Photos from the race.
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
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Disapointment and Frustration
It has been a frustrating week to put it bluntly. Started on Monday, i was named reserve for the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen, where hendy did a good job in coming 7th for his pro team, then the team missing a wild card for u23 liege-bastogne-liege even though we are the only continental team in the Wallonie region of Belgium. After that it looked like i would be starting Zelik-Gaalmarden today but again was dropped from selection, so i spent a couple of days taking it fairly easy after a rapid start to the week which was to no avail. Kinda pissed but life goes on.
Last Sunday i made the trip north for a Kermesse of 120km. The race itself was good, i followed breaks, initiated breaks, and for the first time in my racing career nothing stuck till 90km in. I had good legs, was active, rode good postition but in the end luck wasn't on my side. Finished safely at the front of the bunch after a hectic last 2km where guys were taking risks to get 20th. Not sure about the sense in that but ok.
Monday was good, a nice sleep in then out in the rain for 1.5hours recovery. Atleast the rain is warm and there is no wind. I also went food shopping which isn't a good idea when you have a whole afternoon to kill. You run out of food pretty quick, also when leaving James home by himself a lot of food goes missing, but it was enjoyable having you stay. Common Belgium isn't that bad, atleast there language makes sense haha.
Tuesday was slightly raining again, im not going to bore you with what i did all day, left home at 8.15, meet one of Josh's team mates, got back 5 and a half hours later. Then fell asleep while Josh cleaned the house, sorry maybe next time i'll help.
Wednesday.. Well no body pulled out of the race so there was no start for me, which meant another long day. We just followed some roads, and some more roads, until we were lost, then tried finding our way back, thats the great thing about Belgium, even when you think you are lost, your probly never any more than 50km from home and theres always signs to the bigger towns next to us. We were spose to be home at 3 after leaving home at 9am to take James to the train station, but we were on a good day so left him at home waiting for a little longer.
Thursday was the last chance to go big again before a couple of easier days before what was spose to be a race on sunday. Went big again, well sounds big but these days its just a normal day. 4 and a half hours seems to go quite quickly when riding around here.
Friday, we rose late, went to town. This is where the highlight of the century occurs, I finally got sick of having no internet and was not waiting another month for the phone men to come and connect it so i went to the phone shop and got internet sorted. Probly should have done it 2 months ago but nevermind it's done now and updates will once again run frequently. I went for a ride too.
Saturday came and went. Josh and I decided we would ride in the afternoon and go and watch the u23 Liege Bastogne Liege. Once again it was drizzling. Not sure whats happening with this planet and it's crazy whether patterns but hopefully it goes back to normal, it's spose to be summer and we are still riding in thermal jackets! It was a bit dissapointing watching from the side of the road as i feel i could have done a good ride after training on the parts of the course everyday. Not on purpose but most of the roads we know are around that area.
Now it's Sunday and while Josh went to Zelik-Gaalmarden with his team, i stayed at home and trainined. We also had the warmest day this year in Belgium. I trained without leg warmers, without arm warmers although i was a bit hesitant at first as after 2 months of not seeing any skin i was starting to look like a white Belgie as by now my tan lines obtained over the New Zealand summer had well and truely dissapeared. I spent the rest of the day watching Amstel Gold on the box and sifting the internet.
This week will once again be spent training. Hopefully i now have a race on the 3rd of May with the team. Depending weather the organisers let me start in the Wallonie championships. Maybe i will try and borrow a car from Josh's team and make the trip north for a couple of Kermesses this week and hopefully more starts and opportunities with the team will follow. Kinda hurts coming half way round the world and not starting many races.
Anyway thats my brag and moan for today atleast.
I will put on some pictures. One to show proof that the sun did actually shine today (18 degrees to be exact) and some from racing/training and whatever else may follow.
Thanks for reading, you have done well to make it this far.
