World Cup #2 - Offenburg, Germany

all the aussies at offenburg

hendo and I at offenburg

me in the race

me riding the "wolfsdrop" at Offenburg

macca looking super fast

some of the vineyards around offenburg

Offenburg town centre

our little house in the black forrest ("swartzwald")

the view

The super fast Renault Kangoo

Coach and i at the lake in lugano

Russ Baker has heaps of photos up on:

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/lematelot56/OffenburgWorldCup26Apr09#

I was a bit unsure going into the Offenburg World Cup. I spent the entire week prior confined to the couch, watching MTV and eating Echinacea and vitamin C tablets. The day before the race it still felt my lungs were the size of a tennis ball, I was definitely on the mend but it was a battle against the clock to get better in time. After having done next to nothing all week though; I was pretty sure that I would be the freshest rider on the line.

Clarkey told me to start a bit conservative and try to ride into the race, but that was a bit hard with a field of 250. The start was so fast and the Europeans certainly have a unique style of racing. I got taken down twice on the first lap by dickheads trying on non-existent passing moves. In a third incident when a guy tried to chop me I managed to stay upright and was pretty happy to be able to ride over his wheel, hopefully causing some race ending damage. I have to say that I didn’t feel super comfortable during the first 3 laps, I was losing places on most of the climbs, and wasting energy to try and defend my position the whole time. On the 4th and 5th laps I started to feel a bit more comfortable, in part because the field had thinned out and I could ride more efficiently. I was starting to slowly pull back a few places but I was probably somewhere in the 140's at that stage (yeah i know, OTB). When I came through to finish the 5th lap, I got pulled (131st place). It is a pretty bad feeling to realise all of a sudden that your race is over and you are to finish 2 laps down. So I was a bit disappointed but I had plently of company; Hass, Cal, Charton and Hendo all had bad days too. Hass got taken out on the first lap and was back to second last at one stage. Hendo was probably the only guy behind him after flatting in the first minute and having to run about 3 kilometres to the tech zone, he only managed one lap before the approaching sound of the lead motorbike meant the end of his race. Blood, Macca and Lach all had really solid rides with Chris leading the Aussie charge in 13th place, probably the best ride by an Australian in the past few years.

I am now in Houfalize (Beligium) licking the wounds and trying to workout how I can get faster in a week. The track has 300m of climbing per lap, which is so much, more than double the average track back home. I have also lost my good starting position, so i'll be off about 100 on the grid. We'll have to wait and see, but i really hope to put together a good ride.

Lugano Racerbikes Cup

Well, my 2nd Racerbikes Cup (formally Swisspower Cup) experience was not quite the same disaster from last year at Savognin, but it wasn't too far off.  We got to Lugano on Thursday afternoon and it was pissing down with rain......so cold.  We had a look at the track on Friday and it was awesome.  A really fun track with heaps of roots, very euro.  I was feeling pretty good going into the race on Saturday but before long i was suffering pretty hard.  The start was really fast and i probably used a few too many buscuits too early.  After a couple of laps it started to rain and the track got quite tricky.  I was having trouble staying warm as i faded over the last few laps, and ended up rolling in 36th place.  I was on the same lap as the winner (Florien Vogel), but only just.  Lachy had a strong ride for 11th.  The other boys were  23rd for charlton, 28th for Haas, and old mate Hendo 39th after having a flat.

I am now in Offenburg, Germany for the 2nd World Cup and spent the whole day on the couch with a flu.  not happy.  At least we have a cool pad in the hills.  It is a kind of hunters cabin or something with plenty of German charm. i'll post some photos soon hopefully.  

Annecy, France

Benny driving it up Le Semnoz


Metrying to keep up!


America's next top models


Back on Yohanns balcony (Le Semnoz in the back ground)

We arived in Geneva yesterday after a pretty long trip from africa, made a few hours longer by a delayed flight in Madrid. The first stop, which is becoming quite a habit for me, was a visit to the baggage tracking office in the Geneva airport. I don't think i my bike has ever arived at geneva airpot on the same plan as me! That is the 3rd time. After collecting the brand new Renault Kangoo (quite possibly the greatest car i have ever driven) we eventually found Ben Henderson and drove over to Annecy to stay with old pals Yohann & Estelle, and my slight more recent buddy Aurelien who just celebrated his first birthday. Rosie's bike had actually arived so i built it up so hendo and i could go for a roll. Unfortunately my cycling shoes were in my lost bag so i had to ride with the dunlop volley's - not recomended.

This morning we went to Trocsport (a second hand sports store) to try and find some cheap shoes that would get me through a couple of days. I managed to whip myself up a really spiffing yellow pair of size 46's for the bargain price of 15 euros. Unfortunately i am only size 44, i'll just have to wear some think socks i suppose. The great news though that came out of all this was that they also had some really old mad jerseys there so Hendo and I were able to pick up some teriffic euro-fashion for 3 euros a piece. Mine even has a zipper chest pocket for my "wini-blues".

