Monday, September 29, 2008
Season Finished
Hello again,
Sorry this has come late once again. Truth is, not much has been happening. I've been racing and going well but just nothing really to report on from the races. I had my last race of the season on Wednesday and said my goodbyes to everyone until next year. I have been offered a contract to stay on for another year which was good considering theres a lot of riders without contracts for next year with some of the continental teams not carrying on.
My next race will be the Tour of Southland in early November.
I hope I can pull something together there and finish the year on a good note.
Other than that I have just been finishing things up here until I return for the 2009 season.
Living in Vlaanderen sure has been good. Life has been so much easier and a lot more enjoyable.
I had my bike set-up done which uncovered a little something that was not quite right but made things difficult.
Now I look forward to coming home and catching up with everyone over the summer and getting back into the New Zealand way of racing. Some good times to be had.
I will endevour to update this reguarly while at home also so my european viewers will still know what I am up to.
Until the next post.
Ryan
Sorry this has come late once again. Truth is, not much has been happening. I've been racing and going well but just nothing really to report on from the races. I had my last race of the season on Wednesday and said my goodbyes to everyone until next year. I have been offered a contract to stay on for another year which was good considering theres a lot of riders without contracts for next year with some of the continental teams not carrying on.
My next race will be the Tour of Southland in early November.
I hope I can pull something together there and finish the year on a good note.
Other than that I have just been finishing things up here until I return for the 2009 season.
Living in Vlaanderen sure has been good. Life has been so much easier and a lot more enjoyable.
I had my bike set-up done which uncovered a little something that was not quite right but made things difficult.
Now I look forward to coming home and catching up with everyone over the summer and getting back into the New Zealand way of racing. Some good times to be had.
I will endevour to update this reguarly while at home also so my european viewers will still know what I am up to.
Until the next post.
Ryan
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Operation find some form!
Since my last update a lot has happened. 4th of August couldn't come fast enough and after 3 rides with a cast and it being all sweaty and yuck (and against doctors orders) i sat down one afternoon and peeled it off a week early! so far so good though.
Once that was off it was back into training i spent the first week in Vlaanderan with Clinton (Bill) and put in some pretty big days which included leaving straight after breaky and getting home when dinner was on the table! After that week we ventured back down to the ardennes where we have spent the last week 're-finding some condition' ready for the end of season objectives, it's probly fair to say that it's the most focused i have ever been for training, everyday was enjoyable at some point though. except for one day where we busted our balls into a headwind, and not just any headwind, for 4 hours. Was rather tired after that!
So tomorrow i leave again for the Vlaanderan region where i will be based for the rest of the season in a hope to hone my time trial for the world champs. I'm trying not to think about anything post worlds just yet but it's hard too when home is only 40 days away!
Training with Bill has defenatly been good though as we both have the same goal in mind so both riding on the same wave length has been super. After this week the condition is coming. I can feel it.
I have my first race back on Tuesday with the professionals, G.P de Zottegem. Bring on the flat roads of flanders again! (and the wind), some would say 'only in Belgium' and most of the time they are probly right!
Back soon with race report.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Ryan
Once that was off it was back into training i spent the first week in Vlaanderan with Clinton (Bill) and put in some pretty big days which included leaving straight after breaky and getting home when dinner was on the table! After that week we ventured back down to the ardennes where we have spent the last week 're-finding some condition' ready for the end of season objectives, it's probly fair to say that it's the most focused i have ever been for training, everyday was enjoyable at some point though. except for one day where we busted our balls into a headwind, and not just any headwind, for 4 hours. Was rather tired after that!
So tomorrow i leave again for the Vlaanderan region where i will be based for the rest of the season in a hope to hone my time trial for the world champs. I'm trying not to think about anything post worlds just yet but it's hard too when home is only 40 days away!
Training with Bill has defenatly been good though as we both have the same goal in mind so both riding on the same wave length has been super. After this week the condition is coming. I can feel it.
I have my first race back on Tuesday with the professionals, G.P de Zottegem. Bring on the flat roads of flanders again! (and the wind), some would say 'only in Belgium' and most of the time they are probly right!
Back soon with race report.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Ryan
Friday, July 25, 2008
And the Up's!!!
It's funny in a sport such as cycling how quickly bad things can turn into good things!
I have been bored out of my mind for 5 days straight now! but today came some good news!
Well 2 bits of good news!
1st bit, sylvain chavanel won todays stage of the tour de france!
it's nice when you see your hero's doing good!
2nd bit, most important! Wrist update.
It's not broken. I get the cast of on the 4th of August!
So that pretty much made my day!
So now i have to quickly get myself back into shape as i have binged a bit the last few nights,
i want say what i've been eating because it will bring my public image down! no just jokes, it's consisted of frites with mayonnaise and pizza, along with coke and lollies, and ice cream, and bakery goodness. I can't remembeer the last time i had something healthy, except for a salad 3 days ago!!
So tomorrow i guess i am back into it properly again.
Well that is my day and now i am excited to get the cast off,
surely has made me realise not to take each day for granted as now i have lost a fair chunk of worlds build up.
Well that is life and no point dwelling.
That is all for now!
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
I have been bored out of my mind for 5 days straight now! but today came some good news!
Well 2 bits of good news!
1st bit, sylvain chavanel won todays stage of the tour de france!
it's nice when you see your hero's doing good!
2nd bit, most important! Wrist update.
It's not broken. I get the cast of on the 4th of August!
So that pretty much made my day!
So now i have to quickly get myself back into shape as i have binged a bit the last few nights,
i want say what i've been eating because it will bring my public image down! no just jokes, it's consisted of frites with mayonnaise and pizza, along with coke and lollies, and ice cream, and bakery goodness. I can't remembeer the last time i had something healthy, except for a salad 3 days ago!!
So tomorrow i guess i am back into it properly again.
Well that is my day and now i am excited to get the cast off,
surely has made me realise not to take each day for granted as now i have lost a fair chunk of worlds build up.
Well that is life and no point dwelling.
That is all for now!
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Up's and Down's of Professional Sport
This is going to be a 2 part posting.
The first will be based around the up's of cycling.
The second will be based around the down's.
So we shall start with the good news and the positives,
A little story, Josh and I were getting some lunch in town while we waited for the bus to Liege on Wednesday afternoon when 2 guys on scooters pulled up. They looked at us and spoke fluent english, we didn't know what was happening really so i let Josh take over as he answered questions while this guy held a micro phone up. Turns out they were 2 radio host's from holland who had found a member of some rock band who lived in Louveigne on myspace (social network on the world wide web) and he thought he could possibly be the singer for this 'rock band'.
I'm not sure if he actually found this guy but it was quite funny all the same.
Josh took me to this 'huge' mall. So when we arrived i thought it looked familiar, when we got inside i realised i had been there before when i was here in 2006 with the junior team. Brought back a few memories.
The Tour de Liege started on Thursday in pouring rain which to this day has not stopped.
It was a very tricky and dangerous first stage but i still had some good legs after 10 days of solid training. A group got away and took 5 minutes and i got away on the finishing laps with a group of 10. So we had Jon up the front in a nice 7th and then me in a chase group with the rest of the team tucked in the peloton after what was a very windy wet day.
The next day started the same as the last ended, i now believe Logan's descripion of Belg, goes something like this "wake up rain, goto sleep rain, wake up rain, goto sleep rain, wake up overcast, goto sleep rain, wake up rain, goto sleep rain, wake up sunny, goto sleep rain" you get the idea. The day started out not bad in terms of physical feeling. but that soon changed as 40km into the stage i was finding it difficult to hold onto the handle bars and by the end of the stage i had ridden 100km in grupetto with 1 hand. The pain got worse.
This is where the bad news starts... that night was one of the most painful nights of my life. and that pain is still there as i type this. before the start of stage 3 i went and saw the race doctor who checked it and said it looks like a broken scaphoid. I was going to start the stage and see how it went anyway. Against her advice of corse! 30km into the stage and that was it, i was almost in tears with the pain of it and that night it was off to the hospital. X-rays were done and there is a little break in there, but because i left it for 3 days the break is harder to spot than if it was taken right after i did it. So now i am going to see the specialist tomorrow who will be able to determine what i can do from here and how bad the break is. I really am hoping for the best though as i don't really want to end the season here with another broken bone. It actually started after i crashed in the 1st stage of tour de luxembourg but i thought nothing of it and just went about work as normal, then that one set of cobbles really did most of the damage that was not already there. So i can take some of the blame for not questioning it sooner but i thought better of it. Could prove to be the wrong thing to do but that is just one of the up's and down's of sports. You live and you learn.
So now i am back home hoping for the best outcome when i go and see the specialist tomorrow morning.
....kinda fell asleep while i was writing this last night...
so we shall carry on, now i have seen the specialist and the news is not so good. Could be worse all the same though.
The scaphoid which was the suspected break is ok and looks normal but the problem is the bone next to it, i don't remember the name but it's long and kinda banana shaped. I have taken a big chip off the side of that. So now i have a cast for 6 weeks but depending on how fast or slow it heals could be 4 - 8 weeks. So that hurts the rest of the season a little bit but there is no point in dwelling. I just have to take the positives and thats professional sport for you.
So i think i will take a trip to germany and visit a mate there for a few days and then will come up with a new plan.
So for the next wee while, i will watch the Tour de France and do some touristy things to keep me sane and hopefully i heal fast.
Anyway thats enough for today, my hand is tired from typing.
Will keep you updated with how things pan out anyway..
Ryan
The first will be based around the up's of cycling.
The second will be based around the down's.