Ryan
Last Sunday i made the trip north for a Kermesse of 120km. The race itself was good, i followed breaks, initiated breaks, and for the first time in my racing career nothing stuck till 90km in. I had good legs, was active, rode good postition but in the end luck wasn't on my side. Finished safely at the front of the bunch after a hectic last 2km where guys were taking risks to get 20th. Not sure about the sense in that but ok.
Monday was good, a nice sleep in then out in the rain for 1.5hours recovery. Atleast the rain is warm and there is no wind. I also went food shopping which isn't a good idea when you have a whole afternoon to kill. You run out of food pretty quick, also when leaving James home by himself a lot of food goes missing, but it was enjoyable having you stay. Common Belgium isn't that bad, atleast there language makes sense haha.
Tuesday was slightly raining again, im not going to bore you with what i did all day, left home at 8.15, meet one of Josh's team mates, got back 5 and a half hours later. Then fell asleep while Josh cleaned the house, sorry maybe next time i'll help.
Wednesday.. Well no body pulled out of the race so there was no start for me, which meant another long day. We just followed some roads, and some more roads, until we were lost, then tried finding our way back, thats the great thing about Belgium, even when you think you are lost, your probly never any more than 50km from home and theres always signs to the bigger towns next to us. We were spose to be home at 3 after leaving home at 9am to take James to the train station, but we were on a good day so left him at home waiting for a little longer.
Thursday was the last chance to go big again before a couple of easier days before what was spose to be a race on sunday. Went big again, well sounds big but these days its just a normal day. 4 and a half hours seems to go quite quickly when riding around here.
Friday, we rose late, went to town. This is where the highlight of the century occurs, I finally got sick of having no internet and was not waiting another month for the phone men to come and connect it so i went to the phone shop and got internet sorted. Probly should have done it 2 months ago but nevermind it's done now and updates will once again run frequently. I went for a ride too.
Saturday came and went. Josh and I decided we would ride in the afternoon and go and watch the u23 Liege Bastogne Liege. Once again it was drizzling. Not sure whats happening with this planet and it's crazy whether patterns but hopefully it goes back to normal, it's spose to be summer and we are still riding in thermal jackets! It was a bit dissapointing watching from the side of the road as i feel i could have done a good ride after training on the parts of the course everyday. Not on purpose but most of the roads we know are around that area.
Now it's Sunday and while Josh went to Zelik-Gaalmarden with his team, i stayed at home and trainined. We also had the warmest day this year in Belgium. I trained without leg warmers, without arm warmers although i was a bit hesitant at first as after 2 months of not seeing any skin i was starting to look like a white Belgie as by now my tan lines obtained over the New Zealand summer had well and truely dissapeared. I spent the rest of the day watching Amstel Gold on the box and sifting the internet.
This week will once again be spent training. Hopefully i now have a race on the 3rd of May with the team. Depending weather the organisers let me start in the Wallonie championships. Maybe i will try and borrow a car from Josh's team and make the trip north for a couple of Kermesses this week and hopefully more starts and opportunities with the team will follow. Kinda hurts coming half way round the world and not starting many races.
Anyway thats my brag and moan for today atleast.
I will put on some pictures. One to show proof that the sun did actually shine today (18 degrees to be exact) and some from racing/training and whatever else may follow.
Thanks for reading, you have done well to make it this far.
Ryan
Better late then never..
Used and Abused
Hello,
Firstly, sorry these updates have been slow coming, unfortunately when the internet fella’s from belgacom came to install the internet on Wednesday morning the lady downstairs wasn’t home and had locked her house so we couldn’t get to the phone box. Well the guys were pretty pissed and told us to make another appointment so instead i went and purchased a use anywhere internet connection. but the good news is we have a new apartment by the sounds of things, Josh’s manager said he is waiting for the owner to get back from holiday before we can move in. So maybe it was lucky the lady wasn’t home for the internet people as we probly wouldn’t have been able to move it to the other house anyway. We have watched every movie we have multiple times already including the mighty ducks trilogy probly more times than fingers and toes.
