Solo victory! An Post Ras - Stage 5

Well, thought I'd update on some news while it's still fresh... I am currently riding the 8-Day An Post Ras Tour in Ireland, with the NZ track team. Has been a good week for the team so far, with a 4th, two 2nds, two 7ths and an 8th. Novie has spent everyday (apart from the first day) in a leaders jersey, and Aaron leads the U23 rider jersey for best young rider.

Stage 5, we didn't really have a race plan. Stay near the front and keep out of trouble. I did exactly that... Early on a break of 10 riders went, but a rider who was high up in the overall placings was in the break, so An Post, the team of the yellow jersey, rode hard and bought the break back. They were caught around 60km into the 156km stage. The pace slowed a bit, 2 riders attacked, 3 more attacked and I followed them. We got away, a 6 rider break.

We rolled well, with our lead getting up to 4mins at one points. The gap got down to around 2mins 30seconds, then 2mins. I thought we would definitely get caught. With 25km to go Lachlan Norris (Drapac) attacked at the top of the last climb, solo from our group. This gave us something to chase, meaning the bunch had to be working super hard to catch us. We caught him with around 5km to go, the bunch around 30seconds behind us.

The Rapha Condor rider attacked our group but we were onto him quickly. Lachlan Norris attacked again, I jumped across to him, he swung left, I went hard right in the right hand gutter, put my head down and I had a gap on the now 4 riders behind me. The bunch was 20seconds and closing... I had 3km to the finish, and plenty of gas left in the tank. The kilometers slowly but surely ticked down, 2km to go, I still had a 12second gap. 1km to go I had 10 seconds, 500m flag, 300m flag, and I knew I had the stage. I came around the final corner, 150m to the line, saw the finish line and threw my arms in the air. Soaked it up, the crowd was awesome for such a small town.

Solo win into Blarney

The bunch rolled in 4seconds behind me, probably 15kmh faster at the finish line, but it didn't matter! I was over the moon, first victory for me in 2011, first victory for the U23 Squad in Europe in 2011, (Gatey won the sprint Jersey in Tryptique Ardennes, but we didn't manage to get a stage win), and it was my biggest victory on the road for me to date.

The podium, 3 kiwi's in jerseys

Novie - Points Jersey

Gatey- U23 Leader

Me - Stage winner

We could also now finally have a shave! We made a deal, between us 4 boys, that we wouldn't shave until we won a race. To be honest, we all looked pretty filthy, none of us could grow a decent beard... Ha.

In our jerseys, facial hair before it came off...

So now we have 2 stages to go, Novie (Shane) is in the lead of the Points Classement Jersey, and Gatey (Aaron) is in the lead of the U23 Best Young Rider Jersey.

Thanks for reading, will update on the main points of the week, following the end of the race this Sunday.

I found some links to news articles on various websites, some video's and photo's.

Video on facebook of salute

Cyclingnews.com article

Irish News article

Irish Independent paper - video update as well!

Cheers

Myron

Tryptique Ardennes

Finally we got a good result! On the first of three days, Aaron made the front group of the 166km stage and managed to win the first "Rush" (intermediate) sprint and get 2nd in the second sprint on the stage, giving him 8 points, and the lead in the sprint jersey! I finished in the main bunch with Novie and Cam, about 3minutes down on the front group of around 28 riders.

Day 2 was a bit shorter, 127km with 6 Category 1 climbs, oh joy.... Early on, we had the job of riding the front, and not letting any groups get away before the first sprint on the road - at 20km. It was a fairly flat start to the stage, with a few rises, perfect for attacks... It was up to Wade Mangham and I to ride the front and keep the bunch together, while Cam and Novie would lead out Gatey for the intermediate sprint, to secure maximum points and extend his lead in the sprint jersey over the next rider which had 5 points. We were unsure if this rider would go for the sprint, as he was also in the KOM jersey.

We worked it perfectly, rode the front, didn't let any attacks get away, and it was up to Cam and Shane to take Gatey to the line for the sprint preme. With 300m we could see the flag for the sprint, and Novie jumped past us with Gatey on his wheel. Oddly enough, there was 2 lines on the road, which one was for the sprint preme? Shane won to the first line, and Gatey won to the second line.... Who got the points? Shane did. Turns out the actual line was the first one, so Novie got 5 points and Gatey 3, with the KOM jersey getting 3rd and 1 point. He sat on Gatey's wheel the last 5km but couldn't get over him. Main thing was, Gatey extended his lead in the Rush jersey. The rest of the stage went by, and I hung in there until the last climb of the day, and damn it was brutal! Less than 10km from the finish, roughly 2km long, with parts up around 15-20% steep! I rolled in around 5mins down on the front group, which contained Novie and Gatey was in the next group a few seconds back.

Shutting shit down on stage 2 - riding on front early on

Day 3 and we had a similar task, keep the bunch together, no attacks, but this time it was for 30km, and included a relatively long uphill drag. We finally got some shit weather, which was meant to arrive the day before but luckily for us, it didn't! The strategy was the same, for myself, Wade and Jason to close down attacks and keep the bunch together. We executed perfectly, all riding hard and working well together. For the last 10km before the sprint we were riding so hard and fast that the bunch decided to not attack us, and just let us do our job and ride the front.

