Just a quick post to let you all know what I have been up to.

After what was one of the most crap races I have ever done, I was ready to drop the bike and go home. To put it simply, I had nothing. No answer. No excuse. No self belief.

I came home for a day then Soren and I headed down to Spain. We have a friend in Girona which is just a bit under 3 hours from our apartment. I had no race for 2 weeks so it was a good chance to get away for a bit and step into some training with Roly and friends which beats staying here and slogging it out against myself everyday.

It was a good week. I started to work on my short power which turns out to be the answer to my question above. I have none. My threshold is good but the accelerations are hurting me like nothing else. So hopefully in a couple of weeks I should be on the right track. To me it just didn't make sense. I have hit a new fitness high on training peaks (for those who don't know this is a programme which keeps all power files in order and shows graphs of different sorts. One of which is fitness) but something wasn't clicking and now I hope I am onto a winner.

Lately, I can't help but think back to a few years ago when I backed myself, when I could convince myself I was better than anyone else in the race. I am trying to bring that belief back. Europe is a hard place to be racing at the best of times but when your not performing, you have a lot of time sitting around looking for answers in ones head which in turn makes for a lot of stress and pressure.

I really believe I am not that far away from where I need to be to start getting results again. It has been far too long between drinks! I can't even remember the last time I performed to my own expectations in a road race and it was Club Nationals last year since I won a time trial.

So for me, it's getting back to basics. My fitness feels good. I am already starting to feel the benefits of these short power efforts which is even more encouraging and I hope things will continue to look up from here, because god knows it's getting closer and closer to crunch time.

I hope you are all well. I will try to get up quick post up after this weekends race.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan

Bonsoir,

Since I last posted I have done another race and got in some good training in amongst the very average weather we have been having lately.

The past week has been unbelievably windy. One example was today. When I was sitting on 350watts, doing 14km/h on a slight downhill into a head wind. I can tell you, the hour I was riding into that wind felt like an eternity. Not very ideal at all.


Start of the race.

So to the race. On Sunday I traveled to Sainte Livrade. I was supposed to be going to Bordeaux - Saintes, but a few days before my director decided it was better I go and take on another elite national race where I could keep building my condition for the coming months.
It was a lively race after the first 20km which we did in 38 minutes, but once the first person was brave enough to attack, it was all on. I made a couple of solid go's of it, getting a decent gap with a few other guys and the gap would shoot out to 25 seconds before it all came back together within a kilometer. Eventually a group of 5 got away on a decent about 45km into the race, they didn't really attack as such, it was more due to the fact everyone else behind was trying to get around a few guys sliding around a corner (it was raining after all). The gap held at 1 minute 20 before we hit the exposed section of the course and I got into a group of about 15 which would try to ride across the gap. I had 3 other team mates with me but just when a good result looked likely, I punctured on a decent with 17km to ride. With neutral support ahead with the escape and having no car behind our group meant no wheel and abandon course. It was slightly unfortunate because it was the first time in the past 15 months I had been at ease and was just biding my time before the finishing circuit. The only thing I can take out of the day was that I was good and I can feel some sort of fight coming back into my legs.


Soren and I on the Canal.

Between that and playing in the wind, we haven't really been up to much. Soren has been riding most days, there are a few bike paths around the town that Soren goes exploring. Included is this one when we road down the canal which runs through Toulouse.


Soren out and about.

So i'll sign off on that note.

Will update again soon when I can muster up another story for ya's ;)

Take care,
Ryan

Hi again,

Over the weekend I started in the race "Albi - Albi". It was 120km made up of 4 times around a 30km lap. It wasn't the flattest race I've ever done with some steep little climbs on small roads. To cut a long story short, I started to feel some good sensations and eventually finished in a group of 30 odd behind the 10 man break.

It was a good finish to a week which saw me do intervals out training everyday. I reckon it's the first time since I was a junior that I have taken intervals seriously.

I never really did them in Belgium because if I needed race intensity I would go and ride a couple of kermis races a week and form would come but without them I have found myself beating myself up day in, day out. It has been good though and I am starting to feel some kind of relief in the lactic acid department.



In other news, spring is most definitely on its way as the days get longer but more importantly, warmer! We have been here for 2 months now and the cold weather was really starting to take its toll!

I also just received my vo2 test results back from the Lab in Toulouse. I did the test as part of the process in obtaining a french racing license. I produced the highest number ever recorded at the lab with a vo2 reading of 91 ml/kg/min.



This Sunday will see me lining up in the race "Bordeaux - Saintes" which will be the first French Cup race I do for the year.

Just for a bit of fun I will give you a run down on GSC Blagnac and a bit about it's history and things. The Club is the 2nd oldest club in France founded in 1896 and has seen numerous Tour de France stars and World Champions come from within its ranks.

Riders such as Sylvain Marcaillou who finished 5th in the Tour de France in 1937, Laurent Jalabert who won both the Green and Polka Dot Jersey's at the Tour de France and finished high in the classement gerneral, Frédéric Moncassin who was a classic start but never got to the top step of a monument classic but triumphed in Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne in 1995, David Moncoutié who has won Tour de France stages and the Polka Dot 3 times in the most recent Tour of Spain's.

The most recent generation of pro's to pass through the GSC Blagnac team are Nicolas Portal who most recently was part of Tea Sky, Mathieu Perget who is with Ag2r, Alexandre Geniez of Skil-Shimano and the most recent is 2009 under 23 world champion Romain Sicard who is riding for Euskaltel.

The club has riders from under 11 right through to the DN1 team which competes in the Coupe de France or French Cup.



This year the club is looking to grow and a whole lot of new sponsors came on board to help make this season a success for the club. We are riding LOOK bikes with Sram Red components which are finished up with Fizik Saddles and FSA handlebars, stems and brake calipers. The wheels are also supplied by FSA and their sister company Vision with tyres being supplied by Continental. We have Met helmets and Bont shoes. So as you can see we have some top equipment partners for the season.

I will leave it on that note for today as I have run out of things to say. Unfortunately my digital camera is still in our apartment is Christchurch which for the moment is red stickered after the earthquake so don't expect any pictures of my local training roads anytime soon :) I'll see what I can do to get some colour up though.

Thanks for reading and check back soon.

Ryan

Ps You can thank Soren for all the great action shots! :)