Anyway, off the racing we go. As mentioned in my last report I did a kermesse on Sunday 6th April in Holland. This was much more organized than the weekend before. We got to the start and got pinned up for the 3.45pm start. There were 9 continental riders taking part with a team of 8 and me as well as 3 German teams including EGM from Krefeld who James Dobson has been riding for. I got the start 5 min prior after having a look around the 2.5km circuit. It was a nice course with 2 sweeping hairpins at each end and a few sweeping corners up each main straight. So if you were up the front you probly would not need to brake the entire race so that was the plan and go with ‘the guy in pink’ when he goes because he hasn’t finished out of the top 3 for the past month so must have some good form. For the first 10km I followed him round and finally he attacked and as I was on his wheel it was easy to go with it, so there we go, 10 guys up the road, 8 sec and no one looking to chase. That was until Krefeld realized they had no one up there and about 10 guys in the race so they went into the chase and bought us back a couple of km later. Then they sent a guy up the road with a Kuota (continental team) rider and some others, 8 all up. Race over at this point so it was just up to the teams to control it, that didn’t stop a few of the guys left having a go to try and bridge 30sec, never going to happen. With 15km to go Josh had finally found some legs to do something and got on the front and with 5km to go had bought the break back to 10sec, it was time to get across or die trying, so when we came round the first hairpin and into the false flat up hill straight I went with Josh sitting up at the front and the peloton slowing right down. This was good as I was pulling time. With 2km to go I was caught with the break holding 5 sec. They were caught right on the line and were same time as the bunch, I came in just behind the sprinters. It was a good blow out for me as I haven’t done a whole lot of intensity, but it was a good start and hopefully some form will come for the longer races.
I now look to a Thursday where I will do my first race with the team. A 1.1 category in northern Belgium. Sounds like the weather will be good and with some protour teams and most pro-continental teams starting it will make for the fun race.
Ryan
Welcome to the pro’s son.
Rising from bed at 6.30am to be ready for pick up at 7.30 was how the day started. First shock to the system, early morning, I think it’s the first time I have woken before 8 since I have been here. So after eating my daily intake of cheese toasties for breaky along with a bowl of porridge and coffee, I was ready to go. It was a 2 hour drive to the start so I took along my French book for the drive. I can safely say I probly learnt the most French I have learnt in 1 day in those 2 hours. Even my director was impressed when I got to the race and started blabbing in French. We arrived to the race, and I was pretty nervous, I’m not guna lie. I looked round and saw the buses of Euskatel, Silence-Lotto (our big brother team) and Quickstep, as well as Agritubal, Barloworld, Mitsubishi, Top sport, Cycle Collstrop, Team BMC and etc. So it was safe to say I was a wee bit scared. We went to sign on and rolled round for a bit before lining up. I was talking to one of my team mates and looked round to my other side, lined up next to me was Italian champion Giovanni Visconti. Pretty much I knew it was a hard day ahead when I was told 200km route and I saw him surrounded by his team mates, ex-u23 world champion Grabvosky, Van Impe and a few of there not so well known riders. Silence had Nick Gates from Australia, another ex-u23 world champion in Dominique Cornu and Wim Van Huffel. Agritubal had bought Kevin Ista who rode for Bodysol last year and is a handy rider on a course like this. I was a bit more relaxed as the race got underway and the red flag was dropped. Somehow I found myself at the front.. Not to sure what I’m spose to do, but my director told me to try and get a good bunch and get as far as I can in the race. So I followed some wheels, one nearly went away with every team represented but no one wanting to pull. After 1 hour and 23 minutes a break finally went away and the bunch slowed down somewhat. This was a good chance to take a natural break before jumping on the quickstep train back up to the bunch. It was then to the first climb of the day and as we hit the bottom I was riding what I felt was pretty good position, then my chain fell off. Here I learnt that not even with the best group set money can buy, can you prevent a chain from falling off. So after trying to flick it back on while being pushing by a team mate I decided I would have to stop flick it on and get going again. I jumped back in the convoy and eventually made my way back on to the peloton. I got over the top of the climb in the last 10 wheels and started trying to move up over the top. Quickstep had missed the break and had it single file in the cross winds for about 2km so improving position became 2nd objective as I waited till it slowed so energy would not be wasted. Once it back off I was on my way back to the front. It was much easier but this is where the whole race for me would change. Going through the feed zone I missed/dropped my musette, or feed bag with lunch in it. I though maybe I would be ok as I got a bottle from a team mate, 15km later I went back to the car to stock up for the last 50km. While I was back there the peloton had split, I’m not sure how but there was no way I could get back up there. So here I was riding into the finish in a group with 4 guys from Euskatel. It was a bit of a laugh trying to talk to one of them, with a mixture of Spanish, English and French. Eventually we arrived at the finished, we were pulled out when we arrived at the finishing circuit after 180km (and 1700m of climbing! Who said Belgium is flat?). Can’t tell you who won the race but I think Kevin Ista could have by the excitement at the Agritubal Bus.
