13th Trophee Jean Jaures Quere - 25th June 2006

Back to the big-time bicycle racing today, albeit a smaller field with the French Champs being this weekend. 90 starters, 3x36km then 7x6km, windy, many false flats, many many corners …

Nice to have a 9km neutral section to warm up as well. Beautiful part of the world Santec, up by Roscoff where the ferry heads off to Ireland. Anyways, come the “Depart Reel” it was no longer time for looking at any scenery bar the wheel in front, the start was absolutely nuts. If we weren’t getting out of a corner, which we were doing a lot, it was all 50kph++. Unfortunately I’ve managed to get a problem with my foot, spending the first few km fluffing around with my shoe and meant that I wasn't terribly well positioned … so the break went, and we had nobody there …

Spent a bit of time on the front trying to get one of us in a counter or generally ride fast, but seemed to be stuck in the hurtbox in the wind and the old Polar was chucking up some scary numbers. Lots of people going out the back, bit of a stack just in front after 50km and hurting all over to get back on after avoiding it, 10km later and I was out the back too on the climb of all places with the bunch going to pieces.

Bit p*ssed off with that and spent the next 10km trying to get back on solo, almost did too, pulling all sorts of horrible facial expressions and getting lots of encouragement from the always-sympathetic French. Ended up stopping at the feed zone, apparently 2km later there was a railway crossing which the second half of the bunch was delayed by, for 5mins, so they all stopped too!! Got back to Cleder in time to watch the finish circuits, after 110km the race was all in groups of less than five, carnage. About thirty finishers, only one from Scaer … so with Herman having won last year, that wasn’t too great …

Five coffees down and hopefully that’s enough to get me out the door for six hours today, off to do some recon so I actually know where we’re going in some upcoming races!!

Criterium Fouesnant - 23rd June 2006

Usual deal, 8pm kick-off, forty times around 2.2km with a uphill finish line followed by a lot of corners and a long downhill straight – yippee!! I ended up bringing forward the rest week, so was feeling rather fresh for Fouesnant. Although obviously not as fresh as the under-raced Mr Barnes – very frisky for somebody who got out of his car 15mins before the start, he proceeded to start attacking the be-jeepers out of everybody. Before long he was away with one other guy, meanwhile I had managed to meet Greg in the third group.

About 70km into it and after a lot of hard work we had managed to get a couple of primes (gotta love how they roll out the primes for the groups out the back too, kinda disrupts chasing efforts though) and retrieve Mr Barnes and most of the people in between, somewhat surprised to find there were only four up the road – three from VS Quimper and one other!! At 50 seconds …

So that was the race gone really, tried to lead out Greg but just got well boxed in by somebody swinging right across the road into the last corner, happily Greg managed to sort himself out and crack the top ten, I may have just cracked the top twenty for some ice-cream money.

Twenty metre warm-down and it was foot to the floor back to chez Barnes to try and catch the end of the football, and I believe lights out at 1:30am and probably asleep by 3am!!

Ronde de Porhoet - 18th June 2006

Well tomorrow bought my two nemeses, Mr Vent Lateral and his good mate Mr Gutter. 122km with 72km en ligne followed by ten laps of 5km, mostly flat or false flats, 30deg, 120 starters. About twelve English-speakers having a good yarn before the start too.

Maybe a bit too relaxed before the start, more than 5km warm-up might have been clever as what my really tired legs didn’t need was the first 10km on mostly uphill false flats with a decent crosswind, and the race really going!! In serious need of the left-hander into the headwind, we eventually got there with the race in shreds.

James Greg and I were really riding as a team, pinned down the back, and Gilles waiting for us a little further behind … so it was time to start putting the race back together. A few minutes later there were ten up the road, another twelve or so trying to go across and we had got as far as group number three, along with about fifty other people, where we found Matthieu. Didn’t find Herman though, he was off doing his thing up the road.

Personally I couldn’t seem to put the power down and knew it wasn’t gonna be a good day. Sure enough back into the cross-wind and in the gutter just out of the echelon, panic, sprint up into the echelon but not for long and end up flying backwards, luckily we come to a town and a chance to recover a bit, followed by a forest – mint!! Like forests, no crosswind!!

