Gran Fondo Del Montello
I just had 3 days back home and we're off on the road again for 10 days together with the whole team. Today we raced La Gran Fondo Del Montello Gunn Rita Marathon). Its the same area I have spent a lot of time during my Bianchi days. The race was over some really nice single tracks and was relentless with non-stop short climbs. My motivation was lacking and I decided to save my legs, because we have a more important race on Tuesday about 2hrs away in Nals. Roel rode well and finished 2nd.
We are also in the area of our clothing/shoe sponsor, Diadora. So yesterday we visited the head offices to discuss changes and also take foot measurements so they can customize the shoes for us. They have a really cool collection of old school cycling shirts and jerseys which I had never seen... nice italian style. So, now its onto Nals to stay in our favourite hotel Wilma, just like every year!

Houffalize World Cup
Its been a super day for the team, with all four of us finishing in the top 8 of the first world cup. Roel was 4th, Fredrik 5th, Jacob 7th and me 8th. I've felt this form coming for a while, but I've done so few races it was really hard to know for sure where I was. Now its a nice feeling!

There must have been around 20 thousand spectators lining what is surely one of the best races on the circuit. The Belgian fans are so great! We started up a new super steep climb and here I could already feel the legs were good. After 1/2 lap I was in 23rd place, but I could feel I had lots in reserve. During the next lap I had the best feelings I've experienced in many years... I climbed with ease up till 6th place! Then I made a mistake and burped a lot of air out of my front tire. I filled it with a CO2, but lost 40sec and slipped back to 13th place again, very frustrating! I also lost my rhythm and was suddenly suffering a lot more. I decided to pace myself and ride conservative... passing just a few riders per lap. Overall, its the best I've felt for many years.

As a team, we are now leading the competition. After a really hard year last year, everyone was so happy and relieved. Roel was actually leading with Fredrik at the start, but punctured. Fredrik blew up a little, but top 5 is podium, which we didn't even achieve once last year! Jacob had his best ever world cup and started what looks to be a great battle with Nino Schurter for the U23 honors.


In the woman's race, it was a huge surprise to see Ren Chengyan from China take the win. She was the U23 world champ last year and it seems like shes come from no where! Rosara was 15th, Fiona 69th and Clinton Avery must have had some trouble as his result was 105th.

19 April - Bikes
We're in Houffalize now, preparing the first world cup. It seems like everyone is here, including many national federations who are clearly chasing UCI points for Olympic Selection. From NZL its just me, Rosara and Fiona MacDermid. Normally there are more kiwis, but it seems that BikeNZ no longer wants to support MTB any longer!

Despite this, the atmosphere is really buzzing, with tens of thousands of specators humming around. Many of our sponsors have been showing up with nice new parts for us to ride too... yum yum :)

My Scalpel with the new SLR wheels from Mavic, Black Pantha tires from Vredestein, new ti bottlecage from Cannondale...





The new Lefty fork does not use ELO (electronic lockout), so my friend Michel made me a custom dial. The new fork is 80g lighter and with this longer lever, locking out is easy enough.




After training and eating, we spent the afternoons sitting around weighing bike parts and discussing the bikes with Cannondale...





15 April - German Cup in Munsingen
Finally back into 'normal' racing again and back to a venue where I last came in 1998! I had bad memories of snow and suffering, so the summer conditions felt extra good. Saturday we raced a short track, which was one of the most bizarre short tracks i've done. The course was fully man made, sort of BMX style, but way to narrow for passing. With just one super steep 30m climb per lap to pass on, it became a sprinters race, which is not my forte. Still I managed 5th which is not too bad.. at least until you know there were only 9 starters!

This was also my first time I have raced the new Taurine. I decided to make the switch directly after the Cape Epic, as the geometry is a little different and I knew it would take time to adjust. Sure enough I struggled on my first few rides, hitting the cranks on the ground (due to a 2cm lower BB), but the light carbon rear end felt incredible up steep technical climbs! Once I got my light parts on it, the weight came to exactly 9.17kg... but there's still lots more we can do, so I hope it to be around 8.5kg by the end of the year. The steering tube angle is slacker then the Scalpel which makes for a strange feeling at first.. but now that I'm used to it I realize it must be ridden very aggressively, leaning into corners a little more and then its really tracking well.

The XC was high speed, with just short climbs. The UCI have made a real mess out of the starting positions because all rankings are back to zero at the start of each year. This means that those that have not done the pre-season races, such as in Cyprus, have very few points and have to start at the back. It's a stupid system and created a lot of ciaos as the stronger riders started far behind and had to make dangerous passing to get through the field. I was in this situation, starting 4th row. I burst my balls trying to pass riders in the first lap, but was still in 17th place. The legs were okay though and I ended up racing just behind the main front group of 7 riders and finished 9th.

23-31 March - Cape Epic
This had to be the MOST INCREDIBLE race I have ever done. 8 days, 896km, 1086 riders, amazing scenery and perfect organization.
We all met up in Munich and checked onto our LTU flight direction CapeTown. For those that fly alot, LTU have a nice deal for bikes, but I still couldn't believe we managed to convince the checkout chick that each bike weighed between 40 and 60kgs! Arriving at 7am, day one was all about collecting the campervans and driving them to the starting town of Kysner. The drive east was along the famous Garden Route and it was spectacular. The anticipation was building knowing that we would have to race all the way back again, following tracks and gravel roads a little more north in the dryer, desert like regions. Stopping for groceries we could notice how cheap things were.. the exchange rate is very good down here!As I wrote way too much about this trip, I've attached it as a word docoment. Click here to download...

capeepic.doc
Also, check out www.cape-epic.com for other info...

11 March - Copa Catalyana #1
Finally I made my first UCI event and for the first time for me a round of the Copa Catalyana series. This race in Banyoles is held most years as the opening event and always attracts a top quality field. This year was no exception with pretty much all the top french and spanish riders there. It was a nice course too, super technical and twisty with hard packed dusty surface. As always, I try not to expect too much from my first race, but in the end I was pretty happy to come in 8th in such a world class field, especially as the sensations in the legs were surpricenly nice. Julian Absalon won the race, which is a series worry to all those interested in world cups this year. I think he's going to be very hard to stop!


08 March - Vredestein tire presentation
For the introduction of the new Vredestein tires, we were invited to a luxury few days in Cannes, France. Set in a 4 star hotel in the center of the city we were made to feel like super stars for 2 days, with over 100 journalists and dealers to talk to about our experiences.The new tires include a mud tire called Bull lock, a slightly larger version of the Tiger Claw, and my favorite, the Black Pantha. This is really the result of our teams efforts and discussions to create the best XC racing tire possible. I think its going to be a huge success.