So we shall start with the good news and the positives,
A little story, Josh and I were getting some lunch in town while we waited for the bus to Liege on Wednesday afternoon when 2 guys on scooters pulled up. They looked at us and spoke fluent english, we didn't know what was happening really so i let Josh take over as he answered questions while this guy held a micro phone up. Turns out they were 2 radio host's from holland who had found a member of some rock band who lived in Louveigne on myspace (social network on the world wide web) and he thought he could possibly be the singer for this 'rock band'.
I'm not sure if he actually found this guy but it was quite funny all the same.
Josh took me to this 'huge' mall. So when we arrived i thought it looked familiar, when we got inside i realised i had been there before when i was here in 2006 with the junior team. Brought back a few memories.
The Tour de Liege started on Thursday in pouring rain which to this day has not stopped.
It was a very tricky and dangerous first stage but i still had some good legs after 10 days of solid training. A group got away and took 5 minutes and i got away on the finishing laps with a group of 10. So we had Jon up the front in a nice 7th and then me in a chase group with the rest of the team tucked in the peloton after what was a very windy wet day.
The next day started the same as the last ended, i now believe Logan's descripion of Belg, goes something like this "wake up rain, goto sleep rain, wake up rain, goto sleep rain, wake up overcast, goto sleep rain, wake up rain, goto sleep rain, wake up sunny, goto sleep rain" you get the idea. The day started out not bad in terms of physical feeling. but that soon changed as 40km into the stage i was finding it difficult to hold onto the handle bars and by the end of the stage i had ridden 100km in grupetto with 1 hand. The pain got worse.
This is where the bad news starts... that night was one of the most painful nights of my life. and that pain is still there as i type this. before the start of stage 3 i went and saw the race doctor who checked it and said it looks like a broken scaphoid. I was going to start the stage and see how it went anyway. Against her advice of corse! 30km into the stage and that was it, i was almost in tears with the pain of it and that night it was off to the hospital. X-rays were done and there is a little break in there, but because i left it for 3 days the break is harder to spot than if it was taken right after i did it. So now i am going to see the specialist tomorrow who will be able to determine what i can do from here and how bad the break is. I really am hoping for the best though as i don't really want to end the season here with another broken bone. It actually started after i crashed in the 1st stage of tour de luxembourg but i thought nothing of it and just went about work as normal, then that one set of cobbles really did most of the damage that was not already there. So i can take some of the blame for not questioning it sooner but i thought better of it. Could prove to be the wrong thing to do but that is just one of the up's and down's of sports. You live and you learn.
So now i am back home hoping for the best outcome when i go and see the specialist tomorrow morning.
....kinda fell asleep while i was writing this last night...
so we shall carry on, now i have seen the specialist and the news is not so good. Could be worse all the same though.
The scaphoid which was the suspected break is ok and looks normal but the problem is the bone next to it, i don't remember the name but it's long and kinda banana shaped. I have taken a big chip off the side of that. So now i have a cast for 6 weeks but depending on how fast or slow it heals could be 4 - 8 weeks. So that hurts the rest of the season a little bit but there is no point in dwelling. I just have to take the positives and thats professional sport for you.
So i think i will take a trip to germany and visit a mate there for a few days and then will come up with a new plan.
So for the next wee while, i will watch the Tour de France and do some touristy things to keep me sane and hopefully i heal fast.
Anyway thats enough for today, my hand is tired from typing.
Will keep you updated with how things pan out anyway..
Ryan
Friday, July 11, 2008
Right, about time i wrote on here.
I shall start where the last one left off. As you know last week was the Tour of Luxembourg and you now probly will know how that went thanks to dad being great and updating my blog for me while i rested up.
In the end i did hold my gc position on a rather difficult last day. Not so difficult route, actually it was probly the easiest stage of the tour with only hills in the first 60 and last 20km, it was more the fact i had to chase back on 3 times that made it difficult. Which led to me being not where i should have been which was at the front, so when i got back on after the 2nd puncture and coming into the finishing circuits, all hell was breaking loose on a 2km climb before a 2km decent to the finish. I managed to get myself out of trouble a wee bit and ride across to the front group but unfortuatly for me there was a group of 4 or 5 20 sec ahead so there goes any chance of a stage win.
So in the end i held 17th and 6th young rider but more importantly gained a lot of confidence from the week. Now in my head i'm good enough to win races here. This was reinforced at the finish when my director also said he's convinced i can win races here with a bit more time.
So after the tour i had Sunday with ma and pa before they carried on with their adventures. On Sunday we went caving 6km from my town which was quite cool. The New Zealand safety standards would have had a feild day though, It was much like Waitomo except you don't have to wear overalls, helmet or full covered shows. You kinda just stroll into the cave in shorts, shirt and jandals. We also went to a town that i raced through called La Roche, it's where the british and the germans came together in world war 2 which was an awesome town. Spent an hour or so wandering through a 3 storey Musem about the war, which had original cars and bmw motor bikes on display.
After they left early on Monday morning it was time for me to get back to business. As the 10 day between Tour of Luxembourg and Tour of Liege are very important as i recovered and built on the condition i had gained from the tour. I did a couple of easy days then tried to do a pro kermesse. Safe to say my whole team was the same as we were still very tired and ended after 100km, so instead went training for an hour and a bit. The last few days have been good for me and have kept me in pretty good shape. I know have a couple of longer days before Tour of Liege which starts on Thursday. This time it's 5 days long which i look foward to because each day at Tour of Luxembourg i was getting stronger and stronger and by the end was flying. So here's hoping the same will happen at Tour of Liege. The route is a lot more difficult with more climbs which is good for me so i hope i can make some good results there. Will even contest my first Time Trial in 7 months.
So i hope the 10 day turn-around period between the 2 tours brings me up well but physically i'm feeling the best i have since before i broke my back and my head's screwed on at the moment so i hope to make some good results in the next 2 weeks and beyond.
Other than that not much has been happening. You will know the Tour de France started on Saturday and the people here go crazy when that comes on. I was on tour when it started though so i have been finding it a bit difficult to get into it. Maybe when the race hits the mountains it will be better but at the moment it's all too predictable.
The other thing that has decided to come and have a play is the rain. Since the tour started last Wednesday we have only had 3 days without rain, 2 of those being in the tour itself. So it has made training a bit different having to put 5 layers of clothes on again, just like old times in the snow!
While i was with Mum and Dad i also picked up a tourist guide for Belgium so i have a few day trips planned out for when this next tour finishes. Things like go-karting and that sort of stuff!
Should make for some good times.
2 Months and 17 days till i come home too.
Not too long to go so i'm looking foward to getting amongst it while i'm still here.
As long as the rain plays with me and not against me.
Well it's time for me to bugger off and do some practice before the Tour de France comes on Television. Also it's nice weather to do some baking. YEAH I'VE CHANGED! I'm a chef now.
Will write something else later today.
Ryan
I shall start where the last one left off. As you know last week was the Tour of Luxembourg and you now probly will know how that went thanks to dad being great and updating my blog for me while i rested up.
In the end i did hold my gc position on a rather difficult last day. Not so difficult route, actually it was probly the easiest stage of the tour with only hills in the first 60 and last 20km, it was more the fact i had to chase back on 3 times that made it difficult. Which led to me being not where i should have been which was at the front, so when i got back on after the 2nd puncture and coming into the finishing circuits, all hell was breaking loose on a 2km climb before a 2km decent to the finish. I managed to get myself out of trouble a wee bit and ride across to the front group but unfortuatly for me there was a group of 4 or 5 20 sec ahead so there goes any chance of a stage win.
So in the end i held 17th and 6th young rider but more importantly gained a lot of confidence from the week. Now in my head i'm good enough to win races here. This was reinforced at the finish when my director also said he's convinced i can win races here with a bit more time.
So after the tour i had Sunday with ma and pa before they carried on with their adventures. On Sunday we went caving 6km from my town which was quite cool. The New Zealand safety standards would have had a feild day though, It was much like Waitomo except you don't have to wear overalls, helmet or full covered shows. You kinda just stroll into the cave in shorts, shirt and jandals. We also went to a town that i raced through called La Roche, it's where the british and the germans came together in world war 2 which was an awesome town. Spent an hour or so wandering through a 3 storey Musem about the war, which had original cars and bmw motor bikes on display.
After they left early on Monday morning it was time for me to get back to business. As the 10 day between Tour of Luxembourg and Tour of Liege are very important as i recovered and built on the condition i had gained from the tour. I did a couple of easy days then tried to do a pro kermesse. Safe to say my whole team was the same as we were still very tired and ended after 100km, so instead went training for an hour and a bit. The last few days have been good for me and have kept me in pretty good shape. I know have a couple of longer days before Tour of Liege which starts on Thursday. This time it's 5 days long which i look foward to because each day at Tour of Luxembourg i was getting stronger and stronger and by the end was flying. So here's hoping the same will happen at Tour of Liege. The route is a lot more difficult with more climbs which is good for me so i hope i can make some good results there. Will even contest my first Time Trial in 7 months.
So i hope the 10 day turn-around period between the 2 tours brings me up well but physically i'm feeling the best i have since before i broke my back and my head's screwed on at the moment so i hope to make some good results in the next 2 weeks and beyond.
Other than that not much has been happening. You will know the Tour de France started on Saturday and the people here go crazy when that comes on. I was on tour when it started though so i have been finding it a bit difficult to get into it. Maybe when the race hits the mountains it will be better but at the moment it's all too predictable.
The other thing that has decided to come and have a play is the rain. Since the tour started last Wednesday we have only had 3 days without rain, 2 of those being in the tour itself. So it has made training a bit different having to put 5 layers of clothes on again, just like old times in the snow!
While i was with Mum and Dad i also picked up a tourist guide for Belgium so i have a few day trips planned out for when this next tour finishes. Things like go-karting and that sort of stuff!
Should make for some good times.
2 Months and 17 days till i come home too.
Not too long to go so i'm looking foward to getting amongst it while i'm still here.
As long as the rain plays with me and not against me.
