Still Coughing Up Dirt From Flanders

This week feels like it's gone pretty fast but it kinda hasn't. Feels like I've been over here for ages but it's only 3 weeks today. It's been a pretty cruisey week, windy but cruisey. Not too much has really happened to be honest, it's been pretty boring and quiet as I have no roommates yet. I'm hoping to have one soon cause it's starting to get fairly lonely as Andrew isn't always home as he has to work and do other things so I'm just trying to keep busy with things to keep myself occupied. There aren't a heap of kermesses on at the moment as it's the beginning of the season. There's really only one race a week around my area that I can go race, the other races are too far away.
The weather is slowly starting to get warmer and the sun is starting to come out more often, really only had one maybe two average days last week so I'm happy. It's been nice to finish some of my rides at the cafe and sitting outside in the warm sun, the wind is pretty cold but the cafe is fairly sheltered so you get some pretty sweet vitamin D in ya.
Been cooking up some pretty mean feeds as well. I haven't really had to cook for just myself before, I'm used to cooking for two or more so I'm always over dosing on dinner cause I cooked too much. Not a bad thing I guess as lunch is normally sussed for the next day. I made burgers and roast potatoes and kumara for dinner 3 nights in a row cause it tasted so good. You can buy a cheap loaf of ciabatta bread so I used that for the buns and chucked some fancy lettuce and other stuff on there to create a fancy burger. Heaps better and healthier than Maccas.
I did my first Kermesse of the season on the Sunday. The course was in the same town where I got 2nd last year and we raced a little bit on the course from last year but we turned off and did a different circuit this time. I was feeling pretty good and quietly confident. When I got home last year I couldn't stop thinking about those kermesses that I did and how most them had a pattern. I think I figured out the pattern to win one of these race so I was quite eager to get out there and race. So I was just playing it cool and really concentrating on sticking to my game plane. I manged to make a split in the field going up the climb and there were maybe 20 - 30 guys so I was like sweet, that's good. Again, I just played it cool while up in the split, tried not doing too much work and to conserve my energy. I was watching everyone and I chose two guys who looked pretty dangerous, who could win the race. With 7 laps to go there was maybe only 20 of us left and attacks started going off the front. There was still over 45 km of racing to go when this all started happening and I knew there was still a lot of eager beavers who won't want to let those riders go so I just kept an eye on the guys up the road and just sat back and made everyone else chase. They would eventually be pulled back and then another attack would go but I had a game plan and I was confident it was going to work. We pulled back the break and with 4 laps to go, the guy that I had marked attacked up the climb so I jumped across and another guy managed to get across and we rolled well together, all taking our turn on the front. The guy who bridged across after me got a flat front tyre with one lap to go so he had to pull over and get a new wheel. So it was just me and the other guy for the last lap and basically he just beat me in the sprint for the line. I'm not the best when it comes to sprinting. I have to start my sprint for the line about 10 - 15km out. The guy who won was ex pro and got 5th at the World Champs at Cyclo Cross a few years ago so he's a good rider but yea pretty gutted I couldn't get my first win. 2nd place again in that same bloody town. God damn!
But yea, I am pretty happy that I stuck to my game plan and it sort've payed off. I really do think I can win one of these races now. I have to wait till next Sunday to give it another crack.
So yea that's basically my week.

