut-etre tu va comprendre mais je pense pas! On verra!

bizous, tchuuuuuus

Pretty pants week to be honest!

2009-03-01T20:08:00.003+01:00

think the title pretty much sums it up! to cut a long story short i've been ill all week, starting with a standard cold on monday - no worries.... until you're up all the nite with cold sweats and having ur head over the bog thinking ur about to fill it! so waking up tuesday morning u could say i wasnt feeling too fresh. actually i felt awful and couldn't get out of bed. when i tried i was so light headed i nearly passed out! so cold has turned to fever. after the longest day of my life tuesday, wednesday came a little easier with the fever dying down a bit but a beast of a dodgey stomach was next on the menu! This made for the 2nd consecutive day of eating very little... actually nothing sums it up pretty well! hmm the weeks going well so far... looking good for the first elite classic of the year on sunday! dam!

gradually day by day i got better with everything dying down a bit and the main thing i was left with by friday was stomach cramps and very little desire to eat anything. Friday i managed to go out for a small spin for 1H30 but i had such little energy that just trying to push the pedals in circles was an achievement trust me! a visit to the doctor on friday (bit late by now i know!) resulted in a fair wad of "medicaments" to keep me occupied at varied hours of the day, but sadly nothing that would have any affect on making me go quicker on the bike!

Friday night i managed to get up to Brest for the Teams presentation and put on a brave face .....wasnt really feeling to bad by then but you gotta milk it hey ;-) .... but the main problem was eating. the portions i was managing to get down wouldnt even be considered a starter by my normal standards.... this explains for the lack of energy.

saturday was ye or ne day for whether i was gunna ride sunday at route bretonne, and amazingly i felt better on the bike so was pursuaded to start the next day and to follow the wheels to get the k's in for training..... easier said than done when it's a pro race but hey why not!

saturday night (oh forgot to mention that on wednesday eve i picked up Ben Izaksen the aussie who was at quimper with me last year, as he's signed for Hennebont cyclisme for the season, and he's been kipping round mine until he gets sorted.... this results in not a lot of breathing space in the appartement but we'll live!) and a quick repeat visit to go watch the Quimper Womens volley ball team was on the cards! this is a gud laugh but quite sad really as i know nothing about volley ball and the girls aren't really that great... i can say this safely knowing that none of them will every get round to reading this let alone understanding it!! followed by an earlyish nite for the race.

sunday morning i woke for the first time all week with a stomach which didnt feel like someone had pumped it up to 150psi and then played the drums on it for 17hours and 3minutes ?! the amount of gas i was putting out the day before might have been a good sign for this! even if i did nearly kill ben and the jeannes brothers while we were trying to watch Het Volk ( or Het Niewsblad if you wanna get arsey) on my tv.... silent but violent and some very loud ones too just for good measure!

although i was feeling relatively normal i wasnt expecting much having done 1H30 friday and 2hrs saturday as my only training for the week and having only really eaten properly for the first time in days on saturday night! so the DS gave me free reign for the race and just to keep everyone informed on how i felt on whether i was strong enough to help the team or whatever. rolling out to the start line i stopped to have a pee and Lilian Jegou (FDJ last year and one of the race favorites) stopped next to me for a piss.. "u hold mine ill hold ur's" not the time nor the place i decided, but some eager beavers of photographers were looming and snapping him up as he stopped so im sure some lucky star has a cheeky photo of Mr Jegou, with a certain MR COPELAND relieving himself in the background... if they got a good angle then it was a cold day can i just point out ;-)

soon got serious though with the racing kicking off from the gun and several early attacks nullified, BIC2000 launched Ferjeux Beauny off the front after a hard effort on a hill. He dwindled off the front on his own for a bit before a counter move crossed and break was formed. 8 guys with most of the big teams represented so it soon pulled away as we proceeded to go to sleep behind. think we overslept as by about 70k's in they hav 7 mins with the max lead touching 8 i believe. towards the end of the 110km en ligne section, Bretange Schuller (previously bretagne armor lux) started to ride and peg it back a bit and then as we entered the finish circuits full on war was unleashed! the finish circuit is one of the hardest around i reckon with no let up, up down up down, flat windy section then start again. this is where my lovely week started to catch up with me. the hard efforts on the climbs were forcing everything in my stomach up towards my mouth and the inevitable happened on the final lap... a cheeky spew while sitting near the back of the front group! i had done well to hold this as the race was being demolished out the back. i got tailed of on the final climb and finished in a small group just behind the first peloton and was annoyed to have been hadicapped but happy to have finished all the same. i did lack a fair bit of power from the week before but that mite be due to losing nearly 2kg's in the week ..... if you've seen me in person or on the bike u will know that i dont really have any weight to lose too! but it'll be sorted for next weeks classic Manche Atlantique.