We went for an awesome ride this afternoon up Le Semnoz and around Lac d'Annecy. I didn't think about it much before hand but it is still the tail end of the ski season here so before long it started getting cold. We climbed for about an hour and as we went over the top there quite a lot of snow. Luckily the new jerseys were prety warm...yes....stylish AND functional!

So still no sign of the bike, but they assure me that it is on the way.

World Cup #1 - Pietermaritzburg SA

the start of the mens race

Gracie on her way to the U23 podium

This was the finish of the downhill, it was crazy when local boy, Minaar came down to take the lead.

We smashed a lot of these berry smoothies at Coffeeberry Cafe, usually we got our own but Macca and i thought it would be romantic to share one on this occasion

One world cup down, 5 to go. I am really happy with how it all went for me and i finished 59th 14m57s down from the winner Jose Hermida of Spain. Top 60 is great news because that should mean that i get no.59 and will be seeded 59th at the next world cup in Offenburg which would typically have nearly 300 starters. Outside the top 60 the seedings go to UCI points which would mean starting way back.

The start was a bit hectic and there was a massive pile-up right in front of me when someone went down. Again it was really hot and i tried to not go too hard early. It was hard not to push too hard because people were passing me throughout the first 3 laps, and it wasnt really until the 4th or 5th lap that i started making places back. I knew i was very close to the top 60 and on the last lap i managed to catch and pass 2 guys right at the top of the last climb, and was so happy when i finished and realised that had been the difference. Macca was the best placed aussie in 42nd (roughly) and Lachlan Norris finished just in front of me in 58th. Blood, Haas and Charlton were 65th, 78th and 85th respectively and were 1 lap down. Blood (Chris Jongeward) had an awesome start and was right near the front of the race on the first lap, but blew about half way through the race.

The Aussie women did really well too with Ro Fry in 26th, Gracie in 28th, Kate Potter 32nd and Katherine 34th (with a broken chain). But the biggest new was that Gracie's ride was enough to score her 3rd place and a well deserved podium in the U/23 category. Well done Gracie

Cruisy day tomorrow then we will pack the bags and fly to geneva on monday. This time next week we will be sucking back cappuccini by the lake at Lugano in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. ciao.

African Safari

For the start of the week I was busy recovering from the weekend’s race so I had a bit of time for some sight seeing. Rosie and I went to the Umgeni Nature reserve to see some wildlife and some waterfalls. It was a kind of self-drive safari, which really tested out the brand new ford fiesta hire car. It was really nice but unfortunately we didn’t see any giraffes, we did see plenty of zebras and some other cool animals though, I’ll have to look up what they all were.

On Monday I meet up with a bunch of local guys and went for a tour of the local trails. There is plenty of riding here, I think I’ll have to come back.

On Tuesday Dan Mac and Katherine O’Shea arrived today and I took them around the track. It was good to see some familiar faces. This afternoon we went for a little tour out in the country to see another waterfall, Karkloof Falls. It was a very impressive sight standing on top of a 150-odd metre cliff and looking across at the falls which were similarly tall, even though Macca is a bit girly about heights.

I had a decent hit out on the track on Wednesday with a few single lap time trials. The race venue is really starting to come together and the atmosphere is building of the weekend. In the afternoon Rosie, Macca, Katherine, Chris J and I headed out to Tala Game Reserve. It was like Jurassic Park. We drove ourselves around the park in the little Fiesta in search of some big game. We spotted a giraffe, hippos, zebra and heaps of other animals but the highlight was the Rhino! Those things are massive. Macca, Blood and I walked up fairly close (well actually, they walked up and I cowered behind them), it was amazing.

I have attached some photos of South Africa so far:

Life gaurd tower at the beach in durban with a 3 story firemans pole.

One of the locals at a birdpark in durban

Howick Falls

Zebras in Umgeni Nature Reserve

Rosie in Umgeni

Macca, Rosie, Kath and I at Karkloof Falls

Rhino!

Rosie with the zebras

Macca and Blood with the rhinos

A giraffe. Very hard to spot, but Chris was on the ball

South African National Round - Pietermaritzburg

Yoorr! Howzit?!?

As you can see I have been picking up a bit of the local lingo, they talk so funny over here. I have also worked out a few nice training rides so now I can avoid going through the slightly not so pleasant areas of town. Oh and I had my first “Braai” (pronounced like the women’s undergarment) the other day. It is just a BBQ, pretty much the same as we have back home, except the sausages here are all coiled up like a snake.

On to the racing. Today was a South African national round and because of the World Cup here next week there was a big field with heaps of hitters present including Sauser, Hermida, Stander, Schurter and Vogel (sorry if that doesn’t mean anything to you). Thankfully the rain stayed away, but downside was that it was really hot. I had a pretty good start and up the first climb I was really happy to see some really good riders (Kashi and Liam Kileen) around me so I was content to settle into a rhythm. I think I was just out of the top 20. I lost a couple of spots through the first lap or two, but then I started to move slowly through the field a bit. In the end I finished the 7 lap race in 13th, I haven’t had a good look at the results but I was about 13.5min down. Still a bit of work to do but I was able to keep my lap times and heart rates really consistent throughout the whole race, which is a really good sign.

Until next time.