Hello everyone,
Just thought I would drop a quick update and fill you up to date about what has been happening over the last couple of weeks.
Training has been well putting in some long rides over the last couple of weeks. 5-6hour days which has been good for my condition. I felt well and truely back at my best as I headed away to France for a 4 day tour. However I guess it wasn't meant to be as my foot gradually got worse over the days and by the 3rd stage it was an unbearable pain which led to me abandoning the race.
From here I am working out what to do next. The new shoes don't seem to be helping all that much and I am booked in to see the specialist on the 28/08 which will consist of analysis and custom soles/shoes. SO for the next 2 weeks i'll just be trying to deal with it as best I can and hopefully it just comes right. I race again next Wednesday at overijse, a UCI 1.1 ranked race.
Will keep you updated with proceedings as they come.
Ryan
Monday, August 17, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
The last month
The last month has flown by, between racing, foot appointments and training there hasn't been time do much else.
After Romsee I got tendonitis in my foot, so have had to change shoes/pedals, and have a fair bit of work done on it.
Between this, racing every 2nd or 3rd day, add to that a day day tour and thats the last months in a nutshell.
Races have been fairly average, I had 4 falls in 5 stages at the Tour of Liege, Nothing serious, but by the end of the tour I was pretty over it.
I'm coming right though, have a tour in 10 days time in france, which i'm looking forward to. With racing so much I didn't have time to put in the long rides. I couldn't get anything over 3 hours in, so at the moment, i'm just putting miles into my legs.
Also, a couple of months ago I got the domain for www.ryan-wills.com, and have been trying to get that up and running. hopefully it's up soon, will let you know.
So as you can see, I have been super busy. I will try and get up some pics and another post before I head off to the tour.
Sorry this has been short but I can't really elaborate on the races as they are not worth the time they take to read. Generally it's just rained for the races, start ride and see what happens.
Will keep you updated, hopefully over all injuries for the rest of the year.
Until next time,
Ryan
After Romsee I got tendonitis in my foot, so have had to change shoes/pedals, and have a fair bit of work done on it.
Between this, racing every 2nd or 3rd day, add to that a day day tour and thats the last months in a nutshell.
Races have been fairly average, I had 4 falls in 5 stages at the Tour of Liege, Nothing serious, but by the end of the tour I was pretty over it.
I'm coming right though, have a tour in 10 days time in france, which i'm looking forward to. With racing so much I didn't have time to put in the long rides. I couldn't get anything over 3 hours in, so at the moment, i'm just putting miles into my legs.
Also, a couple of months ago I got the domain for www.ryan-wills.com, and have been trying to get that up and running. hopefully it's up soon, will let you know.
So as you can see, I have been super busy. I will try and get up some pics and another post before I head off to the tour.
Sorry this has been short but I can't really elaborate on the races as they are not worth the time they take to read. Generally it's just rained for the races, start ride and see what happens.
Will keep you updated, hopefully over all injuries for the rest of the year.
Until next time,
Ryan
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Have added twitter to my blog, its on the right side under photo. see what im up to day to day.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Romsee - Stavelot - Romsee UCI 1.12
Romsee - Stavelot - Romsee, heart of the ardennes, taking in all the major climbs. 4-5km long, 8 catogorized climbs plus the rest. Hilliest race i'll do all year.
I had good legs on Sunday but was uncertain how my climbing legs were. Well that was answered pretty quick when after 5km on the first climb a big group jumped away, I rode across pretty easy, I thought there was another group off the front so proceeded to ride away with 2 guys on my wheel to chase the front.. IF someone had only told me we were the front. I figured pretty qucikly anyway after we were shown the first time check of 20sec on the chalk board the motorbike carries. Not wanting to be up there I preceeded to soft pedal my turns hoping the catch would come soon, 8km later we were back in the bunch. I believed I would be able to follow over the climbs so I was happy to hold back and go with the natural selection which happened 55km into the race. On the pretty exposed climb the cross wind hit and 20 of us split off the front, I was sitting pretty 5th wheel behind the beveren led peloton. There were still 10 guys up the road by 40 seconds.
Off the decent and onto the next set of climbs it proceeded to split. I was pretty safe, It kept like this until the finishing circuits, 3x10km.
I was still strong, I may have been paying too much attention to the rider who won on Sunday. He goes good and was a good wheel to follow, obviously hes strong, but in the process let a couple of his beveren team mates slip ahead with 3 other guys.
