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Thank you for visiting my blog, this is mostly about me and my cycling as you can probably guess from the title, but hopefully it will provide a bit more than just that and be thoroughly entertaining too.

Thursday 27 June 2013

Palin, Pilkington and Three Men went to Tours

This weekend I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with two French guys from the team Stephane and Loic at Stephane's ancestral home that is not used by his rather large family as a holiday home, no one is actual resident there that is situated just outside of Tours in the Loire Valley. Absolutely lovely, dead quiet and apples orchards all around us. The weekend comprised of three races, the first one a 1/2/3 just the otherside of Rennes with both Sunday and Monday being 2/3 races.

The race on Saturday began in horrible conditions though they soon improved and after about 40mins the day actually turned out rather nice though it did mean all of us racers did get really hot in our wet weather gear. It was a fast 3.3km loop to be completed by the 75 of us 30+ times, it has a small stretch of quite bad cobblestones and a real draggy section that was completed exposed to the elements. I made the front split everytime with Sam Allen who was also there excepted when it actually occurred after 40mins and 2 laps later the next split happened which again I missed. This was not through lack of attentiveness on my part, but from the sheer lack of training I have in my legs where in a good though small field and with the pace exceedingly high my legs just got completely burnt out. I was missing that couple of extra percent that otherwise would have meant that I would have made the first group. Anyway the race continued to split apart and I found myself out in front by myself where with a couple of laps to go I suffered the indignity of getting lapped by Sam and the front group. At least I could help Sam a bit by giving him some of my drink (see my earlier reference to wet weather gear) and he managed to pick up a brilliant third. I rolled in a bit later coming 27th, though I was mistakenly put down on the results 33rd. Only 34 finished and I was the only one from the team to finis so that's something and I felt much better for having done the race, my right knee was only ever so slightly stiff, but coped well which was a big bonus and the two weeks of enforced lay-off seemed to have done it the world of good. Unfortunately this was tempered by the fact that after a couple of laps rather than put my glasses through my jersey zip/collar, I thought I would be smart and dump them in the grass in a innocuous place near no-one where I could then go and retrieve them later. Sadly someone had taken the glasses and no-one had handed them in, so the moral of the story is kiddies always keep your belongings with unless you personally hand them to a friend or relative whom you trust!

After the race was a 120 mile to Tours and like most car journeys I slept all the way and upon waking up and arriving at the house I was met by such a typically French site I had to laugh. In the little front garden were some berry bushes, a couple of cherry trees, some strawberry plants and a pond, not filled with fish, but frogs. Stephane told me when he was younger and he visited his grandparents here he would spend all day catching and eating them. The house was pretty big, with a few mod-cons though the decor had not changed since the 1950's with some antlers in one room, lots of family pictures in the other with wallpaper with loads of deer on. With a pasta meal that night, Stephane went under the house to the vin cave where it brought up this 2002 local red.

The next day we woke up to a lovely a morning and we went into the local town, where Monday night's race was actually going to be held and went and had a big meal at a Hotel/restaurant owned by a former pro cyclist who rode for Festina. 3 courses consisting of a tomato and carrot salad followed by a plate of pasta in a butter sauce served next to an alive and kicking piece of flame-grilled steak. The latter is quite interesting to know as clearly here in France the customer is just served and how the chef and restaurant believe the food should be not the customer. Fortunately I like my steak to still be a cow mooing so I had no problem. Then we finished with some creme brulee.

