How do you spot a tourist ?
1. Often goes to get in wrong side of car
2. Drives up tram only streets, lots of people waving (they're a freindly lot over here)
3. Drives up one way streets wrong way (ditto people waving)
4. Wears shorts - locals too cool to expose legs
Its certainly been a learning experience - the driving isn't really too hard except when you have to negotiate a real intersection - 99% are roundabouts. So far haven't encountered any road rage, or boy racers!
Anyway spent a couple of days in Zurich - nice place but bloody expensive. Did the touristy things plus saw a Tutankhamen exhibition - very cool. Crossed back over to France Thursday - its great being able to watch the TDF at a pub - at least I don't have to listen to everyone at home slinging off about the druggies - hope there aren' too many more.
Travelled south to Grenoble then Gap, from where I saw the start of the Embrun to Prato Nevoso stage - what a hoot. Pissed down with rain but us TDF pilgrims are pretty dedicated so hung in there. There must have been 20 - 30,000 people at the start!
Yesterday I ducked over to Italy for an espresso, said buon guorno a couple of times, then back to France and Grenoble again via today's tour route - and there were already thoudands of people camping for a good look today.
I had planned to be on today's stage (Alpe d'Huez) but last night I ran into trouble - my main credit card got swallowed in an ATM. I had to abandon my plans and spent an hour this morning trying to convince the people in the bank to give it back. To cut a long story short they wouldn't (and I didn't even swear at anyone) so will cancel it and rely on my other one - if I lose that I could be here a while - hope my bosses don't mind but I worked out I could beg for food while walking home - should be back by about 2011.
Anyway I head for Paris Thuesday, stay there for a few days, and see how many times I can get told off. I'll be at the Champs Elysee for the final stage so see if you can spot me on TV - should only be about a million or so watching it.
Au revoir
Howie sans beret
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Josh finishes tour
Stage 8
Today’s stage was pretty epic really, A break quickly established itself after about 20k, so I was back on the front for more tempo riding. My legs were pretty wasted from riding the front the day before but I was still keen to ride the front and help the team as much as I can. So there were six of us driving the front, two from my team, two Marco Polo Boys and two Rock Racing Boys. It was pretty awesome to say the least being the guys driving the bunch along, and as we speed through the towns they crowds out to watch us were incredible and the nose deafening. It was just like what you see on the TV when watching the Tour de France (Which I must say I have really missed seeing live) After about 50k riding on the front with head wind and slightly uphill the hole way we had bought the break back just in time for the climbing to begin, As soon as the road tilted skywards Myself and Sergio from Rock Racing were yelling Groupetto at the top of lungs (Groupetto is the group that gets together on the climb to make sure they can make the time cut) Thankfully the group formed quickly and it was time to admire the landscape for once. To say the least it was amazing!!! I was gutted I didn’t have my camera with me. On the descent off the mountain we could see the valley below full of yellow flowers and fields and across the valley were even bigger mountains covered in snow So all in all it was a pretty scenic day today which was great. Just a pity that when you’re racing you can’t really stop and check everything out.
Stage 9
Thankfully today there was to be no riding on the front for me as Rock Racing now had the Yellow jersey with Tyler Hamilton, so it was up to them to defend it. That meant my job was pretty relaxing just keeping the guys topped up with water before the climbing started. So it was another nice relaxing day checking out the great scenery. That is until we hit the climb The first part was switch backs for a few Kilometres then it just dragged on and on over the Mountain, before a wild decent in to the city below and the finish of the stage.
We had our first transfer today 40k back to Xining. Our van driver was obsessed with the horn on the car and was tooting at everything that moved even though it wasn’t even on the road.
For some reason they use the horn here for everything, but mainly we reckon its just like an indicator or headlights, you just swing on the horn. Well after a pretty tough day this was getting on our nerves, Dave and Eric complete blew up at the guy, and we had a nice silent trip after that fortunately. Eric told me to use the BB gun if he sounded the horn again.
Poor guy must have been lost without his horn, must have been like taking a dummy off a baby.
Stage 10
Today was the last stage, a circuit race around central Xining. I woke up pretty early and was feeling pretty crap!!! After way to many visits to the Thunder Box and thinking dam I’ve made the whole tour without food poisoning and I get it before the last stage!!!!!!! GREAT!!! Well it wasn’t to bad and for the first half of the race I was pretty comfy, but the pace started to take its toll on me and by the end I was just trying to keep my stomach down.
