Ate Too Many Baguettes

Sorry about the late blog. Got home from France on Sunday night at around 10.30pm, then I just completely forgot on Monday until I remembered at 1am when I couldn't sleep, then last night we got called over to Andrews for a few final beers and a few rounds of Scum (I'm still champion).
But yea the tour didn't go too badly for me. The good news is my knee is a lot better, had no problems with it through out the tour or in training so I'm really happy about that. Was getting really bored and annoyed not being able to race or train. Stage 1 I felt fairly good, wasn't expecting much from myself for the whole tour because I hadn't done much racing and done little training building up for it so I took it fairly easy in the beginning. Oh yea I just remembered, I raced that crit on Monday and managed to score so bucks from that, that race was the tester for my knee and it passed with flying colours and then I raced on Wednesday and spent 15k out the front by myself to collect some prem money then I blew tits and didn't finish so that was a good base line to see how well I was going after not riding much.
But yea then the race in France I was feeling pretty good. I had to bridge a big gap across to one of the splits and then from there I finished around 36th on that stage about 4 mins behind the first group. The first group had Zeno in it and he finished 6th and won the Most Aggressive rider prize so he got to wear a nice fluro jersey and got a giant toy pig which is bloody good.
The next stage started with a 15km Time Trial in the morning and then 109km stage in the afternoon. Didn't have a TT bike so I was never gonna win it but I felt pretty good. The course was fairly flat through the town but bloody hell there was a lot of traffic to dodge. After the town you hook it left and start the 3km climb. Felt pretty good up there and I started catching my minute man (The guy ahead of me) who was my teammate, Josh, who was on a TT bike. Once you get to the top you go flying down hill, I hit 88kph going down there, and then it's a slight down hill for about 7km but it was headwind so it was pretty hard. Then you enter the main town again then to the finish. It was not too bad of a ride considering I was on a road bike but I probably could have shed some more time off it if it wasn't for the bloody Frenchys. The organisers and marshals were useless as. I had cars pulling out in front of me or I would catch up to them and they wouldn't move out of the way or they were blocking the intersection where I needed to turn or I would have some bloody old mate Frenchy start crossing the road then stop in the middle of the road to have a good old argument with the marshal. Bloody Frenchys! Made it a very interesting TT. Still finished 18th, first out of the guys with road bikes, unfortunately there's no prize for that; there should be though.
Stage 3 my legs were pretty kaput at the start. Was just cruising around in the bunch all day pretty much until we started turning left on to another road and then we had a bunch of marshals waving there arms screaming at us telling us that that's the wrong way. So we continued going on straight and then turned left down the next road and then in the bunch there was a lot of yelling going on and then the big riders like the leader of the race and the U23 French Champion and a couple other big guys went to the front and just told everyone to stop. Apparently the break that was up the road had gone the wrong way so we had to wait 10mins for the race to get back on track and then we started again. With 10k to go there were a couple big climbs that split the whole bunch up. I ended up in the 3rd bunch with Zeno so I sat on the front and drilled the crap out of it to try and catch back up so Zeno doesn't lose too much time. Finished 30 odd secs behind the first group in 49th so Zeno didn't lose too much time.
Last stage was the longest with 170km of up and down. Legs were feeling the purest form of crap for the first 1.5 hours of the race. There was a big climb in the first 10km that everyone smashed it on so that split up the bunch but I still managed to keep up with the bunch, just. There was a big split up the road though with Zeno in it so I could sit back a bit because we had a rider up the road. Was really struggling in the first 1.5 hours but after attacking up one of the hills to bridge across to one of the splits my legs felt heaps better. Managed to get into a break with about 90km to go and felt really good. With about 20k to go we got caught by a big split behind us. I was a bit tired so I slipped to the back of the bunch which was the worst thing to do. Pretty much as soon I got to the back, we went up a massive and steep climb. Just got spat out the back going up the climb and couldn't quite back on. I'm so stupid. Rode the last 15km with 3 other guys and finished 37th around 3mins behind the winner. I think I finished 29th or something overall.
All in all it wasn't too bad. So that was pretty much the last race of the European season for me. Off to Paris tomorrow now, staying in Brussels tonight and then catching the train to Paris early tomorrow, so excited for that.
It's been bloody nice here too. Clear blue skies and really hot, got up to 25 degrees yesterday and it's looking really nice again today. Bloody good.

So yea that's it from me. Might do one last quick blog on Monday. One week today till I head home whoop whoop.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Swedish Balls

So yea it's been another quiet week for me. Been battling with a bung knee all week and couldn't ride too much. Normally, after about 30 mins of riding I would slowly start getting pain in my left knee. So on Saturday I went off to the physio/osteopath and he's seem to of straightened me up. He clicked my back and straightened up my pelvis and put some real hot stuff on my sore knee and it's already feeling better. Refitted my bike also cause I think that's what started the problem.
Managed to do a 50min ride this morning and then a 2hr 15min ride this afternoon with no real trouble so I think all is good. I was asked to do a criterium on Monday evening, (a crit is basically a shorter version of a kermesse) I wasn't sure if I was gonna do it because of my knee but I think I might give it a crack now because every lap you can win 6 bottles of champagne and then the next lap you can win money if you're first across the line so there's a lot of money and champagne up for grabs. Never done a crit over here as well and knee is feeling better.
Saturday was a pretty busy day, first rode out to the physio, then went to Kortrijk and got my hair cut (you're welcome mum) and then Andrew took us up to Ghent to go to the IKEA store. We told him that we had never been to IKEA cause there's none in NZ and he couldn't believe it. The place is massive! You could basically live in there for your whole life. Everything you need to build the inside of a house is in there. The place was packed as well, so many people! And to finish off the trip, we had afternoon tea at IKEA. Andrew bought us some frits with some weird Swedish sausage balls, tasted pretty good though. Someone should bring IKEA to NZ cause they would make a heap of money. Maybe I should do it.
But other than that it's been a boring as week. Not being able to race or train was doing my head cause time was going so slow and I wasn't making any money from the Kermesses. Really hope my knee is 100% now so I can start racing and training again and also do this tour in France on Friday. Might win me another iPad. Oh yea Zeno bought my iPad off me so that paid for most of my rent, bloody good stuff that is.
Ahhh yea. Can't really think of anything else to write about. Not a lot has happened. The cafe that does flat whites is opening again on Wednesday after about 3 weeks of being closed so we're going there as soon as old mate unlocks the door.
So yea, that's me for another week.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Quick Game is a Good Game

Sorry about the late blog. Was about to write my blog yesterday but I was called over to play cards and I am the game of Scum King.
But yea last week wasn't the best of weeks. Picked up bit of an injury in my left knee after a race I did on Wednesday. I felt it through out the race but I carried on through and still managed to finish 80 something. It was a big memorial kermesse so there were a lot of riders. Didn't really think to much of it so I raced the next day at a kermesse cause there was a lot of money up for grabs but that just made it worse. I was up in the break at the start of the race but my knee was getting more and more sore so I dropped out.
Have had a few days of the bike now trying to get it sussed.
We went out to the coast on Friday for something to do cause it was a wet and boring day. The coast is the place to be in the summer apparently so there were a heap of people from different countries. I don't see what's exciting about it cause it's an ugly looking beach with heaps of shops and tall buildings behind it. But yea we just hung around there for most of the day and ate waffles and drank coffee cause it was just pissing with rain and cold and windy.
Also went out to Ghent on Sunday for most of the day. We were going to go and have all you can eat ribs for dinner but we just ended up at pizza hut. It was heaps more fun going to Ghent than staying inside all day cause I can't really ride with my knee at the moment.
The Irish guy, Connor, is going home tomorrow so we're going to go round to Andrews and have a couple beers and play cards so that's why I'm rushing this blog.
I'll write a better one next week, promise. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on the bike this week and kill some time.

