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

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