As for me, I learnt a lot and I will probly be better off for it. As for now I will just keep trying to find some racing legs and wait for that perfect ride to come. As for the next week, It’s now Friday, I have a kermesse on Sunday and hopefully a start in u23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege next weekend. I followed the race in the NZ team car last year because of stitches in my chin received the day before while training for the race. So I will be looking to make amends for last years misfortune.
Thanks for reading and I will be in touch with another report as soon as possible.
Ryan
Hello,
Firstly, sorry these updates have been slow coming, unfortunately when the internet fella’s from belgacom came to install the internet on Wednesday morning the lady downstairs wasn’t home and had locked her house so we couldn’t get to the phone box. Well the guys were pretty pissed and told us to make another appointment so instead i went and purchased a use anywhere internet connection. but the good news is we have a new apartment by the sounds of things, Josh’s manager said he is waiting for the owner to get back from holiday before we can move in. So maybe it was lucky the lady wasn’t home for the internet people as we probly wouldn’t have been able to move it to the other house anyway. We have watched every movie we have multiple times already including the mighty ducks trilogy probly more times than fingers and toes.
Anyway, off the racing we go. As mentioned in my last report I did a kermesse on Sunday 6th April in Holland. This was much more organized than the weekend before. We got to the start and got pinned up for the 3.45pm start. There were 9 continental riders taking part with a team of 8 and me as well as 3 German teams including EGM from Krefeld who James Dobson has been riding for. I got the start 5 min prior after having a look around the 2.5km circuit. It was a nice course with 2 sweeping hairpins at each end and a few sweeping corners up each main straight. So if you were up the front you probly would not need to brake the entire race so that was the plan and go with ‘the guy in pink’ when he goes because he hasn’t finished out of the top 3 for the past month so must have some good form. For the first 10km I followed him round and finally he attacked and as I was on his wheel it was easy to go with it, so there we go, 10 guys up the road, 8 sec and no one looking to chase. That was until Krefeld realized they had no one up there and about 10 guys in the race so they went into the chase and bought us back a couple of km later. Then they sent a guy up the road with a Kuota (continental team) rider and some others, 8 all up. Race over at this point so it was just up to the teams to control it, that didn’t stop a few of the guys left having a go to try and bridge 30sec, never going to happen. With 15km to go Josh had finally found some legs to do something and got on the front and with 5km to go had bought the break back to 10sec, it was time to get across or die trying, so when we came round the first hairpin and into the false flat up hill straight I went with Josh sitting up at the front and the peloton slowing right down. This was good as I was pulling time. With 2km to go I was caught with the break holding 5 sec. They were caught right on the line and were same time as the bunch, I came in just behind the sprinters. It was a good blow out for me as I haven’t done a whole lot of intensity, but it was a good start and hopefully some form will come for the longer races.
I now look to a Thursday where I will do my first race with the team. A 1.1 category in northern Belgium. Sounds like the weather will be good and with some protour teams and most pro-continental teams starting it will make for the fun race.
Ryan
Welcome to the pro’s son.
