So, back to Banoyles again. Its maybe not the biggest race race, but it definitely is a fun one. The Catalyn people really are friendly, a relief coming from France! Simple little things, like offering to cook my brown rice and many many 'Mucho Bienas' ... just makes life feel better.

Staying with the Finnish ex roady, Jukka Vastaras, I got to hear some great stories about his crazy time with Rabobank which he rode for during 4 years. As he was not a 'star' rider he had to put up with a lot of crap.. like the team not allowing him to ride his brakes on the front/right side as he was used to, as it was too much hassle to the mechanics! He said he went down on multiple occasions, but still nothing. He had to stop due to back trouble, but now that he's healthy again he has decided to come back on the MTB, his first passion. It will be interesting to see how he progress's through the year, but for sure he has a few things to learn....



Jukka, road sprinter turn mtber!









...and his first lesson, take it easy at the start !!! The little power pocket lead us all full tit through the first 1/2 lap! It was good for me though, as I could just sit on and I was feeling surprisingly comfortable. By the second lap we were 6 riders at the front and I was still feeling fine, so I pushed the pace and got a gap. Behind the group of 5 including Jukka, Marti Gispert and Carlos Coloma, were never too far away, but I managed to slowly increase my lead to finally win by one minute fifteen. Seeing that I didn't actually manage to win a single race last year, this is a super start to the year!














Media:

infobiker.info
esmtb.com

Off to the team presentation in Holland and the sesaon is finally underway...

After bread cheese ham and more bread we received new clothing and did our standard photo shoot.. so lots of smiling and posing around all morning. This was followed by a long and hardy discussion with Vredestein about tire designs. They are working on some new designs, particularly one to suit perfectly to the Olympic course in Beijing. Its a lengthy process this tire making, but Vredestein are listening hard, so they should be good.



Mr Jan Ten Tusscher, one of the team directors.






Within the team we've had some changes too. Freddy has left, so now its just Roel, Jacob and I on the world cup team. Then Ruud has handed over a lot of his management duties to Simon Burney from GBR. Simon's history in the sport is legend, having been to every MTB worlds since... ever... and also the past 28 cyclo cross worlds. So we will not be lacking experience :) And as if one pommy wasn't enough, a friend of Si's, Jim Bryan is stepping in as head mechanic.




Our new mechanic Jim with Roel.






On the second day we took a ride together with the youngens from the De Brink Ten Tussher team. As to be expected in Holland, it was cold and rainy, so our new Scalpels got there first taste of mud. Local boy, Axel Bults (who rode the Cape Epic with me last year) lead us through a maze of roads, cycle paths and single tracks. Being Holland, it was completely flat and it seemed as though the boys was out to prove how strong they were, so it was a tough ride in the end!



Jan from Polaroid is also a strong rider, so came on the training ride.. here with the De Brink Boys, all ready for action.







The sponsors and media all arrived that evening for the official presentation, held in a local movie cinema complex. First they pumped up our egos with a 3min film with highlights from last year. They then talked Dutch a while, made some interviews with us all and auctioned off a Jacob world champ jersey, 350E, good deal! Afterwards we all ate a nice buffet dinner and mingled with sponsors. Roel, Jacob and I were all dressed up and very polite.. wow, that was something new!

From there we took off in different directions. Jacob will make a training camp with his road team, Roel is going to Cypris with the Belgian federation and I headed to Spain together with Jukka Vastaranta (one of the De Brink team riders) and Simon to do the first UCI race in Europe for the new year.