As many of you know I finally made my eagerly anticipated and long awaited return to Blighty with much fanfare reminiscent of the England Rugby Union team's return from Australia following their victory in 2003; the similarities were uncanny. Anyway, after a couple of days of recovering following the epic journey undertaken with Tony Mills Junior at the helm I went to the doctors to ask about the persistent problem in my right knee, it turns out that I have very mild tendinitis in it caused by overuse. The ramifications are not as bad as maybe first feared, I was offered 2 options; either I stop cycling and rest up for a month or I persist with racing and let heal over the course of about 3 months, but during this time I shouldn't train if I'm doing 2 or 3 races that week, if I'm doing just one then I can do one or two training sessions that week instead. I will having to wear a knee support most of the time, even at races too. The good news is is that it is minor and if I decided to continue racing on it I will not be doing it any further damage and that I will get over eventually.
I have decided on the latter due to the fact that by racing on it I'm not damaging the knee irreparably if at all and you have to weigh up the loss of form and fitness that a month lay-off in the middle of the season would do for you for the rest of the season.
So on to the SERRL Stage Race, a race that I was really looking to, but 25mins into the first stage the race was cancelled and the rest of the weekend was subsequently cancelled too due to a motorbike marshal colliding with a car resulting in his, the motorbike marshal's, death. I'm not going to describe the incident as I feel it would be inappropriate, but I will comment on it. This tragic event, as well as Junior Heffernan's death, highlights the desperate need for the road racing scene to have closed roads, or, if not, at the very least make sure an ambulance is following each race and/or increase the powers of the marshals to stop traffic, these would have massively helped in preventing these incidents occurring as they will improve the circumstances in which we, the racers, and the organisers are operating under. Sadly it appears that this accident on Saturday will also go unheeded by British Cycling who have failed to deliver any findings on the cause of Junior Heffernan's death; the brief, sentence-long statement about the death of the N.E.G. rider who died on Saturday with it also being seemingly purposely hushed-up as shown by the fact that news of it was only briefly shown upon the Road homepage on the British Cycling website and has subsequently been buried underneath multiple links to reach the statement. Neither, but more importantly the former point (as there has been more time to react), were good enough for British Cycling to act upon and make a revision to their 'Get Britain Cycling' petition with which they are lobbying government. There has been no real public backing of Paul Morton's campaign by British Cycling or other authorities in the wake of Junior's death to increase the powers of the marshals and the N.E.G. also who regularly put themselves in harms way for free, completely voluntarily.
When is British Cycling going to act upon what a large portion of its members actually desire? It's all very well having this 'Get Britain Cycling' petition, but your average cyclist does not possess a British Cycling membership, every racer has to. British Cycling surely need to get their priorities in order for when you encourage people to cycle naturally some are going to want to race, how can they in such an unsafe, unworkable environment? It seems at the moment we have reached a fork in the road, how many more incidents need to occur before we jump across to the other road, one we should have gone down long ago?
Following on from this I had a relaxing weekend with family, friends and Verity instead, but this was tempered somewhat by not only what I witnessed on Saturday, but what was to come. On Monday, we had a little family get together to celebrate my little brother's first birthday, unfortunately he decided to choke on a crisp so now I'm fully aware of how to do the Heimlich manoeuvre on a baby, obviously pretty scary at the time.
Afterwards I met up with some uni mates in Camden for a few drinks, had a good bubble and it included one Mister Timothy Butt who had just got back from Portugal and who was racing (or meant to be) in the SERRL Stage Race. He's a good athlete and friend, but unfortunately he suffered a cardiac arrest the next day on Tuesday, fortunately the doctors have worked wonders and Tim is quite the fighter and he has finally awoken from intensive care today properly. This highlights the important work that the John Ibbotson Fund and C.R.Y. do in trying to increase the amount of testing done on young people to prevent such cases like Tim's and John's from happening.
Now I'm back sitting here in my house in France, alone, I wonder about the great moral lessons I maybe should have learnt, for me, it might be a little to close to home at the moment to really consider the questions and issues that inevitable raise themselves upon mere preponderance of the recent occurrences in my life. All I can think about though is thus, the Grim Reaper on closer inspection does not seem to possess the same sense of geniality as DEATH in Discworld.