Rising from bed at 6.30am to be ready for pick up at 7.30 was how the day started. First shock to the system, early morning, I think it’s the first time I have woken before 8 since I have been here. So after eating my daily intake of cheese toasties for breaky along with a bowl of porridge and coffee, I was ready to go. It was a 2 hour drive to the start so I took along my French book for the drive. I can safely say I probly learnt the most French I have learnt in 1 day in those 2 hours. Even my director was impressed when I got to the race and started blabbing in French. We arrived to the race, and I was pretty nervous, I’m not guna lie. I looked round and saw the buses of Euskatel, Silence-Lotto (our big brother team) and Quickstep, as well as Agritubal, Barloworld, Mitsubishi, Top sport, Cycle Collstrop, Team BMC and etc. So it was safe to say I was a wee bit scared. We went to sign on and rolled round for a bit before lining up. I was talking to one of my team mates and looked round to my other side, lined up next to me was Italian champion Giovanni Visconti. Pretty much I knew it was a hard day ahead when I was told 200km route and I saw him surrounded by his team mates, ex-u23 world champion Grabvosky, Van Impe and a few of there not so well known riders. Silence had Nick Gates from Australia, another ex-u23 world champion in Dominique Cornu and Wim Van Huffel. Agritubal had bought Kevin Ista who rode for Bodysol last year and is a handy rider on a course like this. I was a bit more relaxed as the race got underway and the red flag was dropped. Somehow I found myself at the front.. Not to sure what I’m spose to do, but my director told me to try and get a good bunch and get as far as I can in the race. So I followed some wheels, one nearly went away with every team represented but no one wanting to pull. After 1 hour and 23 minutes a break finally went away and the bunch slowed down somewhat. This was a good chance to take a natural break before jumping on the quickstep train back up to the bunch. It was then to the first climb of the day and as we hit the bottom I was riding what I felt was pretty good position, then my chain fell off. Here I learnt that not even with the best group set money can buy, can you prevent a chain from falling off. So after trying to flick it back on while being pushing by a team mate I decided I would have to stop flick it on and get going again. I jumped back in the convoy and eventually made my way back on to the peloton. I got over the top of the climb in the last 10 wheels and started trying to move up over the top. Quickstep had missed the break and had it single file in the cross winds for about 2km so improving position became 2nd objective as I waited till it slowed so energy would not be wasted. Once it back off I was on my way back to the front. It was much easier but this is where the whole race for me would change. Going through the feed zone I missed/dropped my musette, or feed bag with lunch in it. I though maybe I would be ok as I got a bottle from a team mate, 15km later I went back to the car to stock up for the last 50km. While I was back there the peloton had split, I’m not sure how but there was no way I could get back up there. So here I was riding into the finish in a group with 4 guys from Euskatel. It was a bit of a laugh trying to talk to one of them, with a mixture of Spanish, English and French. Eventually we arrived at the finished, we were pulled out when we arrived at the finishing circuit after 180km (and 1700m of climbing! Who said Belgium is flat?). Can’t tell you who won the race but I think Kevin Ista could have by the excitement at the Agritubal Bus.
As for me, I learnt a lot and I will probly be better off for it. As for now I will just keep trying to find some racing legs and wait for that perfect ride to come. As for the next week, It’s now Friday, I have a kermesse on Sunday and hopefully a start in u23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege next weekend. I followed the race in the NZ team car last year because of stitches in my chin received the day before while training for the race. So I will be looking to make amends for last years misfortune.
Thanks for reading and I will be in touch with another report as soon as possible.
Ryan
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Hello again,
It has been a funny few days. Since i last reported we spent 3 hours lost while riding, we have no rain before 12pm and nothing but rain after and the cows have finally been let out of the sheds where they are kept over the winter months, so once again europe is starting to look like home.