Well it's time for me to bugger off and do some practice before the Tour de France comes on Television. Also it's nice weather to do some baking. YEAH I'VE CHANGED! I'm a chef now.
Will write something else later today.
Ryan
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Tour de Provence du Luxembourg - Stage 4
Hi All,
I was hoping to see the final results for this stage before posting anything on Ryan's blog but they aren't available yet.
Stage 4 for Ryan had a few ups and down with him dropping his chain at the start of a climb and then having to chase back on and then also having 2 punctures. But he finished strongly and we think he was about 15th on the stage with most of the remaining riders finishing together.
So, we are assuming he has stayed where he was ion GC, 17th overall and 6th in the young rider classification. A great effort from him and he still looked very good at the finish.
We now leave Ryan in Belgium for a couple of days in Paris and a couple of days in England before returning to NZ.
Ryan's next race is a pro kermesse on Tuesday and the probably the Tour of Liese starting on 17th. It was great to meet most of his teammates and the team management and see how it all works over here. They certainly know how to run a race and the people are so relaxed about being held up on the roads as the race goes through.
Paul
I was hoping to see the final results for this stage before posting anything on Ryan's blog but they aren't available yet.
Stage 4 for Ryan had a few ups and down with him dropping his chain at the start of a climb and then having to chase back on and then also having 2 punctures. But he finished strongly and we think he was about 15th on the stage with most of the remaining riders finishing together.
So, we are assuming he has stayed where he was ion GC, 17th overall and 6th in the young rider classification. A great effort from him and he still looked very good at the finish.
We now leave Ryan in Belgium for a couple of days in Paris and a couple of days in England before returning to NZ.
Ryan's next race is a pro kermesse on Tuesday and the probably the Tour of Liese starting on 17th. It was great to meet most of his teammates and the team management and see how it all works over here. They certainly know how to run a race and the people are so relaxed about being held up on the roads as the race goes through.
Paul
Friday, July 4, 2008
Tour de la Provence du Luxemburg - Stage 3
Ryan said this stage was very hilly, hardly a flat part all day. The race broke up early with only 30 odd left in the front bunch after only 30km. Ryan managed to be up there and eventually finished in 18th place for the day.
He is now sitting in 17th overall on GC and 6th in the U23 category. He is also the leading Bodysol rider.
The final day is tomorrow over 144km.
Paul
He is now sitting in 17th overall on GC and 6th in the U23 category. He is also the leading Bodysol rider.
The final day is tomorrow over 144km.
Paul
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Tour de la Provence de Luxembourg Stage 2
Hi All,
Ryan has again asked me to update his blog site. He raced the second stage of the tour of the Provence of Luxembourg today. He had a good race with no mechanical problems like yesterday. The stage was 140km with one large circuit and three local circuits.
Ryan was near the front the whole day and tried to attack on the last of the local laps. Standing at the finish line we could hear his name being used over the public address system but because it was in French we didn't know what had happened. As it turned out, he had tried to attack and came close to the leaders before being swamped up to the finish. He eventually crossed in 51st place at 56 seconds. This has now lifted him up the overall standings to 30th place at 2:46. His Bodysol team are sitting 4th in the teams standings.
Todays stage was won by Logal Hutchings so it was great to see a NZ victory. Josh Brown and Matt Gorter both came in together in 91st and 92nd positions at 7:30.
Tomorrows stage is 144.2km with, again one large circuit followed by two local circuits.
Paul
Ryan has again asked me to update his blog site. He raced the second stage of the tour of the Provence of Luxembourg today. He had a good race with no mechanical problems like yesterday. The stage was 140km with one large circuit and three local circuits.
Ryan was near the front the whole day and tried to attack on the last of the local laps. Standing at the finish line we could hear his name being used over the public address system but because it was in French we didn't know what had happened. As it turned out, he had tried to attack and came close to the leaders before being swamped up to the finish. He eventually crossed in 51st place at 56 seconds. This has now lifted him up the overall standings to 30th place at 2:46. His Bodysol team are sitting 4th in the teams standings.
Todays stage was won by Logal Hutchings so it was great to see a NZ victory. Josh Brown and Matt Gorter both came in together in 91st and 92nd positions at 7:30.
Tomorrows stage is 144.2km with, again one large circuit followed by two local circuits.
Paul
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Update from Ryan's Father
Hi All,
I've got an opportunity to update Ryan's blog seeing its been a while since he did it himself. We arrived in Belgium on Saturday night and were straight into watching Ryan race on Sunday. Unfortunately, it wasn't too good a race for Ryan as he has been suffering from a cold. But he did manage to hold on for 120km before the organisers pulled him out off the race. This race was actually won by Kiwi rider Hayden Roulston.
Anyway, after a couple of days visiting the local sites with Ryan, he has now started the 4 day long Tour of the Provence of Luxembourg. The first day today was 132km with one large circult and two local circults. Its quite an experience being over here and watching the organising of a race. They certainly have no shortage of volunteers to help out, including a large contingent of police on motorbikes.
Ryan's race didn't start off too great with him breaking the chain on his bike only 10 minutes before the race was scheduled to start. His team mechanic took off on his bike and managed to get the problem sorted but only just - with 30 seconds spare. Anyway, he managed to start with everyone else. He then had a minor crash before settling into the race proper.
At the end there was a solo breakaway followed by two riders followed by 4 riders and then a group of 25 including Ryan at 2:10. Ryan's placing was 30th but in the same time as 9th place. With 3 days still to go anything could happen.
During the race they encountered all sorts of weather from sun to rain to hail and it is very humid.
Other than his racing, Ryan has been showing us the local sights including a trip to Maastricht in Holland. The age of everything is just amazing, something we miss in New Zealand with us being a relatively "young" country. One town we went through celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 1988 (it was founded in 988). This was hundreds of years before even the Maori arrived in New Zealand.
We'll watch the next stage of the Tour tomorrow and I will update Ryan's blog again tomorrow night.
Paul
I've got an opportunity to update Ryan's blog seeing its been a while since he did it himself. We arrived in Belgium on Saturday night and were straight into watching Ryan race on Sunday. Unfortunately, it wasn't too good a race for Ryan as he has been suffering from a cold. But he did manage to hold on for 120km before the organisers pulled him out off the race. This race was actually won by Kiwi rider Hayden Roulston.
Anyway, after a couple of days visiting the local sites with Ryan, he has now started the 4 day long Tour of the Provence of Luxembourg. The first day today was 132km with one large circult and two local circults. Its quite an experience being over here and watching the organising of a race. They certainly have no shortage of volunteers to help out, including a large contingent of police on motorbikes.
Ryan's race didn't start off too great with him breaking the chain on his bike only 10 minutes before the race was scheduled to start. His team mechanic took off on his bike and managed to get the problem sorted but only just - with 30 seconds spare. Anyway, he managed to start with everyone else. He then had a minor crash before settling into the race proper.
At the end there was a solo breakaway followed by two riders followed by 4 riders and then a group of 25 including Ryan at 2:10. Ryan's placing was 30th but in the same time as 9th place. With 3 days still to go anything could happen.
During the race they encountered all sorts of weather from sun to rain to hail and it is very humid.
Other than his racing, Ryan has been showing us the local sights including a trip to Maastricht in Holland. The age of everything is just amazing, something we miss in New Zealand with us being a relatively "young" country. One town we went through celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 1988 (it was founded in 988). This was hundreds of years before even the Maori arrived in New Zealand.
We'll watch the next stage of the Tour tomorrow and I will update Ryan's blog again tomorrow night.
Paul
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Long time coming!!
Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts lately.
Number of reasons contributed towards it but im going to put it down to an increase in training and therefore fatigue level so the last thing on my mind is to come home from training and try and write something on here when sleep sounds a lot better.
Anyway, guess i should try and remember what i have done over the last few weeks.
I have done 4 races i think. First 2 were just finishing in grupetto which is like the bunch that takes it easy after 100km of racing. To be honest i can't really remember much about these races except that one i should have probly done a lot better if i hadn't been caught out by a split in the bunch while back at the team car collecting biddons, or bottles as most know them. That's not an excuse, just bad luck i think.
Over the weekend i had 2 races. One on Saturday around 50km away. I think it was 16 laps or something to make a total of 118km. I spent a lot of time of the front of the bunch in break aways or trying to bridge up to break aways etc.. but the one break my team mate Kevin and I had to bury ourselves to try and get across too ended up being the winning break as we came so very close to getting across to the 8 man group, we made it to within 100m before they started pulling away from us again. Back into the peloton with a lap remaining and thats where i would stay. Spent 2/3's of the race in front of the peloton which is something i havn't really been able to do until now.
Sunday, today. It was 18 laps or something to make a total of something. I thought today could be my day. In the end it kind of was. Myself and 2 team mates lined up with the rest of the race. I saw an opportunity to slip into the break away on the 1st lap so there i was, 1 lap down and away with 3 other guys, 2 of which would drop on the 1st time up the main climb to the finish, probly around 1km or so in length. So for the next 4 and a bit laps myself and 1 other rider would take turns at holding the peloton at a decent gap while waiting and hoping a small group could come across to us and make the move for the day. Well my dream was met shortly after with a group of 11 coming across. Unfortunately for my early break away companion he felt the going a little tough and retreated back to the peloton while i took a back seat for a couple of km to asess the situation. 11 guys, 3 bodysol and Matt from NZ who is staying with Josh and I. This is good. So for the next few laps or about 60km everyone rolls through taking their turns on the front etc. Me mostly soft pedalling trying not to waste any extra energy as i had already been in the earlier move. With 20km to go the attacks started to come thick and fast. I threw a few down before finally team mate Kevin was able to get himself away. I then tried a couple of times to go across. On the 3rd attempt i got away with my other team mate Jeremy. For the last 15km we put a lot of time into the remnants of the break away while catching Kevin slowly. I had just about dragged us across with 5km to go when Jeremy said to stay behind him and let him take the victory. Jeremy came past me just before the finish so in the end i was 3rd and more importantly bodysol took all the podium spots. So was a rather good day and starting to ride like i should have been riding earlier in the year. Guess it gets put down to the increase in training.