for the team, Ferjeux finished 6th, with 6 of the 8 staying away with still about 3mins to spare, laurent le gac 10th, Clement Mahe 15th, Vincent Rouxel 19th. not sure on the others or me yet.

shame to have missed out on a good race opertunity being ill but the season is long and there are plenty more big races to domiante so not ill just make sure im fully better before putting the gas back on!

ah just seen a result for today... 62nd! poor show!

March/April Race Programme

2009-02-26T09:45:00.003+01:00

Mars 1: Route Bretonne Elite Classic
Mars 8: Manche Atlantique Elite Classic
Mars 14: Louison Bobet Elite Classic
Mars 15: Circuit du Morbihan Elite Classic
Mars 22: Flèche de Locminé Elite Classic
Mars 28: Gilbert Bousquet Elite Classic
Mars 29: Boucles Guégon Elite Classic
Avril 1: Super U Elite Classic
Avril 4/5: Tour du Pays du Lesneven 1/2/3 (3 étapes)
Avril 11: GP Armorique Elite Classic
Avril 12: Redon-Redon Elite Classic

Selection for Tour of Brittany UCI 2.2 25thApril-1st May will depend on form in the above races.

2009-02-24T11:17:00.003+01:00

The Plage Vendeenes 2009 for me started with a 6.30am wake up followed by a 3hr drive down the west coast of france. This would probably usually have dragged on but i was quite buzzing as it was the 1st days racing of the season!

Thursday 19th... fairly flat race with 3 big circuits followed by 5 smaller circuits or something along those lines. We rocked up with one van, one van/wagon thing, and 2 pimping green team cars ready to rock! First thing to get sorted tho was handing out the new kit! Gud times! Once suited and booted, we mounted our steeds and rolled out to the start. 135k's with 160odd starters was on the menu and we didnt hang about in getting going! The orders for today were to make 2 big efforts during the race but in general just to get in the flow or racing again as the series is known for being very sketchy with everyone starting their seasons being nervous and taking chances, resulting in a fair few crashes on the day! ( o and the stage before we arrived a local lad crashed and hit an electricity pylon causing seven breaks/fractures... including 2 broken wrists! ouch poor fella.) we rode well as a team bringing back a couple of moves that we missed and each of us was off the front at least once but in the end it was all brought back for a bunch sprint. normally i wouldn't get in the mix in a sprint like this but i squeezed through a hole in the lead out trains and found myself cheelily on the wheel of the belgian, at 250m to go, who'd already won a bunch sprint there the week before, all was looking good until BANG... some knob head put their front wheel into the spokes of my back wheel, ripping half of them out and so i grinded to a halt! i dont think that many people understood the expletives i used but they certainly heard me! so stage 1 for me ended up being finished on foot! Not a happy bunny! still didnt crash tho and the team were impressed that i got up there... o yea the belgian who i was on won the stage... damn it!

the next day was a rest day so we rolled out for an easy 2h and ended up passing the harbour where the finish of the Vendee Globe boat race was going on. I dont no anything about boat races but apparently its one of the biggest around.

Saturday 21st was Chantonnay, the hardest stage of the series, with 3 big laps on rolling/hilly roads followed by 6 small laps which included a climb of 16% for about a 500m. Todays plan was to watch any early breaks and make sure we were represented in anything with over 6 riders that looked dangerous, if not bring it back. as it turned out an early break of about 8 got away and yep .. we missed it. we werent too worried as a couple of the big teams werent represented and 140k's of hilly racing would soon take its toll on those out front, so we set a steady chase tempo and pegged them back gradually. we were then passed by Nogent who are one of the biggest amateur teams in france who proceeded to set a blistering pace and bring back the break coming onto the smaller finish laps. they did good but they all nailed themselves in the process and were left with only one or 2 riders in the front group after the 1st time up the wall. I was climbing well but was badly positioned at the start of the climb so i had to dig deep to get past a lot of riders going backwards very quickly. i got on the back of the front group over the top which was about 50/60 riders but people were getting shelled on each climb. we had 4 riders in this front group but we were all pretty cooked and missed the 3riders who clipped off on the last lap. i finished 24th, in the front group 20secs behind 2 off the front. a good day but very tired after! the winner Yann Guyot from the french national team won the race the year before and was super impressive being away with 2guys from the same team but dropping one then wrapping up the sprint from a long way out!