After the meal we headed to just south of Tour to a lovely little village by a creek for the 2/3 Tauxiny race, 75 competitors going round a 6.5km 16 times. The loop was really technical, exposed and undulating, a proper hardman's race however just before my warm up lap the Heaven's opened and after 3km I punctured  on the warm-up lap, luckily the race steward's car was behind putting barriers across the roads so they took me and the bike to the finish. So I had to somewhat fatefully change my rear wheel to a deep section due to the puncture. The race was run in the most apocalyptic conditions I have ever had the pleasure to ride in and within a lap the peloton was split to pieces, thanks to the weather, course and the fact 10 fell off the bikes around the lap. I made the first group which numbered at about 15, but was being reduced every lap by crashes, punctures and the difficulty of the course, unfortunately 6 laps I took a heavy tumble and brought enough guy down with me. Up to this point I had felt ok during the race and was confident of getting a top 5, but it was not to be. The crash was heavy, but fortunately I did not do much damage to either myself or my bike and so I cycled gently back to the finish, got changed and continued watching the drama unfold from the warmth of the car. A ripped gilet, shoecover with some cuts, bruises and grazes was all I got as well as some aesthetic, superficial damage to the bike and a shoe.  Only 15 finished the race with about 30 crashing out, a few abandons and some punctures, Loic managed to get 12th even though he had to cycle the last half of the final lap with a puncture. After the race we headed back to the house where I preceded to grunt a lot as the hot water cleaned my wounds and so Stephane and Loic thought to cheer me up with yet more pasta and some Alsatian beers.

The next day we headed out for an easy 30km cycle and the conditions were beautiful though a bit chilly and then back to the Festina hotel/restaurant for the same meal that we had yesterday again, not that I was complaining. After that and a little siesta we prepared ourselves for that evening's race in the town of the hotel. Stephane and his family being local legends was really keen to do well as was I after my disappointing results so far that weekend. I thought to myself what is the main difference between my recent good run of results and my mishaps over the previous two days? And only one answer presented itself, it was the fact I had not worn my Astana headband for the previous 2 days and therefore failed to channel my inner Vinokourov!

Once I put it on under my helmet I knew then I was in for a good performance though not quite to the same degree as I was hoping. The course was relative flat though the finish was on a short sharp hill that got steeper as it went up, 40 times this 2.7km route with plenty of good primes available. Alas after 2 laps I managed to get into the break, but we never got more than 25 seconds away from the peloton who kept us on a very tight leash and we never numbered more than 6 riders, ideally we needed 10 to stay away. There were a couple of guys from the same time who cleared up the primes until about halfway through the race the peloton swallowed us up. From here on out the peloton split and re-gathered itslef continually until with about 14 laps to go quite a big group went, unfortunately I was a bit hamstrung by a lot of people not willing to work to get across to this front group, but eventually I got there with 10 laps to go. With 8 laps to go on the little climb about a mile away from the finish someone dropped a wheel and couple of teams blocked anyone trying to get across. The break numbered 11 and also contained Stephane; he managed to get third and the break stayed away. With about 4 laps to go I began attacking relentlessly though I was feeling my right knee quite a bit at this point eventually I got away with Loic and two others and then Loic launched his sprint really early for 12th place, I followed and when he began dying with about 50m to go I slowed up to not wanting to roll my team-mate as at this point our other two companions seemed quite far from us, unfortunately one of them managed to nick in front and grab 12th leaving Loic with 13th place and me with 14th.

I have to say I was a little disappointed as I knew that day I could of won, what counted against me was the fact the local cycling mafia turned up and helped to split the primes and decide the race outcome amongst themselves, which made me feel a bit better about the result. After the race we had a beer at the beer tent and chatted to the locals who seemed to be very disappointed in Jonathan Tiernan-Locke's season thus far as well as saying that being a Breton is the same as being English/British or as close as a Frenchman would get to being one anyway. We then headed back to the Festina hotel where the race officials were having an after-race meal together. For 5 euros each we were also allowed into this little lock-in and eat from the buffet, but as Loic and Stephane won some prime money they paid for me. The manageress of the hotel must have taken a shine to us over the preceding days and gave us some chocolate pudding and two bottles of red wine that must have cost at least 20 euros each if bought at the restaurant!

After this we headed back to the house where we then stayed up chatting about the race, about the recent Jalabert drug revelations and the French National Champs until the early hours.

The next day we had a long drive and finally, feeling a little worse for wear, I was in the comfort of my own bed. What a great experience though and if I was to do full justice to the sights, sounds and experiences just from the weekend alone, well, this blog would be very long indeed.

I hope everyone is well and doing well in their races, until next time stay on the bike!

