Not My Week

Sorry for the late blog. I got home kinda late on Monday after our trip and I couldn't think of anything to write.
 So last week wasn't exactly the best week. I had my stomach virus last weekend and then a cold for the rest of the week. I just felt really drowsy and had a blocked nose and just felt plain old blah. I was only riding an hour each day because I really wanted to recover from this cold as soon as possible so I can gear up for Ireland and also have a good tour in France over the weekend. We left for France on Thursday morning and I was starting to come right but I wasn't really sure how I would go after not really riding my bike that much so I was planning on just riding the race and try finish it. After 7 hours of driving we finally made it. That night it started to piss with rain and it basically didn't stop. We had the first stage the next day and it was still raining and cold. I was still pretty eager and keen to race though despite everything. When we started my legs felt amazing. I thought maybe having a week of little riding did me some good so I thought stuff it, I'll go out on the attack. I managed to get in the break with 3 other guys on the wet and hilly course. Managed to pick up some KoM points as well. But after 80k, we got to the bottom of one of the climbs and the peloton had just caught us as well and my legs just turned to concrete. I felt knackered. My legs lost all power and everything in my body was tired and sore. I wasn't even close to being able to hang on to the bunch, they flew past me. I was riding by myself for a while and then a bunch of about 12 guys caught up to me. I rode with them or a while but up one of the climbs my legs had nothing in them and I couldn't hang on. A little further on there was a long downhill to the finish (but we still had 30km and 1 lap to go before we finished) and I froze going down there. I started getting the shakes. Our team car and camper van was just before the finish and I was like stuff this, I am so cold and tired and I doubt I will even make time cut. So I took the easy way out and called a quits, something I never like to do. But yea, who knows, if I had kept going I might have gotten more sick. I was pretty gutted to see that I would've made time cut because there was one guy who was behind me and he made time cut. So for the rest of the weekend I basically chilled with my Aussie mate who's in the team as he had some mechanical troubles on the first stage and didn't finish.
Onwards and upwards though. I feel a lot better now, still a slight runny nose but it's not bloked and I feel fresh. Had a good training today with 5 hours of hilly riding but man was it windy. Sometimes it was difficult to go faster than 20kph on the flat and it pissed with rain again.
Oh yea I also got a roommate on Monday. I'm back at the house I stayed at last year and I managed to get the double bed again booyah! It's quite funny seeing all the stuff we left from last year and even some stuff I left here my first year. Found some instant coffee that me and Zeno bought last year so I had a nice coffee this morning. Roommate is another Pom who's riding for Terra and he seems alright. It was nice to ride with someone today and someone just to yarn to.
So yea that's basically it from me. Gonna do a big training block this week and prepare for Ireland. Really looking forward to Ireland, hopefully it all goes well.

So yea

Thanks for reading

Nick