Yeeeea sorry for the short blog and the spelling mistakes (I'm sure there's some in there)

Thanks for reading

Nick

Just A Quiet One

Been a pretty chilled out week this week. Haven't done too much exciting as the weather has been crappy as for most of the week. We keep getting these massive black clouds rolling through that are filled with torrential rain and lightning.  Pretty over riding in the rain and cold. It's bloody cold here now too, definitely coming into Autumn. The sun, when it's out, is usually pretty warm but the wind quickly destroys that warmth and puts ice into your bones. Yesterday we were out riding and then out of no where a massive black cloud appears with lightning and then the temperature drops to freezing and then starts bucketing down. Was so cold! Got a bloody puncture too when the rain first hit us so we had to chill under a bridge and change it, not ideal at all.
But yea on Tuesday, Zeno and I went up to Antwerp for the day to have a little gander around. I've only been to Antwerp once early last year and it was pouring with snow so it was cool to see it in a new light. It was still a cold and windy day though. It's quite a busy place with lots of shops mainly and a few hundred Italian pizza restaurants so for lunch we decided to be a bit more cultural and have some Belgium/Antwerp cuisine. We had pizza at one of the Italian restaurants. But we used a knife and fork to eat it cause we are sophisticated as. The pizza was alright but it's no Hell pizza. Can't wait to get home and have some Hells. Antwerp got pretty boring pretty quickly. It's mainly just shopping stores so we did have a wander through some of the stores but there was nothing else exciting going on.
Went to a race on Wednesday to try and win some bucks. Zeno and I managed to get into the break at the beginning of the race with 3 other guys. We were working well together and we pretty much stayed away until the end. A small group of about 4 caught up to us with 3k to go so I finished 8th. I didn't feel amazing the whole race but I still felt goodish but I just had no sprint at the end. Still managed to win two 25euro prems and 30euro for finishing 8th. Zeno and I are going up to Paris with two other Kiwi boys who are riding here at the end of September so most of that money has gone to pay for the train ticket. I've got a 'Paris' jar that will hopefully be full of cash from Kermesse winnings.
So yea that was basically my week. One month today until I leave here. Can't wait to get home. Getting a bit tired of this place, miss the New Zealand way of life. I was watching the live commentary on the All Blacks game on Saturday and it sounded like a hell of a game. Record breaking score against the Wallabies! Good stuff ABs.
Yep. That's pretty much all from me.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Not Ideal

Well, that sucked. Couldn't of asked for a crappier week. Only one day at the tour that it didn't rain which can only mean one thing... Carnage.
Before the tour started I had already decided I would have a crack at the General Classification (overall lead) so that would mean I would have to be very smart and well positioned through out the race. Last couple of tours I've always been going for stage wins or Sprints or KOMs. First day was pretty full gas with a lot of wind and a bit of rain. I had good position up the front for the first half of the race but I slacked off a bit and crept back to the middle of the bunch. We headed into a wooded area and the road was soaking wet from a passing shower and just as we were coming out of the woods there was a big crash that spread across the whole road so I had to throw down the anchors and come to pretty much a complete stand still. Was bloody lucky to stop in time because I was hauling ass on the inside because I had decided that I needed to start moving up just before the crash happened. Because of that crash, a big split got away from us and stayed away until the finish. There were heaps of small bunches through out the course at I finished about 2 minutes down with some small bunch. I was sitting 40th or so on GC so I just thought stuff it, I'm just going to go for stage wins again because there's only one way to move up on GC and that's by being in a successful break away group so I'll take my chances.
Stage 2 was a quiet day for me as Zeno was up in the break for most of the day so all I did was ride in the bunch and conserve for the next few days. Zeno and the break got caught about 30km from the end or so and it was just a bunch sprint. Lotto Belisol U23, which is a really good team, was in the lead so they just controlled the race for the whole day.
Now day 3 is where stuff got interesting. As we sit in the carpark getting changed for the race a big black cloud rolls over top of us and it starts pouring with rain and there were big cracks of lightning every couple of minutes. We were all thinking stuff this! The rain eased up just before the start but it was still freezing. The rain gave me really good motivation to be either in a break or right up the front of the race cause I knew it would be complete chaos behind us. I went up the road fairly early and got into a small break but we got caught not too long after but I made sure I stayed right up near the front. About 15 guys just rolled off the front and no one in the bunch was chasing them so I decided to attack by myself and I bridged up to them. A few more guys, including quite a few Lotto Belisol riders, bridged up to us and the Lotto riders went straight to the front and started hammering it. I quickly turned around and I couldn't see anyone behind us so I just thought sweet, I'm moving up on GC today cause we have the leader of the race and all his teammates in the bunch with us and they were drilling the crap out of it. But not long after, the lead car stops in front of us and tells us to stop. Apparently there was heaps of carnage behind us and over half the peleton had crashed. It was a bloody stupid course because they had diagonal railway crossings and everyone was binning it on them because it was wet so we had to stop and wait for them. Everyone in the group was pissed as. The neutralized the race until we had gotten through all the railway crossings and then we started again. It was another bloody windy day so I made sure I was right up near the front. Lotto was again on the front just drilling the crap out of it and they were splitting up the whole bunch. I managed to keep in contact in them until we hit 45km in. We were all single file in the left gutter and we were riding on nice smooth tar seal so between the gutter and the road there was like a small lip where the tar seal is higher than the gutter. I was riding right on the edge of that and leaning towards the right a bit because the wind was blowing from left to  right. I think an extra strong gust of wind just pushed me of the road so my front wheel was in the gutter but I was still leaning to the right so my front wheel wanted to go back up on the road but because the road was still a bit wet it didn't grip on to the road so it just slid and I was still leaning right so I just fully decked it at 45kph and tore up my right side. I got up pretty quick and put my bottles back in and hoped back on my bike but some how my pedals and cleats were covered in mud and sand so I couldn't get my left cleat clipped in, it just kept pulling out so I had to pull over again and spray my cleats and pedals with water to get rid of the mud. Mean while I'm doing this, a heap of small bunches coming riding past me so I was loosing valuable time to catch back up to the main group. I got motor paced by the team car up to a small group and we eventually caught up to some slightly bigger group but no one was working and they pulled us out of the race with 45km to go. Was not ideal but still got to start the next day. Bit of road rash on the old right thigh, leg and elbow but all ok.
4th day was pretty chilled again as Zeno got up in the break again so I got to chill out all day. I did try to go solo with 2km to go but got caught with 800m to go. That tactic rarely works but hey, it's worth a shot, nothing to lose.
Day 5 was another cold wet windy day. Managed to get in a small break but only for 5km when one team, for no reason, decided to mow us down. Was bloody pissed because there was no one dangerous to GC in that group so we got chased down for no reason. A group of 3 riders went up the road but I missed that break. They were about a minute 30 up the road and the peleton was riding really slow and I was really bored so I decided to smack it up the road with some other guy in the block head wind. We were working well together and again, the same team decided to drill us back for no reason. They were about 20 meters behind us and the guy I was with sat up and went back to the bunch but I was bloody pissed off so I just attacked again and went solo. They let me go and I slowly caught up to the break. They were about 1.5 minutes up the road and I got to about 15 seconds behind them when I could start feeling my back tire going soft. Got myself a bloody puncture. There were a few team cars and race officials behind me so I pointed at my rear wheel and a team car came up next to me and I told them I had a puncture so I pulled over and got a wheel change. It was some random team car and the team mechanic was an absolute douche. He lazily got out of the and started to walk towards me but luckily the driver rushed out and told the mechanic to come on and took the wheel from him and put it in my bike. So before that I was 15 seconds behind them and after the wheel change I was at least 45 seconds behind the break. Not ideal. So I had to start all over again. After spending about 30km by myself I finally managed to catch them. I was feeling really good so I wasn't absolutely smashed when I caught them and I was able to help them out. But after being with them for about 15km we go caught by the bunch. And from then on I just sat at the back all day. With 2km to go I was pretty smashed and I dropped but I didn't care. Was pretty happy with my effort, it was a complete waste of time but it was a good sign that the legs are good.
So yea that's about it. I'm quite sore at the moment. I bought some bandage pads and savlon and stuck that on my thigh and it's been aching and stinging ever since. I'm sure it'll be fine though. But yea that's pretty much it for me. Had a pretty busy day today so that's why the blog is a little late.
So yea all is good.

Btw, sorry for any spelling mistakes. I can't be assed checking for the spelling and grammar cause I'm tired. Off to bed

Thanks for reading and don't hassle me too much Nans with my spelling errors, cheers.