Closing in on 300m to the sprint preme, which was at 31.5km, and Shane jumped past us, with Gatey on his wheel. Gatey won the sprint, Novie 2nd and again the KOM jersey 3rd. But for us it didn't matter, as Gatey was far enough ahead on points of the next rider that he had secured the jersey, a great feeling for myself and I'm sure the rest of the boys as well as the staff at the race. Knowing you have a job to do, and completing the task, feels awesome.

The rain continued to fall for another hour or so, before stopping, and then starting again! I had to put my rain jacket on just to keep me warm, as I was already soaked from the first 30km - there was no way I was going back to the car when I was riding the front, so had to just get wet! From here on in, my legs started to get more and more fatigued as the stage went on. The first 30km of the race really took its toll on my legs and by 70km I was riding in the convoy of team, just trying to hang in there. I then got a puncture and for me it was day over. I jumped in the van at the feed station and got warm again. Wade also joined me.

We drove to the finish line, and between Wade, Steve and myself we had a feeling that we may get a good result at the finish line... And we were right. 2 riders slipped off the front late in the race, they both ended up staying away, with 1 of them from Davo, stealing the show and taking yellow on the final stage! Next in was the bunch, and Novie stormed home to win the bunch uphill sprint, and get 3rd in the stage.

Gatey won the Rush (sprint) jersey, matched our kit in Black and White!

All in all it was a good and successful 3 days. We got a result, as well as some hard racing which we'll need as we head off to Ireland tomorrow for the 8-Day Ras tour, starting this Sunday.

Cheers for reading. Hopefully more to come of what happened in the Ardenness in Ireland....

Ardennes

Not toooo much has happened since our last race. Last weekend we spent 3 days training in the Ardennes, preparing for our 3 day tour this weekend - Tryptique Ardennes.

The tour starts tomorrow, and has plenty of climbs in it. Around us the terrain is rather flat, so was good to get down there and get some solid days in on the bike including plenty of hills! Personally I don't think I'll be up for a good result, but hopefully get through the 3 days with some good, hard racing in the legs, setting me up for the Ras in Ireland, then Thuringen Rundfahrt, 8 and 7 day tours.

I won't be updating during the race, as we are staying in a old Chateau, with bunk beds and terrible race food (put on by the race organisers), and most definitely no internet! Until then, catch ya later.

Frankfurt and Beveren races

Last Sunday we raced in Germany, the U23 race of the Pro Race Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt. We had 140km, over a number of climbs, which before the race we didn't really know about.... We knew it had some climbs, but not as much as we raced over! The first big climb was 12km long, climbing up to 700m. Legs were alright up here, made it over in the bunch, but the climbs following were the ones that hurt me.

A number of shorter climbs and some bad positioning ended in me getting caught behind some guys and slowly watching the bunch ride away from me with around 60km to go. 1400m of climbing was a bit of a shock to the system! Gatey and Novie finished up in the front group, with Gatey getting 10th and Novie 28th. Both good results for the boys after a different build up coming off the Track Worlds in Holland.

On Wednesday we raced the Beveren Kermesse, the home town of Marc Ryan when he lives in Belgium. Dream won this race 2 years ago, and us boys were ready for a good result. It was 19laps of a fast 5km flat circuit. After 1 lap I followed a few Belgies as they attacked, and we slowly rode away from the bunch, a group of 8 of us. I was feeling pretty good, rolling through with them and keeping the pace up. The gap got out to 1 minute 15 seconds, with less than 40km to go. Then shortly after that, 4 guys literally came out of no where, riding across to the break in just over a lap. As soon as they hit our group, the pace went up a few kmh and it slowly got harder and harder, with 2 of the riders from the original break getting dropped.

With 4 laps to go, we could see the bunch only roughly 20 seconds behind, and some guys in the break were committed, and some weren't, making it difficult for the break to keep rolling. With 3 laps to go, one Belgie said to me "this is f***ing impossible, there's no way we'll stay away", I couldn't help but laugh... It was a funny moment. He said it as he was rolling over me, driving himself into the ground haha. 2 laps to go and the break were just behind, so I decided to attack the break, hoping 2-3 of the strong guys would follow and we might have another chance... Unfortunately for me it didn't happen like that! One guy slowly bought me back, I sat up and the bunch was only 5-10 seconds behind. I was Novie sitting about 6th wheel in the bunch, so as the bunch caught me, I put my head down again and drove them until they virtually caught the break, hopefully helping Novie.

My race and legs were over with around 7km to go, I rode to the start/finish line, put some clothes on and waited for the sprint on the next lap. I knew Novie was up the front, ready to get amongst it. 3 guys slipped off the front, he jumped across to them out of the last corner with just over 1km to go. As he caught them, he put his head down and decided to go straight past them with 500m to go and head for the line, as the bunch was also fast approaching. He drove it all the way to the line, only to be passed by 2 riders just before the finish, coming in for 3rd place. Our first podium in Europe this year, hopefully more to come!

Tomorrow we are off to the Ardennes for a 3 day training camp on some hills, preparing us for Tryptique Ardennais next weekend, a 3 day tour. Following Tryptique, we have 1 week until the 8-day An Post Ras tour starts in Ireland. Until then, happy mothers day for Sunday mum!

Cheers