Weekend

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

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

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

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

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