What?

3 races this weekend Yannick, for sure. I love back to back to back racing. What, 3 of the hardest races I will do here? Great, can it be super hot too?
Sorry to mention the heat and sun, I hear it has been rainy back home. I have just had explained to me that is going to be a hella hard weekend. In fact, I'm heading out in a few minutes to attempt to find one of the courses. Sunday's course to be exact. It's organized by the team, which makes it important for anyone looking to not be "left out of races" to be there and make an effort, but as well each lap consists of a 7km climb, which is to be repeated 4-6 times. Depending on who you ask. After this col, you descend, and then do it again. And then, the 3rd race on Monday will be the nail in the coffin. Supposing we have survived the previous 2, this is to be the hardest. Incredible heat, open windy roads and a super tough rolling course. And plenty of Cat 1s as apparently the winner of the race is generally always signed to a contract for the following season. Break out the game face.
As a side note, anyone know of any teams looking for an extra rider for the Univest GP this year? I'd love to find a way to do this race.

Bloody internet

Internet has been screwy lately, and this is the first time it has decided to allow me the honour of accessing my blog. Racing went decently this weekend. I was a little worried, after the spanking we took last weekend in that 1-2-3 FFC race, but ready and motivated. In the end, I was super pumped... and hot. 37 degrees out in the shade when we toed the line at 2pm, for a Belgian Kermesse style race in the south of France. Wicked fun. 108km of windy, narrow farm roads with a corner intensive (and rough) finishing section in town. I put myself in a few early moves to try the legs and stay ahead of the selections. Which paid off as only about 30 or so finished. Good, hard fast racing. Hot though, which took a toll - in the form of 8ish bottles. A lot of feeds to wet the cotton mouth. The break seperated up the road with 2 of our guys and I tried to get accross as much as possible but we just ended up dropping more riders as I tried to follow desperate moves accross the gap. Made my final move in the last 2km through the technical bit through town only to nearly hit a semi truck which had decided to park in the middle of our corner. By the time I got my speed back up, 2 guys made it around me in the sprint and I finished 16th. Of course, the prize list went 15 deep. But I'm used to that. Resting up for the week here, as next week will provide with 3 staright days of hard FFC racing plus a local crit, making for 4 days of racing in 5 days. Hard courses.

Its not all business

After 4 days of racing, ones body needs a break. In my case, my body was in full race mode and my legs felt like gold. So I rode as easily as possible for an hour, then introduced them to the beach. And a fine dinner. I'm easy like that. Today was a little 2 hour spin up into the mountains with some efforts thrown in based on the fact that there are 3 of us, and we are all innately competitive. Rides like that are fun to mix it up from any form of truly organized training. I then made more coffee, overhauled my bike (it was in DIRE need of new cables, chain, tape, etc...), watched the Tour, chefed up some wicked curry and settled in for a flick. My legs are good, the current racing schedule doesn't seem to take advantage of that so I'm searching for my own stuff. Yannick is open for suggestion. As a side note, in 5 days, I had three flats. So I multi-tasked by gluing a new tub this evening. wtf?

4 in 4

4 tough days in the books. Thursday meant the usual La Bocca crit, with the goal of getting some speed in the legs as I had not raced in some time. It turned into a tougher day when I got a little carried away after taking points in the first sprint. Tried my luck getting away with 2 to go, but no luck that time. Home, bed, then up again at 6am to drive up to Gap in the Alps. Afternoon race (stage 1) was 90km. Some serious firepower with VC la Pomme, Roanne 45, Aix-en-Provence, and the AGR2 feeder team in full attendance. No joke, we held 50+ the entire first hour to the first climb. With rediculous wind. I felt good and positioned myself well, barely clinging on over the climb before being popped for good on the rollers after. Brutally hard, and was pretty happy considering my lack of racing in the past few weeks. Its one thing to ride poorly and not get a result (see the next day) but its another to be simply too far into the red after doing things right. The race finished in the wind and rain (a first for me in France haha) atop a 11km alpine climb. Pretty cool experience. I felt good again the next day for a much tougher 120km race through more rollers with one solid 5-6km climb towards the end of each lap (5 laps). Again the race went from the gun with us singled out at 75+ on the switch back descent. I lost places (and therefor my excellent starting position) on the descent as VC la Pomme lined out 9 guys and drove it after the 90 degreee turn at the bottom into the ridiculous cross wind section. Needless to say, 10 minutes into the race and things shattered. I was not ready. Echelons appeared all over the road and guys peeled off left and right. I floored myself with everything driving through holes moving up knowing that if I didn't get up to a decent group by the climb it was lights out. A couple of guys rotated with me and we got within about 50m of the "group" when we changed into the headwind before we blew. We came over the climb bleeding time and everyone sat up. Lights out. I was mad and unable to chase on my own, and decided to save my frusteration at my mistake for the day tomorrow. A long drive home was quickly followed by another early morning for an 8am start. An odd race this one, being a 4 hour relay race. Basically a 4 hour crit with 3 man teams. You would ride yourself into the ground, then swap out for your teamate. The course was to my liking though with an uphill finish, tight downhill, flat stretch for 1.6km. We had a good chance at the win, so even with tired legs motivation was high. Though we quickly learned it was near impossible to attack much as guys would chase until they tired themsleves then swap out for a fresh legged teamate. Merde. Didn't stop us from trying at least. In the end it came down to me being voted in for the uphill sprint and I was confident. I followed a few attacks in the lap couple laps of dangerous guys but got caught out with a counter attack with 2 to go. Me and one other worked to bring it back, but I still was banking on my sprint and no one was willing to put their nose in the wind. In the end I launched my sprint on the climb putting about 5+ bike lengths into the pack and coming up a few seconds short of the break for 3rd. Annoying as we should have been able to win, but nice to know that I could formulate a plan and confidently carry it out. At least its a first podium in France. Plus Yannick celebrated with beers all around, good times.

