Change

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

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

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

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

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....

... 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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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...

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!!!

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!

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

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

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..

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday was the day for a rest day and worked out

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

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

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

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

Tour de la Dordogne

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

keep reading...

A lot to catch up on

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

The Main Man!

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.

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!

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

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.