Ups and Downs

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Since my last entry things have been a bit of a rollercoaster! After Monts des Luberon we had another 1.2 in France Paris-Troyes. The objective for the day was to get Yanto to the end of the race in a good position, aiming for a top 10. I had to look after him in the mid section of the race along with my team mates Travis and Phil. There was a break that had a 3 minute lead so the 3 of us went to the front to help RAGT (who had also missed the move) pull it back. It was a great feeling riding through and off with a team that rode the Tour de France last year! We managed to get the gap down to about a minute coming onto the last climb with about 20km left, a this point the lights went out and I just rode into the finish. Yanto was now in a great position and along with a few others made it across to the remiander of the break finishing in an incredible 6th position against riders from AG2R and Agritubel! It was really satisfying to think I'd been a part of that and inspiring to ride for someone of Yanto's calibre who can really do the job!

 

And now for the down, the following week we went down to France again for La Roue Tourangelle another 1.2. We travelled on the Saturday setting off at 7am to make sure we could get in a training ride in the afternoon. It didn't take long before things began to go awry, half an hour in fact when the van with all the bikes broke down on the Brussels ring rode! It was midday once we'd transferred all the equipment into the other car and set off again. Five words sum up the next part of the journey, Saturday afternoon, Paris ring rode, I need say no more! We finally arrived at 8pm having spent 13 hours in the car, I was stiff to say the least!

I think this was part of the reason I found myself trying to get back to the bunch through the convoy after a particularly grippy cross wind section. I was on the back of the Storez (a Belgian team) car when the driver decided to brake very sharply leaving me no where to go. I rode straight into the back of it at 30mph and bounced down the road on my back, I needed stitches in my knee but other than that I was really lucky not to sustain anything more serious. Yanto again finshed 6th so that was another good result for the him and the team!

 

Since that little hiccup things haven't really got back on track, I did another UCI race a 1.1 this time but didn't finish. I've been really struggling to find my legs again, seem to be pedalling squares! Hopefully everything will start to pick up soon. I'm back in the UK at the moment staying at the team's base in Brighton and will be riding a race here on Sunday.

 

a bientot