So Euro

Finally managed to hook onto the neighbours internet so no more romaing the streets looking for wifi. So now I can get the blog updates rolling.

So I hit up the Tour of Canterbury as well as Graperide in the last couple of weeks in NZ. Had to bluff my way through a bit as the form wasn't really there. Big ups to my teammates Sam and especially Jo Chapman who worked themselves over for me at Canterbury. But unfortunately all I came away with was a 3rd on stage 1. Graperide was a similar story and I came in 6th.

But that's old news, since then I've made my way around the world to Poperinge, Belgium where I'll be racing for the next 6 months with Tomacc Cycling Team. Spent the first few days in a hotel with 2 teammates, Matt Wheatcroft (NZ) and Joe Harris (Eng). Now we've moved into the new flat which I have to say is a big step up after last years flat in the States. Although the Englishman is a bit of a loose cannon and talks more s*** than Jay from Inbetweeners. (He'd probably take that a compliment).

A couple of days after arriving we went to check out Ronde Van Vlaanderan (The Tour of Flanders), a pro race that had a few kiwis in there. We set up on the cobbled climb up the Kwaremont where the atmosphere was pumping. I was giving the kiwis a bit of abuse and I see Roly mentioned in his blog that he heard some hearty kiwi support up  the climb. 

The training around here is pretty sick. We're only a few k's from the French border so we've been hitting up a bit of altitude training in the mountains on the border up to a whopping 100m above sea level! Nah seriously though, there are a few hills including the famous Kemmelberg which is a brutal cobbled climb that is used in the Belgium classics. Picked up my fist puncture up there the other day. I've been knocking up some k's to make up for my lack of training over summer. It's so good having all this time to train. Yesterday I went out for 6 hours but it turned into 7 after I tried to take a shortcut home. Hit the wall but stoked to be back into it.

 We had our first kermesse the other day. It was 17 laps totalling 120km with a 100m cobble section leading into the finish. Didn't really know what to expect so just rolled in the bunch for the first lap. The pace wasn't too bad and it was a little sketchy in the pelo so I went on the attack and made the split with Matt. We started hussing and the time gap grew pretty quick. I was loving the fact that you could lap hard knowing that someone would always follow through (unlike some of the racing in NZ). The Belgies love to give a few hand slings too to keep the bunch rolling. Matt took a few primes until some Belg rider had a go at him for taking too many primes and chopped him coming into the start/finish. I spent most of the race trying to work out how Matt knew there were primes for that lap. Turns out there were primes every lap. With 3 laps to go we nearly had 3 mins so I had a crack but the Belgies weren't keen to go that early so with a lap and a half to go they started launching and I gave 100% trying to pull it back for Matt but in the end he finished 6th and I got 12th. But it's all part of the learning curve.

A few photos here (in black, blue and white kit) : http://www.cyclingnews.nu/fotopaginas%202012/Bredene04-04-2012.htm#Woensdag

We had team preso the other night which was mad. We were all interviewed and there was a famous Belgie dancer who cut some shapes at the end of the night. There's a bit of talk going round about the team merging with a British team to form a Continental team next year so we can race some UCI tours so there could be opportunnities for next year.

But other than that, I just want to help the team pull some results this season and I would be stoked to find a Euro wife while I'm here!

Enough talk for one day.