Thuringen Rundfhart - Hump day

Well it's fair to say that the legs are a bit tired and aren't responding well to the hills here! Thankfully yesterday was "hump day", 4 days done and 3 to go...

Day 1 wasn't too bad, got to the finishing circuits, 3 laps of a 7km circuit, with a super steep 1km hill just after the finish line. I made it with the bunch until the hill, rode up it at my own pace, saving the legs for day 2 (the team time trial) and found a group of 6 riders.

Day 2 was a 22km Team Time Trial. A fast course with 2 short, sharp climbs which would hurt the legs! We were 2nd team off, and as we were driving to the race, it started to rain. It stopped about 40mins before we started, at the start/finish line. We started well, at the top of the 2nd hill, which was half way, the road was soaked... A big shower had just passed through before us. We crept through a S-Bend, left then right. The visor's in the aero helmets fogged up, spray off the road from the tyre in front of you. There was a lot of corners, which we lost a lot of time on. From when we rode, the wet roads dried out as the sun was out and there was a bit of wind. By the time Jayco-AIS rode, all the course, minus one descent was dry. Through the half way check-point, for us before the road was wet, we were only 6 seconds down on eventual winners, the Jayco Aussie boys. Sometimes things just don't go your way, and for us thats how it turned out.

Getting ready to warm up for TTT

Coming into 1km to go, 1km earlier and the road was wet...

Day 3 looked to be the easiest of the tour in the race manual book. 140km with one big climb about half way through the stage. Again my legs weren't good but I managed to get over the climb in the bunch, and started to sort out a bit of a lead out for Tom as we got nearer to the finish. With 5km to go there was a sharp left hander, I cooked it a bit, dived up the inside and hit the brakes a bit late. A German rider hit my back wheel, breaking a spoke. I had to stop and get a wheel change, then rolled into the finish a few minutes down. People say thats bike racing, but it was my fault and the next day before the race, I found the German rider and apologised, was no hard feelings. He also rode the Ras, where I talked to him on a few of the stages.

Sign on for day 4

Day 4 would be a tough day, with a big climb 30km into the race, and 3 big climbs in the last 35km of the race. Gatey is 3rd in the sprint jersey, and yesterday he picked up 2 points along the way which was good, slowly closing in on the leader of that jersey. I Got over the first climb, and then it was fairly easy until the last 3 climbs. We hit 108km, less than 35km to go, and the legs weren't good on the hill. Again I dropped back, riding my own pace, and found 5 other guys to ride with. 2 of the Jayco boys who had been riding the front for the yellow jersey, so I had someone to talk to. With less than 10km to go we caught a bigger bunch of around 15 riders, and us 20 riders rolled into the finish, 16mins 51seconds down. Live another day.

Groupetto day 4. I guessed we'd loose 16mins 50seconds, turns out we crossed the line 16mins 51second, thats why where are a few smiles on ours and the Aussie boys faces.

Today is an 11.7km uphill individual time trial, going to suffer but that seems like the norm this week!

Looking forward to my break next week... After today, 2 more days to see if we can get Gatey a few more points and possibly the jersey in the sprint jersey competition.

Sancho

Two wins in a fortnight

On Tuesday night me and Novie lined up for a fairly local race for us, Booischot Kermesse, around 10km from our house here in Belgium. It was my 3rd race since the Ras in Ireland, but to be honest I don't think my body had fully recovered, until this race in Booischot.

Was a 6pm start, a long time to wait around during the day, doing nothing.... 120km, 16 laps of 7.5km. A flat, fast course. Around 120-130 starters. Race started fast, nothing much managed to get away. I decided to sit near the back, if not last wheels sometimes (whoops) for the first 8 laps of the race. Saving the legs, doing as little work as possible. With 8 laps to go, a small group was away. Me and Novie moved to the front, I rode the front hard for about 500m. Strung out the group, thenalmost straight away, Novie went full gas, I followed, we pulled 1 big turn each, 2-up, and rode across about a 30second gap, in around 3km. We were hauling ass.... The group was about 7 riders, and they were surprised to see us there, out of no where! Unfortunately, they sat up and didn't want to work anymore. The bunch soon caught us.

It seemed nothing would stay away today, so I slowly drifted back through the bunch, saving the legs again. With 4 laps to go I started to move up again, I hadn't seen Novie for a while. He had a bit of bad luck. On a dodgy corner with cobbles, another rider lost their bottle. Novie had to dodge it, lost his line into the corner and ended up hitting the kerb on the exit of the corner and hit the deck. A few grazes on himself.

There was a few attacks getting near the end of the race, and just after we passed through the start/finish line with 2 lapsto go, a rider attacked, so I decided to follow. We quickly got a gap. I drilled it, swung off to let the other rider do a turn on the front, he was suffering a bit. To be honest he was slowing us down a bit, so I did majority of the work on the front. Probably 80%, sitting around 48-50kmh. 1 lap to go and we still had a gap, but behind us there was a group of 10 chasing, the bunch had split up big time.

1 lap to go, 2-up, about 10seconds to 10 chasers.