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Additions

I thought I would do another blog post as it would have made my previous one a bit long and unwieldy so here it is. Unfortunately it is really just a number of disjointed pieces really, but it's reflective of what Life's like so don't complain, I'm just not skilled (or motivated maybe) enough to be these it to one concise, flowing piece of prose.

To continue on from my previous post after Sunday's race me. Sam and Hamish thought it would be fun to go to a little festival gathering happening in the town next door, but it was closing as we got there due to it being 10pm. The only thing left open was the beer tent so we decided to have a couple of beers and just chatted amongst ourselves. We did attract some attention as we were not the average age of the people there, like 38, we were not stoned or hammered or both and we were dressed a bit differently too. In no time we had been asked for Charlie as well as fags and a light, once we said no and they knew we were English cue surreal conversations that were rather unintelligible to everyone. So after about 90mins we boys left.

When describing to Marie what happened that night I found out that 'to go westward' is the French term for 'being stoned' as well as being taught afterwards how to use her lawnmower so I could mow for her which was also entertaining as earlier in the day I couldn't get it started. This is because there was no oil in it. Lemon.

Well done to everyone who achieved well in their degrees and in other good news Tim Butt seems to be doing ok now that he is out of hospital and hopefully his recovery continues.

Harry from my British team, Aprire Bicycles, is currently leading the Race Across America in his 4 man team and they are about halfway now, so keep it up Harry. Aprire Bicycles have now finally done up there website and releasing their 2013 next generation bikes so don't forget to check it out http://www.aprirebicycles.com/.

The Nationals should be interesting this weekend and wish people all the best in them, as a result of the French Nationals taking place nearby though there will be no races in Brittany this weekend fortunately a team member's family will be putting me and George up this weekend so that we can race in Normandy and the Loire region. It should be really exciting and a real test of my French skills too.

Still can't believe the state of the British Road racing calender, with so many decent races clashing with each other this year and the fact no National B's on a Saturday anywhere I don't think and the race clashes result in empty weekends. Just because one may not be good enough to get on to the British Cycling programme at 16 does not mean they will never be good enough and if a big pool of great riders is wanted then the domestic scene really needs to strengthened by having better races, more often with less clashes. We can't expect other nations to constantly take other riders of the U.K.'s that are a bit late in developing as we are now one of the best countries at cycling. It has and will continue to grow on countries like France and Belgium's nerves and not only that it puts our athletes under a lot more pressure they maybe what is necessary if just the calender was improved.

I finish on this notice that I have started a new book, one that I have referenced many times, but never have actually properly read, Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 and if the first few pages are anything to go by I am really going to enjoy it.

Sunday 16 June 2013

Hard lessons have to be learnt

So this week was the big build-up to a race that was happening outside my front door, the 1/2/3 Grand Prix Leclerc (the French equivalent of Sainsbury's) at Hennebont. 24 laps of a really fast, technical 4km loop with 300m of off-road at the top of the hill just after the finish. A real strongman circuit and one that many people, including myself, were confident that I would perform well on. Alas this was not to be because I did something really stupid. My doctor in England advised me to take ibuprofen instead of paracetamol before a race as a pain killer for my knee as it would be many times more effective, however I should be careful though as the ibuprofen could trigger my asthma. I took slightly more ibuprofen for my knee than I otherwise would as I really didn't want any pain in my knee towards the latter part of this race and I thought I would compensate this by taking a few more puffs of my blue inhaler.

This did not work!

My first lap was great, but after that I just went backwards through the peloton and ended having to call a halt to my race after 4 laps wheezing my way back home with my tail firmly between legs. What a bloody tool!

Unfortunately this was my only race this week and with me going well recently, a small, but good quality field and a course that I know well from living next to it; it's just a shame I wasn't able to give any account of myself. You live and learn. Sadly I might have to wait over a week till my next race as next weekend is the National Championships in most countries, I would be competing in the Brits, but Glasgow is too far for me to get, would cost me a lot and the course looks rubbish. At least I will get a chance to continue resting my knee even more now though and catch back up with my French as I've let that slide a little bit recently.

