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