Nick

No More Snot

Well this week has been a lot better. Started feeling better by Wednesday and now only have a slight runny nose. So this week I've been back on the bike gearing up for my next tour which starts on Wednesday. There was another tour on this week that the two poms and Irish in the house did so Zeno and I had the house to ourselves for most of the week. Made the house seem a lot bigger. Pretty happy to not be selected for that tour because it sounded like hell. One of the Poms and Irish came back with a couple broken bones. Liam the Pom fractured his hip so he had surgery and stayed in hospital for a few nights and Connor the Irish had a cracked rib and that was due to a big pile up on the first stage. So they came back home Saturday night and we've had to move Liam's bed smack bang in the middle of the living room cause he can't climb the stairs so it's really cramped now. He's going home next week so we'll be down to 4 people in the house.
Did a couple kermesses this week with one on Friday and one on Saturday. Had a nice and rainy race on Friday but the course was perfect for the conditions with only 3 corners and only one being tight. It started bucketing down as we sat at the cafe pinning our numbers on. We were fairly close to just handing back our numbers and going home because it was just cold, wet and getting dark. We just manned up and lined up at the start in the rain. From the get go, Zeno and I just drilled it and rode away from the bunch while taking a couple other riders. There were maybe 6 riders away with us at the start and we eventually just whittled it away down to 3; the last rider being a Korean. It was a short circuit of just over 3km with a 10euro prem every lap so we shared the prems every lap with each other. Every time we crossed the line the commentator would yell through the loud speaker "Nick Bain the New Zealander" or "Matt Zenovich the New Zealander" or "(some stereotypical Asian name) the Korean wins the prem!" And the crowd would go crazy just yelling our names and telling us to keep going. But with about 20km to go my legs just fell to pieces. I don't think I could hold the pace we were doing for that long and my legs blew up. My average heart rate for 2 hours was over 180bpm so we were working pretty bloody hard. A small group of riders came past me and I couldn't even come close to staying with them. Then the bunch came past and I went straight out the back of them. So that was my race over. Unfortunately Zeno and the Korean got caught by two riders with a lap to go so Zeno finished 4th. But after the race, Zeno was basically crowned Mayor of the town and I was Vice Mayor. Everyone came up congratulating us and would stare at us and you would always hear someone say New Zealand or something. Some would say thanks for making the race and even the Sports Director from a pretty good team came up to us afterwards and offered us to ride for his team next year so there's one team option for next year. Made a bit of money as well for winning some of the prems in the race so all is good. Bit gutted that I couldn't hang on for the whole race because we would have stayed away if I was able to make it to the finish. I guess I'm still just getting back to full fitness after being sick.
Decided to race again on the Saturday cause it was nice day and I didn't really feel like going out for a training ride. Was a pretty big race with lots of riders and spectators. Again, a lot of people staring at us. We made a new friend. This fairly old lady named Dianne who pretty much offered to look after us at all the kermesses we do. She said if we need water during the race then just chuck her our bottles and she'll fill it up and she also gave me a coke after the race and she would cheer us on every lap. But yea at the race the legs were feeling good. After the first lap I managed to get into a break away of about 12 riders. Just after 60km some guy smashed it in the cross wind and we were down to about  7 of us. There were prems every lap and two really strong riders sprinted off to get the prem and decided to keep going. I was on the front in the hard crosswind section and just as I lap off after a hard turn on the front some guy attacks to try and bridge up to the two riders up the road and I couldn't quite make it back on to the group. So I waited for the bunch and there weren't too many left in the bunch, maybe 30 left. I just chilled with that bunch for pretty much the rest of the race. The bunch caught the break but two different riders from the break had already broken away from the break away group and they stayed away for the rest of the race. I ended up 18th out of 96 starters so fairly happy with that result especially after having a hard race yesterday.
So yea that's basically my week. Made a bit of cash to help pay for food so yea all is good. Let's hope everything goes to plan at the tour this coming week.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Antibiotics Me Up

Well it's been a pretty quiet week for me. Sickness took over me and I was forced to just chill out for a bit. Zeno and I decided to go to Brussels on Monday just cause. Didn't really know what to expect with Brussels, haven't really heard much about it and we weren't sure if it was touristy sort of place or if it was more just business, we knew it was big though after driving past it a number of times. When we got off the train it was all just high rise buildings and people in suits so first impressions were it's just a business place but we wandered on in to the center and it got a bit more touristy looking. The place reminded me of London a bit with the tall buildings and they had sight seeing double deckers driving around. Lots of small streets and alley ways packed with people so we just went with the flow and ended up in some big cool square with old buildings covered in gold statues and random gold stuff. The square was packed with tourists which was quite surprising cause I didn't think tourists came to Belgium. When I've been to Ghent and Brugge I never really saw that many tourists. The center of Brussels was like being back home in Howick... Full of Asians. So many Asians lying on the ground trying to get the perfect angle to take a picture.
We carried on walking and came out on some massive walkway where everyone in Brussels seemed to be walking. Was chocker full of people. Black, white, yellow, brown, so many different people, it's a very ethnic city. A lot of bums though. A lot of beggars on the street asking for money and a lot of them were Muslim woman with kids. The walkway was all just phone and clothes stores so we U bolted and walked back towards the square cause there were quite a few restaurants and we were getting hungis as. We had walked down this one small lane that was packed with pizza restaurants so we headed back towards that direction to get some good kai. Sat down at the busy restaurant and you could hear so many different languages, Frenchys, Spanish, American, Pom. Took ages to get served cause the fat as waiter kept flirting with a bunch of French birds but he eventually gave us some menus and we just flicked straight over to the pizza page, no salad for us. It's all in a different language so we didn't really have any idea what was in it but we both decided on a pizza with our rough translation skills. Fat man waiter came back and started talking to us in French and we were like 'ahhh English' and he just goes 'no no no French'. Ok cool douche bag, I'll just have this pizza as I point at the menu. Surely you would know English in a touristy city like this one. Grumpy French fat man. But yea we got our pizzas and they were massive but pretty damn average. It was just basically cheese on a base with a bit of blue cheese blobbed in some places. Was pretty disappointed cause when we walked in we saw some girl with heaps of bacon on her pizza and I wanted that one.
After lunch we walked around a bit more but go bored so we went home. It's a big place so there might have been more to do further away but I thought Brussels was average as. Place was crowded as, heaps of bums, smelt like piss and someone/something dropped a massive turd in the middle of the street and didn't bother to pick it up. I give, what we saw of Brussels, a 3.5/10. That square was pretty cool but on one of the buildings they were doing renovations on the outside and just hung a massive picture of the building over the scaffolding. It was sort of weird cause inside that building was a starbucks and a few cafes so the building mustn't of been too important in history if they put a bloody starbucks in it. Ah well, it was better than sitting inside the house all day bored out of our brains. Can tick Brussels off the list now, only Antwerp to go. I did go to Antwerp early last year but it was covered in snow and places always look different in the snow so I want to go back.
First half of the week was pretty average as I would still always wake up with a killer sore throat, headache, blocked nose and ears but then near the afternoon my throat would become a bit more better. Throat is all good now though but now the snotty nose has kicked in with bright green snot which normally means infection and I still get a headache every now and then. Still destroying the lemon and honey tea.
Was starting to feel a bit better over the last couple days so I decided I would race on Sunday. Wasn't quite feeling it in the race, just had no real oomph in my legs. Managed to pick up 10th which isn't too bad but I think I should have maybe waited and fully recovered from my cold cause I am feeling really average today. Woke up a bit drowsy today and I just felt meh. Have had small headaches throughout the day and am blowing my nose constantly. I was planing on racing again today cause there's no more racing until Friday but I just felt average so I've just had a real easy day today. Really need to shake off this cold asap so I've been whacking back vitamin C like no tomorrow, apples, lemons, vitamin C tablets, everything.
So yea goal of this week is to get rid of this cold, I'm getting real sick of it.
Was looking at news back home and I saw that Auckland had a bit of snow like hail which was pretty choice. Everything was blanketed in white. Heard it was a pretty typical Auckland day with it starting off as a clear blue sky today and then it just turned. Good old Auckland.
Gonna make some ciabatta bread pizzas for dinner tonight so I'm quite looking forward to that. Only 49 cents for a foot long of raw ciabatta bread (you just chuck it in the oven and you're away). Zeno came up with the idea last week and I told him I was gonna one up him and make my pizza even more awesome so I've bought some ham and pineapple to make one Hawaiian pizza and I've bought bacon bits, chorizo sausages and BBQ sauce to make a meat lovers one. I just remembered I forgot mushrooms... Damn. Ah well it's still gonna be heaps better than Zenos.