He asked me if we should wait for the chasing group, I said "nah f**k that, lets keep going" haha I was pretty keen. And confident I'd beat him in a 2-up sprint if it came down to it. A few km later and the group was about 5 seconds behind, so with 3-4km to go, we sat up and joined the chasing group of 10 riders. I sat on the back, for about 1km, recovered a bit, had a drink then got ready for the final 3km. There was a few attacks, but surprisingly not as many as I thought, and surprisingly my legs were still pretty good! With 1km to go, there was a right hander then a slight left hand bend all the way until the finish line. Out of the right hander, I was 3rd wheel. A rider attacked on the left side, I jumped across to his wheel. Left around 2-3 bike lengths, 500m to go and I was still in the same position. Waiting for the right time to jump past him, or jump onto a rider if they got the jump on me. 400m...... 300m..... I kicked, went past the front guy, finish line came into view, 200m.... still on the front, 150m.... I see a front wheel start to come on my left as I looked down, 100m..... I managed a slight kick again and put a bike length into 2nd place. 15m.... I threw my hands in the air, 2nd win in 2 weeks. Stoked.

Win in Booischot

Novie rolled in for 14th place. Next up we have have Thüringen Rundfahrt in Germany, a 7-day U23 Tour, one of the biggest U23 Race's in Europe each year, with the best U23 teams in the world. It's a bloody hard tour, with plenty of climbing. For us I think we'll have to target some stages, especially the Team Time Trial, and see how the week pans out!

Consists of:

- Stage 1 - 170km

- Stage 2 - 22km Team Time Trial

- Stage 3 - 143km

- Stage 4 - 142km

- Stage 5 - 11.7km Uphill Time Trial, eeeek...

- Stage 6 - 193km

- Stage 7 - 162km.

Sancho

An Post Ras - a quick rundown

I'll give a quick rundown of each stage, what happened and results. Might chuck a few pictures in there too. The Ras was an 8-day Tour, covering most of Ireland from Dublin down. 1247km, with rain, wind and even a bit of sun.

For reference, Dream = Marc Ryan, Gatey = Aaron Gate, Novie = Shane Archbold, Cam = Cam Karwowski

Stage 1 - Flat stage, all 5 of us were up the front with 10km to go, unfortunately race was stopped with 5km to go due to crash, basically it was a f**k up, Dream didn't see the front again after the race was started. We ended up being 1 man short for the sprint lead out, and Novie got 4th.

Stage 2 - Super windy day, Cam was in break, caught after main climb with 50km to go. Attacks went, I was in front group with Gatey, Novie rode across with yellow jersey in cross/head wind. with 30km to go, bunch was 22 riders, 5 riders attacked, including Novie and yellow jersey. Yellow got dropped, Novie gets 2nd in stage, moves into Yellow race leaders jersey. 2 riders from our group attacked in final km, I won bunch sprint for 7th.

Stage 3 - Break goes with Gatey in it, the rest of the boys can relax. Break stays away, Gatey gets 8th and moves into Under23 leaders jersey. Novie looses yellow to eventual tour winner, Gediminas Bagdonas. Me and Novie finished in 2nd group.

Stage 4 - Fairly cold, windy day. Over 3 hills, one category one climb. Race split on the climb, Novie and Gatey in front group. Bagdonas wins the bunch sprint over Novie. Me and Dream roll in groupetto, easy day for us.

Stage 5 - I was in front group of 6 riders, attacked the group with 3km to go and managed to hold on too win the stage by 4 seconds. (Big description of the stage below, in last post!)

Stage 6 - A big group went, with all of the top contenders. Gatey and Novie were in the front group, protecting Gatey's U23 Jersey, and Novie in the Points jersey, looking to take the lead over Bagdonas. But because Bagdonas was also in the yellow jersey, Novie wore the Sprint jersey most of the week, as he was 2nd rider in this competition (at the time). Novie finished 10th in uphill finish. I finished in big groupetto, I didn't have a general classification position to defend.

Stage 7 - Novie attacked with 7 other riders, at one stage getting 4 minutes on the peloton. An Post, the team of the yellow jersey, chased it down as Shane was now leader of the race (on the road, if the race was to stop when the lead group had 4mins, Novie would now be in the yellow jersey). I got set up for the sprint, getting 3rd in the front bunch, with one rider from the break away staying away. 4th place for me.

Stage 8 - The final day! We had to defend Gatey's U23 jersey, and also defend/extend Novie's lead in the Sprint jersey. We did just that, Novie got 2nd in the stage, that being his 3rd, 2nd place in a stage in the tour. We all finished in this front group, with Gatey successfully defending his jersey, and Novie securing his Sprint jersey.

So all in all a awesome week for us at the Ras. We won 2 jerseys, a stage, three 2nd places, two 4ths, and numerous top 10's!

Cheers to the BikeNZ support staff, couldn't have done it without you.

Next up - Thurigen Rundfhart U23 Tour in Germany, one of the biggest race's in Europe for U23 riders.

Cheers

Sancho