At the end of the day though i am flying at the moment. And today i was so strong.
Matt ended up 9th which isn't too bad for a 1m95 ox on an up hill finish!!!
So next up for me is Somewhere to Somewhere on Wednesday. It's with the pro's and featues some cobbled climbs so i hope to keep riding strong and keep building towards 2nd half of season goals.
Other than that i havn't done a whole lot. A pro race came through town last week so we dragged ourselves up one rather steep climb. By foot off corse! where we stood with the NZ flag for one of NZ's pro's who was riding this race in support of his pro team.
Also spent an afternoon in Liege checking out the shops and sights and stuff.
My mama et papa arrive in a week for about 10 days before they goto paris and england. So i am looking foward to catching up with them. The season gets long and sometimes it's refreshing to see familiar faces before business end of the year!
Also that tired after training each day that theres nothing more soothing than watching a movie in bed while drifting in and out of sleep so if anyone has any movie recomendations for me let me know. I've watched Mighty Ducks trilogy about 100 times already!
Hope all is well at home and i'll be sure to try and post something every few days instead of weeks from now on.
Will try and get some pics up from the race today and the podium presentaion!
Ryan
Number of reasons contributed towards it but im going to put it down to an increase in training and therefore fatigue level so the last thing on my mind is to come home from training and try and write something on here when sleep sounds a lot better.
Anyway, guess i should try and remember what i have done over the last few weeks.
I have done 4 races i think. First 2 were just finishing in grupetto which is like the bunch that takes it easy after 100km of racing. To be honest i can't really remember much about these races except that one i should have probly done a lot better if i hadn't been caught out by a split in the bunch while back at the team car collecting biddons, or bottles as most know them. That's not an excuse, just bad luck i think.
Over the weekend i had 2 races. One on Saturday around 50km away. I think it was 16 laps or something to make a total of 118km. I spent a lot of time of the front of the bunch in break aways or trying to bridge up to break aways etc.. but the one break my team mate Kevin and I had to bury ourselves to try and get across too ended up being the winning break as we came so very close to getting across to the 8 man group, we made it to within 100m before they started pulling away from us again. Back into the peloton with a lap remaining and thats where i would stay. Spent 2/3's of the race in front of the peloton which is something i havn't really been able to do until now.
Sunday, today. It was 18 laps or something to make a total of something. I thought today could be my day. In the end it kind of was. Myself and 2 team mates lined up with the rest of the race. I saw an opportunity to slip into the break away on the 1st lap so there i was, 1 lap down and away with 3 other guys, 2 of which would drop on the 1st time up the main climb to the finish, probly around 1km or so in length. So for the next 4 and a bit laps myself and 1 other rider would take turns at holding the peloton at a decent gap while waiting and hoping a small group could come across to us and make the move for the day. Well my dream was met shortly after with a group of 11 coming across. Unfortunately for my early break away companion he felt the going a little tough and retreated back to the peloton while i took a back seat for a couple of km to asess the situation. 11 guys, 3 bodysol and Matt from NZ who is staying with Josh and I. This is good. So for the next few laps or about 60km everyone rolls through taking their turns on the front etc. Me mostly soft pedalling trying not to waste any extra energy as i had already been in the earlier move. With 20km to go the attacks started to come thick and fast. I threw a few down before finally team mate Kevin was able to get himself away. I then tried a couple of times to go across. On the 3rd attempt i got away with my other team mate Jeremy. For the last 15km we put a lot of time into the remnants of the break away while catching Kevin slowly. I had just about dragged us across with 5km to go when Jeremy said to stay behind him and let him take the victory. Jeremy came past me just before the finish so in the end i was 3rd and more importantly bodysol took all the podium spots. So was a rather good day and starting to ride like i should have been riding earlier in the year. Guess it gets put down to the increase in training.
At the end of the day though i am flying at the moment. And today i was so strong.
Matt ended up 9th which isn't too bad for a 1m95 ox on an up hill finish!!!
So next up for me is Somewhere to Somewhere on Wednesday. It's with the pro's and featues some cobbled climbs so i hope to keep riding strong and keep building towards 2nd half of season goals.
Other than that i havn't done a whole lot. A pro race came through town last week so we dragged ourselves up one rather steep climb. By foot off corse! where we stood with the NZ flag for one of NZ's pro's who was riding this race in support of his pro team.
Also spent an afternoon in Liege checking out the shops and sights and stuff.
My mama et papa arrive in a week for about 10 days before they goto paris and england. So i am looking foward to catching up with them. The season gets long and sometimes it's refreshing to see familiar faces before business end of the year!
Also that tired after training each day that theres nothing more soothing than watching a movie in bed while drifting in and out of sleep so if anyone has any movie recomendations for me let me know. I've watched Mighty Ducks trilogy about 100 times already!
Hope all is well at home and i'll be sure to try and post something every few days instead of weeks from now on.
Will try and get some pics up from the race today and the podium presentaion!
Ryan
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Thought i had better up date this as i havn't written anything for a while and find myself with some spare time.
Not much has really been happening, I have had a very easy week of training, which was a nice rest before the season for really kicks off!
I took a planned day trip to Roeselare on Tuesday, it actually turned into an over night trip as i came back on Wednesday morning.
I was also going to ride a kermesse today but had a change of plan just before i was due to leave. Instead i will join up the New Zealand national team and ride the TOP COMP race tomorrow. My team sits 2nd on the classification going into this 6th race of the 10 race season long series. But tomorrow i will be all for the nz team and will be flying the nz flag proudly. Will be good to catch up with some more english speakers!
This week will also see me back into hard training. Have decided i am going to train lone wolf now because i'm sick of the mucking around and stop/starting which generally happens when you train with a group of people.
Just going to put my legs up for the afternoon ready for tomorrow. Belg has thrown some crap weather at us the last few days. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit nicer. Bring back the sun.
This week also saw the arrival of another NZ cyclist who will be staying with us for a couple of weeks before he goes down to ride in France for a few months. He is actually getting his first taste of european racing as we speak. In the kermesse i had planned to do. Hopefully that goes alright for him, might be a bit of a shock with a 120 rider feild coming from 30-40 rider feilds in NZ.
Anyway not too much else to say really. Just enjoying some quiet time as it has been pretty full on the last few days with people coming and going. Will write a report after tomorrows race. Should be pretty fresh and will be nice to get back amongst it.
Until tomorrow night.
Thanks for reading.
Not much has really been happening, I have had a very easy week of training, which was a nice rest before the season for really kicks off!
I took a planned day trip to Roeselare on Tuesday, it actually turned into an over night trip as i came back on Wednesday morning.
I was also going to ride a kermesse today but had a change of plan just before i was due to leave. Instead i will join up the New Zealand national team and ride the TOP COMP race tomorrow. My team sits 2nd on the classification going into this 6th race of the 10 race season long series. But tomorrow i will be all for the nz team and will be flying the nz flag proudly. Will be good to catch up with some more english speakers!
This week will also see me back into hard training. Have decided i am going to train lone wolf now because i'm sick of the mucking around and stop/starting which generally happens when you train with a group of people.
Just going to put my legs up for the afternoon ready for tomorrow. Belg has thrown some crap weather at us the last few days. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit nicer. Bring back the sun.
This week also saw the arrival of another NZ cyclist who will be staying with us for a couple of weeks before he goes down to ride in France for a few months. He is actually getting his first taste of european racing as we speak. In the kermesse i had planned to do. Hopefully that goes alright for him, might be a bit of a shock with a 120 rider feild coming from 30-40 rider feilds in NZ.
Anyway not too much else to say really. Just enjoying some quiet time as it has been pretty full on the last few days with people coming and going. Will write a report after tomorrows race. Should be pretty fresh and will be nice to get back amongst it.
Until tomorrow night.
Thanks for reading.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Tour of Belgium Stage 3
Sorry this is an overdue report but to tell you the truth theres not much to report about for the 3rd stage of Tour of Belgium. My director had asked me pre stage to follow any moves early on and take the intermediate sprints so nobody could take the jersey from team mate Fabio.
All was going well, i was following things, went through my hometown and saw the kiwi flag on the side of the road and that was amazing. Became a talking point of the peloton. Anyway I was getting over the hills nicely with the front of the race. Did some bottle runs back to the car for the team, burried myself to get Fabio back up to the peloton after one of the hills and we made contact then i got another puncture. I chased through the following cars, went crazy while my director followed with his heart in his mouth. For 20km i hung in the cars but due to a lot of corners and being a very tired boy i was not able to rejoin. Got to the feed zone and hopped in the van, with half my team.
Unfortunately Fabio lost the sprint jersey on the last day on a count-back.
So thats why this report has been hard to get out. It was a big dissapointment in my mind, but my director and the rest of the support team were very happy and supportive of me which i was very grateful of. Im not sure why to tell you the truth as i was only able to follow things and it was like starting racing in europe all over again. Not strong enough to ride up the front for long periods and things like that.
It was a big learning experience, just looking around at breakfast and you see guys you look up to and watch on tv, It was something else! And i look foward to mixing it up with them more in the future.
Now i am looking for different tyres. The brand i have been using never gave me any trouble for years, but 4 punctures its time to move on to something else.
I now look to my next races, 17th is Romsee-Stavelot-Romsee and then Fleche Ardennaise on the 22nd. The later of the 2 was won a few years ago by a kiwi and both races are only kilometers from my house so i know the course's well.