Sunday 22nd started with an early wake up call from "the vampires"! we had been chosen as one of the teams for random dope control and had to get up and go and have blood samples taken! first for me! interesting tho seeing some of the teams going out training at 7am... dodgey or what! turns out riding hard before the blood test lowers your haematocrit levels... its a sad sport! the final stage was a 145k pan flat windy ride with a good lot of echelons (this is when there is a cross wind and you get no respite from sitting behind a rider so u hav to sit to the side but the road is only so wide so you get groups of riders all over the place trying to keep up with the pace being set!) unfortunately we had our first crash of the week today, with Matthieu Jeannes coming down with a couple fo others and proceeding to abandon. Not a nice way to end the week. a front group formed and most of us were still there so we followed the attacks and had some good digs ourselves too but nothing was sticking. but at about 10-15k to go i got across to 2 riders just off the front and a couple more came across too forming a group of about 12 with all the big teams represented. this looked good and we soom pulled out to 30secs after a couple of k's drilling it but then everyone stopped riding and jsut attacked each other; game over! it all came back for another bunch sprint and i was pretty nailed after my late break so i eased off in the last couple of k's... luckily too as there was a late crash on a roundabout bringing down a fair few riders. I ended up finishing about 45th for the day, 2nd from the team.

i got the feeling from the way the DS was talking that he was impressed with how i got on and the way i'd fitting straight into the team. just have to keep up the good work now though the elite classics in march, kicking off with route bretonne on sunday! however im sitting here in bed writing this with what is turning out to be a pretty nasty cold... man flu! i was having cold sweats all night feel like poo on a stick today so not sure how my weeks preparation with go :-(

hopefully ill be feeling better tomorrow after an easy rest day today.

ok, think i've babbled on enough now, time to go try and eat something. something i normally dont have a problem with at all!

tom

Tour of California for motivation!

2009-02-17T12:34:00.003+01:00

don't know if you've caught any of the tour of california coverage but i was watching stage 2 last night and man they got it bad over there!! Torrential downpours as well as cold and wind is making for some interesting riding, but it still gives me the hunger to get smashing on the pedals in anger again! i've been following it on http://tracker.amgentourofcalifornia.com/ pretty neat coverage appart from stage 1 was dodgey as they coundn't recieve much signal due to the weather conditions. the racing though hasnt been hampered by the elements... the prologue was won by a typical ride from world tt champ Cancellara (suffering from flu and pulled out of the race the following day but still managed to maintain apparently near 600watts for the 4min 32 effort!) that guy is amazing! then the first road stage was won by another comeback king Mancebo who took off on his own nearly from the gun, got caught by 2 others midway through the stage, dropped them, got caught by 2 more at the end of the stage but still managed to beat them at the finish! another eye opening ride! then yesterday Leipheimer pulled his finger out and jus road away on the final climb of the day, bridging a 3minute gap to the break and then towing Peterson from Slipstream to the finish for his easiest pro win ever! has been good watching so far put it that way!

my training has still all been going to plan and the legs are feeling good going into the start of racing. i did my 1st motor pacing session of the year (sitting behind a scooter and riding hard pretty much it really!) at the end of a long ride at the weekend and that felt good as well as painful! good fun as well. the annoying thing was that it's a 50cc and is speed restricted at the moment so although you can be doing 50kmh on the uphill drags, he couldnt really go much faster on the downhills meaning that at times i was infront of him pacing him along!! ;-) getting it unlocked next week hopefully though so can down some more specific faster efforts or sustained hard efforts which continue on the desents. yesterday i had my final hill reps before thursdays race and i felt awesome and the good sensations were there as well as a big chunk of motivation so i think im ready to roll now! Today i'm just chilling out and will probably go and turn the legs over easily this afternoon as the weather is being kind again... has been for a few days now which makes a change! then tomorrow ill crack out the first pre-race ride of the year which is usually between 1h and an 1h 30 steady ride with a couple of easy geared sprints and A 5minute sustained effort at about 75% max hr to flush out/open up the legs ready for some hard riding the following day.

