Ello. I thought now that we have wireless internet in the flat have no excuse not too blog so ill do another one!
Ok, well since going down to Bordeaux and topping up the tan, we have had some pretty crappy weather; we did hav the hot spell that u guys had but since then its been wet! I came 14th in one crit and snapped up some good cash primes there by being in the first break for nearly half the race, then came 3rd in bunch sprint after missing the main break; but we won the race and got 4th as well so i will get some good team bonuses in the way of euros at the end of the month! ( i didnt understand these till a little while back but basically anyone from the team finishes 1st/2/3/4/5th in a race we get money bonuses from the club to be split between the riders that contributed to the rider getting that placing if that makes sense!)
Anyway; then i did a big en ligne race a couple of days after and to cut a long story short got in the counter attack and then got put in the ditch in the sprint as to riders bumped to my left! Not fun, still finished 18th, but was last one of the break!
Then the next day i did a big elite race with the couple of pro conti teams here and all the big div 1 teams so was in for a hard day! The course was laps of an 8km circuit, of which there was a 2km climb! Proper switchback job as well! The reprot after the race said there were over 10,000 spectators lining the roads, which seems about right as they were at least 2 lines deep all up the hill! A break went on first lap and stayed away! I made the fatal error of getting stuck near the back at the start and didnt even see the leaders go as it took me nearly a whole lap to move to the front of the bunch! There were 200 riders so was a stupid mistake and a lesson learnt!
Just a quick note on that race; the winner rode away from the bunch, crossed the 1min+ gap to the leaders then rode away from the leaders a couple of laps after to win solo by 15-20seconds! There are some very dodgey rumours about his team though so no comments there!
That race was on the monday then on the thursday i did a 1st act nocturne in which it rained hard from start to finish! I wanted to stick up front as was to dodgey in bunch as course was very tight. After one lap i found myself in break as apparently there was a crash which caused a split in the bunch! Then a counter came across to make the break about 20+. Everyone started to jump around as the bunch was too big; i bided my time then put in a big attack on the slight drag; one guy came with then 1 lap later we were joined by 2guys from the china team, we rode flat out for a couple fo laps and got about a 20/30second gap and held that to the finish. One chinese guy clipped off just before the last lap, then i jumped and got a little gap but didnt have enough left in the tank after riding all race and got brought back in last km. i then stupidly started the sprint in last wheel and ended up finishing there! Another mistake learnt from there! Still was pretty happy with 4th place as it's my best result out here soo far but jus a lil gutted to be so close to podium but not on it! Oh well, my time will come!
In general though, everything is cool over here. no problems and loving the racing so im a happy chap! ciao