I'll leave some pictures from Flanders and from yesterdays race below

Thanks for reading

Nick

Hidely-Ho, Neighbourino! Shut Up, Flanders

Last week was a big week for me. Managed to squeeze in a race before the big U23 Rhonda van Vlaanderen, also known as Tour of Flanders. On the Wednesday I had my first team race with Pro Race at the 1.12 Scheldeprijs which is a smallish race and good place to warm the legs up for Saturday. Scheldeprijs is also a professional race held at the same time so while we were racing, the pros were out on a different course nearby and then race the final few laps on the same course we just did 6x so there was a big crowd at the finish line which was cool to see. I got in the break with 2 strong Lotto riders and two weaker riders who could hardly roll through. The Lotto riders and I were pulling some pretty hard strong turns but we only got in front by just over 30 seconds and then after a hard 40km of riding the peleton caught us which sucked. I was kinda swinging for the rest of the race and I was just hanging on the back of the bunch for the rest of the race cause I was pretty knackered but it was good to blow some of the cob webs out of my legs. 
Now with Flanders. I was pretty damn nervous the morning of the race. I had heard some scary strories about the race being really hectic and one of my roommates last year had raced it and he broke his wrist and was out of action for 2 months so that's why I was nervous. Once I got to the meeting place and met up with the rest of the boys my nerves eased off. It was a pretty cold day and it had been raining in the morning so the cobbles will be nice and slippery. As the flag dropped the war began. It was a massive battle to stay up the front and everyone wanted to be in the break away because it was the safest place to be. My job for the day was to try and get into the break so I had a few digs. Zeno attacked off the front with one other guy and I was at the very front of the race so I sat up expecting people to attack or try and chase him down and the plan was when he got caught then I would counter attack and hopefully start a break but surprisingly no one chased him down. Zeno dropped the one other guy he was his so Zeno was by himself for a couple hours. I just stayed in the bunch, helped out Hayden who was the team leader and tried holding my position at the front which was still a battle. I've never had so many elbow and shoulder battles with riders in a race before but you had to do it to stay at the front. Take no prisoners. You have to do everything you can to stay up the front and out of trouble. The race route was one big lap and then two smaller laps. The smaller laps had all the cobble sections and climbs in it so that's where the race really starts and the war steps up a level. There was a feed station not long before we started the small laps so I grabbed a feed bag and filled my pockets up and tried eating as much as I could but in doing this I was at the back of the race and not long after it started to piss with rain. I couldn't move up because we were on a narrow road for ages and the bunch was riding quite slow so we were all bunched up across the road so I couldn't get to the front. We then came out on a big road, into a cross headwind and uphill and everyone was fisting it because at the top of the hill we would hook a left on to a 2km cobble section. I was still at the back here trying to move up going up this climb but I was really struggling. We hit the cobbles and I had moved up a bit but not enough and I basically lost contact with the front guys there. It was all strung out and everyone was letting the wheel go in front of them. Came around a corner on the cobble section and my teammate and friend James Judd was on the ground and not in good shape and just up ahead was Hayden who had binned it as well so I pulled over thinking he might have had a flat tyre so I would've give him my wheel but his whole pedal had busted so he just told me to go. I was really suffering and we still had the Koppenburg to come which is a famously steep cobble climb. We got to it and everyone got off there bikes and walked cause your back wheel would just spin out on the wet cobbles.Then near the top where it wasn't as steep you would have spectators helping you back on your bike and giving you a push to get you going again. Zeno, Hayden and a few other guys managed to bridge across to the small group I was in and then Zeno and I started feeding it to try and get Hayden back up to the front guys but I was pretty rooted and we still had one more small lap to go. I got dropped up one of the cobble climbs but I continued on cause I just wanted to finish and I did which I'm happy about. Came 3rd to last out of the finishers but less than half of the field finished so I'm happy. I wasn't at my best on the day after travelling over here just a little over a week before the race and taking a few days to get settled in and do some decent rides but I think I could have lasted a bit longer if I had hit that 2km cobble section with the front guys. I know the roads out there quite well so I know how to ride the cobbles and how tight the corners are and what not so I did have bit of an advantage over some of the riders but yea I couldn't quite get there so I am gutted about that. 
To sum up the race; I would say it was a terrifyingly shitty epicly awesome race. Terrifying because of the amount of crashes and near misses. Shitty because of the weather, the cobbles, the steep climbs, the sore ass, fingers and legs. Epic because it felt like the pro race you see on tv with the cold rain, the mud all over you and in your mouth and racing the same roads as them. And awesome because I got to cross the line while wearing the Sliver Fern. 
So yea, I best wrap this up cause she's bit of a long one.
I'll put some pictures up of the race next week. My phone isn't corroborating so I can't upload them