The crowds again today were amazing, and at the finish we were treated like super stars, signing clothing and books and having photos taken with everyone, didn’t matter if you won the Tour or were dead last you were a superstar. Some guy wanted me to hold his baby so I could have my photo taken with him.
Well for me it’s been pretty amazing, considering back start of June it was just a dream to be doing all of this. And I’m pretty stoked as my prep for the hardest two races back to back of my life were done on little more than a few runs a club race a duathalon and a couple of longish rides. All after having a week off sick after the Taranaki tour.
Now it’s back to New Zealand for the Auckland 1000, and a few weeks of training and racing around the country before the Tour of Thailand which starts in September.
Till then
Josh
Today’s stage was pretty epic really, A break quickly established itself after about 20k, so I was back on the front for more tempo riding. My legs were pretty wasted from riding the front the day before but I was still keen to ride the front and help the team as much as I can. So there were six of us driving the front, two from my team, two Marco Polo Boys and two Rock Racing Boys. It was pretty awesome to say the least being the guys driving the bunch along, and as we speed through the towns they crowds out to watch us were incredible and the nose deafening. It was just like what you see on the TV when watching the Tour de France (Which I must say I have really missed seeing live) After about 50k riding on the front with head wind and slightly uphill the hole way we had bought the break back just in time for the climbing to begin, As soon as the road tilted skywards Myself and Sergio from Rock Racing were yelling Groupetto at the top of lungs (Groupetto is the group that gets together on the climb to make sure they can make the time cut) Thankfully the group formed quickly and it was time to admire the landscape for once. To say the least it was amazing!!! I was gutted I didn’t have my camera with me. On the descent off the mountain we could see the valley below full of yellow flowers and fields and across the valley were even bigger mountains covered in snow So all in all it was a pretty scenic day today which was great. Just a pity that when you’re racing you can’t really stop and check everything out.
Stage 9
Thankfully today there was to be no riding on the front for me as Rock Racing now had the Yellow jersey with Tyler Hamilton, so it was up to them to defend it. That meant my job was pretty relaxing just keeping the guys topped up with water before the climbing started. So it was another nice relaxing day checking out the great scenery. That is until we hit the climb The first part was switch backs for a few Kilometres then it just dragged on and on over the Mountain, before a wild decent in to the city below and the finish of the stage.
We had our first transfer today 40k back to Xining. Our van driver was obsessed with the horn on the car and was tooting at everything that moved even though it wasn’t even on the road.
For some reason they use the horn here for everything, but mainly we reckon its just like an indicator or headlights, you just swing on the horn. Well after a pretty tough day this was getting on our nerves, Dave and Eric complete blew up at the guy, and we had a nice silent trip after that fortunately. Eric told me to use the BB gun if he sounded the horn again.
Poor guy must have been lost without his horn, must have been like taking a dummy off a baby.
Stage 10
Today was the last stage, a circuit race around central Xining. I woke up pretty early and was feeling pretty crap!!! After way to many visits to the Thunder Box and thinking dam I’ve made the whole tour without food poisoning and I get it before the last stage!!!!!!! GREAT!!! Well it wasn’t to bad and for the first half of the race I was pretty comfy, but the pace started to take its toll on me and by the end I was just trying to keep my stomach down.
The crowds again today were amazing, and at the finish we were treated like super stars, signing clothing and books and having photos taken with everyone, didn’t matter if you won the Tour or were dead last you were a superstar. Some guy wanted me to hold his baby so I could have my photo taken with him.
Well for me it’s been pretty amazing, considering back start of June it was just a dream to be doing all of this. And I’m pretty stoked as my prep for the hardest two races back to back of my life were done on little more than a few runs a club race a duathalon and a couple of longish rides. All after having a week off sick after the Taranaki tour.
Now it’s back to New Zealand for the Auckland 1000, and a few weeks of training and racing around the country before the Tour of Thailand which starts in September.
Till then
Josh
Friday, July 18, 2008
Josh sucks thin air and plenty of coke
Stage 5
Today’s stage was pretty straight forward really 50k false flats downhill 50k monster climbing 50k descending and 20k rolling to the finish for 172k in total.