Update

Not much happening, I sat on a train for a while coming home. After climbing some of the more famous peaks in the Pyrenees: Ventoux, Plateau de Beille, Col de Pailleres... and am now back home. My races last weekend were canceled, which was unfortunate, but gave me a better chance to rest up and prepare for this weekend. 4-5 days of straight racing. Crit Thursday to find some racing legs, Tour des Alps Friday and Saturday, and some 4 hour relay race Sunday. Monday is potentially another road race. Should be good. Tour des Alps is even a Cat 1-2 FFC race, which means double the hurt, and then add in some Alps and we can quadruple the hurt. For now, I have some laundry to do, a bike to clean, and some groceries to aquire. And maybe a little spin. I won;t rub in any further how good the weather is, but... I'll be happy to be up in the mountains and not sweating like a rappist here on the coast soon. Cheers

Change

Busy few days. After a train strike derailed my travel plans, I finally made it to Limoux. 6 hours of trains. Staying here at a decent house with ol' Vince, Paul Smeulders of ErgVideo, and a couple of Brits. Good times. We ride, Paul films (with Van-cam and helmet cams) and generally enjoy ourselves. An awesome way to see some new roads, and get some quality training in. Today was a solid "rolling" 4 hours with a quick stop for another view of the Tour before a stop at the Medival city of Carcasonne for dinner and a pint. Or "half liter" as the Brits called it. Softies. Tomorrow a few ascencions of the infamous Ventoux. 2 sides is the plan. Friday is up in the air as I'm waiting on racing news for the weekend. C'est la vie. Good times however.

The ride to end all

5 hours, just under 140km of hot hot heat, and some pretty awe inspiring riding. First off, I should mention this ride was both for training purposes AND bike nerd purposes. Basically, I rode to Monaco, and then rode the tt course a few times. With some of the biggest names in cycling. After a 2 hour or so ride to arrive (with some well encouraged drafting of a Tour commissar car), I arrived and set out to see if I could get on the course. Many of the sketchier frenchmen were being kicked off by Gendarmes after all, but I seemed to get on no problems. After riding a bit, I was passed by Lance and Levi. I even got this kinda stare down look from Lance for some reason, maybe my orange EVA kit stood out as "not a tour team". Either way, I sped up a bit and rode along with a quick hello. After a round about, where I was left behind after having to stop to avoid a car, I rode merrily along content with not being the Lance stalker in the news tonight. I was feeling pretty cool as photographers were taking my picture and tourists were talking. As I came back through the finish line, people began running over and pushing to get my picture. Cooler than I thought, until suddenly Alberto Contador and Andreas Kloden (along with the rest of the Astana team) pulled out from behind laughing as they passed. Damn. So I followed along. At the next round about a flying Denis Mechov joined the group chatting away as we rolled along the tough course. We were then joined by a few Silence Lotto boys and caught up to the Quick Step boys with Styjn Devolder looking resplendant in his National Champ kit. After a lap with these guys I figured I would pull into a cafe by the finish and watch the sites with a fine cafe. Good call, as no sooner had I pulled over to scout a cafe, I looked up to see Eddy Merckx yelling at Lance. No time to waste, a handshake and a hello and suddenly I was posing for a quick photo. You can't waste a chance like that to meet the Cannibal. The rest of the ride went by, sharing the miles with a Belgian dude who is living in Monaco (racing for the Belgian National Devo team) to Nice and then rolling the rest of the way back in solitude. Good times. I'll leave with some pictures, vive la France!

The team presentations at the Moncao harbour. Say hello to Columbia HTC.

Yours truley and a pre-occupied Eddy Merkcx. Fair enough.

Didi and I are both quite pumped on bike racing. He seems to enjoy Monaco.

Le Tour

Not much going on in France right now, minus some Grand Tour coming through town. I had a pretty awful day which is now put behind me on Sunday. Super hot, super fast. Not happy, but have put it behind by ending my recovery week with some long hard days in the mountains. Two days of about 4 hours with a few thousand meters of climbing. Today will be more hills as I have a bit of a respite from racing. Thursday will be spent in Monaco for the team presentations (not mine, but for that Tour de France thing), Friday ride and relax, Saturday Stage one tt in Monaco, and Sunday will be spent on a mountain watching the first road stage. Nice for the motivation. If you haven't yet, get in on the Tour Pool. Good fun. Well, its hot which means its time to get out and rolling.