you can follow the stage results and video's/pics of each stage at http://www.cocpv.org/ . the 1st 3 stages have been done with 3 different winners including a beglium wrapping up the bunch sprint on sundays stage. the belg is riding for the same team as british rider Andrew Griffiths who has done a couple of the stages so far and hopefully will still be there when i go down for the last 3 stages. will be gud to race against another brit and can hopefully catch up a bit too.

so the next blog will b up after the weekend and ill hopefully hav lots of interestin race reports to put up nd some photo's of us rockin out the new kit too!

oh yea forgot to mention... i had to go to the local sports doctor to have a check up done to allow me to get my race licence for the season... a bit late i know! turns out after alot of wierd noises (on his part) and bizare standing positions (on my part!) that my hips are a bit out of line... my right one is higher than my left. not too uncommon apparenty tho so nothing to worry about i jus need to get riding position checked to make sure that they aren't too bad when i ride which could lead to back pain. so i mite need some sort of shoe support to balance me out a bit he says!!
apart from that abnormality all is in good working order.. and i'm not quite as tall as i though.. 192cm not 193! mayb i've shrunk now im getting older! and if dan smith is reading this... Dr Graziana says hello!

keep following!
t

2009-02-13T15:03:00.003+01:00

Not much really to report here since i last posted. I’ve just been settling in, keeping up the kilometres and just getting back into the swing of French ways really. Quimper hasn’t changed much since I left after last season, actually it kind of feels like I haven’t been away from here for long. It’s been good meeting up with the local lads and catching up on how everyone’s been getting on and about who’s changed teams, who’s flying or who’s just been out on the piss all winter! My French is gradually coming back to me now, and not being around other English speaking people at all helps! This is probably the weirdest thing about this season so far, living on my own. It’s nice to have my own place and all that but it does get a tad dull sometimes! Especially this Sunday; I had a rest day on the plan and kind of forgot that everything shuts down on Sundays…. I can’t quite work out where everybody goes actually! They must all go home and shut themselves away because it all goes a bit dead. So I spent the day with a mix of DVD’s and XBOX!! Good recovery but quite boring! Luckily from now on I’ll be racing on Sundays so I wont make the same mistake again!

Training has been going well; I’ve been training a lot with Mathieu Jeannes from the team who’s a last year U23 and a strong one too with a good palmares to back it up. The team seems quite close nit and everyone gets on well so it bodes well. I’ve been doing quite a few split days with turbo efforts in the mornings followed by sessions in the afternoon too but when sitting on the turbo at 9am doing hard threshold reps, making the floor buzz from the noise of the turbo, I have been wondering if I’m waking the whole appartement block up or if they’re wondering what’s going on in apartment 12! Oh well, 9am, they should be awake by then anyway… lazy frenchies ;-) they’re alrite really!

The weather has been pretty dodgy though, but maybe not as bad as back in the UK from what the family tells me! We had one day of heavy snow nd i've put some snaps up of that, but in general it’s been pretty wet and windy… very windy! Those winds that feel like they’re going to stop you when going down hill and lift you off from the side! All good fun though and good resistance training apparently! Seeing as it’s the typical weather in this region it is good to get used to it again so I’ll have no problems getting pinning on the numbers before getting drenched while doing 50k’s an hour in the gutter! That’s what I’m here for, but this year it will be me and the BIC2000 lads splitting the field from the front! You just wait and see!

Racing kicks off next Thursday and it can’t come round any quicker trust me! In terms of team mates, the rider who on paper is going to be provisional team leader is Clement Mahé who was last season riding for Chambery Cyclisme which is the AG2R feeder team and is one of the biggest and best amateur teams in france, so he has a load of top quality experience and a beast of an engine to top it off! A top bloke to which makes working for him a lot better! But if the legs go as to plan then it won’t all be working for team mates… noooo! Watch this space… next Thursday they’ll get back up to race speed.

I’ve finally got internet sorted in my flat and it comes on soon so I’ll be able to blog more regularly, and with racing starting ill have more interesting things to talk about that chatting bollocks about the bad weather day in day out!

My birthday next Wednesday, should be an interesting day, spent getting prepped for 1st race and having a cake…. Of pasta … followed by an early night! Interesting way to spend my 20th birthday but I know the commitment will soon pay off and hopefully I can celebrate in the following days races by getting a good result or two!