This is because I've been caught up in my Balkan book which I've finally and what a great piece too, it's just a shame that it was written in 1999 and not a few years later so that the Kosovo Question and by extension the Macedonian Question could be dealt with more fully, it just feels a little open-ended. On the other-hand the peace process in the Balkans is continually evolving as we speak and the aforementioned Questions as well as the others in the Balkans, like Bosnia, will be open-ended for a good while longer anyway.

I also finally got round to watching 'God on Trial' this week too and I urge you all to watch such a fine drama.

On a complete different note I must mention my girlfriend Verity who won the 800m at an athletics meet in Italy on Tuesday, she is now beating me on the international scorecards this year 1-0 so far and can now legitimately claim to being the more successful partner, at least on the international stage, in this relationship. I do not begrudge such an assumption nor accolade, if bestowed as such, one iota. I am admiring her ability to balance not only the racing, but also the training, the exams she has at the moment as well as keeping up appearances with the social side of things in Siena too. I had only one job all week to do, to do well on Sunday, and I still managed to fluff my lines.

Special mention has to go to Sam Allen for his third win of the year on Friday. Chapeau bruv.

Until next time...

Monday 10 June 2013

Boom, Boom, Boom

I was looking forward to continuing my fine run of form this week with the 3 races coming up a 90km crit around Auray town centre of Thursday evening, a 90km crit right on the coast on the Friday evening near Sarzeau and a 90km semi-nocturne on Sunday at Plouay.

Unfortunately at Auray I DNFed after about 40% had been completed, it was a small field of around 60, as were the other two races this week, but it was a quality field here at Auray being a 1/2/3 event. The course had lots of slow corners with massive, out-of-the-saddle accelerations out of them and my knee really began to hurt and struggle and knowing that I had another 2 races still left to race and where I would also be much more competitive I decided to cut my losses and quit. Annoyingly if I had of continued rolling round the course I would have probably got another top 20 as only 22 finished and a few these were dropped well before I decided to pack it in.

So on to Friday's race at Sarzeau, no slow corners with big accelerations, but 45 laps including a 400m long hill, sadly for me I missed the move that eventually decided the win even though they were never more than 45 seconds from me. All the other moves before and after the winning break I got in, but I was very closely marked all race which was incredibly frustrating and so I only got 8th when really I was capable of a top 5. What didn't help was that both George and Hamish had stopped early during the race and were not there to have a positive impact upon proceedings, but by the time I had finished the race they were well lubricated after spending the remainder of the race in the pub.

After the race me and Loic (a team-mate who had also driven us there) joined them and it did not take me long to get fairly merry. Loic then decided it would be a brilliant idea to show us prized monkeys off at the local he frequents before and after F.C. Lorient football matches, a bar famous locally for having 600 different kinds of drink available including a shot called 'the Alice in Wonderland'. A lot of banter, drinks, nachos and French dried sausage (not a euphemism) later we eventually went home though George did have the pleasure of sharing a bed with Loic as it was too much effort to take George home for any of us.

Saturday was definitely a rest then on Sunday was a race on some of the 2000 World Championship Circuit and it was certainly challenging with a mile long steady hill followed by a short descent and a very steep hill lasting 400 metres just after. Then it was a fast, rolling decent to the finish straight that crested up slightly and then went a bit downhill, the straight was about 1km long. So 15 laps were in order of the course and just like all my previous races, lots of moves went and came back to the bunch in pretty short time when after a few laps George managed to get away with a few others and they preceded to eke out a pretty good gap. Hamish and Sam Allen attacked soon after and managed to jump across to them where this lead group then managed to pull out a 30 second lead pretty rapidly. I then snuck to get into the second break who then bridged across to this lead group where we had about a minute over the peloton. This was with 9 laps to go still and from then on a couple of people would get dropped every time we went up and over the two ascents. Then with a little under 2 laps to go, two guys attacked and got away from our group that numbered 15 at this point. Soon after George and two other guys attacked and managed to get across to the 2 out in front with just under a lap to go. I sat in the remainder of what had been the lead group doing sod all and then over the top of 2 ascents, for the last time, we in the chasing group were gaining on the front 5 who were beginning to look around at each other. We almost caught the front 5 on the line as I won the sprint from second group grabbing 6th finishing right on 5th position's wheel, George meanwhile scored an excellent 2nd.

