Fiorenzuola Day 1

After a short 1hour flight down from Belgium, I had arrived in Milan, Italy. I was picked up by a old Italian couple who spoke no English, was taken to their home, then their son Steffano drove me to Fiorenzuola. Steffano is involved with organising the 6-Day Madison.

He dropped me at the hotel which is where all the riders are staying. The food here is delicious, apparently the best food out of all the 6-Day Madisons run through the year! To be honest I think I am going to have to watch how much I eat, as all of the food is so good.... We have been out for a few rides around the Italian country side, it's typical Italy. Awesome rolling countryside, vineyards, climbs and mountains if you want to ride them, little Italian homes! We do a 50km ride in the morning, then race at night, so plenty of riding!

Out riding - Vineyards

Italian countryside

Guy East

SaxoBank pro's Micheal Morkov and Alex Rasmussen

And again.

First night of racing was last night, started at 9pm and the last 50km Madison didn't finish until 12.30am! Everything went well, no crashes or problems with my bike. The racing is fast, with 17 teams entered. First up was a 60lap (24km, 400m track) points race. Each team has two riders, one with black numbers, and one with red numbers, I am black 15. The programme said black riders do the first 30laps, then my team mate - all the red numbers, would roll around and after 30laps we threw our partners in for the second half of the points race.

Results from the first night aren't out yet, but Jackie and I took one lap on the field, along with many of the other teams, so the results will be interesting. I am learning a lot and using this as a great experience.

More posts and photo's to come...

Big week - Now off to Italy

Last weeks power block went well. We had a number of hard sessions, including erg, outdoor track, and the 250m indoor track in Gent. It was based around shorter, higher intensity efforts. We had Sam Bewley at the house for the week, as he was part of the power block too. Sam is part of Lance Armstrong's Radioshack team, and is living in Girona, Spain.

After the track session in Gent, we had lunch in town, caught the train to Leuven, had dinner and a beer (Belgium apparently has over 800 beers, I think it's safe to say it will take me a long time before I ever tasted all of them) and then caught the train back to Aarschot. The weather since I've been here has been unbelievably hot for Belgium. The day we were in Gent, it was showing 36degrees on the clocks in town.

Over the weekend, I was offered to ride a 6-Day Madison in Fiorenzuola, Italy. The 6-Day format has been around for over 100 years and attracts thousands of people to the racing every night. I am riding with Jackie Simes, an American rider who is a couple of years older than me.

While in Kutztown a few weeks ago, I met Jackie at some of the racing. For me it was luck that I am in Europe, and for a reason that I am unaware of, his partner that he had organised to originally ride the 6-Day with, could not ride.

It's pretty short notice for me, leaving Belgium in two days to fly down to Milan. It is a huge opportunity for me to learn and I am looking forward to the experience. It will be my first 6-Day madison and it is also the first 6-Day of the season so it looks as all the big "hitters" of madison racing will be there.

The racing continues from each night, and the team that has done the most laps at the end of the 6 days of different track races including points race, scratch races, madison's and more, are the winner.

I will try take pictures of Italy, and hopefully be able to give updates as the week goes on.

Here is a few links about 6-Day Madison racing and a video on youtube of some racing.

"Click here to learn about 6 day racing"

"Click here for YouTube video"

First races in Belgium

Within a week of me arriving to Belgium I had two big "interclub" races lined up.

The first was on Wednesday, International Wieler Trophee. It was 168km over many of the famous cobbled climbs from the spring classic Tour of Flanders. It had been almost 12 months since my last road race, as over the track season I didn't end up doing much road, instead a lot of track racing. The pace was on from the gun and I got over the first few rollers then up the first long cobbled climb I found myself at the back of the race and caught up amongst the convoy of cars, then decided I wasn't going to get back on and had to shut it down after only 40km of racing, I was pretty gutted. I went out and did some more riding while the race was still on. Unfortunately for us due to a few crashes and some bad luck, none of the kiwi team finished the race! I feel I was still a bit tired from the lag, not in the right frame of mind to fight for positioning, and it just lead to a bad day on the bike.

Had a few days to get things together before Dwars Door het Hageland, which was our local race, only 8km from home. It was 180km, with a 84km loop, followed by 7x14km circuits around Aarschot, in over 30degrees, a bloody hot day. My goal was to make it to the finishing circuits, and help set one of the other guys up for the finishing laps. I rode much better position, in the top 30 riders most of the race. I made it to the finishing laps, feeling alright. There was a long, gradual climb, followed by some downhill, then a short sharp climb before it looped back around and down to a fast finish in the middle of Aarschot.

All five of us were in the bunch, and the race had all come back together. The third time up the long and gradual uphill my legs were fatigued and I started to go backwards through the bunch. I had another go to try get back on but that was the end of my day, and I was much happier than on Wednesday. A group of 3 riders got away in the final laps, and the other 4 kiwis finished in the bunch, a pretty good day for the boys, with many of them being involved in moves on the finishing circuit laps. It can only been onwards and upwards from here for me.

For now we have a "Power Block" this week. It will involve some high power days and efforts on the road bike, erg and a day of the velodrome in Gent.

Thanks for reading.

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