Anyways the recover, suffer, recover, suffer scenario was repeated enough times for the suffer bit to be beating the pants off the recover bit. Got to the finish circuit OTA and went for a bit of a lie-down. Ten minutes later and there are five of us there, all looking a bit sheepish and really hoping that Herman, who is by now in the front group of five, can save our bacon. Most of the English-speaking mafia also to be found in the vicinity of the hot-dog stand – not the best of days then.

More podium action for Mr Herman who winds up 3rd (no whimpering “I raced last night” excuses then), DS Niko turns up at the finish and doesn’t know whether to be happy with a 3rd or slightly less happy with five DNFs … fortunately he’s seen in the paper that Greg and I were 8th and 14th last night, but not that there were only 29 starters – so all is good!!

So what will today bring?? Well I may get out of bed if it stops raining but can’t see it really, Operation Recuperation before its back into the final week of big training. On the other hand, coffee and pancakes are calling …

Criterium Plouharrnel - 17th June 2006

The old surprise race (ie “oh by the way you’re racing tomorrow”), perfect way to get another week over 800km. Anyways the crit at the beach wasn’t what I thought it would be, instead of the beachfront with good roads and gorgeous women agog, it was kinda in the sticks. The circuit best summed up by saying that on our warm-up lap, Fabian and I rode into each other a couple of times. Kinda sinuous, at one stage going through somebody’s garage, it was probably good that only twenty-nine of us turned up.

So objective number one was to be sure of making some money!! First 20km at a snails pace, crowd unimpressed so the announcer announced a 100euro prime for the next lap, that was the end of the slow bit. Took about two minutes for a break of five to get away with Herman up there, another group of five with two team-mates, eight in the group I was in and the rest behind.

Just rode round really, sprinting for the odd prime here and there, we caught three from the next group including both team-mates, d’oh, and were lapped by the front five … so coming to the end what seemed like an age later there were eight of us going for eighth. Been getting out of the hairpin 200m from the line alright so made sure to be first into it, kicked hard, accelerated for the line, all good … and got the bell!! So that’d be twice with the “1” lap board then … I swear each criterium has a different rule for getting lapped!!

Next lap didn’t go so well, funny that, 14th. Not a bad day out, not really my cup of tea but made a few euros in primes and prize-money, Herman 2nd and Greg 8th so can’t complain too much, we’ll see what tomorrow brings, lets hope that 90km of getting out of slow corners is good preparation …

Gouensnach & Classic U Val d’Ille - 12th June 2006

Having got home and demolished a pizza and an entire smoked chicken (hmmm there's a common theme here), and not to mention over three litres of water, I’m feeling a bit more like writing about what was a pretty frustrating weekend.

So I grabbed the team car yesty and headed off to Gouensnach. Objective, to help Mattieu keep the lead in the local “Trophee Aven Moros” series. 24 times 5km with a couple of drags but pretty much flat … work cut out with only four of us.

Anyways it proved to be a pretty frustrating experience, we ended up missing the move that stayed away and despite riding myself through the floor-boards, couldn't get it back. Luckily the people at the front didn’t have many points in the series and we managed to at least mark down the guys in second and third overall, so Matt keeps his jerseys.

Highlight of the day however, was the Frenchie who was glaring at me like I was a huge disgrace when out the back with a mechanical a month ago, coming up after the race today and saying well done, good work, have a beer (apparently Indurain always had a beer), etc etc … don’t mind if I do … just happy if I can make people happy really …

The next day was the Elite Open Classic U Val d’Ille, three hours drive away on the other side of Rennes. Hard work, not used to mornings these days!! As per usual, the best way to prepare the day before a big bike race isn’t with another bike race … so the legs weren’t the best for the first few km of today’s outing. 150km pretty much flat, first 90km en ligne then a variety of confusing circuits at the end, 30deg, over 150 starters, heaps of money, stick-on numbers and even showers for after!! When I say big there were a couple of pro teams, including what appeared to be the entire Jean Floch squad, so figured it wasn’t going to be easy.