Until then i will be not doing too much. Still trying to get over belgium tour, my legs still ache.
Ryan
All was going well, i was following things, went through my hometown and saw the kiwi flag on the side of the road and that was amazing. Became a talking point of the peloton. Anyway I was getting over the hills nicely with the front of the race. Did some bottle runs back to the car for the team, burried myself to get Fabio back up to the peloton after one of the hills and we made contact then i got another puncture. I chased through the following cars, went crazy while my director followed with his heart in his mouth. For 20km i hung in the cars but due to a lot of corners and being a very tired boy i was not able to rejoin. Got to the feed zone and hopped in the van, with half my team.
Unfortunately Fabio lost the sprint jersey on the last day on a count-back.
So thats why this report has been hard to get out. It was a big dissapointment in my mind, but my director and the rest of the support team were very happy and supportive of me which i was very grateful of. Im not sure why to tell you the truth as i was only able to follow things and it was like starting racing in europe all over again. Not strong enough to ride up the front for long periods and things like that.
It was a big learning experience, just looking around at breakfast and you see guys you look up to and watch on tv, It was something else! And i look foward to mixing it up with them more in the future.
Now i am looking for different tyres. The brand i have been using never gave me any trouble for years, but 4 punctures its time to move on to something else.
I now look to my next races, 17th is Romsee-Stavelot-Romsee and then Fleche Ardennaise on the 22nd. The later of the 2 was won a few years ago by a kiwi and both races are only kilometers from my house so i know the course's well.
Until then i will be not doing too much. Still trying to get over belgium tour, my legs still ache.
Ryan
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tour of Belgium Stage 2
Right onto stage 2.
Was not really looking foward to today when i woke to rain, and sore legs.
Luckily the legs cleared up after 100km and i was able to get amongst it for the last 100km.
Eventually the rain cleared after a couple of hours!
The first 2hrs were crazy, 48km/h average!
No wonder my legs were bad!
Anyway was going pretty good until 5km to go when the road narrowed for a 1 way tunnel, kinda like the old one at Matata, because i was moving up the outside i kinda ran out of room and hit the side of it. A wee bang to the knee and elbow but nothing to bad. I almost rejoined the peloton, i got there and the last guy in the line just stopped pedaling and i couldn't get around him so ended up losing some more time, 1m 48 to be exact although i was still quite happy as my legs pulled up well after yesterday. I have got some amazingly strong legs at the moment which is nice.
Also found an Aussie in the bunch and was finally able to speak some english and have a good old chat.
The cobbled climbs were a hoot. Wet and slippery, got over them no problem and things progressed.
Tomorrow is 185km down in my area of Belgium, actually the stage goes through my home town after 25km so that will be a highlight! The finale is all up hill too so expect some time gaps, i feel good so will see what i can do.
Anyway now it's time for some dinner and a massage and then put the legs up.
Until then,
Ryan
Was not really looking foward to today when i woke to rain, and sore legs.
Luckily the legs cleared up after 100km and i was able to get amongst it for the last 100km.
Eventually the rain cleared after a couple of hours!
The first 2hrs were crazy, 48km/h average!
No wonder my legs were bad!
Anyway was going pretty good until 5km to go when the road narrowed for a 1 way tunnel, kinda like the old one at Matata, because i was moving up the outside i kinda ran out of room and hit the side of it. A wee bang to the knee and elbow but nothing to bad. I almost rejoined the peloton, i got there and the last guy in the line just stopped pedaling and i couldn't get around him so ended up losing some more time, 1m 48 to be exact although i was still quite happy as my legs pulled up well after yesterday. I have got some amazingly strong legs at the moment which is nice.
Also found an Aussie in the bunch and was finally able to speak some english and have a good old chat.
The cobbled climbs were a hoot. Wet and slippery, got over them no problem and things progressed.
Tomorrow is 185km down in my area of Belgium, actually the stage goes through my home town after 25km so that will be a highlight! The finale is all up hill too so expect some time gaps, i feel good so will see what i can do.
Anyway now it's time for some dinner and a massage and then put the legs up.
Until then,
Ryan
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tour of Belgium Stage 1
Woke up to an over cast dodgy looking morning which ended up being quite nice for the 1st stage of this years tour. Depart was at 11.10am so leaving the hotel at 9.00am was an early start as it was 50min drive to the start. The first hour was crazy fast and it didn't help getting a puncture 10km in. Yep another puncture to go with last Saturdays. Not to worry though. A nice quick change and on my way again. I got back in to the peloton with relitive ease and then it was onto the cross winds, i sat in the gutter holding a bloody high wattage for 4 or 5 minutes before the road turned to a head wind. Anyway all was going well, went through the feed station, got my musette with lunch in it and carried on my way. With 50km to go i was still strong and riding which was nice to have some sensations back again after a long time without them.
Nothing happened really except for my team mate crashing, he's alright and all was well.
35km to go and i got another puncture, just my luck. They say they come in 3's well theres 3 right there!
Anyway it happened at possibly the worst time it could happnen. Just as the screws were getting tightened ready to bring back the break away of the day. To cut a long story short, i couldn't get towed back to the peloton as there was another group just ahead which i got dropped off too. It contained 5 of my team mates too so together we got into the finish well inside time cut and 10minutes down on the winner.
That doesn't matter as it's all experience but i was good enough today to finish in the peloton today. But i will live to fight another day tomorrow!
The cross winds were the worst i've ever ridden in today. They had the bunch all over the place. One time long long ago, April 2006 during the junior worlds selection race i was in trouble of dropping out of contention on the 1st day. That day i visited a deep, dark place in a world of pain and ever since i have been too scared to hurt myself that badly again. Well today in the cross wind, I was well on the way to visiting that place again and thank god it was over before i had to go that deep!
Tomorrow brings 201km, which includes 3 cobbled climbs reaching 21%, for those whakatane people reading, Melville drive is 16%, so 21% cobbled is really something!
Until then.
Nothing happened really except for my team mate crashing, he's alright and all was well.
35km to go and i got another puncture, just my luck. They say they come in 3's well theres 3 right there!
Anyway it happened at possibly the worst time it could happnen. Just as the screws were getting tightened ready to bring back the break away of the day. To cut a long story short, i couldn't get towed back to the peloton as there was another group just ahead which i got dropped off too. It contained 5 of my team mates too so together we got into the finish well inside time cut and 10minutes down on the winner.
That doesn't matter as it's all experience but i was good enough today to finish in the peloton today. But i will live to fight another day tomorrow!
The cross winds were the worst i've ever ridden in today. They had the bunch all over the place. One time long long ago, April 2006 during the junior worlds selection race i was in trouble of dropping out of contention on the 1st day. That day i visited a deep, dark place in a world of pain and ever since i have been too scared to hurt myself that badly again. Well today in the cross wind, I was well on the way to visiting that place again and thank god it was over before i had to go that deep!
Tomorrow brings 201km, which includes 3 cobbled climbs reaching 21%, for those whakatane people reading, Melville drive is 16%, so 21% cobbled is really something!
Until then.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Well motivation has sky-rocketed to an all time high.
This due to the fact i have been selected to start the Tour of Belgium on wednesday.
So i will line up with some of the sports biggest names and try to make something happen.
I also did a race yesterday. Not worth a big story to bore you all. Simply i got a flat tyre after 50km , chased for 10km back on, a big group of 45 riders had gone away so it was a nice easy ride to the finish for 50th place or something. Good news is for the first time in months i felt i was riding the bike instead of the bike riding me.
So the next few days will be busy organising things before travelling to the start town on tuesday afternoon. The tour is 5 days with a time trial on the Friday where i hope to test out how my time trial is. I havn't done a time trial for like 4 months so it will be interesting but i am excited at this opportunity to line up in the biggest race of my life!
I will try for nightly reports if im not too tired! Not much else has been happening. A lot of down time at the moment.
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
This due to the fact i have been selected to start the Tour of Belgium on wednesday.
So i will line up with some of the sports biggest names and try to make something happen.
I also did a race yesterday. Not worth a big story to bore you all. Simply i got a flat tyre after 50km , chased for 10km back on, a big group of 45 riders had gone away so it was a nice easy ride to the finish for 50th place or something. Good news is for the first time in months i felt i was riding the bike instead of the bike riding me.
So the next few days will be busy organising things before travelling to the start town on tuesday afternoon. The tour is 5 days with a time trial on the Friday where i hope to test out how my time trial is. I havn't done a time trial for like 4 months so it will be interesting but i am excited at this opportunity to line up in the biggest race of my life!
I will try for nightly reports if im not too tired! Not much else has been happening. A lot of down time at the moment.
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
It has taken me some time to get onto writing this next installment. To be honest i have been thinking about it for a few days now, but it has taken me those few days to get into the right frame of mind where i can just sit down focus on the tv and let my fingers do the talking. So if there is any controversy i would put it down to the fingers doing the talking!
Anyway where do i start. its probly been far too long since i last wrote something and a lot has happened since i last posted so i hope you have a strong cup of coffee and a lot of time for this one.
Last time i wrote something i was just heading off for a few days to Roeselare to stay at Logans and do some racing. Well i ended up staying a week partly due to easier travel arrangements and partly due to the thought of coming home to an empty house as Josh was in Germany. Roeselare is very nice city of around 22,000 situated in West Vlaanderen with lots and lots of little dirty farm roads to get lost on! Great and with the biggest hill 300m long it made for a change in scenary. Was also cool just hanging out and drinking coffee. As cyclists do.
