Photos from the race.

Picture from Sundays race.
taken from www.velowallon.be

Im on the left for anyone interested.

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

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

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

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