Pretty pants week to be honest!

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!