Ha ha not really. The first 50k was run off in 55 minutes then it was climb time, It just went on and on and on from just under 2700m all the way up to 3880m, so the air was pretty thin. There’s no easy way up these climbs, just hang on for as long as you can whilst the big boys attack each other to bits, once the bunch blows to pieces get in a steady group and get to the finish. So pretty straight forward day really, after getting some bottles for the boys got in a bunch and got to the finish.
Stage 6
Today was 115k straight up then straight down. We went back over the mountain we came down the day before. I was climbing much better today and finished not to badly either which was good. Nothing really to report of note.
Stage 7
Today was the biggest stage of the tour with 5k of neutral parade riding and 214k of racing which made a grand total of 219k!!! Thankfully no mountains though it was rolling downhill out and rolling up hill home. After around 70k the break finally went and a couple of teams hopped on the front at around the 80-90k mark to keep it in check. The teams were, The Iranians who have the yellow jersey currently, my team Giant Asia Racing, Rock Racing put a guy upfront with us for awhile and Team Marco Polo had a man up there for a little while as well. Though the majority of the work was done by myself and team mate Alex Coutes and two Iranians. I told myself I was just going to keep lapping till I blew and then some. Well I think we were driving the front for close to 100k, and I definitely blew, Alex just kept making me drink coke to keep the sugar high and with around 40k left in the stage I was gone, David told me just to sit in the bunch and get to the finish. The final km was all up hill and I was hammered so could not be bothered trying to hang on for bunch time so I whipped a coke out of my back pocket cracked it open and saluted the crowed as I rolled the final 1000m - which they all loved!!
To make the day even better our team mate Steffan won the bunch kick and took 2nd place, unfortunately some one got away in the closing kilometres of the race
Josh
Today’s stage was pretty straight forward really 50k false flats downhill 50k monster climbing 50k descending and 20k rolling to the finish for 172k in total.
Ha ha not really. The first 50k was run off in 55 minutes then it was climb time, It just went on and on and on from just under 2700m all the way up to 3880m, so the air was pretty thin. There’s no easy way up these climbs, just hang on for as long as you can whilst the big boys attack each other to bits, once the bunch blows to pieces get in a steady group and get to the finish. So pretty straight forward day really, after getting some bottles for the boys got in a bunch and got to the finish.
Stage 6
Today was 115k straight up then straight down. We went back over the mountain we came down the day before. I was climbing much better today and finished not to badly either which was good. Nothing really to report of note.
Stage 7
Today was the biggest stage of the tour with 5k of neutral parade riding and 214k of racing which made a grand total of 219k!!! Thankfully no mountains though it was rolling downhill out and rolling up hill home. After around 70k the break finally went and a couple of teams hopped on the front at around the 80-90k mark to keep it in check. The teams were, The Iranians who have the yellow jersey currently, my team Giant Asia Racing, Rock Racing put a guy upfront with us for awhile and Team Marco Polo had a man up there for a little while as well. Though the majority of the work was done by myself and team mate Alex Coutes and two Iranians. I told myself I was just going to keep lapping till I blew and then some. Well I think we were driving the front for close to 100k, and I definitely blew, Alex just kept making me drink coke to keep the sugar high and with around 40k left in the stage I was gone, David told me just to sit in the bunch and get to the finish. The final km was all up hill and I was hammered so could not be bothered trying to hang on for bunch time so I whipped a coke out of my back pocket cracked it open and saluted the crowed as I rolled the final 1000m - which they all loved!!
To make the day even better our team mate Steffan won the bunch kick and took 2nd place, unfortunately some one got away in the closing kilometres of the race
Josh
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Josh Pee's in a bottle
Hi All
Stage 3
We’ll today for me was pretty a pretty dark dark evil day. We started out with rain and cold and rain and thankfully a head wind to slow things down.
Quite simply my legs were nonexistent today; I was hurting all day and so thankful for the head wind to keep it slow. Unfortunately with about 55-60k to go we hit a nasty cross wind section and the big boys decided it was time to turn the screws, the yellow jersey somehow ended up out the back so this just made them go harder, after a few km’s lined out in the gutter I cracked so bad. From then on it was a very lonely 50k home with just the evil broom wagon stalking me for company. By the time I got to the finish I was pretty depressed and unsure I had made the time cut or not. Then to make matters worse I crossed the line and they told me I had doping control.