Correctamundo, first 20km was a case of staring at the wheel in front and trying to find the ten sprocket. Found out later the average speed for the first two hours was 47kph, not slow then, not exactly on big smooth fast roads either. 60km into it the legs had come right, we had about two groups of 25 up the road and about fifty in the third, danger, so all the French decided they’d try to get across solo – good luck!! So we had about 10km of fast-slow-fast-slow, eventually missed the group of about ten that did get back on, banging-head-on-handlebars-with-frustration material … after being in a group of six that almost got back, then they all started attacking each other … !!!!!! Anyways that was it for the rest of us, rode to the circuit and surprisingly they let us finish, well OTA though. Pretty funny to average over 43kph and be way out the back!!

So that’s about 400km of racing this week and over 800km all up, well and truly smashed to bits so here’s hoping it’s good for me!!

GP Moncontour - 5th June 2006

Freakin’ awesome race today, fifteen times around an 8km circuit with a decent hill about 1.5km, 25deg, 130 in the race and apparently 10,000 in the crowd, not to mention great scenery. Good day for the podium!! Being an Elite Open it was pretty hard, in fact when the music stopped the average was 43kph, not bad for fifteen times up the hill.

Anyways I punctured AGAIN $#@%!^#!! but happily before the race. That led to being a bit rushed, we were parked in front of the start line so showing up late meant being on the front row, beside my teammate Herman. The flag dropped, Herman did his thing (attacked) and I did mine (blocked). Anyways the first few laps not a lot happened apart from Herman’s break being caught and he going straight back through the bunch “c’est dur!!” and stopping. I think for Herman, who is ranked about 100th amateur in France, all his races are either win or DNF.

We got to about ten laps to go and the race was really going, about eight up the road and I managed to get myself in the first chase group with a certain Peter Latham. Despite best efforts it split on the hill and I wound up in the back bit, we got caught by another chase group and a lap later by the bunch, meanwhile the front bit went up to the break and that was the race. So it was back to square one in the bunch but kinda frustrated and well in the hurtbox!!

Between then and the finish the bunch split a million times which was even more frustrating, managed to get away with 2km to go and got a reminder that 500m to go is quite a long way when it’s uphill. Somewhere around 30th, meanwhile Mr Latham won the U23 category and scored 6th overall.

Three hours later and I’m back home with very sore legs, eyeing up the second pizza …

Criterium Brest - 30th May 2006

When I was asked if I wanted to go to Brest for a mid-week criterium, I was hardly going to say no. At the least it might make for some amusing road-sign photos … having done a couple of hours on the bike in the morning to pick up Mum, Dad and the rental car, it was looking like a good day of training. Dad pulled a sicky and had to go to bed instead of watching the race, d’oh!!

Being in France, the “criterium” was 85 of us for sixty times around 1.6km and started at 7:30pm, so it was getting pretty dark by the finish and also jolly cold. Interesting circuit, it went around a cliff and had a hill of sorts, but with a 75kph run-in and a hairpin halfway up it wasn’t really a climb, more just a jump out of the corner, then there was another hairpin at the start of the descent … the finish line was at the top from where you could see almost all of the course, so great spectating.

Nothing sensational happened, felt pretty good the first twenty laps and spent the next ten in the counterattack behind the break when the race was really going, which hurt a lot and confirmed the form isn’t too hot. Happily when it came back together James went flying past in a counter-attack, meanwhile I spent the remainder rolling around in the bunch, not so much a sprint at the end as a collective groan.

Back in Scaer at 2am via McDonalds … next race is a big Elite one on Monday which should apparently give the climbing legs a good workout.

Les Boucles du Val d’Oust et de Lanvaux - 21st May 2006

Been a rough few days on the meteorological front in Brittany. Tuesday & Wednesday were alright, got some good training in, Thursday spent five hours getting wet, cold, and blown inside out. Friday was a write-off, there was a semi-nocturne on Friday too (criterium that finishes in the dark) where my teammate came sixth, but he reckons only because the other 62 riders all fell off at least once. Saturday night it really packed in and on waking up this morning I was pretty sure the race would be cancelled. Wasn’t sure until we got there, even when we arrived the town was deserted …

Turned out it was all go. Back in October Brendan and I were laughing at the poor sods doing the Auckland Champs on a horrible spring day. Comments like that always come back to haunt you one day … and today was that day, sitting on the start-line shivering with six layers on.