Situation coming into the last lap was 5 guys in front with 30 seconds, me with a group of 7 chasers, then a group of 4 with sundays winner and 2 of his team mates.
We were looking pretty good racing for 6th, I wasn't backing my sprint but it would suit me more than other finishes would being up hill for the last 2km. with 5km to go there was some cat and mouse going on, I saw the group of 4 coming across but didn't want them to catch so tried to attack out of the group. I got a nice gap, just holding at 10-15seconds. At 1km to go the group of 4 caught us, at 200metres to go I was passed by the group, I was pretty well spent. I lost 7 seconds to the group in the last 200metres and settled for 15th place.
I was happy as only 29 finished the whole course. I had a goal of a top 20 and I achieved it, I was strong and followed a lot of attacks, I am happy with my progress and can only keep building on it. Staying injury free is a good thing too!
My director was super happy and like l'oise finished best from my team. Was good that my team mate also took the mountains prize for the day!
Next up for me will be some low key races until the second half of the season kicks off. Normally I would take a bit of a break, but I had a month off when I compressed the 2 vertabrae early this year so my plan is to go right through till southland. Hopefully arriving there with good form and not too tired.
The tour of luxembourg has been cancelled due to lack of money so bit bummed but life goes on.
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
I had good legs on Sunday but was uncertain how my climbing legs were. Well that was answered pretty quick when after 5km on the first climb a big group jumped away, I rode across pretty easy, I thought there was another group off the front so proceeded to ride away with 2 guys on my wheel to chase the front.. IF someone had only told me we were the front. I figured pretty qucikly anyway after we were shown the first time check of 20sec on the chalk board the motorbike carries. Not wanting to be up there I preceeded to soft pedal my turns hoping the catch would come soon, 8km later we were back in the bunch. I believed I would be able to follow over the climbs so I was happy to hold back and go with the natural selection which happened 55km into the race. On the pretty exposed climb the cross wind hit and 20 of us split off the front, I was sitting pretty 5th wheel behind the beveren led peloton. There were still 10 guys up the road by 40 seconds.
Off the decent and onto the next set of climbs it proceeded to split. I was pretty safe, It kept like this until the finishing circuits, 3x10km.
I was still strong, I may have been paying too much attention to the rider who won on Sunday. He goes good and was a good wheel to follow, obviously hes strong, but in the process let a couple of his beveren team mates slip ahead with 3 other guys.
Situation coming into the last lap was 5 guys in front with 30 seconds, me with a group of 7 chasers, then a group of 4 with sundays winner and 2 of his team mates.
We were looking pretty good racing for 6th, I wasn't backing my sprint but it would suit me more than other finishes would being up hill for the last 2km. with 5km to go there was some cat and mouse going on, I saw the group of 4 coming across but didn't want them to catch so tried to attack out of the group. I got a nice gap, just holding at 10-15seconds. At 1km to go the group of 4 caught us, at 200metres to go I was passed by the group, I was pretty well spent. I lost 7 seconds to the group in the last 200metres and settled for 15th place.
I was happy as only 29 finished the whole course. I had a goal of a top 20 and I achieved it, I was strong and followed a lot of attacks, I am happy with my progress and can only keep building on it. Staying injury free is a good thing too!
My director was super happy and like l'oise finished best from my team. Was good that my team mate also took the mountains prize for the day!
Next up for me will be some low key races until the second half of the season kicks off. Normally I would take a bit of a break, but I had a month off when I compressed the 2 vertabrae early this year so my plan is to go right through till southland. Hopefully arriving there with good form and not too tired.
The tour of luxembourg has been cancelled due to lack of money so bit bummed but life goes on.
Hope everyone is well.
Ryan
Fleche Ardennias
Fleche Ardennais, the 3rd round of the Lotto Top Competition where I was making my debut. The reason I am only making my debut now after 18months is that it's a competition for the belgian riders, and being kiwi means I'm not eligible for points towards the overall ranking. Going into the race we had fabio in 4th place in the classement and 3rd on the teams classement.
It's quite a hilly race and suits me pretty well. I left home on Sunday morning with the sun shining. How it can change in 2 hours. When Romain and I arrived in Herve for the start it was pissing with rain, wasn't too bad, that was until we started raining. My director said to me, this is a good race for you Ryan, don't do anything silly and wait for the selection. 3km into the race, 200 riders, worst weather I have ever been in, (yes worse than stage 4 of southland!), I was already riding off the front doing the something silly I wasn't meant to be doing, but if thats what I had to do to get warm then thats what I was going to do. It wasn't all bad though, as long as I was up the road, Fabio and the boys were safe in the bunch and when the natural selection was made I was already up the road ready to ride for Fabio.