WHAT!!!! I’ve come dead last by like half an hour and you guys want to see if I’m on something??? Get real man!! Well you can’t exactly say no or it’ll be the sideline for me for the next two years. So I sat round waiting and getting cold and hungry and after about 10mins the doping officer said I could go because I was just a reserve and he has to do 4 tests a day. Well I finally got to the motel and was about to get out of my filthy wet clothes and the officials show up saying they had made a mistake and that I had to go back to control. I wasn’t too happy about that as I was getting cold, and wasn’t allowed a shower. So finally got doping done and had a big feed and off to bed. Fortunately I had scraped in by a minute and a half so I was still in the tour.
Stage 4
Today’s weather forecast apparently wasn’t much better than the day before and on the start line it was 6 degrees. Fortunately this didn’t last long and we could see in the distance that it was clearing up. My legs felt much better today, and I was able to do my job taking bottles to the boys and towing them around the bunch if need be. It was a pretty fast day with a lot of tail wind. We had to good climbs down towards the end of the stage, and by the time we got to the first of the two my legs were pretty hammered. I got popped off towards the top and got with a few guys and we started lapping it out, we managed to stay pretty much in contact with the convoy which was lucky, but don’t get me wrong this didn’t make it any easier, especially with another drag up hill. Over the top of the last climb there were just two of us left the rest had cracked and we managed to lap it out and get in to the cars. Now it was all downhill and we were going so fast we couldn’t even pedal, just weaving in and out of cars at over 80kph, my speedo said a max of 101 at the finish so who knows how fast we really were going. I managed to get back on and in to the bunch and with the final kilometre of the stage a slight uphill drag I just sat up and cruised in, I had done my job for the day and finished just off the back of the main bunch. When I crossed the line and checked my speedo we had done 150ks at an average of 47.9kph which I thought was pretty impressive.
Josh
Stage 3
We’ll today for me was pretty a pretty dark dark evil day. We started out with rain and cold and rain and thankfully a head wind to slow things down.
Quite simply my legs were nonexistent today; I was hurting all day and so thankful for the head wind to keep it slow. Unfortunately with about 55-60k to go we hit a nasty cross wind section and the big boys decided it was time to turn the screws, the yellow jersey somehow ended up out the back so this just made them go harder, after a few km’s lined out in the gutter I cracked so bad. From then on it was a very lonely 50k home with just the evil broom wagon stalking me for company. By the time I got to the finish I was pretty depressed and unsure I had made the time cut or not. Then to make matters worse I crossed the line and they told me I had doping control.
WHAT!!!! I’ve come dead last by like half an hour and you guys want to see if I’m on something??? Get real man!! Well you can’t exactly say no or it’ll be the sideline for me for the next two years. So I sat round waiting and getting cold and hungry and after about 10mins the doping officer said I could go because I was just a reserve and he has to do 4 tests a day. Well I finally got to the motel and was about to get out of my filthy wet clothes and the officials show up saying they had made a mistake and that I had to go back to control. I wasn’t too happy about that as I was getting cold, and wasn’t allowed a shower. So finally got doping done and had a big feed and off to bed. Fortunately I had scraped in by a minute and a half so I was still in the tour.
Stage 4
Today’s weather forecast apparently wasn’t much better than the day before and on the start line it was 6 degrees. Fortunately this didn’t last long and we could see in the distance that it was clearing up. My legs felt much better today, and I was able to do my job taking bottles to the boys and towing them around the bunch if need be. It was a pretty fast day with a lot of tail wind. We had to good climbs down towards the end of the stage, and by the time we got to the first of the two my legs were pretty hammered. I got popped off towards the top and got with a few guys and we started lapping it out, we managed to stay pretty much in contact with the convoy which was lucky, but don’t get me wrong this didn’t make it any easier, especially with another drag up hill. Over the top of the last climb there were just two of us left the rest had cracked and we managed to lap it out and get in to the cars. Now it was all downhill and we were going so fast we couldn’t even pedal, just weaving in and out of cars at over 80kph, my speedo said a max of 101 at the finish so who knows how fast we really were going. I managed to get back on and in to the bunch and with the final kilometre of the stage a slight uphill drag I just sat up and cruised in, I had done my job for the day and finished just off the back of the main bunch. When I crossed the line and checked my speedo we had done 150ks at an average of 47.9kph which I thought was pretty impressive.