Yea I'll leave you some pictures of Brussels

Chur

Thanks for reading

Nick

These are all pictures of the buildings in the square

Not My Week

As the title says; it wasn't my week this week. Started Ronde van Vlaams-Brabant tour on a bloody hot Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures scorched up past 30 degrees so it made for some hot hard racing. Tried getting into the early moves but it all came to nothing. For someone reason my legs went to jelly after about 20k. Trying to get into the early break must have really taken it out of me but I still mowed on in the bunch. Legs started to get better at 70k and I managed to get in a small split going up one of the climbs. There was already a break up the road so we were working together to try and catch them but we couldn't. I manged to ride away from the group with 3k to go but was still 2mins behind the winner.
Stage 2 was just shit. Just shit. Punctured in the first 5kms and I just couldn't get the legs fired up for the whole race. If I feel like that at the beginning of races, normally by halfway my legs feel good again but for the whole day I felt like poo. Even on  pretty easy flat sections I was struggling. There was a 1k cobble climb that we did 8 times and the weird thing was I felt pretty awesome up that. I would be at the back of the bunch heading into that climb and then by the top I would be at the front but then on the flats I would be at the back again. Still managed to finish in the bunch.
Stage 3 was bit of a rest day. We only had a 10km Time Trial in the afternoon. I didn't have a TT bike so I knew I wasn't going to get a top result. Still gave it my all and managed to finish 44th or something and about 45 seconds down. Felt like I could've at least finished top 10 if I had a TT rig.
Stage 4 was even worse than stage 2 really. Woke up with a really really sore throat but I didn't let the get to me. Legs were feeling pretty good during warm up and I was still hoping for a good result. Started near the back of the group and once the flag dropped I started making my way up the bunch on the inside. We were hauling ass in the first 2k because it was slight downhill. Making my up to the front and then I hear a loud bang and then a heap of riders started hitting the deck. I couldn't stop in time and plowed into the riders on the ground. I flip over the handle bars and land on my back and head. I got up after a bit and my helmet was hardly on my head anymore. The helmet back strap had detached from the shell some how so must have had bit of an impact. I managed to clip it back on to my helmet and then I picked up my bike and rode a little bit further down the hill where the rest of the bunch was waiting because the race officials stopped the race. When I got down there I wasn't feeling too bad like my head wasn't sore or anything. I was talking to my mate and we were having a laugh because I had big hole in my jersey and I lost half of my racing and food and bent a few pins on my number. But once we started racing again I went all dizzy and disorientated. Just felt really weird and not 100%. I felt really nervous riding in the bunch again as well, everything looked really weird like I was sort of seeing double. I kept riding and went to the back to see if I would get better over time but na. Got to some steep as climb and then at the top was a big crosswind section and I just couldn't do it. My legs turned to crap and I still felt really weird. Tried riding in the car convoy to try and catch up but I just couldn't. It was a really technical course as well which made it harder. But yea, I just couldn't do it. Had to pull the pin after 30k. Was really gutted. Was really desperate to at least win a stage at that tour but it just wasn't my week.
The next day was horrible as well. Woke up stiff as and even more sick. My neck is the worst, all sides of it too; left side, right side, front, back. Ribs, back and abs are all bruised and sore as well. Still not feeling great today. Woke up with a sore throat again and a runny nose and headache so I've just been smashing back lemon and honey tea all day. Just feeling really blah at the moment. Just gonna have a few days off and fully recover before getting back into some serious training.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. Still looking for a first place in a race so I'm not coming home until I get one. That's whats keeping me motivated at the moment.
So yea.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Can't Remember

I'm struggling to remember what we got up to this week. It can't of been anything too exciting otherwise I would remember what I did. Hadn't raced since the tour last week cause I'm building up for Vlaams Brabant which is a 5 stage tour here in Belgium and it starts on Wednesday so looking forward to that. So yea, all I've done this week is ride and recovered really.
We did have a bbq on Thursday night because it was a stunner day. It's been bloody hot this week so we decided we needed to have a good old traditional NZ barby, too bad Andrew doesn't have a proper bbq. He did have this contraption that he said he made when he was 13 (so it's ancient) and it was basically a fire pit with legs and a grill. I think he stole the grilling plates from the sewer drains that you see on the side of the road cause this thing was pretty DIY but it did the trick. Had to get a fire going and then chucked some coal in then waited for the fire to die down and the coal to do its thing. Sipped back a few cold ones and cooked some sausys and paddies and kebabs. Was some good kai. Then we just chilled outside and played cards.
The weather this week has been stunner but maybe a little too stunner. It's been so hot and pretty impossible to sleep, especially where I'm sleeping which is upstairs. It got up to 33 degrees last week and we all couldn't stop sweating. Like last year, if you open the door and windows then you just get infested with flies. They're all splattered on the window at the moment. Mosquitoes have been a pain as well. They always fly through the big window in the room next to mine and come into my room cause I have no door. So I'm covered in mozzy bites at the moment. I can hear them as well and at night when I hear them I turn my light on on my phone and try to squash them when they land but they always land on the wall to my left or the roof and I can't whack the left wall or roof because it's hollow and I'll just end up waking everyone in the house and probably put a whole in it so I can't win. So whenever I hear them I just grab my pillow and start waving that in the air and that normally scares them off for a bit. Bloody mozzies.
There's been a couple thunderstorms at night too. The best one was on Saturday night. Every second you would see a flash of lightning somewhere. It was flashing every direction you looked. Some got bloody close cause after a second there would be a loud rumble and bang of thunder. Best thunderstorm I've ever seen by far. Lasted a good 2 and a bit hours I reckon. We just turned all the lights off in the house and watched it all happen. There's a crane just across the road so we were waiting and praying that the lightning would strike that. Who needs TV and computers when you have nature.
So yea that's pretty much it. Next weeks blog will be a bit more entertaining and longer and that will be on Monday. Hopefully go good at Brabant this week and come away with something primo.

Sweet, that's all.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Tour Time

Sorry for the late blog. We got back from France at 1.30am on Tuesday and we were out and about all day yesterday and then I had to cook up some kai so I didn't really have too much time to write a blog but now I'm pretty fresh and got time on my hands. But yea the start of the week was crappy as, pouring with rain all day and night, bit like home. Went for a 4.5 hour ride on Monday and it rained for 4.5 hours, then rained Tuesday, then rained Wednesday. After our ride on Wednesday, 4 of us went up to Roselare which is a fairly big town about 10km away and found a cafe that makes flat whites!!! It's a really cool cafe that's sort of hidden away and the guy who owns it makes some really awesome different coffees. First ordered a flat white and had a look at the menu again and there was a coffee called 'Cookie' so I thought I'd give that one a crack. Couldn't understand what was in it cause it was all written in Flemish in the menu but I was pretty certain that it would involve a cookie or something. It was like a coffee chocolate syrup at the bottom with milk, cream and cookie crumbles on top with caramel sauce. Sooooo good! So we were back there today and got another good old flat white and a berry crumble pie. Ka Pie. 

Ah yea the tour. The tour didn't go too badly I guess. Stayed up right which is a bonus considering the conditions on the second day. First stage was 163km of rolling short climbs which suited me alright. There was a sprint challenge at 19km (which is basically like a sprint prem like in the kermesses but they have a few of them through out the course and you win prizes) and then at 24km there was a KOM sprint (which stands for King Of the Mountain and if you cross the line first you win 6 points, then 4 points for 2nd, then 1 or 2 points for 3rd then whoever has the most points after the stage wins the Polka Dot jersey) so after the sprint challenge I decided to counter attack and went off the front solo for 5km and won the KOM sprint so I had 6 points in the bank. Not long after that a big break of about 25 riders got away, including Zeno, so I just had to sit in the bunch for most of the day because we had a man up the road. There were two more KOM's throughout the course and one rider in the break won both of them so he had 12 points and I only had 6 so I was sitting in second for that. The break stayed away and Zeno picked up 10th which is a good result for him. We were sitting about 30 seconds behind the winner and I rolled in about 58th place I think. 