There was 4 of us in the break, Myself, the french junior world champion from last year, 1 rider from beveren 2000 and a pom from scott cycling team. (actually funny cause later found out it was the pom who lives with the kiwi track team over here).
We worked well together for 80-90km, then the selection came across and just as I thought Fabio was there. So I rode as hard as I could for Fabio as I knew he was strong and we put time into the chasers. We hit the next climb and I was frozen, couldn't feel a thing, job was done, I wasn't going to ride the finishing circuits for the sake of finishing. I got to the bus and straight into the warm showers, Romain suffered a crash, knew it would be dodgy in a 200 man bunch in that weather. Safer off the front :)
Actually only 20 riders did the whole course. Fabio was our only finisher, but finished strong, 3rd place! Moved into 3rd on classement, but we dropped to 5th on teams. Seeking revenge after the most horrible day. I was dissapointed not to finish but my director was happy with me, and looking back now, I can see I did a good job for Fabio and was happy just to get to where I did.
I have good legs and looking forward to Tuesday and some better weather.
Ryan.
It's quite a hilly race and suits me pretty well. I left home on Sunday morning with the sun shining. How it can change in 2 hours. When Romain and I arrived in Herve for the start it was pissing with rain, wasn't too bad, that was until we started raining. My director said to me, this is a good race for you Ryan, don't do anything silly and wait for the selection. 3km into the race, 200 riders, worst weather I have ever been in, (yes worse than stage 4 of southland!), I was already riding off the front doing the something silly I wasn't meant to be doing, but if thats what I had to do to get warm then thats what I was going to do. It wasn't all bad though, as long as I was up the road, Fabio and the boys were safe in the bunch and when the natural selection was made I was already up the road ready to ride for Fabio.
There was 4 of us in the break, Myself, the french junior world champion from last year, 1 rider from beveren 2000 and a pom from scott cycling team. (actually funny cause later found out it was the pom who lives with the kiwi track team over here).
We worked well together for 80-90km, then the selection came across and just as I thought Fabio was there. So I rode as hard as I could for Fabio as I knew he was strong and we put time into the chasers. We hit the next climb and I was frozen, couldn't feel a thing, job was done, I wasn't going to ride the finishing circuits for the sake of finishing. I got to the bus and straight into the warm showers, Romain suffered a crash, knew it would be dodgy in a 200 man bunch in that weather. Safer off the front :)
Actually only 20 riders did the whole course. Fabio was our only finisher, but finished strong, 3rd place! Moved into 3rd on classement, but we dropped to 5th on teams. Seeking revenge after the most horrible day. I was dissapointed not to finish but my director was happy with me, and looking back now, I can see I did a good job for Fabio and was happy just to get to where I did.
I have good legs and looking forward to Tuesday and some better weather.
Ryan.
Tour de l'Oise UCI 2.2
It's been a long time since this race, well atleast it feels like a long time.
It was a 4 day tour, held 3 weeks ago. Now it's not for a lack of trying to update my blog but more the fact I havn't really had time. I finished this tour and was straight into some other races but the report for them will go up soon.
It was a pretty hard tour, well on paper. The feild was as good as at the tour of bretagne. My fitness has been getting better over the last month and I have been enjoying riding a lot more, have a new massuse who is in the know with a lot of teams and who has a lot of belief in me.
So the tour itself. 4 days, first stage was on the Thursday, 120km starting at 4pm. I went into the tour with an open mind. Better fitness than Bretagne and now I could take it day by day and just grow in confidence.
15km into the stage, 15 guys got up the road, unfortunately we had no one in the move but luckily neither did 2 other strong teams, beveren 2000 and roubaix - metropole. Roubaix chased for 50 odd km before they lost fire power, beveren took over, I joined in with 1 team mate. We had the gap at 40seconds for a long time, I was getting frustrated as my team mates wern't riding the front and general classification was going out the door. I said to my director after I wasn't happy that the team wasn't riding. We are a continental team and should have been showing that we are strong, well apparently we wern't as strong as I thought and my team mates were pretty tapped. I finished in the bunch, 1 minute down on the break.