Friday 31 May 2013
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Marked out like a Lion on the Highveld by some Boers who has been killing some of their prized cattle
Unusual title, for an unusual man, but nonetheless I believe this idiom goes some way to describing the predicament that I found myself in on Sunday not to say I was suffering alone in such a situation and is highly representative of what cycling can degenerate too and has, is and will continued to be experienced by many cyclists.
Sunday, the weather was awful on a lovely 6.25km loop with 2 climbs on it, 16 laps in total and a 2/3/Junior race with about 80 competitors only 43 finished. Right from the beginning it was obvious that I was a marked man maybe because of my recent run of semi-decent results and the fact the course really suited a rider such as myself, especially because of the conditions also. I attempted to get away and establish breaks, but nothing was working, initially when I attacked on a few occasions some people who came across with me refused to work or do very little. On top of this, their team-mates back in the peloton would actively happy other teams who may have missed this move to chase me and my little group down, subsequently they would then launch counter-attacks over the top which were hard to cover, sadly at the end of the 5th lap this is what happened, a counter move was too hard to cover and follow by myself and so I missed the winning break of 18 riders.
What was happening was also happening to Sam Allen, but we both worked to bring the gap down to the break as both of our teams had missed the move as well as the fact we were both closely being watched, as a result one of Sam's team-mates used us as launchpad to get across with a couple of others to the winning move. Unfortunately none of my team-mates were able to thus making all that effort I put in a complete waste. The break quickly gained 45 seconds, me and Sam then tried to attack together to try and get away, but no-one was having any of it, so I said to myself that the only I was going to get away was to let a break go of a few good riders and just jump across, which with 4 laps to go happened. We then worked well, but with me doing most of the work of course, never really eating into the time of the break ahead, then with 1km to go of a draggy climb to the finish I attacked my group hard crossing the line in 19th.
Happy with how I felt and my tactics at the end of the race, but just annoyed that no-one on my team was in the physical condition to help thus causing me even more grief as less people would look at me to work if I had no team-mates present. My knee was quite sore and swollen in the race and after though.
After an epic road trip with Tony Mills I'm now back in the U.K. and having gone to the doctors I can now confirm that I've got mild tendinitis in my right knee so I am able to race still, but I've got to limit the amount of training I do as well as do some strengthening exercises for my knee and wear a support.
Now I'm looking forward to riding the S.E.R.R.L. Stage Race for Aprire Bicycles, my British team, where hopefully we can do some real damage and again I will marked out like a Lion on the Highveld by some Boers who has been killing some of their prized cattle.
I hope everyone else is good, chapeau to all for the Regional Champ results, some great performances and I hope everyone is enjoying the fantastic racing at the Giro.
Sunday, the weather was awful on a lovely 6.25km loop with 2 climbs on it, 16 laps in total and a 2/3/Junior race with about 80 competitors only 43 finished. Right from the beginning it was obvious that I was a marked man maybe because of my recent run of semi-decent results and the fact the course really suited a rider such as myself, especially because of the conditions also. I attempted to get away and establish breaks, but nothing was working, initially when I attacked on a few occasions some people who came across with me refused to work or do very little. On top of this, their team-mates back in the peloton would actively happy other teams who may have missed this move to chase me and my little group down, subsequently they would then launch counter-attacks over the top which were hard to cover, sadly at the end of the 5th lap this is what happened, a counter move was too hard to cover and follow by myself and so I missed the winning break of 18 riders.
What was happening was also happening to Sam Allen, but we both worked to bring the gap down to the break as both of our teams had missed the move as well as the fact we were both closely being watched, as a result one of Sam's team-mates used us as launchpad to get across with a couple of others to the winning move. Unfortunately none of my team-mates were able to thus making all that effort I put in a complete waste. The break quickly gained 45 seconds, me and Sam then tried to attack together to try and get away, but no-one was having any of it, so I said to myself that the only I was going to get away was to let a break go of a few good riders and just jump across, which with 4 laps to go happened. We then worked well, but with me doing most of the work of course, never really eating into the time of the break ahead, then with 1km to go of a draggy climb to the finish I attacked my group hard crossing the line in 19th.