A la prochaine!

2009-01-28T18:44:00.004+01:00

well i made it across the water and survived the grueling 6hr drive from Dieppe - Brest, it is grueling sitting in the passenger sleep nodding off then just as you do you get woken upp to get a ticket from the toll machines! having found the team service course in town, the club president, Directeur sportif and more came down to meet and greet. they showed us round what turned out to be a huge and impressive building and then we sorted out some minor details and contract stuff then got down to the important bit... getting out my new bike! we went down so the workshop and there she sat, sleeping in the bike stand, dura ace gleaming! the car was so crammed full of my stuff that it almost didnt fit in so nearly had to say goodbye as soon as saying hello! but with a bit of tetris skills we managed to re-jig my food parcels etc and get going again. The rest of the day we were so knackered after the travelling, and about 3hrs sleep ont he ferry, we just kicked back in the travelodge place and had an early nite after dinner.

Wednesday morning we headed back for home... Quimper. and were treated to the standard Brittany weather of RAIN! still good to be back though.

Went to the appartement to pick up the key and check it out only to find that the electricity had been cut off! a few phone calls around and to edf energy and i had an appointment set up for friday afternoon for them to come turn it back on. Sorted. Luckily i have a mate on the same road who has said i'm welcome to stay round his whenever i want so will be taking him up on that one soon!

me and dad went out for a nice steady ride in the avo and the rain did hold off for most of it. we headed inland to a nice town called Chateaulin and grabbed some lunch. only asked for 2 tuna sandwiches but what we got was 2 huge baguettes full, a good 2foot each!! on the way back we headed over one of the local lumps and that got dad breathing a bit and asking where the top was! i was just spinning of course ;-) no problems with the bike apart from bars need dropping but apart from that it was great. Very light, felt stiff and handled really well. a big change from my winter hacker! So nice to be riding dura ace again, its soo smooth that stuff especially brand new!

This weekend was a local training camp for the team to get to know each other and to get in some group miles. 4hrs Saturday 5hrs Sunday was on the plan. Made a nice change to go out training without 2tons of food/puncture repair kit / food dragging me down all day as the team car followed us all day. After 2hrs steady riding Saturday we stopped for a quick chat with the DS and I half understood what he was implying… basically now its going to get hard! What followed was some pain followed by a tad more pain! How it worked was 2riders attacked and worked together with everybody else in pairs riding steady behind the team car, then when the gap was about 10-15seconds, Yvon (DS in car) honked horn for next 2 to attack and bridge across, then when you bridge you do hard through and off to hold the gap. This is repeated until everyone is in front of the car again. Unfortunately for me he set me off in one of the last pairs so I could watch for a bit first, however this meant the number of people infront going hard was more making it harder to get across… but we did it… eventually! We then did 15mins steady then repeated this 3more times. Not a bad work out by the end. Oh yea then he threw in another leg breaker… he pulled infront of the group so we were on the bumper then he gradually accelerated until everyone had dropped off the back!! That was painful! Felt like you were doing a ramp test as it just gradually got quicker! I cant remember when I got dropped but I was well up there with the last few riders so wasn’t to shabby.
We then rolled back to the service course building to shower and have a little treat… some of our new kit!! This made all the hard work worth it! We got the Ekoi team helmets and glasses, the mavic team road shoes and jumpers/jackets to make us look like the dogs… when we roll up to the races ready to dominate!

We all then went out for a nice meal followed by some well earner sleep!

Sunday was a bit steadier as it was a longer ride and there were lots of sore legs! The ride included some sets of hard through and off for 10-15mins but there were only 6/7 of us doing it, and we were pre-selected to ride. I think that it was a good thing to be selected as it was the stronger more experienced ones doing the work so I was happy to join and give it some!

We got back after another good ride and were greeted with a bit of a feast set up ready for us! Tuck in boys! All in all a good weekend and I’m looking forward to the next one in 2weeks! The lads on the team all made me feel really welcome and I was laughing and joking with many of them so I know its going to be a good season team wise, and also they are bloody strong too! The elderly head of the team, arnaud le boulanger (brother to pro yoann le boulanger) is a top bloke and was cracking everyone up from the off but behind his funny persona you can tell he knows how to ride and doesn’t hold back from telling others too!