Next day started off with a 12.8km Time Trial in the morning and then a 90km road race in the afternoon. Pissed with rain from morning till night. I borrowed one of the boys time trial bikes for the TT. I had a quick ride on it in the car park the night before and it seemed alright but once I started my warm up I knew it was way too small. The seat wasn't quite high enough and the seat was too far forward and the stem was too small so I was smashing my knees on my elbows. I had to sit right on the back of the seat  which wasn't too comfortable but didn't do too badly. I managed to catch my minute man after 8km and ended up around 20th place. I was 30 secs off the winner so I reckon I would've been up there if I had my own TT rig and I was also being extra careful round the corners cause it wasn't my bike and it was pissing with rain. Afternoon stage, still raining. My goal for that race was to not die. I just sat right up the front out of trouble for the whole race. Felt really good too and I was following a couple moves in the first few km of the race. There was one of those sprint challenges at around 6km so I attacked about a km before that and won that. I turned around and saw I had bit of a gap so I put my head down and kept drilling it because there was a KOM in 5km. Managed to stay away and won that but the KOM leader got 2nd so I had 12 points and he now had 16 points. That was the only KOM for the day so couldn't do too much more but stay out of trouble and that's just what I did. After the race I had to go up on the stage to collect my prize for winning the sprint challenge. Won an iPad mini and a tee. The t-shirt was too big so we used it as an oil rag but the iPad could come in handy. I'm just going to sell it cause I've already got an iPad. 

Last stage was a nice day and it was Bastille day so all the Frenchys were out in support. It was 153km of rolling and flat sections with lots of cross winds. I really wanted to get into a break that day so I could win all the KOM points on the course, there were 3 KOMs. Got into a small move fairly early and we had a small gap with about 7 riders but everyone stopped working so I attacked them and rode solo for a bit to see if anyone would come with me. There was a sprint challenge about 3km out from where I attacked so I put my head down to try and win another one of them. Crossed the line first again so picked up another prize. After I crossed the line I turned around and saw the bunch wasn't too far behind so I sat up and waited for them but it was actually a group of about 12 riders who got away. We rode hard in the crosswind section but then everyone just stopped working again which was frustrating. A couple people were still riding hard so I jumped on to them and we rolled through a bit but then for some reason the team that had the yellow jersey just sat on the front and mowed us down for no reason. Normally in tours, the team that has the yellow jersey will let a break go and then slowly bring it back near the end of the race. They do this because it's a lot easier to slowly bring back one break than to chase down every single attack in the race. Not long after being in the bunch another big attack went and I sat there watching them go thinking they will surely pull that back straight away. I would have tried to go with that break but I thought it would be a waste of energy because I was already pretty tired after my big effort before and I thought that it would be pulled back pretty quickly like what happened to the break I was in just before but nope, they stayed away for the whole race. Bugger. Just sat in the bunch for most of the race after that and let all the big teams try chase down the break but they couldn't... Break finished 32 secs ahead of us and I rolled in 31st. I was quite angry for most of the ride because I missed the break but to make it worse, Andrew came up to me after the race and said I had won a jersey for 60km of the race. That sprint challenge was actually a points sprint for the green jersey and there was a jersey for the person who had the most combined points in the KOM sprints and the Points sprint. So when I won that sprint it put me in the lead for the Pink Combination Jersey. Bugger. If I had known I was in the lead I would have got the team and I to help bring that break back ASAP because someone in that break won the Pink Jersey. Really gutted. We put tape at the beginning of each stage and write when each sprint competition is but we didn't write what each sprint was like whether it was a KOM or a sprint Challenge and I thought the first sprint was a sprint challenge. 

Still ended up 20th overall and came away with an iPad so not all too bad I guess. Would've done so much better if I had gotten into the break on the last day though. Ah well, at least I know I'm in good form and I'll give it another good crack in the upcoming tours. It was a pretty awesome atmosphere too with heaps of Frenchys coming out in support and we had some pretty good banter within the team.

That's all from me now. I'll chuck up a couple pics below

Team presentation on the 1st stage

Winning my iPad with the podium girls

There was a funny as band that followed the whole tour

Team presentation stage 4

The town we started stage 4 in

Thanks for reading

Nick

Wet n Wild Cobble Mania

Well it's pouring with rain and fairly cold outside so today I've just chilled out, cleaned up the house and I'm currently watching the Tour de France. Had a big race yesterday at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad which is a pretty big UCI amateur race. It was in the same region as the race I did last Wednesday in Zottegem so lots of cobbles and lots of steep punchy climbs. It was a rainy cold day, bit like today, so from the get go it was all pretty sketchy. My legs felt terrible for the first hour or so and I had really bad positioning because I basically couldn't move up cause my legs just wouldn't let me. Got caught up in a small crash and hit the deck but got up straight away fairly unscathed. Just a wittle scwatch on my ankle. After doing a few cobble sections I think all the cob webs got rattled out of my legs, was feeling a lot better. But because of my poor positioning I missed the main split so a bunch of us had to ride pretty hard to catch back up. Finally made it back to the main bunch and at this point there was only about 80 odd riders left out of the 190 starters and we were only halfway through the 170km course. Going up one of the climbs I just didn't have the legs to follow another big split so I rolled around the second group for most of the remaining race. On the last lap of the finishing circuit I rode away with a couple other riders from the remaining group of about 30 riders and ended up 42nd out of the 69 finishers. Was definitely up there as the hardest race I've done, had to really dig deep in the last 10k when I rode away from the bunch with those couple other guys. Quite a short run down of the race but that was pretty much it. Bit of carnage but I managed to miss most of it except for that one crash. Quite a few Kiwi boys were racing it too like Zeno, Tom Vessey, Hamish Schreurs and a few others. They all had a bit of bad luck with getting caught up behind crashes or punctures or broken equipment. Had a good sleep last night though.
Honestly didn't do too much exciting this week. Just been riding a bit and gearing up for the Tour des 2 Sevres in France next Friday. 3 day tour so hopefully I go good in this one, will be nice to get a good result.
But yea just trying to think of something to write but I got nothing.
So I guess that's it.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Savoie Photos

Managed to get the photos up

Top of Col du Madeline

Top of Col du Madeline

Cooling down in a man made lake that uses glacier water

Team at the lake

Pretty self explanatory

View from Col du Telegraph

Picture of the 1957 Tour de France going up the Telegraph

Can't remember the name of this but it was gloomy as

View from the deck from where we stayed the first few nights of being in Savoie

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc again

Out of the race so I climbed a hill for training

Same hill, different angle

Same hill, different angle + cars and person

Some where in France

Relaxed Week

As the title says, it's been a relaxing week, well, the second half of the week has been relaxing so not too much to write about this week.
Had another Interclub on Wednesday out by Zottegem. I honestly wasn't feeling too motivated for this race. I just played it quite conservatively and sat in the bunch for pretty much the hole race. Only touched the wind maybe 4 - 5 times. I just wanted to go home pretty much and have a couple beers but I rode on. The course we did is used in Tour of Flanders which is the biggest race in Belgium so there's quite a few hard cobble sections and climbs. We did one big lap of about 115k and then had to do 4 laps of a 15km circuit. The finishing circuit was by far the hardest. It had 3 cobble sections, one section being about 1.5 - 2km long I think, and one quite hard steep climb which was directly after the long cobble section. They were some serious cobbles. My fingers were real stiff for about 2 days afterwards and I needed to click them every 30mins or so to relieve the pressure otherwise they would start to ache. Felt like I had arthritis in my fingers. Even though I still wasn't feeling motivated and was just desperate to get a beer in me I rode on and managed to finish I think 76th out of 86 finishes. 190 starters and only 86 finishers... Tough race. I was the only one to finish out of the team but it was pretty stink for 3 of the other riders from the team who were racing because they had just finished Savoie a few days before so they would've been pretty knackered. Zeno and I had bought a 8 pack of Leffe's the day before so as soon as I walked through the door we both cracked open a Leffe. Had a quick shower, hopped on to the towny bikes and rode down to the Frituur to get some fatty food. I finally cracked, I hadn't had frits since I've been here but that's all I felt like. Bought a beer while we waited for our food and knocked it back with dinner. Rode back home, cracked another Leffe open, invited Andrew over for a beer and just chilled. Was pretty nice just having everything that you've wanted for ages likes frits and beer instead of healthy food.
Went for a nice easy ride the next day and then Zeno and I went into Kortrijk for a coffee and then went to the movies afterwards. Got more fatty food at the movies and just enjoyed it really. Saw 22 Jump Street and it was crack up.
Haven't really felt too motivated this week so I decided to have a couple days off riding, do the ol' head and soul some good. It's Monday tomorrow so fresh day, fresh week, fresh start. Got another Tour that I'm probably doing coming up in the next couple weeks so I'll be gearing up for that. Then after that Zeno and I might head off somewhere for a couple days just to get out of the house and have a proper break.
Finally got my computer up and running. The charger snapped in half and a couple days before I went to Savoie I bought a new one. Turns out it didn't fit my computer because the metal bit that charges it wasn't long enough to reach the other metal charger thing in my computer. So I went off to Savoie and thought I would deal with it later. Came home and checked the receipt and it said it had to be returned 15 days after purchase and the day I got home from Savoie was 15 days after I bought it. The closest store was Ghent, where I got it from, and it was coming up to the end of the day so I couldn't return it anymore. 50 euro down the plugger... Or so I thought. Went all Kiwi ingenuity on it and grabbed a knife and carved the plastic back because that's what was stopping the charger from going into the charger hole in the computer. So carved that back enough for the metal bit to touch the other metal bit in my computer. Doesn't fit in there perfectly so a bit of red electric tape will hold it in there nicely. So yea now it works. Good thing is that the charger head can detach from the cable so I can just leave the head taped in the charger hole. O for awesome.
I would chuck up those photos from Savoie but my computer is still being a dick and it's not recognising my phone so I can't get the photos. It's been doing it for ages and I can't figure out why. It does the same thing with my iPod too which is really annoying because I have to listen to the same old music now.
But yea, that's pretty much it. Not too much else to write about. Guess that's it.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Not Quite How I Wanted It To Go