Josh
Howie heads for Le Tour
Update - excuse spelling - keyboards arse about face here! Not only that each country the keys are in different places again!
London was cool and the train ride to France only took 1 hour - apparently at 300 kmh.
Got to Calais and the prepaid voucher for the rental car wasn't accepted. So on the blower to Napier but to no avail - had to pay for the car again - luckily the Hertz staff spoke anglais. There will be arse kicking when I get home!
Then I drove 300k to a place called Epernay - was OK but the hotel room didn't have tea/cofee in room so Howie a bit grumpy. Anyway had a look about. Next day (Saturday) went another 100k south to Troyes. Nice place - stayed at a hotel about 5k from "Centre Ville" which meant parking wasn't a hassle.
Monday I went to Besancon and stood under a Roman arch built in 175 AD which is pretty amazing. Thats even older than Nathan's car.
Today I came to Zurich - beautiful country side but everything is so expensive.
Next I head for South of France and catch up with the bike race.
Weather is lovely now - sorry to gloat but the shorts are out. The food here is OK - the smell coming out of thge pattisseries is hard to walk past.
I'm enjoying wandering about just taking in the history - buildings and walls etc so old. Lovely old huge Cathedrals - real bells too.
So basically I,m having a ball.
Cheers.
Howie.
London was cool and the train ride to France only took 1 hour - apparently at 300 kmh.
Got to Calais and the prepaid voucher for the rental car wasn't accepted. So on the blower to Napier but to no avail - had to pay for the car again - luckily the Hertz staff spoke anglais. There will be arse kicking when I get home!
Then I drove 300k to a place called Epernay - was OK but the hotel room didn't have tea/cofee in room so Howie a bit grumpy. Anyway had a look about. Next day (Saturday) went another 100k south to Troyes. Nice place - stayed at a hotel about 5k from "Centre Ville" which meant parking wasn't a hassle.
Monday I went to Besancon and stood under a Roman arch built in 175 AD which is pretty amazing. Thats even older than Nathan's car.
Today I came to Zurich - beautiful country side but everything is so expensive.
Next I head for South of France and catch up with the bike race.
Weather is lovely now - sorry to gloat but the shorts are out. The food here is OK - the smell coming out of thge pattisseries is hard to walk past.
I'm enjoying wandering about just taking in the history - buildings and walls etc so old. Lovely old huge Cathedrals - real bells too.
So basically I,m having a ball.
Cheers.
Howie.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Josh sucks it in at altitude
Hi all
Well yesterday we had the opening TT, 3.8ks around the city of Xining. Downhill out and uphill back. Doesn’t sound too hard, and under normal circumstances it would be like any other short TT, just a few minutes of pain and it’s all over. Well this one was AGONY. As we are at 2200m in altitude there a pretty high lack of oxygen, so instead of your legs burning and lungs burning it more or less just felt like someone was tearing your lungs out the side with a fishing gaff or something. Not the nicest feeling. Any way I got around in 4.55 which was alright, nothing spectacular and finished 108th of a field of 130 I think. However the great news of the day was that David our team leader was 2nd!!
Lucky for us he wasn’t 1st or it would have been a hard day on the front trying to defend against the 7 man euro boys (unfortunately we only have 5 guys) The TT was won by Alex Rasmussen (no relation to the Michael Rasmussen) This guy is one of Denmark’s top in the pursuit and one of the best in the world. I’d say Wesley Gough is pretty familiar with him.
3rd place went to Rock Racings Oscar Sevelia.
Stage 2
Today’s stage looked nasty on the stage profile uphill for about 85k before a rolling false flats descent down to Qinghai lake. It started off not too bad, and after getting the inside info from Tyler Hamilton the night before I tried staying as close to Oscar or Hamilton as possible, proved a bit harder than in theory as these guys are unbelievably awesome at bike handling, I was following Oscar and next thing he’s three bike lengths in front of me, he‘d gone through a gap that just didn’t exist!!! don’t no how they do it Any way the first 50k was pretty crazy really, and I just went about my job of making sure the boys were at the front, had to give Dave a rev up and tow him to the front once. After 50k it was time to get the boys some water which was pretty straight forward. Then time to settle in for when the road really ramps up.