Happy with how I felt and my tactics at the end of the race, but just annoyed that no-one on my team was in the physical condition to help thus causing me even more grief as less people would look at me to work if I had no team-mates present. My knee was quite sore and swollen in the race and after though.
After an epic road trip with Tony Mills I'm now back in the U.K. and having gone to the doctors I can now confirm that I've got mild tendinitis in my right knee so I am able to race still, but I've got to limit the amount of training I do as well as do some strengthening exercises for my knee and wear a support.
Now I'm looking forward to riding the S.E.R.R.L. Stage Race for Aprire Bicycles, my British team, where hopefully we can do some real damage and again I will marked out like a Lion on the Highveld by some Boers who has been killing some of their prized cattle.
I hope everyone else is good, chapeau to all for the Regional Champ results, some great performances and I hope everyone is enjoying the fantastic racing at the Giro.
Monday 13 May 2013
Sprinting 101
Well this Sunday I raced in La Boucles Serentaise a 1/2/3 race over 130km that also included within the race the Morbihan Championships and with this race as well being the only race on Sunday being one that cat.1 riders could race, this all guaranteed that it was going to be a highly motivated and strong field. It was pretty odd weather conditions throughout the race really, occasionally threatening to rain and did so a little about 20mins before the start, but never really materialising and mostly the race was competed under some Sun. Within half an hour I regretted wearing my waterproof plastic overshoes, my feet were really rather sweaty at the end, not pleasant at all.
Anyway the pace was high from the off and after 10km a break of 22 went off up the road because in the roller-coaster section someone dropped a wheel, I found myself a little too far back as the pace was so high in the preceding kilometres and with so many wanting to do well I thought there was no need to be any nearer the front than about 50th wheel out of the 130 who started. Unfortunately I was proven wrong and tried a good few times over the subsequent 6km to try and get across the 20/25 second gap that had quickly been pulled out, alas, to no avail.
After about 10km from the initial break happening the gap to the leaders quickly drew out to 50seconds/1min and everyone sat in for the test of Cote de Plumelec, but when we got the climb we were told by the motorbike that the leaders were still only 50 seconds in front, due to this many people began to attack and fly up Plumelec, I conserved my energy as at this stage as my right knee was hurting quite a bit and I just wanted to nurse it and myself round to the finish, but once I got over the top I felt great and I attempted on a couple of occasions to bridge across to a group of about 10 that had got away from the peloton on the Plumelec climb, but within 3km we were all back together with the same gaps between the lead group at 50secs that included Sma Allen and Doug Dewey and then the peloton.
Heading back towards the finishing circuits the peloton absolutely flew and I was beginning to feel better in my right knee as well as my whole body and so I began thinking about maybe grabbing a top 20.
Upon reaching the finishing circuits the peloton exploded, 6 x 5.5km, with a short sharp ramp and a long drag with a steep section of about 12% at the top as well as 800m of plain flat for the finishing straight, the finish loop was really interesting and perfect for me. Allied to this, I felt stronger and stronger as we went round the loops and as a result, I launched a 2 attacks of my own as well as getting in countless moves eventually bridging up to Doug and Sam's group, who had been jettisoned by the lead group on the finishing circuits, here's Doug with a his view on what happened, 'It split with about 4 laps to go I think and I went out the back door along with about 10 others I think.' So after what remained off the peloton joined us I tried to sit in as much as possible and save myself for the sprint.
Here's me leading one of the moves I got in.
Sadly I positioned myself about 2 places too far back in the final sweeping right-hander resulting in me getting blocked and not being able to sprint, to add insult to injury I was on the far-side from the judges and so even though I finished in line with the guy who got 24th, I was placed 29th and then the remaining numbers were obviously between me and 24th. If I was 2 places higher up in the right-hander I would have got a top-20, damn it.