I did 2 races while i was up there. The first was 118km in a town called Helchteren from memory and it was like 20min drive from Roeselare so made for a long sleep in and a late lunch just in time for a 3pm start. The race included 110 or something starters and was going well until the 3rd lap of 13 or something when i officially became the most hated rider in the race! It was rather funny, i pulled 300m on the front of the race and pulled out to the left of the road once we rounded a left hand corner so it provided a bit of shelter from the cross winds for the guys rolling over me. I encouraged this fella to come through and he had no interest so i swung back into the right hand gutter where he would not have any shelter at all and looked him in the eyes and gave him a wee smile before lifting the pace and pulling 2km on the front with him yelling 'a gosh' which is left. He had no interest in rolling through before so i would make him pay for that. I then pulled left again and he grabbed my seat and swung himself off me, which got me pretty fired up. At this stage there was 5 of us up front with everyone else in 1's and 2's trying to catch back up. A few words were shared and i rolled back past him on my way through again stopping next to him and grabbing his collar, taking him to the gutter and told him (politely of course! :]) he'd be in the paddock if he ever touched me again. Well its safe to say the rest of the race he never missed a turn and stayed out of my way.
So that was my excitement out of the race but someone had to tell him. I also made a few friends and a few enemies with this act of anger, luckily for me the commaisare or race official was behind the last rider and couldn't see anything of this encounter.
As for the result, the SRM numbers showed it was the hardest race i've done so far and i ended up 17th and a very tired boy at the end of a very hot day!
The next few days were spent cruising around the back roads of vlaanderen while very confused on how we were still going home while taking right turns every 500m, i swear we road round in circles for 3 hrs.
I also did a criterium on the Friday night before coming home. It was 70 laps of a 1km circuit. Starting at 7pm on a rather cold night i lined up with 50 other guys and straight from the gun it was on, luckily i was caffined up and could just go and go and go. Thanks redbull energy! Well to cut a long story short, i tried to get away, i failed, i tried again, i failed, Came down to a sprint. I like to stay out of the sprints and let the fast finishers do their work and save myself from potential crashes. I crossed the line 15th or there abouts and once again it took over as my hardest race to date, eclipsing the previous race from Monday.
During the course of the week i also had my first 2 bbq's of the summer. Belgian style. Charcole bbq. One with Logan and flatmates and the other with the family of Logans director. Also went to the wieler museum or bike museum where it had a lot of history and even the workshop of Belgians first ever bike builder. The week was also filled with a lot of other cool little things.
There was a race in my area where the New Zealand track team and Logan were racing on the weekend so i managed to catch some of that during the course of the weekend and catch up with the boys from NZ which was good. It's always nice to see some familiar faces when your so far away from home. Even if it was only half an hour or so.
As for now i will now try and find some winning form and see what what eventuates through the course of the week.
Will report back in within a few days to make up for the lack of postings lately.
Also some races from the week away.
Thanks for your paitence in reading this. I know its a drag but a lot was had to be said.
Thanks again,
Ryan
Anyway where do i start. its probly been far too long since i last wrote something and a lot has happened since i last posted so i hope you have a strong cup of coffee and a lot of time for this one.
Last time i wrote something i was just heading off for a few days to Roeselare to stay at Logans and do some racing. Well i ended up staying a week partly due to easier travel arrangements and partly due to the thought of coming home to an empty house as Josh was in Germany. Roeselare is very nice city of around 22,000 situated in West Vlaanderen with lots and lots of little dirty farm roads to get lost on! Great and with the biggest hill 300m long it made for a change in scenary. Was also cool just hanging out and drinking coffee. As cyclists do.
I did 2 races while i was up there. The first was 118km in a town called Helchteren from memory and it was like 20min drive from Roeselare so made for a long sleep in and a late lunch just in time for a 3pm start. The race included 110 or something starters and was going well until the 3rd lap of 13 or something when i officially became the most hated rider in the race! It was rather funny, i pulled 300m on the front of the race and pulled out to the left of the road once we rounded a left hand corner so it provided a bit of shelter from the cross winds for the guys rolling over me. I encouraged this fella to come through and he had no interest so i swung back into the right hand gutter where he would not have any shelter at all and looked him in the eyes and gave him a wee smile before lifting the pace and pulling 2km on the front with him yelling 'a gosh' which is left. He had no interest in rolling through before so i would make him pay for that. I then pulled left again and he grabbed my seat and swung himself off me, which got me pretty fired up. At this stage there was 5 of us up front with everyone else in 1's and 2's trying to catch back up. A few words were shared and i rolled back past him on my way through again stopping next to him and grabbing his collar, taking him to the gutter and told him (politely of course! :]) he'd be in the paddock if he ever touched me again. Well its safe to say the rest of the race he never missed a turn and stayed out of my way.
So that was my excitement out of the race but someone had to tell him. I also made a few friends and a few enemies with this act of anger, luckily for me the commaisare or race official was behind the last rider and couldn't see anything of this encounter.
As for the result, the SRM numbers showed it was the hardest race i've done so far and i ended up 17th and a very tired boy at the end of a very hot day!
The next few days were spent cruising around the back roads of vlaanderen while very confused on how we were still going home while taking right turns every 500m, i swear we road round in circles for 3 hrs.
I also did a criterium on the Friday night before coming home. It was 70 laps of a 1km circuit. Starting at 7pm on a rather cold night i lined up with 50 other guys and straight from the gun it was on, luckily i was caffined up and could just go and go and go. Thanks redbull energy! Well to cut a long story short, i tried to get away, i failed, i tried again, i failed, Came down to a sprint. I like to stay out of the sprints and let the fast finishers do their work and save myself from potential crashes. I crossed the line 15th or there abouts and once again it took over as my hardest race to date, eclipsing the previous race from Monday.
During the course of the week i also had my first 2 bbq's of the summer. Belgian style. Charcole bbq. One with Logan and flatmates and the other with the family of Logans director. Also went to the wieler museum or bike museum where it had a lot of history and even the workshop of Belgians first ever bike builder. The week was also filled with a lot of other cool little things.
There was a race in my area where the New Zealand track team and Logan were racing on the weekend so i managed to catch some of that during the course of the weekend and catch up with the boys from NZ which was good. It's always nice to see some familiar faces when your so far away from home. Even if it was only half an hour or so.
As for now i will now try and find some winning form and see what what eventuates through the course of the week.
Will report back in within a few days to make up for the lack of postings lately.
Also some races from the week away.
Thanks for your paitence in reading this. I know its a drag but a lot was had to be said.
Thanks again,
Ryan
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Hello,
Thought i would quickly put up a post before i take off for the week.
Well it's been a slightly busy week with lots of stuff going on but not much to report if that makes any sense at all.
Logan came down on Wednesday arvo and training with him has been somewhat tiring 2x3hours and 2x5hours before lining up for a race yesterday. The race was more of a wee blow out than an actual race for me as i only did 80km, but managed 3 prime wins along the way before shutting it down to rest up for some bigger races on Monday and Tuesday.
We have moved into the new house and all is well with that. Now i am taking off to roesalar with Logan till mid-week while Josh is off to Germany to see a friend over there.
The whether has been rather hot everyday getting up around 25-27 degrees. 10 days straight now! By the looks of things rain doesn't even want to come back to belg for a while! So the sun burn and tanning season has begun which is always nice.
The giro d'italia or tour of italy started yesterday so that will be our afternoon entertainment for the next 3 weeks sorted!
Anyway sorry this is so brief but i guess it's better than nothing. Now i must get moving to make the train.
Some photos while out training the other day with Logs.
Thanks for reading, Ryan.
P.s thanks to the person who left the comment on the last post. Gave me a wee chuckle for the day!
Thought i would quickly put up a post before i take off for the week.
Well it's been a slightly busy week with lots of stuff going on but not much to report if that makes any sense at all.
Logan came down on Wednesday arvo and training with him has been somewhat tiring 2x3hours and 2x5hours before lining up for a race yesterday. The race was more of a wee blow out than an actual race for me as i only did 80km, but managed 3 prime wins along the way before shutting it down to rest up for some bigger races on Monday and Tuesday.
We have moved into the new house and all is well with that. Now i am taking off to roesalar with Logan till mid-week while Josh is off to Germany to see a friend over there.
The whether has been rather hot everyday getting up around 25-27 degrees. 10 days straight now! By the looks of things rain doesn't even want to come back to belg for a while! So the sun burn and tanning season has begun which is always nice.
The giro d'italia or tour of italy started yesterday so that will be our afternoon entertainment for the next 3 weeks sorted!
Anyway sorry this is so brief but i guess it's better than nothing. Now i must get moving to make the train.
Some photos while out training the other day with Logs.
Thanks for reading, Ryan.
P.s thanks to the person who left the comment on the last post. Gave me a wee chuckle for the day!
Monday, May 5, 2008
What a day it was today! Rising from the pit at 12 didn't help my cause of trying to get the house packed. Bad idea taking the laptop into your room on a rest day as you just don't get out of bed and procrastinate all day. Finally got my shit together at 3.3opm and sorted the house, made it spotless did Josh and I! I also learnt 3 valuble lessons. Never trust a belgian with your life (don't take this serious, belgians are great!), Don't take the legs off the couch and don't get on the wrong side of a house owner (particulraly the one at the farm!).
So now i will elaborate on my experience with belgians and my life. We put the first load of gear into Mathieu's BMW X3 and then he says jump on your bikes and follow me. So we end up holding onto the car, Josh on one side me on the other and away we go, shorts, t-shirt and the wind in our face. After a few km of dodging bush's poking out onto the road i look across to Mathieu and he says to me 70kmh. Im like holey crap, next thing i know hes up to 90-100kmh. Now i really needed to change my usndies! Holding onto a car at almost 100kmh on the open road wasn't the most fun i've ever had. I thought about the consequences as we headed down the hill into our new town! Anyway as they say all that starts well ends well.