I’ve found it quite hard at the altitude because your heart rate goes in to the red zone so fast but drops very slowly. So I spent a lot of time keeping an eye on my heart rate and trying to keep it as low as possible as not to blow. I found the best way is to roll over a much bigger gear than normal as this way you use your muscles more than your lungs and I could control the heart better. The further up the climb we got the harder this became, and I found I was on the back really struggling. Not the best time to be in the red as the pace was starting to get pushed up. People were letting wheels go and I had to concentrate hard to stay in touch with out popping, eventually I came right and started riding through the groups.
We’ll we formed a bunch over the top and pretty much just lapped the last 60k home. I was pretty wreaked come the finish. Not sure about where I am as I haven’t seen any results yet, buts it’s not really a worry as I’m here to help the boys as much as possible, learn as much as possible and get strong!!!
Also I have attached a photo from the TT for you all
Josh
Friday, July 11, 2008
Josh learns Chinese road rules in Xinning
Hi All
Thought I’d give you a brief update, we have been in Xining now since 5th.
Xining is the starting town for the tour and is at 2200m altitude. So it’s been quite good as the team has had a good couple of days to acclimatize to the altitude, it’s been nice relaxing training all week, once we arrived here 3 of us went for a quick spin around the city to loosen the legs from all the flying. Well Ramblers cycling members I can tell you right now, the driver in Hawke’s bay are NOTHING compared to these guys. Really we are pretty dam safe and lucky because the drivers of Xining city and the pedestrians for that matter have got to be blind and are so crazy!!! I can honestly say to you I can’t believe how I haven’t seen a crash or someone killed yet, People just walk out across the road not even looking for traffic (and there’s a heck of a lot of it) and the drivers well, road rules just don’t exist here. Red lights who cares just run it, if there is a stream of traffic coming and you want to turn in to that side road then hey no worries just go for it and they’ll swerve or stop or brake or hit you or something but hey who cares. That’s a bit of a super under-exaggeration to be honest and you just have to see it to believe it.
Anyway I have got a few good days training in and seem to have recovered well from my beating in Korea. Generally when my resting heart rate is 34bpm it’s a pretty good sign I’m in good shape. So I’m looking forward to the tour starting now, Tomorrow we have a 3.8k prologue TT. It’ll be good to get racing finally but it’s a bit of a pain so much prep for such a short effort, but that’s cool at least well be racing.
It’s going to be quite an experience to be honest and I think probably the coolest thing for me is that earlier in the year I was watching some old tour de France and tour of Flanders videos and DVDs. And if you told me then that id be lining up against some of the winners of these races at the biggest tour in Asia I would have just laughed at you.
E.g. Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevelia, Fred Rodriguez (Rock Racing, Tour of France and Spain stage winners) Stefan Wiseman (Cyclecollstrop, and ex Tour of Flanders winner) that’s naming just a few there’s plenty more.
Well that’s all for now, will update you after a few stages
Josh
Thought I’d give you a brief update, we have been in Xining now since 5th.
Xining is the starting town for the tour and is at 2200m altitude. So it’s been quite good as the team has had a good couple of days to acclimatize to the altitude, it’s been nice relaxing training all week, once we arrived here 3 of us went for a quick spin around the city to loosen the legs from all the flying. Well Ramblers cycling members I can tell you right now, the driver in Hawke’s bay are NOTHING compared to these guys. Really we are pretty dam safe and lucky because the drivers of Xining city and the pedestrians for that matter have got to be blind and are so crazy!!! I can honestly say to you I can’t believe how I haven’t seen a crash or someone killed yet, People just walk out across the road not even looking for traffic (and there’s a heck of a lot of it) and the drivers well, road rules just don’t exist here. Red lights who cares just run it, if there is a stream of traffic coming and you want to turn in to that side road then hey no worries just go for it and they’ll swerve or stop or brake or hit you or something but hey who cares. That’s a bit of a super under-exaggeration to be honest and you just have to see it to believe it.
