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

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.

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