So a little story just to get things going. Wednesday morning, Maik who we are with in Holland goes into hospital to have his tonsils taken out so they advise us to ride on the wind trainer so we don't get lost. Well Josh and I looked at each other and thought 'nah we are ok, it can't be that hard'. How wrong were we! Kinda half expecting to get lost anyway we headed out and after 30mins of riding we were officially lost! We preceded to spend the next 2 and a half hours going in every direction but home. While we were taking left, rights and straights at every intersection, and believe me there are a lot of intersections, we wern't sure whether we would be home in time for dinner. Anyway we got home 2 and a half hours later, but it turns out that if we had of taken the first right instead of left we could have been home in 20mins. I think the Wensink family were rather impressed. It was just lucky i saw a sign to "Aalten" pointing right just as we were about to turn left so i guess it could have been worse.
The other thing we have learnt is to train earlier than usual because almost everyday it rains almost spot on 12 and doesn't give up until half way through the night. Not sure what time exactly as i am usually well into my sleep by then. I have also been informed that snow is on the forecast for Holland on Monday so i think it's safe to say it's time to go back to Belg. I'm about as excited as a gay prisoner at shower time to go home because i think the weather is finally favourable down there. I thought it was unusually cold, this was confirmed when a wise old man told me this was the first time that snow had fallen in March/April in 6 or 7 years. Although i can't complain now, it was a very different story when i got here, as you can see in the photos.
So i have just been sitting here sifting the world wide web and trying to listen to the dutch talk about The 'Ronde van vlaanderen' or the 'Tour of Flanders' which is due to take place in northern Belgium tomorrow. They are all throwing round the name "Flecha" which in spanish means the arrow, anyway he will start as favourite but it's going to be cold and snow warning has gone down, and with the cobbles i guess anythings possible. Best of luck to Guddy who will be the sole Kiwi present. No time to sit round and watch it though as by the time it starts i will be continuing my road to form with another Kermesse in Germany. This one is slightly bigger than last week with 500euro (or roughly $1000) up for first place so i presume there will be a lot of motivated guys. No fewer than 3 Kiwi's will take to the start with James Dobson, who is racing in Germany, joining Josh and I. Will have a report up after, duno how much you can write about a 2km circuit ridden multiple times however.
I have also been contacted by a journalist from Ghent, which is a bit north from Pepinster, and he is coming round on Monday to do an Interview for a magazine here in Belgium. Not sure quite how he got hold of me but it should be good. So That's all my excitment for the week. Maybe next week will be more exciting as we are back in the hill's.. which means fast decents. Don't worry Abbi, helmets will be worn :]]
Actually a report won't be up until Wednesday because that's when our adsl gets turned on at home. But i will pre-write it and pop it up at some stage. Hope everyone is doing real well.
That's all for now.
Ryan
Ps. John, SRM will be running in a few days, just waiting on new cable from logs.
It has been a funny few days. Since i last reported we spent 3 hours lost while riding, we have no rain before 12pm and nothing but rain after and the cows have finally been let out of the sheds where they are kept over the winter months, so once again europe is starting to look like home.
So a little story just to get things going. Wednesday morning, Maik who we are with in Holland goes into hospital to have his tonsils taken out so they advise us to ride on the wind trainer so we don't get lost. Well Josh and I looked at each other and thought 'nah we are ok, it can't be that hard'. How wrong were we! Kinda half expecting to get lost anyway we headed out and after 30mins of riding we were officially lost! We preceded to spend the next 2 and a half hours going in every direction but home. While we were taking left, rights and straights at every intersection, and believe me there are a lot of intersections, we wern't sure whether we would be home in time for dinner. Anyway we got home 2 and a half hours later, but it turns out that if we had of taken the first right instead of left we could have been home in 20mins. I think the Wensink family were rather impressed. It was just lucky i saw a sign to "Aalten" pointing right just as we were about to turn left so i guess it could have been worse.
The other thing we have learnt is to train earlier than usual because almost everyday it rains almost spot on 12 and doesn't give up until half way through the night. Not sure what time exactly as i am usually well into my sleep by then. I have also been informed that snow is on the forecast for Holland on Monday so i think it's safe to say it's time to go back to Belg. I'm about as excited as a gay prisoner at shower time to go home because i think the weather is finally favourable down there. I thought it was unusually cold, this was confirmed when a wise old man told me this was the first time that snow had fallen in March/April in 6 or 7 years. Although i can't complain now, it was a very different story when i got here, as you can see in the photos.