Onto a completely different subject! About a month ago i lent back over the couch and one of the legs fell off, i could not work out how to get it back on so instead i knocked the other 3 legs off to get it back to even. I stayed at the new house and fluffed around while Josh and Mathieu went back to the farm for the second load. He was met by the farm lady having a big fat cry over the state of our house. First, she nutted about the couch, then about towels missing (honestly it's a towel and why would we steal her towel?!) then about the house not being tidy, Josh went up with her and Mathieu to check it out. It was spotless aparently. I don;t know what went on as i wasn't there but aparently she said the house was messy and we had taken towels, knives and forks and the likes. She litterally counted every plate, knife, fork, spoon, you name it she made sure it was there. In the end Mathieu told her to pull her head in and take a look at her own house that is never tidy. So she was pretty pissed we left but when an offer comes up for more space and living freely it isn't a hard choice.
So now i'm sitting here fizzing to be in the new house or gaf as it is called our days. The lady, Joelle, who lives here also is fizzing on having us. She couldn't believe it when i walked in with the coffee machine in hand (think she must love her coffee, her one broke) and made us feel as welcome as ever. Now she has gone to work at the hospital. She is also a chiropractor/massuse which is mint as my backs been sore lately, might have to start sucking up to her!! She might be able to twist me back into shape! She made a fresh tomato sause for our pasta tonight too. I'll be making sure we get more where that came from. Best sause i've ever had!! Even got our own garage with tiles instead of cobbles on the ground so we can get back into roller sessions.
I will get some pics up soon so you can all share the joy Josh and I have at the moment! Its a 5 bedroom house so with a room each its magic! Nice and quiet too with no animals! And a huge lawn so Mothers if your feeling generous, a footy ball or cricket set might come in handy!!
The town we are now in is much nicer too, this one doesn't have rubbish in the gutters and some nice shops too. Will make for some good times over the next few months. Sitting down tomorrow to sort some races out which i will do with Mathieu (sorry he is team president for those of you who didn't know) so i will have a better idea of what i am to achieve here. He said i have to win a race in the next month so lucky i started training properly last week so i'll have a shot. What i mean by training properly is previous to last week i had spent hours on the bike building endurance and stamina, now im getting back up to race pace so will be able to foot it in races a whole lot easier. Quality not quantity now. Best way to explain it.
Enough about today. Time for me to sleep, still a cyclist after all.
Will catch up with everyone over the next wee while hopefully.
Quote of the week:
"you get what you train for" - John Lee 2008
So now i will elaborate on my experience with belgians and my life. We put the first load of gear into Mathieu's BMW X3 and then he says jump on your bikes and follow me. So we end up holding onto the car, Josh on one side me on the other and away we go, shorts, t-shirt and the wind in our face. After a few km of dodging bush's poking out onto the road i look across to Mathieu and he says to me 70kmh. Im like holey crap, next thing i know hes up to 90-100kmh. Now i really needed to change my usndies! Holding onto a car at almost 100kmh on the open road wasn't the most fun i've ever had. I thought about the consequences as we headed down the hill into our new town! Anyway as they say all that starts well ends well.
Onto a completely different subject! About a month ago i lent back over the couch and one of the legs fell off, i could not work out how to get it back on so instead i knocked the other 3 legs off to get it back to even. I stayed at the new house and fluffed around while Josh and Mathieu went back to the farm for the second load. He was met by the farm lady having a big fat cry over the state of our house. First, she nutted about the couch, then about towels missing (honestly it's a towel and why would we steal her towel?!) then about the house not being tidy, Josh went up with her and Mathieu to check it out. It was spotless aparently. I don;t know what went on as i wasn't there but aparently she said the house was messy and we had taken towels, knives and forks and the likes. She litterally counted every plate, knife, fork, spoon, you name it she made sure it was there. In the end Mathieu told her to pull her head in and take a look at her own house that is never tidy. So she was pretty pissed we left but when an offer comes up for more space and living freely it isn't a hard choice.
So now i'm sitting here fizzing to be in the new house or gaf as it is called our days. The lady, Joelle, who lives here also is fizzing on having us. She couldn't believe it when i walked in with the coffee machine in hand (think she must love her coffee, her one broke) and made us feel as welcome as ever. Now she has gone to work at the hospital. She is also a chiropractor/massuse which is mint as my backs been sore lately, might have to start sucking up to her!! She might be able to twist me back into shape! She made a fresh tomato sause for our pasta tonight too. I'll be making sure we get more where that came from. Best sause i've ever had!! Even got our own garage with tiles instead of cobbles on the ground so we can get back into roller sessions.
I will get some pics up soon so you can all share the joy Josh and I have at the moment! Its a 5 bedroom house so with a room each its magic! Nice and quiet too with no animals! And a huge lawn so Mothers if your feeling generous, a footy ball or cricket set might come in handy!!
The town we are now in is much nicer too, this one doesn't have rubbish in the gutters and some nice shops too. Will make for some good times over the next few months. Sitting down tomorrow to sort some races out which i will do with Mathieu (sorry he is team president for those of you who didn't know) so i will have a better idea of what i am to achieve here. He said i have to win a race in the next month so lucky i started training properly last week so i'll have a shot. What i mean by training properly is previous to last week i had spent hours on the bike building endurance and stamina, now im getting back up to race pace so will be able to foot it in races a whole lot easier. Quality not quantity now. Best way to explain it.
Enough about today. Time for me to sleep, still a cyclist after all.
Will catch up with everyone over the next wee while hopefully.
Quote of the week:
"you get what you train for" - John Lee 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Hope this reaches everyone well.
Well where to start. Been a good week, busy but good.
Training went well. Started using the SRM to full usage.
For those of you new to SRM, its a wee device that goes on the bike and tells you how much power you are putting out, so its basically like taking the lab riding with you. So each day i set out and can ride to the exact number of wattage. Makes training interesting and can ride each day to the T. It's also quite interesting to come home and download the days training and see how much power you were putting out at any given time during the ride. Anyway thats enough of me ranting on about that.
Everydays been standard really, wake up at routine 8am, breakfast and coffee while the important things are checked out on the net then on the bike by 10. Belgium has turned on a nice week whether wise for us. With today topping out at 25 degrees. And with the Tour of Romandie being ridden in Switzerland it was a good chance for us to catch some tv time post ride.
We were spose to move into the new house Friday but due to our new beds being delayed in getting dropped off we will now be moving tomorrow (Monday). So today we tried to pack a few things up and even went out for dinner so we didn't dirty any more dishes.
So trainings been pretty good this week and today topped it off. I sit here writing this while just being able to keep my eyes open. John, you wanted me home tired, well i went one better. I can't wait to goto bed!! Even had to stop for coke. A big block of hard riding was done and in a few weeks i'll be better off for it. Even got my first bit of sunburn today!
This week has also seen me sit down and re-write all my goals for this year. So i will now endevour to get to the level needed to achieve these goals. Will keep you posted.
Unfortunately the week saw no more road trips due to training and Joen racing on Tuesday, but this week will see some fun things encounted. Might even go para gliding with Joen's parents adventure business at some stage, but i will have to get the nerve to jump off a cliff first.
Anyway i only wrote this as procrastination so i didn't have to pack my room, but i will get onto a proper one tomorrow or the next day. May have a race on Tuesday too so there something i can write about. Will post some pic's of non cycling stuff too and give you full commentry on them all but ill leave you guys in suspence for a few days before i get onto that.
Got Logan, who hails from Papamoa but living up northern Beglium coming down for a few days this week too so im sure there will be a few laughs had over a glass or 2 of red wine. Speaking of red wine, theres an un finished bottle that needs to disapear before we leave here tomorrow. Must get onto that.
Will be back with more news soon.
Take care,
Ryan
Well where to start. Been a good week, busy but good.
Training went well. Started using the SRM to full usage.
For those of you new to SRM, its a wee device that goes on the bike and tells you how much power you are putting out, so its basically like taking the lab riding with you. So each day i set out and can ride to the exact number of wattage. Makes training interesting and can ride each day to the T. It's also quite interesting to come home and download the days training and see how much power you were putting out at any given time during the ride. Anyway thats enough of me ranting on about that.
Everydays been standard really, wake up at routine 8am, breakfast and coffee while the important things are checked out on the net then on the bike by 10. Belgium has turned on a nice week whether wise for us. With today topping out at 25 degrees. And with the Tour of Romandie being ridden in Switzerland it was a good chance for us to catch some tv time post ride.
We were spose to move into the new house Friday but due to our new beds being delayed in getting dropped off we will now be moving tomorrow (Monday). So today we tried to pack a few things up and even went out for dinner so we didn't dirty any more dishes.
So trainings been pretty good this week and today topped it off. I sit here writing this while just being able to keep my eyes open. John, you wanted me home tired, well i went one better. I can't wait to goto bed!! Even had to stop for coke. A big block of hard riding was done and in a few weeks i'll be better off for it. Even got my first bit of sunburn today!
This week has also seen me sit down and re-write all my goals for this year. So i will now endevour to get to the level needed to achieve these goals. Will keep you posted.
Unfortunately the week saw no more road trips due to training and Joen racing on Tuesday, but this week will see some fun things encounted. Might even go para gliding with Joen's parents adventure business at some stage, but i will have to get the nerve to jump off a cliff first.
Anyway i only wrote this as procrastination so i didn't have to pack my room, but i will get onto a proper one tomorrow or the next day. May have a race on Tuesday too so there something i can write about. Will post some pic's of non cycling stuff too and give you full commentry on them all but ill leave you guys in suspence for a few days before i get onto that.
Got Logan, who hails from Papamoa but living up northern Beglium coming down for a few days this week too so im sure there will be a few laughs had over a glass or 2 of red wine. Speaking of red wine, theres an un finished bottle that needs to disapear before we leave here tomorrow. Must get onto that.
Will be back with more news soon.
