It's been another good week. I think the form is coming along nicely and hopefully it stays for another 2 and a bit months. Had an alright race on Thursday at the Pro Kermesse. Pretty much all of the FDJ Pro Tour Team who weren't racing at the Tour De France were there and they controlled the bunch all day. It was a bloody hot day and our black riding kits didn't help with the heat. It was a pretty cool course, 13 laps of a 13km circuit, that had a small climb in it and a small cobble section near the finish. It took me a couple laps to get into it. My bike riding skills went out the door in the first couple laps for some reason and I was feeling really nervous but after a few laps my confidence level went back up. I was feeling quite good and I was sitting up the front at about 10th wheel and bridged across to small break up the road and I even had a little attack off the front of the bunch just to see what would happen. It all came to nothing but it was kind of cool to know that I am able to ride away from the bunch at a Pro Kermesse. I was then rolling around mid bunch for most of the day but near the end I think hunger and dehydration caught up with me, I was having to get a water every lap because it was so hot. I slowly started to feel more and more hungry and thirsty after every lap and drinking warm water really doesn't quench your thirst. I started falling further back in the bunch every lap which is the exact opposite of what you want to do because everyone starts to go harder and faster near the end and with FDJ driving it on the front for their sprinter, the pace was really going fast. I was in the worst spot possible for the cross wind section of the course and dropped with 1 and a half laps to go. So close to finishing. So the lessons I learnt at that race was that I need to hydrate a couple days before race day when it's weather like this because hydrating the night before isn't enough for me and I need to learn to eat more during the race. I do get a bit nervous trying to eat in big Kermesses like that because a lot of the times the courses are pretty technical and I do get a bit nervous taking my hands of the bars in big bunches like that but that's all just down to confidence and my confidence will grow the more I race. I also need to eat more often during the race instead of eating when I'm hungry because that is normally too late, you never really want to get hungry. Yea, a bit disappointed that I didn't quite get to finish but still kind of happy that I was able to have a crack off the front.
After the race, the team just sat around, chatted and had champagne and then the team manager shouted us dinner which was pretty awesome. It was a pretty cool just chilling together as a team and just talking shit really like we weren't talking about the race or cycling, just talking about random stuff.
Last night was Andrew's dads 60th birthday so the family organised a party for him and set up two big tents and tables and we had a massive BBQ. Taylor and I just sat outside and chatted to the team managers sons who help out the team as our mechanics sometimes and they were asking about NZ and stuff and they seem pretty keen to come over to NZ sometime.
Had a pretty solid week training over the weekend, managed to clock up 340k over the two days which is alright.
Have another Pro Kermesse on Sunday so I'll try to eat a lot more during the ride and drink more before the race. Should be good.
That's about it from me. Pretty gutted that 7 Days is taking a break, got nothing to look forward to on Fridays now. But yea, nothing else really happened last week. Oh yea! I made blueberry and lemon muffins and they looked nothing like I thought they would. They tasted awesome as though so it was all good. I put way to many blueberries in, which isn't a bad thing at all, and I didn't wash them (they were frozen) so I think the juice on the outside of the berries turned the muffins purple. I also lost a lemon seed in the mixture, still haven't found it and I've only got one muffin left so it's either in there or I've eaten it. I leave you a picture at the bottom.

Yea. Thanks for reading. Sorry if there's any grammar or spelling mistakes. Feeling quite tired today cause it's hard to sleep with the heat and the flies flying in my ears and face in the morning.

Nick

Still tasted awesome