Back to flat boring Belgium now. Left the hilly alps of France Sunday night in a pretty unhappy and gutted mood and arrived home at 2.30am Monday so that's why I'm doing my blog now cause I was pretty tired yesterday. Race didn't quite go to plan. But yea, when I last wrote my blog we had just finished our hard training and we were just beginning to relax and get ready for the tour which would have been about 3 days out. I was feeling really good in the first few days of riding in the alps and was quite excited because I thought I could do alright in this tour but I was feeling pretty knackered on our recovery rides but I didn't let the deter me too much and just thought I should be fully recovered by the time we start the tour. The day of the first stage my legs weren't feeling too bad but not 100%. Still gave it 100% though. Tried getting in the early break with 3 other guys but that got mowed down pretty quick and we were giving it some serious jandal to get away. I gave it a couple more goes but nothing stuck. After that I thought this is gonna be hard so I'm just going to chill in the bunch for a bit and recover for the hills cause it doesn't seem like a break is going to stay away. We started climbing up one of the first hills that was long and dead straight and holy moly we cracked up that thing quick. Had to dig deep just to hold the wheel in front me. I'm not entirely sure what happened next because I wasn't at the front of the bunch but I think a group got away going up that climb because once we got to the top there weren't a lot of people left. A few of my teammates got into a move to try and bridge across to the split that got away, which I think had split apart again now, so I waited for them to go up the road and then I attacked the remaining bunch and rode back up to my teammates to catch up to the split. Kinda hard and confusing to write about but yea I think that's what kind of happened. But yea, there was another smallish group ahead of us so I rode off the front and took one other teammate with me to catch up to them. We caught up to them at the bottom of the first real big climb which was 8km long. We flew past a couple riders that dropped off from that bunch and started riding with the few remaining riders left in that bunch. One of my teammates was already in that bunch so there were 3 of us out of the other 4 riders. 7 of us were rolling through and we caught up to another big bunch that was ahead of us. This race is such a hard race and there were small groups of riders everywhere so you would slowly start picking up more and more riders that had dropped off from a group in front of you. Yea, we were just rolling through fine and then to finish the stage we had to ride up the Col du Télégraphe for 10km and then turn off and do another 2.5ish km up hill. I couldn't hang on to the bunch for too long when we started to climb up the hill cause I was pretty rooted. Had had a pretty decent day with a lot of attacking and sometimes unnecessary work so I was out of gas and slowly made my way up the hill. I managed to finish with 3 other guys but we were 19 minutes down on the winners. 19 minutes!!! The guys who finished top 10 were riding back down the hill in jackets and leg warmers when were still bloody racing! This was going to be a lot harder than I thought. There were a lot of feeder teams which are basically professional teams but for younger riders like there was Katusha which is a Russian pro team, Lotto Bellisol which is Belgian, Belkin which is Dutch and Euskadi who are Spanish and also the French National team so there was some serious talent and fire power at this tour. I was pretty damn smashed after the first stage but was keen to get going tomorrow.
Hans had a chat to us the next morning and said there was a pretty good chance that they will let a break go because there is now someone in the yellow jersey, it was a smelly Russian who looked anorexic, and they will control the race so he wanted us to be up in the break. I was real eager to get into that break because the course map looked pretty flat for the first 50km and then after that it was an uphill battle so I wanted to get a head start up those hills. I think I tried a little too hard to get into a break and so did everyone else. Every man and his dog wanted to get into the break to get a head start so nothing was sticking. Tried desperately to get away and even ramped up the speed to 73kph on a slight downhill to get away but na. Felt like I was doing a bloody Belgy Kermesse cause I was being chased down every time. Of course, a break finally got away and I nor any of my teammates were in it. But yea tried way too hard to get into a break and it wasn't completely flat for the first 50k so I was feeling it pretty early. There were some bloody steep climbs in that first 50k too so the map lied... I started to feel quite hungry early on in the race so I munched down some food to try and recover for the first hill that was coming up. Was really suffering up the first climb which was about 5k long and just dropped off from the bunch, along with quite a few other people, with about 2k to the top. Now we had a real tricky and technical descent to the bottom. A lot of crashes. On the side of the road it was a steep grassy hill so you would see riders climbing back up the road with their bikes on their backs cause the took a corner a little too hot. Saw one bike lying on the side of the road but no rider to be seen, must've rolled down the hill. There was a corner that was like a Y intersection and the small group I was riding with didn't know what way to go, then some old man started pointing left and left was like a sharp as turn so we all had to slam the anchors down but I couldn't quite stop in time to be able to turn safely and I nearly hit the barrier in front of me but I managed to slow down enough before the barrier to turn away from it. Had to fist it to try catch back up and took a few risks in the process. Came round a corner pretty damn hot and there was some kid who had binned it before me just climbing back up the hill on to the road. He saw me coming round the corner and knew I was coming in hot. I was heading straight for him and he knew it too, could see it in his face. Just managed to stay on the tarmac though and kept riding. Was bloody close though. Got to the bottom of the climb where it was flat and I cracked big time. Hunger really caught up to me. Could hardly stay on the bunch I was in and then dropped. Andrew drove past in the car and I asked if he had any food in the car, he didn't... No food what so ever and that's all I needed. You can't drive a car without fuel and it's the same with riding a bike. I had nothing in me. Kept going anyway and reached the bottom of the next big climb. Was climbing that for about 30 odd minutes and getting slower and slower. Then came past a sign saying 10km to the top. I cried a little bit. I was so dead and wanted to get off this mountain and get some food in me but kept going. Not long after that the 'Broom Wagon' came past which is the last car in the race that sweeps up the last remaining riders that want to give up because they are never going to make time cut. They have time cut at Tour races so you can't just slowly make your way to the finish. You have to finish within a certain time of the first finisher and I was never going to make that so I hoped in the broom wagon and that was it. I was absolutely gutted because I just wanted to be able to finish this race. It's the hardest amateur race in Europe and to be able to say I finished it would be awesome.
Things I learnt:
Always take food for before the race. I was starting to get hungry before we started but I had no food on me.
In some races I should just ride to survive. I wasted a lot of energy trying to attack and get away from the bunch and I would just be shut down pretty quick. It was a waste of energy doing that. That's just the way I race though because I like to attack and get into a break but I do just need to be more patient and choose the right time to attack so I won't be caught 2km later. Especially at this race because there are clearly riders who are much better than me, a lot of them are going pro next year, so I should've just ridden to survive.
I shouldn't ride super hard a week out from a big tour. I was a little too eager and excited when I was riding some of these alps. I was flying up some of these hills cause I was feeling so good but I think I rode a little too hard cause I was feeling pretty smashed with a couple days before the tour and didn't feel 100% during the race.
Still enjoyed my time in France though. Saw some pretty amazing things that nature has to offer. Definitely have to go back in the winter when it's snowing and go skiing. I'll chuck some pictures up when my laptop is working again.
But yea, got an Interclub race tomorrow so hopefully I go good in that then don't have too much racing for 2 weeks until the next tour which I'm hopefully doing.