I am unbelievably frustrated by this, but I've learnt something from it and so my toil was not wasted, it's just a shame that I couldn't really show what I was fully capable off that's all, but such is the nature of the beast. I'm just happy that my knee was not too bad and I didn't have to climb off like I said I would do to Hamish after an hour as well as the fact that as everyone is saying now I beginning to knock on the door of a decent result soon so hopefully that might come this Sunday, my last race in France for a bit as I'm returning to Britain straight after.
Out of the 130 starters only about 70 finished and less than 60 finished with the peloton or the winning group, this demonstrates somewhat how tough it was as does my Strava so get on it people and be nosy.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and I look forward to talking to you all from the comfort of Bexley!
Anyway the pace was high from the off and after 10km a break of 22 went off up the road because in the roller-coaster section someone dropped a wheel, I found myself a little too far back as the pace was so high in the preceding kilometres and with so many wanting to do well I thought there was no need to be any nearer the front than about 50th wheel out of the 130 who started. Unfortunately I was proven wrong and tried a good few times over the subsequent 6km to try and get across the 20/25 second gap that had quickly been pulled out, alas, to no avail.
After about 10km from the initial break happening the gap to the leaders quickly drew out to 50seconds/1min and everyone sat in for the test of Cote de Plumelec, but when we got the climb we were told by the motorbike that the leaders were still only 50 seconds in front, due to this many people began to attack and fly up Plumelec, I conserved my energy as at this stage as my right knee was hurting quite a bit and I just wanted to nurse it and myself round to the finish, but once I got over the top I felt great and I attempted on a couple of occasions to bridge across to a group of about 10 that had got away from the peloton on the Plumelec climb, but within 3km we were all back together with the same gaps between the lead group at 50secs that included Sma Allen and Doug Dewey and then the peloton.
Heading back towards the finishing circuits the peloton absolutely flew and I was beginning to feel better in my right knee as well as my whole body and so I began thinking about maybe grabbing a top 20.
Upon reaching the finishing circuits the peloton exploded, 6 x 5.5km, with a short sharp ramp and a long drag with a steep section of about 12% at the top as well as 800m of plain flat for the finishing straight, the finish loop was really interesting and perfect for me. Allied to this, I felt stronger and stronger as we went round the loops and as a result, I launched a 2 attacks of my own as well as getting in countless moves eventually bridging up to Doug and Sam's group, who had been jettisoned by the lead group on the finishing circuits, here's Doug with a his view on what happened, 'It split with about 4 laps to go I think and I went out the back door along with about 10 others I think.' So after what remained off the peloton joined us I tried to sit in as much as possible and save myself for the sprint.
Here's me leading one of the moves I got in.
Sadly I positioned myself about 2 places too far back in the final sweeping right-hander resulting in me getting blocked and not being able to sprint, to add insult to injury I was on the far-side from the judges and so even though I finished in line with the guy who got 24th, I was placed 29th and then the remaining numbers were obviously between me and 24th. If I was 2 places higher up in the right-hander I would have got a top-20, damn it.
I am unbelievably frustrated by this, but I've learnt something from it and so my toil was not wasted, it's just a shame that I couldn't really show what I was fully capable off that's all, but such is the nature of the beast. I'm just happy that my knee was not too bad and I didn't have to climb off like I said I would do to Hamish after an hour as well as the fact that as everyone is saying now I beginning to knock on the door of a decent result soon so hopefully that might come this Sunday, my last race in France for a bit as I'm returning to Britain straight after.
Out of the 130 starters only about 70 finished and less than 60 finished with the peloton or the winning group, this demonstrates somewhat how tough it was as does my Strava so get on it people and be nosy.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and I look forward to talking to you all from the comfort of Bexley!