Today I’m chilling a bit as I’ve got a bit of a sore knee after the weekend so ill just do a gentle spin to see how it feels but as I’m writing this, snow is starting to come down quite heavily!! Might have to put out the sledge instead then!!

Ok, will update again soon,

Keep pedalling, A la prochaine,

Tom

so long.... farewell....

2009-01-26T10:42:00.003+01:00

well the day has finally come round for me to hitch a ride back across the water... finally! i think i have just about finished packing but the standard last minute additions are sure to be many. Since my last blog what have i been up to... hmmmm... well i started a rest week from friday so riding has been pretty easy. Off the bike, i had a good party at home on saturday with all the family to say goodbye and stuff. Even opened some birthday presents which was bizarre as its not till february but i wont see anybody before then now so!

not much to report really, its just been packing and waiting really.

Thanks to dave at quickvit.co.uk for loading me up on vitamins and healthy stuff for the season and to pete at InGear for getting my wheels back into shape... the breaking surface was about to crack it was worn so thin! actually, as for wheels... they are mavic open pro rims on dura ace hubs with dt swiss spokes, built by a certain Mr Brickell....and they're amazing! they have lasted sooooo long without any problems. i used them for certain races and training last season then all my winter training just done and i have only just had them serviced, plus one or two times i had to true them slightly in the season. Bomb Proof! Lets just hope the team allow me to ride on them as we are sponsored by mavic for wheels and shoes, but although the rim is mavic, the hub is shimano...hopefully. i've seen the mavic shoes we are getting which are pretty swish!! ill put some photos up when i actualy get them, and helmet and glasses are made by Ekoi, which isnt bad either! I like new kit!!

ok then... time to head out for my last ride in england for a while... thank god! back to safe roads soon! right, ill blog again when im over the water and will put some snaps up too.

adios amigos!

2009-01-21T16:04:00.003+01:00

following on from sunday morning, i went out with the ingear dev lads and cracked out another epic! i had 6hrs on the plan but felt strong so carried on for 7hrs, totalling over 200kms for the day! not a bad day in the saddle. that meant some well earnt food scoffing wen i got home. i think my mum will b happy when im gone as the food bills will b at least half and there will be food left around the house! they take the piss out of me at home because wenever i go in the kitchen i always check the fridge and cupboard jus to see if there is anything new there that might tickle my fancy!! even if im not hungry i check it, guess thats my OCD!

anywaysenough about food, making me hungry again... went out yesterday for 2hrs easy spin to turn the legs over and met up with dad. we wanted to go get a coffee on the seafont but realised we didnt have enough change, so scrapped that idea, until bizarely at a quick bush piss stop i nearly pee'ed on a cheeky fiver floating about in the grass!! Result! coffee's all round! i love it when little things like that happen!

today i had a couple of hrs with hill reps so headed out in the sunshine and went for my old hill rep from meads village roundabout to the crest of the hill which i time myself up; i haven't timed it this winter so wanted to see how i was compared to last winter. turns out a lot stronger! not only did i feel faster but i felt like i could dig a lot harder and resulted in chopping off nearly 30seconds off last years PB, leaving me with 2m31 to beat now. not bad with a head wind! anyone living around the eastbourne area give this one a try if u get a chance, its a bit of a bit#h of a hill really. then headed off round to beachy head to do the other 6 hill reps.

3hrs tomorrow with 3 15min threshold intervals then i start a rest week which sees me through to the start of the new teams training camp en France!

o and check out my new best friend... early birthday present from mum and simon! lovin' it! thanks

o and just quickly, well done to em my sister for passing her probation at big Architectural company in London, meaning she's now secured a full time contract. nice one sis, knew u had nothing to worry about! now u can definately afford to come visit, no excuses ;-)

a bientot,

Tom

sunday morning.