Yea that's pretty much it from me I guess.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Training To Be A Mountain Goat

Well this week has been a pretty awesome week. Got my first podium at a kermesse on Monday and now I'm chilling in the French Alps, can't get much better than this. Could be a long read because a lot has happened this week.
Well, Monday we decided to ride out and do a kermesse. Wasn't sure how I would do because I had raced the Saturday before and creeped through that and felt like poo on Sunday when I did a slow easy ride so I wasn't expecting much from myself. Riding out there was pretty slow and painful but by the time we arrived the legs were feeling alright. The course was pretty exposed and had a long uphill drag to the finish and the hill kept going past the finish. There were Sprint Prems every lap which means if you cross the line first each lap you win money. Wasn't sure how the legs were feeling so I thought I would just go for the Prems and make some easy cash. Took out the first sprint pretty easily then the second sprint, cha ching $$$ money in the bank. Legs were feeling pretty good at this stage so I attacked solo about half way through the race and picked up another Prem $$$. Two riders bridged up to me and we lapped it out for about 5 laps. We shared the Prems so one guy would win the Prem and then next lap someone else will win the Prem. We got caught before I could get my 4th Prem but I already had three so I wasn't complaining. It then started to bucket down and there was a bit of thunder and lightning too. Should've packed my gumboots so I wouldn't get zapped. When the rain came I knew it was time to go. Ryan Wills, who was racing for the Terra team last year, rode away from the bunch and another guy was chasing him by himself so I thought now it's time for me to go. Bridged up to them and we rode together for about 4 laps, again sharing the Prems so I picked up one more Prem $$$. With 1.5 laps to go, Ryan broke his spoke on the downhill so that was his race over and so it was just me and this other rider who was a Pom. I was feeling fairly cooked near the end because I had done a lot of work going for the Prems. It came down to a sprint between me and the Pom but he was too good for me at the end. There weren't a lot of riders racing so it wasn't that hard of a race but I'll still take 2nd. Looks good on the CV. 85 euro in the bank for 2nd place and 50 euro for my 4 Prems so I was pretty damn happy.
I think I deserve a Screw It, YOLO day so Zeno and I caught the train up to Ghent the next day. It was a pretty crappy day with a lot of drizzling rain so we just walked around and checked out the sites and walked around inside shops and churches. Went to the good coffee place there that do flat whites but it was really average. Flat whites shouldn't be room temperature! Gutted. Ah well, we'll head back there when that person who made the coffee isn't working. Went to a waffle cafe and smashed back a waffle with banana, ice cream and chocolate sauce. Ka Pai it was tasty. Finished off the day in Pizza Hut cause Zeno and I craved pizza. We walked around for ages trying to find a pizza place and we found one right next to the Flat White Cafe but we couldn't find the door. There was someone in the restaurant but there was no door. There was a big window where you could see inside but couldn't find the bloody door! We walked around the block thinking there would be a secret alley way or something that would take us to the door but na, just walked in a big square so screw it, we go to Pizza Hut!
So yea, Thursday was the day we made the long 9 hour trip down to the Alps. It was a bloody toasty day sitting around 28 - 29 degrees outside but felt like 35 degrees in the car. Air Con was useless and when you travel at 130kph, it's too loud to have the windows down. Finally arrived at the chateau we are staying at which is kind of part of a ski field at over 1000m altitude. The next day it was another scorcher day getting up to 33 degrees. Decided to ride the Col de Madeline which is a famous climb that is 19km of up hill and at the top is 2000m in altitude. What a view at the top! Now the fun times of descending down! To get back to the chateau we have to climb 9km up the Col du Glandon which was bloody hot. But just past the chateau is a small park that has a small man made lake that is full of fresh glacier water that is constantly being sprayed in by a hose. Was the prefect place to cool down. It was freezing cold in the middle where it was deep but it was nice and warm in the shallow. The water was so clear as well! Was really nice just chilling in the sun, surrounded by mountains. Was quite weird going for a swim when you can see mountains with snow on it.
Oh yea should probably mention that I am racing Tour des Pays Savoie which is the 4 day tour here in the alps. I was originally just coming here to ride the hills and get out of the house because I didn't think I would do too good up the alps but I seem to be coping alright.
Saturday was a very big day with a total of 6 hours of riding. We did the Col du télégraphe which is 12km long and reaches 1,566 m altitude. From the top of the télégraphe, you ride 5km down hill into the ski town of Valloire and from there it's 17km to the top of the Col du Galivier which reaches 2,645m altitude. The road to the top had only been opened for 2 weeks or so so there was still a bit of snow around. Started to rain 3km from the top but we decided to carry on because it's a very famous climb as well and you can't just turn around when you had ridden all that way. Rain turned to sleet with 2km to go but we still carried on. Got to the top and rode straight back down. No time for a photo otherwise we would die of hyperthermia. Gets bloody cold up there especially when your soaking wet. About half way down, the road is pretty straight so you can really give it some curry and it was a big headwind too so we got blown dry by the time we reached Valloire again. Easy 5km to the top of the télégraphe and then the fun times of going down. The roads are so much nicer here than New Zealand and Belgium so you can really fist it in the downhill. We weren't taking too many risks though around the corners because we don't want to die before the Tour.
Weather was fairly average today. Had to do our ride fairly early to beat the rain. Legs were still feeling pretty good though. We did the Col du Chaussy which is 15km long and reaches 1,533m altitude. The Chaussy is most famous for its 17 switchbacks in the first 3km. About halfway up there is a massive cliff on the right with an awesome view. Didn't get a chance to get a picture though cause we were really hitting it on the downhill. After that we climbed up the Col de la Croix des Fer which is 28km long and reaches 2,067m altitude. The first half of the climb was pretty hard and steep but after that it was downhill and fairly flat but then after that section it was a hard uphill to the top. Freezing cold descent home with a bit of rain. Three fairly hard days now so easy bakery ride tomorrow. Supposed to be nice weather again too because it's pouring with rain at the moment.
I'll wrap it up now cause this has been a long one.
My blog next week will be delayed because we finish the Tour on Sunday and I'm sure I'll be wrecked. So next blog will probably be New Zealand Tuesday.
I'll try upload some pictures but I don't know if it will work because I'm on my iPad and the pictures are on my phone so not sure if it will work but I'll give it a crack.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Hoping Summer Is Here To Stay