Still struggling with le Francais, but James tells me the announcer said something like this … “we told the team managers to tell you all to be careful and not risk another huge crash at the start like at Serant two weeks ago, but they have doubtless told you all to be at the front. There are 180 of you and its pouring rain, the road heading out of town is quite dangerous and covered in fertilizer which will give you a nasty rash, so have a nice day!!”

0km … the flag drops and predictably, everybody wants to attack first and get some clear road … this just means nobody can get away and it’s really fast

10km … cold, wet, windy and kinda painful

30km … and I’m thinking I’ll be glad just to get to the finish circuits (after 90km) and stop today, I’m sure there were a lot of people thinking the same

65km … race goes through a very exposed section and there’s some serious gutter action … have spent most of the day going backwards and forwards in the bunch, without glasses it’s not much fun being blind!!

75km … start feeling alright for the first time all day, probably because we get out of the wind and the pace slows a bit, get enthusiastic and start following a few moves, figuring that there’s no point in just riding around on a day like this, might as well have a go … there’s a break well up the road though

85km … notice James for the first time all day and have a yarn, interrupt yarn by following another attack and getting away a bit, spend a few minutes right on the limit … think hitting the finish circuit off the front is probably a good idea as far as the boss is concerned …

88km … figure not such a good idea as we hit the climb back up to the finish circuit and the legs are seriously gone … reverse lights on … hit circuit mid-bunch, anonymous and doubtless making all sorts of horrible facial expressions!!

100km … get off along with a lot of other people on the finish circuit, smashed to bits, the usual 40 finishers.

Really hoping some nice weather shows its face soon, least of all so Mum & Dad don’t spend four days parked in an expensive beach-side hotel room when they pass through next week!! The Bretagne tan is coming along well, that is, when you have a layer of ingrained dirt/shit making your legs brown rather than a suntan …

7th Tro Div Ster - 15th May 2006

If there was ever a race I’m not enthused to write about … I reckon “Tro Div Ster” is Breton for “a weekend stuck in the hurtbox”!!

Saturday’s stage was 130km, 95km “on ligne” then laps of a 6km circuit, 115 starters, anyways we took off and the first hour was ballistic, incredibly hard to move up, in fact the easiest time for me to move up was the climbs. So on the upside, I must be climbing OK. After 70km we got to the second big climb and I managed to drop the chain near the top and get it pretty stuck, had to get off and muck about … couldn’t get back on through the cars … rode to the finish in a group of dropped riders and lost oodles of time.

The next morning was the team time trial over 18km, this went OK, apart from losing one guy near the start we managed to hold it together on the hilly first half and nail it towards the end, averaging over 45kph … for a team with no training together, no aero equipment and not taking risks in the corners, it gave a glimpse into how fast it’s possible to go … it also hurt a lot!!!! New experience for the day was having a team car sitting one metre behind us with the megaphone going non-stop “allez allez allez”. Anyways that was enough to put Pierre into the jersey for best Regional-category rider – by one second – and James still had his pretty pink Combination jersey (aggregate points for sprints, climbs, most aggressive and one other random competition).

4hr break over lunch. The good old five-course French lunch it was too although one question remains unanswered – is the wine for the riders or for the guys driving the team cars!!?? Felt like I was going to be OK for the afternoon and help out with keeping the jerseys … couldn’t have been more wrong there, just got smashed to bits through the early sprints and had all the power of a wheelbarrow, went sailing out the back in a group and early finish. Hard race, pretty disappointing, never really got going all weekend.

Criterium Hennebont - 8th May 2006

Headed off to a criterium this afternoon, happy to find that criterium meant 100km on a 3.7km circuit that had a 1km big-ring hill in it, pretty hard race. Kinda similar to a few outings at the other end of France last year!! Unfortunately the rain was following us and there were a couple of corners that were tricky in the wet. Smaller field of about eighty and I was finding it relatively easy to start with although not without the odd rough spell.