Stage 2, 180km. Again I was feeling good. Again a break of 15 odd got away and again we missed it along with beveren 2000. Another day on the front and another day I was happy to finish, we lost 20seconds to the break at the end I think. I finish in the bunch. Normally this tour should be hard, as there are 6-8 hills each stage with no decent after except open paddocks and feilds so if the wind was blowing and the race was harder things would have been different, unfortunately the wind didn't blow for the first 3 days, hence the big bunch finishes.
Stage 3, 180km. Fast stage, lots of climbing, but again quite easy. Another big bunch finish, no break stayed today. Didn't have to ride the front, got to chill, stay out of trouble and look forward to the last stage.
Stage 4, 170km. Finally the wind started to blow and the race got hard. So hard infact I went in the break in the first 10km, we were caught by 30km and I was dropped by 40km, spent the next 15km in the cars chasing with 10 others. Got back on and started to find some legs and they just got better and better and better. A group of 7 got away on the last climb and held us off by 10sec over last 5km. I was in the chase group of 25ish. I don't think many more than 50 of 120 finished the day.
Overall 33rd, same time as 20th and only a handfull of seconds off 15th, from 15th upward it was mostly guys who had took time on the first and second stage, had the wind been blowing and the race been hard on the first 3 days I think the gc wouldn't have been so close but I am happy with where I am and happy to get through a hard day, it was maxing at 32 degrees!
Next up is Fleche Ardennais on Sunday and Romsee - Stevelot - Romsee on Tuesday. 2 of the biggest classics Belgium has each year. Held in the ardenne hills, they should be 2 races suited to me.
Until then,
Ryan
It was a 4 day tour, held 3 weeks ago. Now it's not for a lack of trying to update my blog but more the fact I havn't really had time. I finished this tour and was straight into some other races but the report for them will go up soon.
It was a pretty hard tour, well on paper. The feild was as good as at the tour of bretagne. My fitness has been getting better over the last month and I have been enjoying riding a lot more, have a new massuse who is in the know with a lot of teams and who has a lot of belief in me.
So the tour itself. 4 days, first stage was on the Thursday, 120km starting at 4pm. I went into the tour with an open mind. Better fitness than Bretagne and now I could take it day by day and just grow in confidence.
15km into the stage, 15 guys got up the road, unfortunately we had no one in the move but luckily neither did 2 other strong teams, beveren 2000 and roubaix - metropole. Roubaix chased for 50 odd km before they lost fire power, beveren took over, I joined in with 1 team mate. We had the gap at 40seconds for a long time, I was getting frustrated as my team mates wern't riding the front and general classification was going out the door. I said to my director after I wasn't happy that the team wasn't riding. We are a continental team and should have been showing that we are strong, well apparently we wern't as strong as I thought and my team mates were pretty tapped. I finished in the bunch, 1 minute down on the break.
Stage 2, 180km. Again I was feeling good. Again a break of 15 odd got away and again we missed it along with beveren 2000. Another day on the front and another day I was happy to finish, we lost 20seconds to the break at the end I think. I finish in the bunch. Normally this tour should be hard, as there are 6-8 hills each stage with no decent after except open paddocks and feilds so if the wind was blowing and the race was harder things would have been different, unfortunately the wind didn't blow for the first 3 days, hence the big bunch finishes.
Stage 3, 180km. Fast stage, lots of climbing, but again quite easy. Another big bunch finish, no break stayed today. Didn't have to ride the front, got to chill, stay out of trouble and look forward to the last stage.
Stage 4, 170km. Finally the wind started to blow and the race got hard. So hard infact I went in the break in the first 10km, we were caught by 30km and I was dropped by 40km, spent the next 15km in the cars chasing with 10 others. Got back on and started to find some legs and they just got better and better and better. A group of 7 got away on the last climb and held us off by 10sec over last 5km. I was in the chase group of 25ish. I don't think many more than 50 of 120 finished the day.
Overall 33rd, same time as 20th and only a handfull of seconds off 15th, from 15th upward it was mostly guys who had took time on the first and second stage, had the wind been blowing and the race been hard on the first 3 days I think the gc wouldn't have been so close but I am happy with where I am and happy to get through a hard day, it was maxing at 32 degrees!
Next up is Fleche Ardennais on Sunday and Romsee - Stevelot - Romsee on Tuesday. 2 of the biggest classics Belgium has each year. Held in the ardenne hills, they should be 2 races suited to me.
Until then,
Ryan
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