14/04/12 Dikkebus Kermesse

Elissa Bargh

This blog is dedicated to you Elissa. Matt might be too cool to give you a shout out but I'm not. Haha

Anyway, one month in and I'm still alive...but only just. I've been pumping out the races recently but unfortunately haven't pulled any results for a while. Just lacking a bit of top end as well as luck at the moment. But I still tend to come away from most races with a huge 10 euros in winnings. We had a race a few days ago and it was good to see little Spaghetti (aka Tom Delany in there). Still struggling to get over the fact that I let him roll me. But in my defense I did nearly lose my back wheel because of a dodgey scewer. I'd have to say I was in contention for crowd pleaser of the day after I got a few OOH's and AAH's when I just about took out a few posts and a crowd of people on the finishing straight.

In the last few weeks I've developed a taste for Belgium roads. Never mind the sketchy narrow lanes we race on with 130+ others, the training rides are proving much more dangerous. Last week I was out for a spin with my teammate Joe in typical Belgium weather (rain and wind). We were riding on a cobbled road when a car hit the brakes in fornt of us. I was only running the rear brake as my front had broken in the race the day before. So it pretty much goes like this: cobbles + rain + speed + one brake = stackage. I slid a fair few metres but luckily the bike was sweet and the kit stayed together!

Joe has been having a bit of trouble on the technical circuits lately so decided he'd do a day of practising cornering. And beeing the good guy I am I agreed to help him out a bit. So we found a little circuit and smashed corners all day. On the last lap it had just started raining and I hit a corner at pace and sure enough, laid it right over. The truth is Joe had me in the box and I just needed an excuse for a lie down. This time I wasn't so lucky, bent derailleur hanger and ripped up the kit a bit (including Joel's leg warmers). Luckily Joel still has trouble reading. Our team director owns the local bike shop so I think he's pretty stoked with all the business I give him.

Our team manager (Chris) has turned out to be a total good sort. He calls us his sons now. A few weeks ago we did a race and all the favourties went up the road. Apparently all the spectators were saying it was race over but Chris told them his sons were in the peloton and we'd bring it back. And sure enough Matt and I manged to bring it back with a bit of help from one or two others. That night he shouted us to the movies (which were in English) and then shjouted a round at the bar after.

The wife hunt is pretty non existent to be honest. I'm sure she's out there somewhere but I haven't really met many people our own age yet. So I'm battling on washing my own dishes and cleaning my own bike but I'll try a few birthday wishes this weekend and we'll see how that goes.

That's about all the excitement I've got today folks.

Bam Bam

Boomchakalaka

A wise man once gave me some advice on doing something new. He said, the first time you try something, you will be pretty useless. The second time you do it you will show a big improvement. And the third time you do it, you will be worse than the first you tried it because you’re over confident. I wish I listened to that guy.

Woke up this morning feeling like superman, pretty confident after making the front group in both of my first 2 kermesses. So decided I’d step it up a notch and go for a win. I put on the race wheels and went into the race backing myself 100%. 

The circuit didn’t look too hard and the wind was just a breeze at the start/finish so I predicted the race would stick together for at least a few laps. I was totally wrong. The pace went on straight away and I found myself too far back. On the first cross wind section the race blew apart. I ended up in the second group on the road. In an attempt to make the front group I attacked and put myself right into the red zone, didn’t manage to bridge it and ended up almost right at the back of the race after not being able to recover.

So in the end I ended up riding almost the entire race in a bunch of 4, with 2 of us lapping (the other guy was a huge rig, he made Clinton Avery look like a little boy). We were the 4^th bunch of the road and ended up sprinting for 31^st. I came in 32^nd after the big man rolled me.

Matt was our top rider finishing in 18^th as part of the third group on the road.

So lesson learnt and as my good mate Katy Perry tells me, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But I did come away making a profit of 5 Euro! I love you Belgium.

Cheers Murray

Kermesse #2

Belgium decided our first kermesse was too easy so decided to ramp it up a bit by making our second kermesse a pretty brutal ride. It was our intro into Under 23 racing, 14 laps of an 8km circuit. The first half of the circuit was pretty technical with some tight corners and crosswind while the other half was a uphill headwind drag followed by a fast downhill tailwind to the finish. And sure enough, a Belg kermesse isn’t the same if it’s not wet. But they did chuck a bit of coin towards the primes in on every lap too.

Race started and I felt like a demon. The belgies didn’t seem too keen to hit the wet corners at pace so I could move up through the turns pretty easily. Hit up a few early moves and took the first prime of the day without too much difficulty. But early in lap 3 someone stacked it a couple of wheels ahead of me. I ended up off the road and the pelo completely split in two.  Our bunch wasn’t working well and the front group wasn’t coming back at all so I decided to play the patience game. When we hit the technical part of the circuit I started drilling it through the turns and pulled back a 30 second gap on the front group solo. Luckily I managed it because only 5 other riders managed to make it across the gap about a lap later.