Anyways after about 40km I was attaching myself to the back of what turned out to be the winning move, went flying round the tight corner at the top of the circuit and the bike was going all over the show, sure enough a flat at just the worst time. Being there without any support and hence spare wheels, that was that, kinda gutted although by no means was I certain to have stayed in the front, spent the next 60km watching everybody get wet and cold. Three punctures and one finisher meant it wasn’t the best day for the team, lacking in results for the season thus far the pressure will doubtless be “on” for the coming weekender the “Tro Div Ster” which promises to be a torrid affair …

5th Boucles Serantaises - 7th May 2006

Today was a sweet day because the race reminded me why I love bike racing … well the start of it did, the end was a bit grim but more on that later. The race was 95km “en linge”, ie out around the countryside, and then 6 laps of a 6km circuit so just over 130km all up. 135 starters, three categorized climbs, and some iffy-looking clouds to the west although happily it was dry for the start.

So “le Depart” and who was attacking first and solo but teammate-on-form, Niko. Shortly thereafter the early break joined him, about twelve riders with another of our guys in it. All on for young and old the next 40km or so, the legs were feeling 1000% better than last week and I was having a great time jumping around at the front covering moves. Feeling good and lovin’ it. Crunch-time however came on a small climb after maybe 30km or so when another eight or so riders jumped clear and ended up bridging to the break, James and I being pretty much the first two to miss out … d’oh, so close to having four of us up there. James spent the next few km trying to get across in a too-late 2up move that didn’t work out, and I had woops written all over my face.

The break, large as it was, was never to be seen again. We rolled around for the next 50km until the finishing circuit, feeling rough at times but going uphill alright and making a few splits that never went anywhere. Come the first time through the finish things were getting pretty grim with the break down to maybe fifteen and over two minutes ahead, a general coming-together of several chasing groups and the rain by this stage well and truly pelting down, numb hands and all that, jackets being handed up at the feed rather than bottles.

About 110km on the clock and the legs started packing it in, frozen through and pretty spent by the finish. Niko got up for 6th, nice result and Gregoire hung on to the remnants of the break, the rest of us finishing in the second group. Forty finishers!! Pretty happy to get to the business end of one after ten days given the hammering and early shower I got after ten days in Suisse last year, we’ll see what tomorrow brings … less rain would be a good start!!

Team Training - 6th May 2006

The weather’s on the improve, the last few days it’s been nudging twenty and the trees are starting to show a tinge of green. Went out training with the team yesterday for three hours which was pretty sweet, about eight of us rolling along at a good pace and sprinting for every town sign, as you apparently do when you’re French.

Two races coming up this weekend, Sunday is 135km and Monday is a 100km criterium, incidentally Monday is also the French holiday celebrating the end of World War 2. Speaking of racing I had better head out for a spin and get myself organised, so stay tuned for more tales of tractors, waffles, and, after a few weeks of hard training and a hammering from the French, hopefully some good form.

Scaer - where's that??

It's kinda in the middle of nowhere ...

Made it to France - 3rd May 2006

I'm pretty sure that trip from Masterton to Scaer by car, plane, plane, plane, bus, train and car broke my personal door-to-door record, 50hrs. Quite uneventful though, no mad rush which is kinda unusual for me. I missed the first TGV connection out of Paris but managed to re-coordinate and finally meet teammate Jimmy Barnes in Quimper after a few years of email conversations.

The team I'm riding for - VS Scaer - have been great thus far, getting me sorted with an apartment, making sure I'm not stuck for anything, putting up with my dreadful French and even going so far as to organise a small presentation. Kinda funny that the three cycling articles in the paper yesterday were the Tour of Italy, the Tour of Dunkerque, and me arriving in France!!

The apartment is in a primary school, definitely a bit odd, but it's a good setup. I’ve got pretty much the entire second floor of the building to myself, and a fan-club cheering me on every time I go out training. Between staying at James' a couple of nights and school holidays I've only been here one day with kids running round in a playground thus far.

The first week here was jolly cold, I'll consider it my winter for the year, the first race I did was on Sunday and it peaked out at 12deg which didn't help. No startlingly good form appeared, I didn't really expect to be up to much so soon off the plane and just rolled around at the back for 60km and stopped when the legs turned to wood. Good to get a number on and into a big and kinda crazy bunch again though - plenty of tiny roads for racing on around here for sure!!

Monday was even worse on the weather front, about 8deg and raining, managed to avoid racing (200 starters, not many finishers, sounded grim) and headed out for four hours of "entrainment tranquil", returning frozen through and covered in smelly brown stuff. Was wondering why I got so much thermal kit, obvious now it's because some days you need to wear it all at once.

A bientot …