Sadly in none of these races was I able to add to winnings I got from the previous Sunday's race, but although my right knee hurt considerably on Thursday and towards the latter stages on Friday's and Sunday's races I was still extremely pleased with how it felt and managed the workload. Apart from the minor blip at Auray, my good run has continued and hopefully with this new found consistency I will soon be delivering even better results.

As we are approximately halfway through the cycling season I think it is appropriate to give everyone some basic facts about my race season so far and it is quite interesting to see what I have achieved in just raw, basic statistics. The numbers include the amount that also qualifies for the above category, so, for example, 5 top 10s and 7 top 15s, the latter also is inclusive of the 5 top 10s achieved. Here we go:

Out of the 30 races started by me this year I have failed to finish 6 of them.

I have achieved 2 wins and 5 podiums, but these were all in Britain before I came out.

1 top 5 here in France.

5 top 10s here in France and 6 top 10s in Britain, the latter is now a fixed number for the subsequent statistics as out of the 6 races competed in by me in Britain, I achieved 6 top 10s.

6 top 15s in France.

9 top 20s in France

11 top 30s in France.

I hope everyone is well and the racing is going strongly too, until next time...

Monday 3 June 2013

A more positive note

I did also have a great time when I was at home seeing lots of friends and family so it was not all bad as one could easily assume given my previous post, it was lovely to have Verity stay for a few days also so my week at homes was very mixed to say the least. Fortunately Tim has continued to improve and hopefully he will be out towards the end of next week.

I am pleased to say that my knee has continued to improve and that in my first race back in France I grabbed fourth, pretty pleased with considering how aggressive I was all race, but I mucked up the sprint and couldn't get myself on the podium. The race was the 2/3/J Saint-Jean de Villenard with about 80 riders there, 18 laps of a 6km circuit, with a real draggy climb on the circuit. I was at the front all day going for the primes and bagging points in the points classification too, this tactic resulted in me getting 110 euros as well as being at the front of proceedings close to danger. The race keeping on splitting and coming back together all day until with about 8 laps to go a big group of 15 riders went up the road with me also in it, then I went for another prime at the end of the 13th lap against another rider, but with no-one else near us two he decided to push on and so I joined him as the break of 15 hadn't been working too well and the second group of riders were never more than 20 seconds away. After a lap out in front together we were joined by four others who had jumped across from the original break of 15 riders and then we just worked well together to maintain our advantage.

With 2 and half laps to go on the main climb, two riders were dropped from our group of six including the bloke who had initially attacked with me to get away as a pair. Unfortunately I for some reason got a bit dizzy and believed this was the last lap we were on, so on the finish ramp I sprinted, but hearing shouts from my fellow breakaway companions, seeing no photographers and then managing to see the board I saw it said we still had one lap to go. This used up quite a bit of energy, but I got 40 euros for winning the prime so not all bad. Anyway after I attacked our group's entente cordiale went awry and everyone began attacking each other, particularly me as they all felt I was the strongest sprinter. The winner eventual got away just before the main climb and held a minor advantage over the rest of us, but the other 2 riders really didn't want to work with me to catch him. Coming into the final bend though I was in the perfect position, at the back of the other two, but I sprinted down the wrong side and got myself blocked, if I had of gone to the right then I might have got on to the podium, what also did not help was the fact that I really was surprised at the other two gentlemen's sprinting abilities who had really been bluffing quite considerably for most of the race.

Nevermind, I've continued to get some decent results some hopeful I can grab a podium soon, to be honest I felt a bit fat and unfit during the race due to not training on knee and having to eat and drink all the produce I bought believing I was going to do the SERRL Stage Race. My knee held up well though and I was in only minor discomfort because of it during and after the race.