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!!