Summer time

Riding wise it has been a pretty average week but it's been pretty good fun. Monday was a really nice day and the sun was out so Zeno and I decided to go down to Kortrijk in the morning for the Kortrijk markets and I was hoping that the coffee truck lady was still there from last year so that we could grab a coffee. Got to the centre where the markets were last year and it was completely empty. I figured they didn't have the Kortrijk markets on Monday morning anymore so we just decided to wander round town for a bit and try find a nice coffee shop. While looking for a place for a coffee we stumbled across the market, they just decided to move. We walked through it all but couldn't find the coffee lady and her truck. It was mainly tacky clothes and cheap sunglasses. Could only find one pastry truck and it didn't even look that good. We decided to keep walking round and we indeed up in the mall and had a look around there but there was nothing really. Then Zeno said should we just go to Brugge. Zeno said that we could apparently get train tickets for 6euro because we are under 25. It was a nice day so why not. Got to the train station still laughing about our last minute decision and there was a train that left for Brugge in 5 mins, perfect! Got on the train. We're off to Brugge. Decided to have a screw it day and not ride and eat heaps of food. First thing we did when we got to Brugge is got a fresh waffle with strawberries on top. That was good under the hot sun. She was busy in Brugge as well for a Monday afternoon. Next thing on the list to do in Brugge; smash back some chocolate. Went to a chocolate shop and bought 16 bite size pieces of flavoured chocolate to share. (We weren't going that hard on our 'screw it, YOLO', day to eat 16 pieces of chocolate.) Got some coffee chocolates, hazelnut, orange, lemon, mousse and a few other ones. Bloody good. Had bit more of a wander around and decided to head back to a cafe that we saw that had a barrister. Grabbed a pretty average coffee and a sandwich there. It was a bakery cafe which was real dangerous for us because they had some pretty choice looking stuff in there. Banoffee pie! Drooooooool. I resisted though and got out of there ASAP. Did a bit more walking and sightseeing then went to restaurant cafe and ordered a beer with Fritz. No better way to finish off a 'screw it, YOLO' day than with a Leffe and Fritz.  After that we hoped back on the train for Kortrijk. On the way home we stopped at the other Kortrijk mall cause Zeno wanted to get a backpack so we went to Sports Direct which is basically rebel sport but tackier and at the front counter they had playing cards for 70 odd cents. Now we are having family games of cards at night when the internet dies on us. Wifi is really shitty here and it turns off randomly and you have to fiddle with the modem to get it going again and that lives in Andrew's house and a lot of the time he's not home. I normally stay on my computer downstairs while some of the guys go up stairs then you see the internet is down on your computer so we just yell out "family game of cards!" And everyone comes down and we normally play cards until it's 'muesli time'. Everyone has muesli before we go to bed cause we hungry. But yea we've had some pretty good games of Scum and Spoons and we played some other random card game the other night. One day we'll learn how to play poker and then were gonna bet our waffles. Weather was real average from Tuesday till Thursday with rain and thunderstorms and cold. Friday was really nice so I decided to my Power test that I had to do for my coach. I recently go a Power Meter which measures how much power you are producing when you pedal and it measures it out in Watts. They are really handy to have cause you can really monitor on how your training is going and to see how hard your are riding and how hard you have to ride. So I had to do a test so we know how many Watts I should be training at because everyone trains at different Watts. I had to do a fun 1 hour time trial and I was pretty wrecked afterwards. Had to dig deep in the last 20 mins. Grabbed a coffee in Kortrijk on the way home and sat in the sun for about 45mins. Didn't want to leave, was so nice chilling in the sun. That night Andrew got all of us out and we chucked the rugby ball around in the backyard. We'll have a match soon.  Saturday was a bloody hot day and we decided to go out and race in it. It wasn't too bad to race in cause there was a coolish wind blowing but it was really dry and I ran out of water fairly quick. I was feeling alright just rolling around in the bunch but then I tried to follow a move that went up the road and had to bridge the gap, that was hard. Thats when I realised my legs felt terrible. Felt like I had nothing in them and that was pretty much my day done. We got pulled out of the race with about 35km to go because the break got too far ahead. A lot of people dropped out early cause of the heat i think because it wasn't that hard of the race, I was still just wrecked from my test that I did the day before. Some of the boys are racing today as well but I was still feeling pretty smashed so I decided to go for an old spin by myself, wasn't feeling it today.
But I'm off to France this week. There's a big tour up in the alps. It's called Tour des Pays de Savoie and it's a climbers race. I'm not sure if I'm doing the race but I'm still going to go down there because it's a very cycling famous part of France with climbs like Alpe d'huez and I want to ride some of those famous climbs. I also just want to get out of the house and see somewhere new. I'll be down there for about 2 weeks and its a 9 hour drive so it's a long bloody way. I'll find out if I'm doing it in the next couple days i guess cause we leave Thursday.
But yea thats pretty much it from me. Laptop charger is broken so that's pretty shit, can't use my laptop at the moment. The charger end just snapped right off. Heard the All Blacks just beat England cheers to Conrad for that late try. Got no wifi at the moment and I'm writing this in the sun on my iPad. I'm writing this in my notes on my iPad and I was going to copy and paste it on to my blog when the internet comes back on so hopefully I can remember my password for my blog cause on my computer I'm always logged in to my blog site.
But yea that's all folks.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Aw Yeah Part 2

Well today is technically the first day of summer so gutted to everyone back home cause that means it's first day of winter for you guys. Doesn't exactly feel like summer right now but it's been a bit warmer here than back home. Had another pretty big week on the ol' two wheeled beast.

Had my first Interclub race on Thursday in France. Grand Prix des Hauts de France Douchy was a 178km race where we did about 2 laps of a big circuit including a 1.7km cobble section but we were told it was only 700 meters of cobbles, yea right, another 2 laps of a slightly smaller circuit that just cuts out the cobble section and then about 8 - 10 laps of a small circuit. It was something like that anyway; we went round in circles. We arrived the day before and we rolled up to the motel we were staying at and the sign out front said Ibis and I thought 'Oh yea it's an Ibis, shouldn't be too bad' but then I looked a little closer and it was an 'Ibis budget'. 'Budget' was written in small for a good reason. Drove down the drive and the place looked like a nuke town or something you see in a zombie movie. I wasn't really surprised we were staying in a place like this to be honest. The outside was made of that real crappy plaster stuff that would rot even if you just sneezed on it. Took us about 5 mins to punch in the code to unlock the door. The buttons were useless and you had to push down the number '1' real hard for it to work properly and I was the only one that could do it because my roommate, Josh, just didn't have the magic touch like I do and he could never open the door without me. But the inside of the motel was actually pretty nice. It was pretty clean and looked pretty new so we were pretty happy. Went down to the hotel restaurant that was hosting some of the teams for dinner and they gave us a nice heap full of plain pasta and chicken yummmmmm. Classic Frenchys. Had to share a tiny bowl of sauce between 6 guys so we just chucked our pasta into bread rolls to get some extra carbs in us. They gave us some apple pies for dessert but who ever cut them clearly couldn't judge size because some people got a massive slab of pie and others, like me, got a slither so I took a gamble and quickly gave my tiny piece to someone that didn't have any yet and waited for the last couple of plates to be given out. Yea I'm definitely not going to the casino this week because that gamble back fired. Got an even smaller piece than what I had before. Ah well getting lean. Before we started that race we had a quick team briefing and all that Hans really wanted us to do is be seen. There were quite a few big top teams racing and he wanted us to be up next to them in the spotlight so he wanted us to be up in the breaks or going off the front. I had a few big cracks off the front and tried to get a break going fairly early. I was doing quite a bit of work just to be seen and apparently they were talking about me and the team quite a lot on race radio so Hans was quite happy. 30km in was the "700m" cobble section, they missed out the 1, and she was a tough one. 1700m of ouch. I had bad positioning leading up to it and I was sitting mid pack heading into it the first time. There was a crash in front me and I had to swerve to the left and got caught in some mud so I had to unclip and it's bloody hard to start riding again on cobbles. I just waited for the bunch behind and we eventually caught back up to the main 50 odd riders that split off the front. Not long after we caught back on a big group rode off the front and Liam, one of my teammates, was up in that split and the big team Lotto-Belisol U23 were on the front chasing so I just chilled in the bunch and tried saving myself for later. We came on to the small circuit and we still hadn't quite caught the front group but we were fairly close but with about 45 mins of riding to go I started to crack a bit and started cramping. My legs were feeling pretty good just cruising in the bunch but trying to stand up and sprint out of the corners was hard cause I would just to cramp. I had to really dig deep mentally and physically to just finish. Manage to cross the line 61st out of about 180 riders and there was only 75ish finishes so that shows how tough the race was. Pretty gutted with the cramp. Think I should've drank a bit more. But yea I think Hans was happy with us and I'm pretty happy to finish the race.

The house is now full. 6 guys living here now so she's a tight squeeze. Irish guy here now. We all get along so it's not too bad. Found the rugby ball in the garage that we bought last year so now we can have the ANZAC's vs The British Lions test match in the backyard. Zeno and I have been chucking it round the last couple of days. Took Zeno out to Ypres for a coffee yesterday and saw the Menin Gate. Still humbling to see that big arch with all the names written on it. It was a pretty crappy ride though cause I got two punctures and Zeno got a puncture too. I'll probably take Zeno out to the Kortrijk markets tomorrow morning and grab a coffee. Hopefully the coffee truck that me and Taylor went to last year still comes to the market. (Zeno is the other Kiwi guy by the way) I was talking to Taylor on Facebook the other day and he asked me if I've been smashing back Frits but I haven't touched one yet. I ride past the Frituur nearly everyday and still haven't had any. He said he respects my self control. I'm weighing 69kg which is the lightest of weighed in a long time. I don't know if the scale is really generous or if I'm actually weighing 69kg but I want to try and keep the same weight. 

Anyway that's pretty much it. Pretty tired today so yea.

Thanks for reading

Nick