2009-01-18T09:39:00.002+01:00

sitting here this mornin thrying to digest the extremely tasty pasta nd pesto breakfast i've just shovelled down to get my through training today... yummy. Need to get used to pasta for breakfast again as it all kicks off very soon now!
looking out the window though isnt as nice as my gormet breakfast... rain! :-( o and quite a lot of wind.
whats on the agenda today... just a cheeky 6hr pedal push around the south east of england reeli! the legs feel like they have recovered from a bit of and epic yesterday... 5h 30 hilly being blown all over the road from start to finish. i went out with some of the local guys who are racing for the Ingear Cycling Development Squad this season... name and shame... the beasts that are Russell Shingles, Josh Cunningham, Jaco Ehlers and Jason Salter. What was meant to b a steady ride soon turned into the "sussex epic" as we headed off in pursuit of ditchling beacon... not really knowing how to get there and more importantly why we were even going to do it in the first place!!

so in the end we made it to the bottom and started to churn our way up. i took to my responsabilities and jumped on the front and kept a steady tempo pace while trying to chat to russell about how my unlubed chain was slowing me down ;-) when BANG ... something behind me explodes! i thought russ had slipped his chain so i carried on as i didnt fancy stopping on the stepped parts of this Alp like climb!! on reaching the top and waiting for the next one to come up, a see jaco gradually coming over the top with a bad look on his face... he had left his legs about 2/3rds of the way up it seemed! afta a little chat we realised russell had a bigger problem and headed back down to find the others huddled round russells new single speed as it was his ream mech which had snapped clean off! nice! afta a quick search to see if anyone had a spare rear-mech in their pockets... unfortunately not? we headed bak down and turned towards home and thankfully got a lift on the tailwind for most of the journey.

another gud day in the legs done then and now for today where im heading up to crawley to meet the lads again along with the rest of their team for a group ride before winding my way home alone.

on a random note, hav you had a look at www.twitter.com?
its a site where anyone can register and just post small updates as often as they like on what they are doing at that moment. Sounds slightly boring but its interesting to follow the likes of Lance and many more big names on what they are doing. sean pointed it out to me so it really is lance posting, not some sad wannabe. check it out, and if you register, add me and we can follow each other too!!

ok, time to get out there nd get blown away! hope you're all heading out today whatever the weather... what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger... or something stoopid like that!

nice one, catch up soon,

Tom

o and i leave a week tomorrow!!!!! getting excited now!

au revoir mes amis

Michael Mcintyre for president!!

2009-01-15T00:08:00.001+01:00

Michael Mcintyre!!! this guy is a legend, if you haven't seen him before check out his live set at the apollo on the youtube link below, if you have already seen it.... watch it again!! it's classic!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOHFv602nug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd--6cWBIVU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YsJ186p17U&feature=related

(parts 1,2 and 3) enjoy ;-)

Just a quick thanks...

2009-01-10T15:41:00.000+01:00

i'd just like to thank Andy at jim walker, Pete and James at InGear in Uckfield, Sussex, Dave and Helen at Seaford Health Store/Quickvit, and everyone at InGear Development Squad and OnelifeGroup for their continued support. Without these people i most probably wouldn't be where i am today. And to anyone that i have forgotten along the way!

http://www.i-ride.co.uk/

http://www.ingearcyclesport.com/

http://www.ingeardevelopmentsquad.com/

www.quickvit.co.uk

And also the belief of my Coach Sean who has brought me physically to my present level.

http://www.seanyates.co.uk/

And finally to the John Ibbotson Fund for supporting me again financially in 2009, without this help life would definately be a lot harder!

www.johnibbotsonfund.com

Cheers, Tom

2009-01-09T20:41:00.000+01:00

First blog on here, see how it goes! Well... guess ill start with where im heading this year, which is BIC 2000, a division 1 espoir amateur team based in Brest, Brittany. (last yr i was on division 2 team, then the next step up is continental... pro!) They've had a re-shuffle of the team for this season and have got rid of several riders and got in more new faces, resulting in a really good team line up for 2009, and also a gud bunch of lads too. I'll be living in the same town as i did in '08, Quimper as i know people to train with there and i also know the area, with a few team mates near by so all is set for a cracking season! Just need to get out there now... 17days... not that im counting!
im going over there for a training camp followed by team presentations, then i start racing on the 19th February at a big early season series called Plages Vendéenes of which we are doing 3 races and also spending some time there on a little camp get together. I cant wait to get back up to race speed again!

at the moment tho, all is going well, no injuries/ sick days yet this winter so cant complain. i've just started a 10day endurance block of back to back 4/5/6hrs, day off then back on, doing this 3times. Did 6today so have rest day tomo which will go down nicely!! best bit about these rides is the eating involved to replace whats lost on the bike- LOTS!

anyways, hope your not suffering to badly from the cold!

ill try keep this updated as often as possible with whats going on.

a bientot