So i have just been sitting here sifting the world wide web and trying to listen to the dutch talk about The 'Ronde van vlaanderen' or the 'Tour of Flanders' which is due to take place in northern Belgium tomorrow. They are all throwing round the name "Flecha" which in spanish means the arrow, anyway he will start as favourite but it's going to be cold and snow warning has gone down, and with the cobbles i guess anythings possible. Best of luck to Guddy who will be the sole Kiwi present. No time to sit round and watch it though as by the time it starts i will be continuing my road to form with another Kermesse in Germany. This one is slightly bigger than last week with 500euro (or roughly $1000) up for first place so i presume there will be a lot of motivated guys. No fewer than 3 Kiwi's will take to the start with James Dobson, who is racing in Germany, joining Josh and I. Will have a report up after, duno how much you can write about a 2km circuit ridden multiple times however.
I have also been contacted by a journalist from Ghent, which is a bit north from Pepinster, and he is coming round on Monday to do an Interview for a magazine here in Belgium. Not sure quite how he got hold of me but it should be good. So That's all my excitment for the week. Maybe next week will be more exciting as we are back in the hill's.. which means fast decents. Don't worry Abbi, helmets will be worn :]]
Actually a report won't be up until Wednesday because that's when our adsl gets turned on at home. But i will pre-write it and pop it up at some stage. Hope everyone is doing real well.
That's all for now.
Ryan
Ps. John, SRM will be running in a few days, just waiting on new cable from logs.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
New found motivation
Hello again,
Well it hasn't been long since i last reported but i think this one needs to be done. The past week has been going very well. I came up to holland on Friday evening to work on getting some time in the saddle away from the cold days Belgium produces. Although the snow has finally cleared, the wind chill is still high. So after 10 days off the bike, getting back into it in Holland makes it much easier especially when the conditions here at the moment are much like New Zealand. We have been getting up around the 13-15 degrees the past days and finally steering clear of the below zero temperatures Belgium has been producing for the last month. Also great being able to wear a few less layers of kit and back to one pair of socks instead of the 3 pairs and 6 layers i was wearing when i first arrived. So training has stepped up a notch due to some new found motivation. It's amazing what training with one of the worlds up and coming pro's does for the head. Today we again went training with Robert Gesink from Rabobank and just talking to him about wearing the yellow jersey in paris-nice makes you motivated to train harder than before. So i ended up riding for 2 hours with him this morning and have another race this afternoon. It is a 1 and a half hour criterium 25km from the town i'm in.
When it's cold and shit weather over here i find it's hard to get motivated. Wind is ok, Rain is ok but when they are both put together it makes it very difficult to motivate yourself to go training and training consistancy is hard but now the weather is good and the motivation is very good after a testing few months i think the form will follow and come May and June i will have some good fitness and hopefully put my hand up for a spot in some of the biggest races the team recieves starts in. But in saying that, it is only my first full season and i don't expect everything to come this year but a lot of good opportunities are on offer so i will do my best to make the most of them.
The other good news i recieved today is that i have been selected to start a big race in Belgium on the 10th of April. G.P. Pino Cerami – Wasmuel is a 1.1 ranked race and has a lot of the top protour teams on the start line so i look foward to my first taste of racing with the big boys. After that it will be full on for quite a while i think. With a lot of u23 racing taking place in the next 4-6 weeks. Josh's team manager has gone to look at another apartment close to the team head quaters for us today. So hopefully we are out of the farm house soon. The house itself is not so bad. It's more the fact that it's located a wee way out of town and stinks bad that makes it real shitty. So living in town will be a welcome change.
So i think for the next few weeks i will be trying to focus on getting back into training consistantly instead of it being all over the show and good things shall follow. It's now back to finding some leg speed and race legs for the next 6 months.