Thanks for reading

Nick

Back In The Big B

Well, I'm back. Made it over here without too much hassle... Had a sweet flight cause I managed to score the very front seat of the row all the way to Dubai so I had heaps of leg room but the only down side was that I was sitting next to a mum and her baby. Little Josh didn't like flying and he let everyone know that. Lucky I had noise cancelling headphones. Once he was asleep he was alright. Managed to sleep quite a bit on the Melbourne to Dubai leg of the journey which is the longest trip so time went pretty fast. Had a couple hours in Dubai so I just grabbed some taka and we boarded the flight to London but everyone had to change seats. I knew I had an aisle which I was happy about but now it was just where and who will I be sitting next to. Got on the plane and I was counting down the rows while we were all stuck in a traffic jam and I kinda roughly counted I would be the last row before the toilets. I was just praying that I was right. It would be luxury because I could just put my seat back without disturbing anyone and the toilets were right there. And wouldn't you know it; I was right! Booyah! Luxury! But again there's always a downside. I had an endless supply of asses in my face from people waiting for the toilet.
But yea I made it through Heathrow and Brussles all good and met Andrew at the airport so it was all good. But man it's cold here. First few days have been stupidly cold like it doesn't go above 10 degrees. Like 7 - 9 degrees doesn't seem that bad when you compare it -20 or something but when you've come straight out of a good New Zealand summer then yea, it feels like it's -20. I've been wearing track pants and a jumper to bed every night. It's been really depressing weather too with a strong cold wind and dark grey overcast clouds and light rain through out the day and heavy rain at night. But yesterday was finally a really nice day; clear blue sky. My alarm went off at 7.30am and I crustily opened my eyes a bit to turn it off and then I noticed this weird thing coming through my window and curtains. IT WAS SUNLIGHT! Hadn't seen that thing in a while. I actually bounced out of bed and stared through the window for a good 5 mins. I was doubly excited cause it was Tour of Flanders and me and Andrew were gonna go ride out and watch them go past. We started riding on the course towards Brugge which is where they start and there were already heaps of people lining the streets waiting to catch a glimpse of the riders. At this time it was around 9.30am - 10am and people were already cracking in to beers and there were bands playing and people had set up little bars in their garages. That's one of the reasons why Tour of Flanders is such a famous race. We just did a U turn and headed back towards home along the course and there were even more people on the side of the road. We then pulled over and waited for the riders to come past.  When they went passed I managed to spot a few of the Kiwi riders who were racing and it was cool to see fellow Kiwi, Jesse Sergent, up in the break. Sucked to watch him get hit by the neutral car though. Then yea we just watched the rest of the race back home on the TV.
There were also a bunch of Swedish guys who came down here to ride some of the famous roads in Belgium. One of the Swedish guys new this Belgy guy and so the Swedish dude organised a group of guys to come down and the Belgy fella, including Andrew, showed these Swedes around. We rode out to Roubaix and did some of the famous cobble sections that they do in Paris-Roubaix which was awesome. I've always wanted to ride them and they are by far the roughest cobbles over ridden on. We then rode to the famous velodrome in Roubaix where they finish the race. It was always a dream to ride a lap of the Roubaix velodrome and I got to do it. Then the next day we rode out and did some of the famous cobble climbs and sections in Tour of Flanders. I have ridden those roads a lot so it was nothing new to me but we rode it 2 days before Tour of Flanders started so people were setting up these massive tents and stands on all the important sections of the race and there were lots of people riding there bikes trying to get a feel of what it's like to race Flanders so that was pretty cool to see.
So yea I'm just trying to get readjusted to the Belgy lifestyle again. I still remember a few Flemish words which is goed (good). So now I just need to get some good training under my belt for U23 Flanders which is next Saturday. Hopefully all goes well for that.
Yea that's pretty much it. Got no roommates at the moment but I've got a few friends who don't live too far away so I can always go training with them.
So yea, I've left a few a photos at the bottom.

The back of the velodrom in Roubaix

The velodrome grandstand

Just flashing my NZ sponsors at Flanders. Too cold to take my jacket off

Thanks for reading

Nick