We dropped a few other boys and ended up with a bunch of about 15 including some good teams such as the Quickstep team. With 3 laps to go one of the teams sent a man up the road and that was it. His team was blocking and we never got it together to pull him back. But he must have been an oxe to stay out front for 3 laps. In the final lap it split up a bit, Matt rolled in 2^nd and I picked up 7^th in the sprint.

A good day out in my books. Matt and I both picked up 2 primes on top of the placings so a bit of food money for this week...hello waffles      ! Also good to see a few other kiwis in there, Sean Joyce and Simon Finucane riding for Bianchi.

So yer, life’s still good over this neck of the woods. Gotta cut down on the food bill though. And we had a bit of an issue with visas today but I think/hope we got that sorted.

Looking forward to mixing up some curry this weekend with 2 kermesses back to back! Shit yea Murray.

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.

Blogging Again Due To High Demand

Ladies n Gentlemen, Boys n Girls, I know many of you have struggled over these last few months without a few yarns to read on here. But don't fret, T.A has returned.

So Once upon a time (December) I got my archilles problem sorted and hopped back on the bike to start pumping some k's for vineyards and elite nationals. But to be honest with you, I wasnm't feeling it at all. I felt average on training rides and was getting dropeed in club races but didn't want to let the team down again by pulling out of vinnies. So I battled on and dug myself a nice little hole. Hit Vineyards and morale was estimated at a value of 3.5%. But i grovelled my way through and by the end I couldn't even bear (or maybe "bare") to look at my bike. So hung it up and decided I'd just start riding when I felt like it again. So it hung, and hung, and hung. Elites came and went, Hub tour came and went, but the bike remained.

So I just carried on with my building and made the most of my weekends doing stuff other than riding like heading down Crail Bay with the boys, hitting up Felix n Cush's wedding, maybe drinking a little too much here n there and just laxing out at the beach with family and friends. And it felt pretty good. Many moons later I started to feel the pull of my bike. We were meant to be together. So I started doing a few gentle rides which became big rides which then turned into club racing again. Nek Minnit I've decided to hit up Belgium in a few months and I'm feeling pumped with motivation again.

So the plan is maybe do a few NZ races before I go. Got to improve on last years result at Graperide, maybe do Brunner, Oceanias and even Club nats if I'm still around.

So there you have it folks.

P.S if you wand a cheap bryton rider 50 or some sick BBB sunnies check the links.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/cycling/parts-accessories/computers/auction-443878176.htm

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Need a Cup of Concrete

Get comfortable and grap a cup of tea, this update is pretty likely to turn into one of the longest novels you've ever attempted to read.

Well since last time I've had a few hiccups to be honest. The achilles proble I was suffering with turned out to be a strain due to the tightness in my calves. After spending my life savings on physio I got put right but not in time for Southland which was pretty gutting. Still headed down and helped the team out here n there just helping them out with recovery and filling up the van with my main man octane etc. Looked like your typical hard man's Southland tour from what I saw. Wish Icould have been right in there. Check out this photo of our van on the last day.

For those of you that don't know the van was pimped out with polka dots because one of my team mate's Jo Chapman won the Polka dot jersey (King of the Mountains). Jo also manged a 2nd place on a stage and Gatey pulled a 3rd on a stage so it was a pretty successful tour for the team. Even tour rookie Tom Francis got his share of TV time.

About this time I got a new job as a bulding labourer for Cornerstone Construction which keeps the cash rolling in but does stop me training as much as I'd like to. So a few weeks after Southland I started the slow buildup again, this time on the new rig thanks to EMC, Zipp and Sram. Check it:

So to test out my new baby I went down to the final round of benchmark in Chch. The race wasn't overly fats and the team raced smart and we ended up with most of our team up the road. Brendon Sharratt was the star of our team finishing about 5th or 6th, taking second overall. For me, I did what I could for the team before disappearing out the ass because of my lack of fitness.

Unfortunately before the race, I kicked a piece of glass which went through my shoe and cut my toe. I thought it was sweet and hard manned it but after a few days it was getting pretty sore so I paid a visit to old Dr Jolly who reckoned there wasn't still glass in it but it was full of some luscious succulent puss which meant it was pretty infected. So onto the anibiotics and not being able to wear shoes meant more time off the rig.

Finally finished the antibiotics today and have knocked up a couple of rides lately so the fitness is coming back...hopefully in time to get some form for Vineyards and Elites. Fingers crossed that there's no more unexpecteds in the next few weeks.

Running out of sharns.
Peace