Josh and I have also been catching the bus and venturing into Verviers, the town 5km away and where the potential apartment is located, to check out some sights. But we always seem to be distracted by internet cafes or mcdonalds and most recently a new found love for waffles. These things have all been put on the back burning as we start to get into cycling mode again instead of the tourist mode we have been in for 2 weeks. I have to keep telling him when we go food shopping that lollies/cakes/chocolate etc is not good for the baby (just a wee joke we have going on) so we didn't put on too much weight while we wern't riding much. It's made even harder in Holland when we get looked after so well by the Wensink family and they don't know when to stop piling food on our plates. So for now it's back to rice and tuna diet to get back to race weight.
I have a race in Germany this weekend, just another kermesse, these are races where you just turn up and enter and you have maybe 200 riders on an 8km circuit with foot to the floor the whole way, before heading back to the Belgium base.
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
Well it hasn't been long since i last reported but i think this one needs to be done. The past week has been going very well. I came up to holland on Friday evening to work on getting some time in the saddle away from the cold days Belgium produces. Although the snow has finally cleared, the wind chill is still high. So after 10 days off the bike, getting back into it in Holland makes it much easier especially when the conditions here at the moment are much like New Zealand. We have been getting up around the 13-15 degrees the past days and finally steering clear of the below zero temperatures Belgium has been producing for the last month. Also great being able to wear a few less layers of kit and back to one pair of socks instead of the 3 pairs and 6 layers i was wearing when i first arrived. So training has stepped up a notch due to some new found motivation. It's amazing what training with one of the worlds up and coming pro's does for the head. Today we again went training with Robert Gesink from Rabobank and just talking to him about wearing the yellow jersey in paris-nice makes you motivated to train harder than before. So i ended up riding for 2 hours with him this morning and have another race this afternoon. It is a 1 and a half hour criterium 25km from the town i'm in.
When it's cold and shit weather over here i find it's hard to get motivated. Wind is ok, Rain is ok but when they are both put together it makes it very difficult to motivate yourself to go training and training consistancy is hard but now the weather is good and the motivation is very good after a testing few months i think the form will follow and come May and June i will have some good fitness and hopefully put my hand up for a spot in some of the biggest races the team recieves starts in. But in saying that, it is only my first full season and i don't expect everything to come this year but a lot of good opportunities are on offer so i will do my best to make the most of them.
The other good news i recieved today is that i have been selected to start a big race in Belgium on the 10th of April. G.P. Pino Cerami – Wasmuel is a 1.1 ranked race and has a lot of the top protour teams on the start line so i look foward to my first taste of racing with the big boys. After that it will be full on for quite a while i think. With a lot of u23 racing taking place in the next 4-6 weeks. Josh's team manager has gone to look at another apartment close to the team head quaters for us today. So hopefully we are out of the farm house soon. The house itself is not so bad. It's more the fact that it's located a wee way out of town and stinks bad that makes it real shitty. So living in town will be a welcome change.
So i think for the next few weeks i will be trying to focus on getting back into training consistantly instead of it being all over the show and good things shall follow. It's now back to finding some leg speed and race legs for the next 6 months.
Josh and I have also been catching the bus and venturing into Verviers, the town 5km away and where the potential apartment is located, to check out some sights. But we always seem to be distracted by internet cafes or mcdonalds and most recently a new found love for waffles. These things have all been put on the back burning as we start to get into cycling mode again instead of the tourist mode we have been in for 2 weeks. I have to keep telling him when we go food shopping that lollies/cakes/chocolate etc is not good for the baby (just a wee joke we have going on) so we didn't put on too much weight while we wern't riding much. It's made even harder in Holland when we get looked after so well by the Wensink family and they don't know when to stop piling food on our plates. So for now it's back to rice and tuna diet to get back to race weight.
I have a race in Germany this weekend, just another kermesse, these are races where you just turn up and enter and you have maybe 200 riders on an 8km circuit with foot to the floor the whole way, before heading back to the Belgium base.
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
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