Wednesday 8 May 2013
Another solid performance
Today was the last in La Trophee Job Morvan (a former local pro) a series of 4 races for 2/3/Juniors where I have previously DNSed in the first race, DNFed in the second and DNSed in the third, so it was safe to say for this round at Plumelin I might not be the most closely watched. It was very active from the off and began to light drizzle soon after we started. After lots of attacks and the peloton repeatedly splitting a group of 8 finely got away on a pretty innocuous section after about 40mins, within 10km this gap had grown to about 25seconds. Fortunately there was not pressure on my squad to chase as one of our team-members was in the break, however he also happened to be one of our weakest riders. I did panic thinking the break would stay away, but fortunately we came to a section of the road that I know exceedingly well from training and racing. The peloton went fast up the main climb in the Camors Interclub that I raced as my first French race and then continued down a fast technical descent once over the top, but by the top a further split occurred. Fortunately only a little one of about 10 seconds and here I jumped across with the series leader on the descent to this little group that had clipped off. The rest of the peloton made the juncture to us by the bottom, but here we immediately hit another, sharp climb, where I nailed it up and over. I then preceded to hammer this nail down the otherside of the hill and up the next one too eventually closing the 25 second gap in about 3km which wasn't too bad. Unit!
Within the next 5km some others managed to join us as at this point we were riding on the hilliest section of the race and it had began to rain cats and dgos, but once we numbered about 20 we had a 50 second to a minute gap over the peloton, goodnight Paris. The break consisted of a few good individual riders, with no team-mates and decent riders with one other team-mate also present for them, so very finely balanced. We worked well until the finishing circuits where all hell broke loose. Unfortunately for me, my team-mate was actually more of hindrance than anything as he was at the back doing sod all, because of the fact that there was 2 of us in the break and me being considered one of the better riders in the move, anytime someone attacked they expected one of us to do something. However my team-mate Stephane was in no fit state to do anything.
We had to ride 10x4.2km laps of a rolling, open circuit, ideal for me really, but this did not quite prove to be the case. 2 got away after 2 laps and about a lap later the eventual winner went, no one was really keen to help catch them due to concerns over others as well as the fact that they never got more than 15 seconds until the last few laps, we were all trying to be a bit too clever. People were being dropped from the group all the time, Stephane went with 3 laps still go and with 2 laps to go everyone from the break just started to attack each other, I missed the next move that decided 3rd-6th as one of the original break of 2 riders who went at the beginning of finishing circuits went kaputt. 2 then clipped off to get 7th and 8th whilst I was just pipped for 9th. End result 10th when really I could or should have got a top 5, finishing only 30 seconds down on the winner so I know how close I came. Saying that on the finish picture from Sunday's race you can see me dying at 75m to go mark when the winner was crossing the line so I actually came closer in some ways to winning on Sunday.
Me being pipped to 9th
I'm just chuffed with how I rode, the great sensations on the new bike and minimal pain and stiffness in my knee. Hopefully I can get a podium next time and my knee keeps on improving, but I must apologise to Sebastien, my team president, for failing to win today even though he said I could and should do yesterday. Hamish came in a credible 21st.
After the race we had the prize-giving presentations where I'm pleased to say we won the overall team classification. As a result we got lots of beer, posh glasses, trophies and t-shirts to be shared amongst. I got given one of the glasses and a top, yes Nan; another one, it's nice to have and a proper t-shirt that you are supposed to wear out, not a top with the race sprawled across it with all the sponsors etc... It seems to celebrate Breton pride (I think) and the company was established in 1996 according to the graphics on the t-shirt, a year that still brings many highs and lows for me as in an instance I'm transported to Euro 96 and this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr__-KqnfQM
Pretty apt to be honest as today I wore my England football shirt in recognition of the fact that today was Armistice Day in France, celebrating the liberation of France by the Allied Forces.
Congratulations must go to Sam Allen for his 8th in La Essor Breton E/1/2 Stage Race in the overall and get better soon George Moore.
My next race will be Sunday, but I don't know anything other than it's this Sunday until then I will be enjoying the day-to-day delights of the Giro d'Italia!
The second greatest manager in the English game has finally departed, I admire his achievements and how nice he was to me at the Valley, but I will never forgive him or Man Utd for beating Charlton in 1999 in the last minute of the game, a Dwight Yorke far post header in case your wondering. I say the second best because Paisley would be my choice.
