Wednesday, April 27, 2011

First, I should apologize for the long wait on an update..
It has been a very busy period of late. Everything seems to be full gas at the moment.
Which is good except I find myself looking for more hours in the day!

So since I last wrote, a lot has been going on. I have done a few races, training has been smooth and thankfully I have returned to the pointy end of the peloton!

After arriving home from Spain I had 8 days before I had to race which allowed me to continue the good training I had been doing down there. I arrived at the start of Boucles du Causse Corrézien unsure of how my form was, but soon enough my legs were in full flight. After numerous attempts to get up the road everything was neutralized and I ended up 20th which after using so much energy trying to get away, I was happy with the end result as I know had I rode conservatively I could have done a lot better but it gave good reassurance.



Next up was the Tour du Lot-et-Garonne, It was a one day race of 140km. I tried to go in the break but it was soon evident that things wern't going very far. After an hour and a half of racing a group of 3 finally got clear with one of my team mates in it which set us up well for the rest of the race. They were caught 30km from the finish and with a very hilly last 20km it was time to goto work. I tried to stick another break and finally did in the last 10km, we went through the last km banner with 8 seconds but it would soon be all together for the tough 200m climb to the finish. I proceeded to get caught, avoid a crash and finish 23rd which again I was happy with although disappointed to be caught so close to the finish.

I raced again the next day and spent a lot of time in the break before finally finishing in the bunch.



I then had 4 days to recover before my first tour of the year. Week-end Bearnais which was 2 days. Saturday was 125km with Sunday consisting of a 15km time trial and 110km road stage. I went into the tour knowing I could win. My self confidence had returned and I backed myself in any situation again. The first day was hard to judge. I wanted to take time without using too much energy with the all important time trial the next morning. It would soon be clear that the race was going to be decided by the course and not so much the riders with a long steep 6km climb coming midway through the stage followed by another 4km climb with 35km to go. I made it over the last climb in the front group of 20, with a group escaping on the decent, which included team mate Fabian. I stayed in the front and followed anything that was trying to go across and eventually got on 2 of the stronger guys in the race. Obviously having Fabian ahead meant I got a free ride to the finish. We caught 2 of the initial break but Fabian was still ahead solo with 15km to go. We never saw him, he won by 25sec and I got an easy ride to the finish where I arrived 4th.

Unfortunately with only 30sec on the peloton which was now quite big as they caught the group I was with in the run in to the finish.

Sunday was good for me. I woke up motivated to do well in the time trial. I wanted to prove something to the team as up until now I hadn't shown any potential and the time trial never lies. I warmed up well and left the start house.. I would arrive at the finish 2nd only to be beaten by Fabian who was last rider on the road. I was stoked to finish 3rd and even more happy that the team took the top 4 positions on the stage.



This left me in 2nd on the general classification with 110km to go. The boys lined it up on the front and rode a good tempo the whole stage. A break away first threatened Fabians lead and then also my 2nd place but we were able to bring it back in the last 15km and in the midst of a chaotic rain storm in the last 5km 3 guys got away to win by 5sec which wouldn't change the overall result at all.

Soren got well stocked with podium flowers!


In the end we were 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th along with the young rider jersey, mountains jersey and 2 stage wins plus the teams classification to boot.

It was a good result for me personally too and I hope to continue building to my next goal, the tour de gironde which is UCI 2.2 ranking at the end of next month.

So with form on the up and some good racing coming up, I will have a lot more things to write about in the near future!

You can also follow my results here.

Thanks for reading,

Ryan