Made it to Belgium, bike-less

I flew out of New York on Saturday, but the night before I raced at the Velodrome and had a good night. The highlight of the night was the Mike Walter memorial Madison which I rode with Paddy Bevin, a kiwi who went to USA this year as an amateur with great form and was quickly signed by Bissell Pro Cycling Team... Our latest pro signing.

We rode well in the first 40 lap madison, winning that, and the points/laps carried over to the 100lap madison which was last event of the night. Paddy and I rode well but couldn't quite beat the pair of carney and Clay Murfet who had the sprints timed well and just had the speed over me and Paddy. It was the first time I had ever ridden a madison with Paddy, teaching him a few things how to make the madison easier.

Having a chat after the first madison

Paddy and I with our plaque's

I packed my bikes up on Saturday and flew out of Newark Airport Saturday evening. I had two bikes with me, road and track, and neither turned up to Brussel's airport... Luckily I knew the address of our house and they turned up and were delivered next morning.

I built up my bike and my fork had been wrecked. The fork spacer had been broken, and the carbon tip of the fork ground away! It is ride-able but definitely not ideal for the cobbles coming up here in Belgium.

Must have been dropped a few times, carbon has been ground away, alloy tip bent.

We have a big Interclub race tomorrow (Wednesday), 160km with 22 climbs going over some of the famous cobbled climbs in one of the biggest Pro one day races in the world, the Tour of Flanders, which was won by Fabian Cancellara earlier this year.

Bike ready to race some dirty cobbles

Post- race update will follow.

New Page --->

I have added a new page to my blog, cycling pictures over the years back to when I was 6

I'm in the video clip below - C4's the Jono Project

Below is the link to C4's website for a video clip I did a few weeks before I flew out to USA. Was lots of fun, they told us to "be dicks" so basically thats what we did... Cheers to the C4 team. It aired on C4 on Saturday night I think...

C4 - I can take it anymore <<-- Click here

Lots going on

Plenty of photo's below of Kutztown!

All of us arrived here sweet, settled in, knuckled down into some training and racing, and now this Saturday I'm off to Belgium already!

I got the call that BikeNZ wanted me to head to Belgium early (was scheduled to leave USA July 9th) for two 180km Interclub races which are next Wednesday and Saturday, then onto a "power block camp" on the track in Belgium, pre-Commonwealth Games for the team pursuit boys, and the other two male endurance riders for the Games will be named mid-July. Then I have scheduled two 180km Interclub race's in Belgium within a week of me arriving! Other than that I'm not sure what else is planned in Belgium apart from lots of Kermese races which are 100-120km circuit races around 4-8km laps, good, solid, hard racing.

The first week in Kutztown went pretty well. We had our first Friday night of track racing, my track legs were better than I thought they were going to be! Chad, Hayden and myself all rode well, dominated most of the racing and Chad won the feature event of the night - 10 Mile Scratch race. Below is a few pics from Kutztown and the first night of racing... Including Chad's "Crowd Preme" which I ended up with after we split the winnings of the night!

I raced in Harlem on Sunday, the Harlem Skyscraper Criterium. It was a 0.8mile square circuit, 60 laps, 50miles/84km, with over 100 starters. The clouds decided to open and pissed down the last 10mins of the womens race, which was 10mins before we started! The road was like glass with guys going down left right and center the first 15laps.

A break of 2 germans went in the first 5 laps and got a gap up to 30seconds, we were racing for thirds I was had good position with 3 laps to go, but a big crash went down behind me and I decided to pull the pin and sit up, finish the race, and not crash! I really don't need another crash at the moment...

This Friday is track racing again, with 2 madisons which I am looking forward to! My next post will probably come from when I am in Belgium... Until then there is some photo's below to look at.

Ciao

More pictures- track racing

After Preme Race

In the pits

Getting ready to race

Pictures

Bike ready to race for Harlem

$100 Crowd Preme in $1 Bills

Looks like I've been doing something illegal...

View of apartments from main street

Up main street, towards Kutztown Uni

View down main street, towards shops

Our court yard / front door

My flat mate Kaytee in the kitchen

The lounge, with cable TV so we can watch the All Whites! And NBA Finals

My Bed

My room

Our team van

Made it to USA

Finally I'm back in USA and ready to get into some good training and racing.

All the travels here went sweet. 12hours to LA, then 5hours to New York where Dayle picked us up. It is around a 1.5hour drive from New York to Kutztown, but they were doing road works and it took us 3 hours. We arrived just after 12am, and got to Kutztown at 3.30am! We were pretty tired, but didn't get much sleep as our time zones were way out of wack.

Bikes and bags got here with no problems. Apartments are good, the internet hasn't been sussed out yet, using Dayle's (the coach). Got my own room, with a desk to do my uni work which will be good.

Will borrow a camera soon to get some pics of the place.

I may be heading into Harlem in New York for a criterium this coming Saturday. Will be my first race since the track worlds in March, and there is some good money up for grabs so will see where my form is at now!

Myron