Very brave from Jason Collins to come out as gay, I have a huge amount of respect for him as it can not be easy.
For those who want to keep up-to-date on what I'm doing more and see what racing over-here is really like follow me on Strava or Twitter or add me on Facebook, where I will be publishing Garmin information on these formats for all to see.
Stay safe everyone
Within the next 5km some others managed to join us as at this point we were riding on the hilliest section of the race and it had began to rain cats and dgos, but once we numbered about 20 we had a 50 second to a minute gap over the peloton, goodnight Paris. The break consisted of a few good individual riders, with no team-mates and decent riders with one other team-mate also present for them, so very finely balanced. We worked well until the finishing circuits where all hell broke loose. Unfortunately for me, my team-mate was actually more of hindrance than anything as he was at the back doing sod all, because of the fact that there was 2 of us in the break and me being considered one of the better riders in the move, anytime someone attacked they expected one of us to do something. However my team-mate Stephane was in no fit state to do anything.
We had to ride 10x4.2km laps of a rolling, open circuit, ideal for me really, but this did not quite prove to be the case. 2 got away after 2 laps and about a lap later the eventual winner went, no one was really keen to help catch them due to concerns over others as well as the fact that they never got more than 15 seconds until the last few laps, we were all trying to be a bit too clever. People were being dropped from the group all the time, Stephane went with 3 laps still go and with 2 laps to go everyone from the break just started to attack each other, I missed the next move that decided 3rd-6th as one of the original break of 2 riders who went at the beginning of finishing circuits went kaputt. 2 then clipped off to get 7th and 8th whilst I was just pipped for 9th. End result 10th when really I could or should have got a top 5, finishing only 30 seconds down on the winner so I know how close I came. Saying that on the finish picture from Sunday's race you can see me dying at 75m to go mark when the winner was crossing the line so I actually came closer in some ways to winning on Sunday.
Me being pipped to 9th
I'm just chuffed with how I rode, the great sensations on the new bike and minimal pain and stiffness in my knee. Hopefully I can get a podium next time and my knee keeps on improving, but I must apologise to Sebastien, my team president, for failing to win today even though he said I could and should do yesterday. Hamish came in a credible 21st.
After the race we had the prize-giving presentations where I'm pleased to say we won the overall team classification. As a result we got lots of beer, posh glasses, trophies and t-shirts to be shared amongst. I got given one of the glasses and a top, yes Nan; another one, it's nice to have and a proper t-shirt that you are supposed to wear out, not a top with the race sprawled across it with all the sponsors etc... It seems to celebrate Breton pride (I think) and the company was established in 1996 according to the graphics on the t-shirt, a year that still brings many highs and lows for me as in an instance I'm transported to Euro 96 and this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr__-KqnfQM
Pretty apt to be honest as today I wore my England football shirt in recognition of the fact that today was Armistice Day in France, celebrating the liberation of France by the Allied Forces.
Congratulations must go to Sam Allen for his 8th in La Essor Breton E/1/2 Stage Race in the overall and get better soon George Moore.
My next race will be Sunday, but I don't know anything other than it's this Sunday until then I will be enjoying the day-to-day delights of the Giro d'Italia!
The second greatest manager in the English game has finally departed, I admire his achievements and how nice he was to me at the Valley, but I will never forgive him or Man Utd for beating Charlton in 1999 in the last minute of the game, a Dwight Yorke far post header in case your wondering. I say the second best because Paisley would be my choice.
Very brave from Jason Collins to come out as gay, I have a huge amount of respect for him as it can not be easy.
For those who want to keep up-to-date on what I'm doing more and see what racing over-here is really like follow me on Strava or Twitter or add me on Facebook, where I will be publishing Garmin information on these formats for all to see.
