Salut tous le monde..

Last weekend I raced the Tour Loire Pilat, a top end amateur road race in the area around St Etienne (a little south from Lyon). It was a pretty interesting tour, starting with a TTT (Team Time Trial). This was my first since being a novice and my only memory of that was that we rode fixed-gear bikes and I stopped pedaling at the line, so crossed the finish doing a wicked long nose wheelie !!) Well, this time I rode my standard roady bike... a system6 with Force components. The course was kind of crazy with steep climbs and technical descents. All good fun, we finished last after one guy locked up his carbon 'lightweights' and overshot a corner... hehe.

The next two days had a good hilly stage each and a short 5km hilly TT on Sunday morning to add to the pain. We had super weather and we were riding in some beautiful country side, so I really enjoyed myself. I did get pretty frustrated on the first day, as despite the climbs the race was just non-stop attacks and you really needed to know who the good riders were to make the right break. I finished 3min down in 19th place.

I completely sucked in the TT, despite giving all I had I was still 50sec behind in only 5km.. gezzzzas they can push themselves hard! But in the afternoon I got some revenge... after missing the big break on the first climb, I attacked on the second and with 2 others bridged a two minute gap.. then straight away followed an attack with 3 others up the major climb... this was longer and harder then I was expecting, so I really got my training done. By the end I was a little light headed, but finished 5th.

I thought my final GC place would be around top 5, but in fact I was 2nd overall, as only one other had been near the front on both days. So in the end a nice result for my club CCC and some excellent prep for my world champs. I can say my legs are feeling super and my confidence is growing by the day... my only big concern now is my asthma, which is continuing to cause issues still now, three weeks since my problems in Belgium.

This weekend is my final test, a Benelux cup in Zootemer.

Ciao
Kashi

I've been sitting at home this week, struck down by a bout of fatigue... sometimes the body just says STOP ! So I decided to listen to it and take a 5 day rest period, plus skip the weekends German cup. I will also miss next weekends race, as I really feel I need some physical and mental rest to try and regain my strength for the worlds.

I think it started already in Bern, as I had 'weird' feelings in that race... with no energy for the first lap, but afterwards I managed to regain my rhythm to finish strong. The day after I did a long ride, which was perhaps the big mistake.. hard to know for sure. In any-case, since then I've been dead to the world... I still went to Belgium, but I had some really bad asthma after staying in a damp house for one night. I actually thought my problems with this were over, but clearly not. Of course, the fact that my body was already tired would not have helped my immune system either.

So, already at the start of the 105km marathon race I was suffering to breath and I knew the race was not for me. I tried to hold a descent place, but after 60km I was over it all and decided there was no reason to push myself just to finish in 30th position... so I made my first DNF for the season. I was stoked to see Susi win after so many seconds over the years in the XC worlds.. good going mate!










At home again I talked to Benoit and we decided I needed a long break... and only after a few days off the bike did my body really go into recovery mode.. I was sleeping 10hrs per night and still feeling veged all the next day.. I'm finally back into training now, but taking it a little easier for the first week... I just hope my body didn't get too burnt.. we'll see in a few weeks I guess!

Marcus had a stellar weekend though... he just won a 4 day MTB tour in the alps.. (www.transmaurienne.com/index.html) what is considered as an extreme event with 9000m climbing including a glacier pass! Both he and Anja were in the top 2-3 each day and put NZL in the headlines.. very cool to see :)

Marcus riding the glacier...

Time continues to fly by and we're now just a month away from the seasons climax... the worlds in Scotland. Somehow my days are always full to the brim as I try to juggle my training, cooking, playing house and garden and lying on the sofa. The tour was great for that... I recorded it each day so after my erands I could vege out and watch the great drama unfold.. and who could have predicted that story line!

Marcus and I made a really fun mission in the mountains. We spent four days on big bikes around the Alps between Val Thorens and Alp d'heuz. We came back again the following week for the marathon world cup starting in Les 2 Alps.. I was hoping for a win, but had to settle for 5th after blowing up majority in the final hour. Was a super course though over some serious mountains and down some great switchback descents that lasted 30-40min at a time. Marcus got 16th.. his PB.



Somewhere high above Col de Galibier... the real pass!








At home things have been much the same. I've tried to keep quite, but its never really so easy. The weeds in the garden were exploding, my garage seriously needed a full clean out, etc etc... Then there are the non-stop stupid issues with the French bureaucratic system.. The simplest of tasks, such as changing an address for an internet company appear to be beyond their ability! And when you call for help, they charge 30c per minute to sit on hold.. just to have the line dropped once you get through... makes me f#*#*& mad!!!

The last few weeks we've been back to business again with a German Cup in St Margen, then a Swiss Cup in Bern. I managed 2nd in the first race and 6th in Bern, which was good considering the later was practically a world cup (13 or the best 15 ranked riders were there!) It was also really fun to have the company of Rosara and Anja, two of our very best kiwi girls. It all worked out sweet, except that Anja crashed just before Bern and couldn't race due to stitches on her knee. Its her first time racing here, so not such fun.

We went to Bern early so Marcus and I could get our Chinese Visa's, as we'll be going to check out the Olympic course in September. Afterwards we met up with my dad and cruised the streets of this stylish capital city.. lots of cool stores and cafes, but not cheap! People were surprisingly open and happy, music was on the streets and we even met a funny group of pretty girls, celebrating there friends marriage by dressing up in Flamenco skirts and handing out sangrias.. nice :)










This weekend its going to be a lot of suffering again, as we've got the marathon world champs. Its in Belgium and the course will be non-stop 5-10min climbs.. in other words, a XC race, but for 4-5hrs.. ouch! I will not have the chance to pre-ride the course, but the form is good, so... got to try right!


This pic is from Canada.. the team remembered my birthday!