Take care,
Ryan
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Yep.. back with another posting. Today we made the trip north to Kortesem to take to the start of a race. That was excitment in itself. Even more exciting was the fact Josh and I had it controlled from the start. The course was 8km which was completed 16 times with 300m of the bumpiest cobbles in Belgium each lap. I think the carbon wheels loved it. After 2km i thought theres only one way to be sure of the early break and thats to make the break, so i gave Josh the word. Have a go and see what happens. So that was that, Josh attacks and goes solo while i cover moves and watch a few of the stronger guys. A small group went across to Josh but unfortunatly for him he was brought back after 10km. Nothing happened for the next wee while until the 22nd km when a group of 10 went away. I thought about it not wanting to waste too much energy early but when the peloton pretty much turned negative it was time to go. So across to the break i went.
For the next 110km our group of 14 rolled round the course eventually putting 4-5 minutes into the peloton. I looked around and realised i was the smallest fella in the group so there was no way i was going to win the sprint. After a few attacks and not being able to get away that was pretty much my day done. I tried to go in the sprint but i had nothing. Rolled in 12th place. Not bad coming off a big training block and with no speed work. Bodes well for the next few months.
It was the hottest day this year too. 21 degrees! 7 bottles of water were consumed and a lot of sweat lost.
So im pretty happy with how it all went. My legs are a bit sore right now but after a good sleep im sure they will be fine.
I will be back in the next few days. This week will involve another road trip to another town/city, moving house and more training. Nothing out of the usual.
Still havnt got that mouse yet either. Might just leave him to have the house to himself when we leave.
For now it must just about be time for bed.
Ryan
For the next 110km our group of 14 rolled round the course eventually putting 4-5 minutes into the peloton. I looked around and realised i was the smallest fella in the group so there was no way i was going to win the sprint. After a few attacks and not being able to get away that was pretty much my day done. I tried to go in the sprint but i had nothing. Rolled in 12th place. Not bad coming off a big training block and with no speed work. Bodes well for the next few months.
It was the hottest day this year too. 21 degrees! 7 bottles of water were consumed and a lot of sweat lost.
So im pretty happy with how it all went. My legs are a bit sore right now but after a good sleep im sure they will be fine.
I will be back in the next few days. This week will involve another road trip to another town/city, moving house and more training. Nothing out of the usual.
Still havnt got that mouse yet either. Might just leave him to have the house to himself when we leave.
For now it must just about be time for bed.
Ryan
Saturday, April 26, 2008
well, finally some good news. i have just had word that i will be riding a race tomorrow. Now it's only a kermesse but atleast it's a race and sometimes these are generally the hardest races to win with 200 guys having all the same plan. Balls to the wall for 3 hours. Should be fun.
I havn't done anything to and feel better off for it.
Now i had better go and sort the bike out as it could possibly be an early start to get north for the race.
Will report in when i have returned from this occasion.
Ryan
I havn't done anything to and feel better off for it.
Now i had better go and sort the bike out as it could possibly be an early start to get north for the race.
Will report in when i have returned from this occasion.
Ryan
Another week down. It seems the weeks are flying by these days. I have now been here 2 months!! and still i wait to take to the start line of a race. Today is Saturday and i should probly be starting a kermesse around now but that has fallen through again. Will have to try and find a solution for tomorrow. It's a bit crap really. Training is tough at the best of times but it's even harder when you don't even know when your next race will be or you are told you have a race and find out the night before your now not racing. maybe it's time to buy a car.
So after 29 days in a row of riding and more than 3300km i've decided that the bike will stay in the shed today as i've lost motivation to keep training for nothing. I feel like a whole lot of training and conditioning is just being wasted. So instead i will catch up on sleep and watch a movie or 2. Maybe try my hand at catching this mouse. We almost had it last night, nothing like a bit of cheese on the old home made hook.
On the brighter side of things, Bodysol has recieved a wild card into the Tour de Belgique. And as it's the teams national tour, big things will be expected. No word yet as to who is riding but maybe my focus should be on getting a start in this race. It starts in 1 months time.
We also now have a new house. We move in on Friday. It's in a much nicer town, 5km from the farm. It's a 5 bedroom house next door to the team president. 1 other person lives there already so she will be good to practice the french lingo on. Josh and I will also have our own rooms, a dishwasher and everything else a normal house has. It's a real nice house with tiles and carpet instead of wooden floors. It will also be better to have our own service course where we can fix/clean our bikes instead of trying to clean it without a bike stand and hose etc..
I will add some photos from last nights episode of "catching charlie". This episode took place in the bathroom after Josh saw him hide under the washing machine, so like little girls we were standing on the toilet and chair respectively, trying to catch the little fella.
Well thats all for now. It's 1pm and i just had breakfast eeeek.
Hopefully next time in put up a posting it will have something to do with winning a race. No wait lets just begin with getting a start in a race first. frustrating as.
Catch ya
So after 29 days in a row of riding and more than 3300km i've decided that the bike will stay in the shed today as i've lost motivation to keep training for nothing. I feel like a whole lot of training and conditioning is just being wasted. So instead i will catch up on sleep and watch a movie or 2. Maybe try my hand at catching this mouse. We almost had it last night, nothing like a bit of cheese on the old home made hook.
On the brighter side of things, Bodysol has recieved a wild card into the Tour de Belgique. And as it's the teams national tour, big things will be expected. No word yet as to who is riding but maybe my focus should be on getting a start in this race. It starts in 1 months time.
We also now have a new house. We move in on Friday. It's in a much nicer town, 5km from the farm. It's a 5 bedroom house next door to the team president. 1 other person lives there already so she will be good to practice the french lingo on. Josh and I will also have our own rooms, a dishwasher and everything else a normal house has. It's a real nice house with tiles and carpet instead of wooden floors. It will also be better to have our own service course where we can fix/clean our bikes instead of trying to clean it without a bike stand and hose etc..
I will add some photos from last nights episode of "catching charlie". This episode took place in the bathroom after Josh saw him hide under the washing machine, so like little girls we were standing on the toilet and chair respectively, trying to catch the little fella.
Well thats all for now. It's 1pm and i just had breakfast eeeek.
Hopefully next time in put up a posting it will have something to do with winning a race. No wait lets just begin with getting a start in a race first. frustrating as.
Catch ya
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The man himself, this was taken at team training
earlier this year, only one i have of him.
The fella's.
This was used back in the good old days.
Where we ate.
The homeless man. Good bugger he was.
Tinkoff team car.. Camera ran out of battery before
i got the other teams.
New Zealand brands getting around the world
Josh and I trying on some dutch hats
Day of fun and games
Today started like any other day.. out of bed at 8.. news check while eating the daily dossage of cheese toasties and drinking coffee. On the bike at 10. Today we met up with a rider from VC Ardennes, Jeroen, in Spa. While riding we were thinking of something to do for the afternoon, and as his night class was cancelled tonight we thought we would head to Maastrict. A very nice town just over the border in Holland. Its the start town to the Amstel Gold race which was held last Sunday and a very nice tourist town. We saw all sorts of fasinating things.. From homeless men who wouldn't have his photo taken (although i did get a sneaky one haha) to the pro team cars, vans and busses in town ready to takle the Fleche Wallone course tomorrow. I got a lot of pictures and will put some up.
We had a real nice dinner and then headed back home via liege to have a look. Reminded me of K. Road in Auckland through one part of the city haha.
The best part of the day was coming home to a package on the stairs waiting for us (thanks Denise). In this package were an assorted araay of goodies which included vegemite, pinapple lumps, munchies and licorice. Also tui socks, another dvd and some other stuff. No pies though. Did Josh not tell you hes craving pies at the moment?!! haha
So while we sifted through the shops, learning the culture with not a worry in the world made for a nice outting and good get-a-way from the farm. Speaking of farm, we now have 2 apartments we can move in to. So we will be viewing both this week and then moving in to one shortly after.
I also did a bit of ghost busting, as the ghost living in our bathroom was starting to scare me. I asked him nicely but after he decided to stay a few more days and keep the bathroom with a cold dark feeling i said warm the room up and you can stay. Been warm in there since. My next quest is catching the mouse that shits everywhere during the night. The little bugger is mine tomorrow as soon as i get some rat poison and mouse traps.
Well i think thats all for now. I am heading to bed soon so i can train early to be home in time to watch cycling on tv. The great thing about europe is theres almost always garenteed to be some cycling on tv when you get home from training which is nice to sit down and watch while lunch is consumed.
And Jeroen, if your reading, today was super cool so thanks for coming along and hanging out.
Thanks for reading, will post again soon
We had a real nice dinner and then headed back home via liege to have a look. Reminded me of K. Road in Auckland through one part of the city haha.
The best part of the day was coming home to a package on the stairs waiting for us (thanks Denise). In this package were an assorted araay of goodies which included vegemite, pinapple lumps, munchies and licorice. Also tui socks, another dvd and some other stuff. No pies though. Did Josh not tell you hes craving pies at the moment?!! haha
So while we sifted through the shops, learning the culture with not a worry in the world made for a nice outting and good get-a-way from the farm. Speaking of farm, we now have 2 apartments we can move in to. So we will be viewing both this week and then moving in to one shortly after.
I also did a bit of ghost busting, as the ghost living in our bathroom was starting to scare me. I asked him nicely but after he decided to stay a few more days and keep the bathroom with a cold dark feeling i said warm the room up and you can stay. Been warm in there since. My next quest is catching the mouse that shits everywhere during the night. The little bugger is mine tomorrow as soon as i get some rat poison and mouse traps.
Well i think thats all for now. I am heading to bed soon so i can train early to be home in time to watch cycling on tv. The great thing about europe is theres almost always garenteed to be some cycling on tv when you get home from training which is nice to sit down and watch while lunch is consumed.
And Jeroen, if your reading, today was super cool so thanks for coming along and hanging out.
Thanks for reading, will post again soon
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