Stay safe everyone
Sunday 5 May 2013
A fight, my knee and some racing
Well, as you all know I wrote my last blog at little earlier than usual due to me pulling out of Saturday's race and thus not competing on the Sunday. Unfortunately I had jumped the gun a bit early for not only did George grab another third, but also I missed out on telling you about the fight between two old blokes, one a marshal, another a parent. It was quite funny really, but both pugilists did draw blood and hit the deck so if ever the stereotype that the French don't fight was destroyed then this was the act that did so. It did look a bit like the below clip though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CobZuaPMQHw
I saw the osteopath on Tuesday, who did a great job of pulling me about, he confirmed that it was water retention on the knee and that I gradually had to build my training and racing so I missed Saturday's race and rode for an hour gently on Thursday and for an hour and 30mins on Saturday, not wanting to push it. Sadly though I couldn't do the 1/2/3 stage race I had initially been entered for, very disappointing, nonetheless there was a good race on Sunday, today, La Route de Megalithes, a 2/3/Junior race with a fantastic sounding name.
I pleased to say my knee dealt with the race admirably, especially as I asked so much of it with a very attacking display, sadly I could only manage 13th, I was certainly capable of a top 10, but just positioned myself slightly incorrectly in the final 800m. Nevermind and I still performed well for my first race back from the little lay off. The race was quite short only 106km and with very little wind and a relatively flat circuit, or the big 60km first loop was at least, by Breton standards and a small field of about 100 it failed to break-up until the finishing circuits which consisted of going down the hill, round the bottom and up the hill to to the top of town by the church. 8 laps of this 5km (approx.) was cycled and it smashed the peloton into pieces continually, but a small group of about 25 still contested the finish. It was a very exciting, attacking race and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I thought today was scorching, however I am going to do a stage race in Provence in mid-June and I fear I might just melt there.
Hamish did a good performance today too, finishing just behind.
Me at the race on the new machine
Also congratulations to the English boys that competed in La Catonale, particularly Nick and Harry from my British team, Aprire Bicycles who seemed to put in some solid performances in that race today, I hope they loved the continental experience as much as I am. I have also got my new bike sorted out courtsey of Aprire Bicycles, I'm now riding the 2013 Aprire Celeste, a great bike judging by today's ride and hopefully I'll be winning on it soon enough.
Now I'm just going to relax with the cat until Wednesday or Marie returns from Paris, which ever one comes first, as that is when I will next be racing.
I wish everyone well, bonne courage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CobZuaPMQHw
I saw the osteopath on Tuesday, who did a great job of pulling me about, he confirmed that it was water retention on the knee and that I gradually had to build my training and racing so I missed Saturday's race and rode for an hour gently on Thursday and for an hour and 30mins on Saturday, not wanting to push it. Sadly though I couldn't do the 1/2/3 stage race I had initially been entered for, very disappointing, nonetheless there was a good race on Sunday, today, La Route de Megalithes, a 2/3/Junior race with a fantastic sounding name.
I pleased to say my knee dealt with the race admirably, especially as I asked so much of it with a very attacking display, sadly I could only manage 13th, I was certainly capable of a top 10, but just positioned myself slightly incorrectly in the final 800m. Nevermind and I still performed well for my first race back from the little lay off. The race was quite short only 106km and with very little wind and a relatively flat circuit, or the big 60km first loop was at least, by Breton standards and a small field of about 100 it failed to break-up until the finishing circuits which consisted of going down the hill, round the bottom and up the hill to to the top of town by the church. 8 laps of this 5km (approx.) was cycled and it smashed the peloton into pieces continually, but a small group of about 25 still contested the finish. It was a very exciting, attacking race and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I thought today was scorching, however I am going to do a stage race in Provence in mid-June and I fear I might just melt there.
Hamish did a good performance today too, finishing just behind.
Me at the race on the new machine
Also congratulations to the English boys that competed in La Catonale, particularly Nick and Harry from my British team, Aprire Bicycles who seemed to put in some solid performances in that race today, I hope they loved the continental experience as much as I am. I have also got my new bike sorted out courtsey of Aprire Bicycles, I'm now riding the 2013 Aprire Celeste, a great bike judging by today's ride and hopefully I'll be winning on it soon enough.
Now I'm just going to relax with the cat until Wednesday or Marie returns from Paris, which ever one comes first, as that is when I will next be racing.
I wish everyone well, bonne courage.
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