Anyway I have got a few good days training in and seem to have recovered well from my beating in Korea. Generally when my resting heart rate is 34bpm it’s a pretty good sign I’m in good shape. So I’m looking forward to the tour starting now, Tomorrow we have a 3.8k prologue TT. It’ll be good to get racing finally but it’s a bit of a pain so much prep for such a short effort, but that’s cool at least well be racing.
It’s going to be quite an experience to be honest and I think probably the coolest thing for me is that earlier in the year I was watching some old tour de France and tour of Flanders videos and DVDs. And if you told me then that id be lining up against some of the winners of these races at the biggest tour in Asia I would have just laughed at you.
E.g. Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevelia, Fred Rodriguez (Rock Racing, Tour of France and Spain stage winners) Stefan Wiseman (Cyclecollstrop, and ex Tour of Flanders winner) that’s naming just a few there’s plenty more.
Well that’s all for now, will update you after a few stages
Josh
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Ramblers Ashleigh Neave takes 2nd in Australias 2008 Junior and Womans Canberra Tour
Must have been Australia’s worst nightmare as the top two places in last weekend’s Canberra Tour Under 17 Junior Women were taken by Amy Cure from Tasmania and Ashleigh Neave from New Zealand.
Neave sponsored by Pedal Power Taradale competed as part of the New Zealand Junior team in one of Australia’s premiere cycle tours. With racing centred around the impressive Canberra Cycling Complex at Mt. Stromblo Recreation Park.
The Sacred Heart College student, one of New Zealand’s strongest Under 17 female juniors, finished fourth in Saturday’s first 38km stage. She made the split in a five rider break-away, taking more than a minute and a half out of the rest of the field. The multiple hill-reps in her punishing training schedule paid off handsomely as she gathered enough points to sit in second spot for Queen of the Mountain.
Saturday’s second stage took place on Mt. Stromblo’s criterium track, a fast and technical course that stretched the Kiwi junior team to their limits. With the bunch finishing together there were no changes to the general classification. Australia’s high level of commitment to the growing sport of cycling is evident. This purpose-built recreation park, covers road race, cross-country and down-hill mountain biking.
During the 41km long third stage held on Sunday morning, Neave again made the split, finishing third as three of them broke away almost two minutes ahead of the bunch. This moved her up to third spot overall and she maintained her second place in QOM.
The decider came on Sunday afternoon in the fourth and last stage, a 9.5km time trial on an undulating out-and-back course with an uphill finish. History repeated itself as Neave finished third again, but she gained enough time on her nearest rival to climb to second spot overall.
Competing against a full line-up of Australia’s top junior riders, Neave’s result gives a good indication of her current progress, and bodes well for her international cycling future.
Local rider Sean Joyce from Havelock North competed at the same tour in the Junior Under 19 Men grade. The Revolution Bikes cycle mechanic was a designated helper for the New Zealand team leader. A “no glory-just hard craft” job of controlling the bunch, fetching water and chasing down break-away riders.
After doing a ton of work for the New Zealand team in Saturday’s criterium Joyce finished strong in fifth place. Showing that given a change this dedicated youngster can compete at this higher level, and will be the one to watch.
Neave sponsored by Pedal Power Taradale competed as part of the New Zealand Junior team in one of Australia’s premiere cycle tours. With racing centred around the impressive Canberra Cycling Complex at Mt. Stromblo Recreation Park.
The Sacred Heart College student, one of New Zealand’s strongest Under 17 female juniors, finished fourth in Saturday’s first 38km stage. She made the split in a five rider break-away, taking more than a minute and a half out of the rest of the field. The multiple hill-reps in her punishing training schedule paid off handsomely as she gathered enough points to sit in second spot for Queen of the Mountain.
Saturday’s second stage took place on Mt. Stromblo’s criterium track, a fast and technical course that stretched the Kiwi junior team to their limits. With the bunch finishing together there were no changes to the general classification. Australia’s high level of commitment to the growing sport of cycling is evident. This purpose-built recreation park, covers road race, cross-country and down-hill mountain biking.
During the 41km long third stage held on Sunday morning, Neave again made the split, finishing third as three of them broke away almost two minutes ahead of the bunch. This moved her up to third spot overall and she maintained her second place in QOM.
The decider came on Sunday afternoon in the fourth and last stage, a 9.5km time trial on an undulating out-and-back course with an uphill finish. History repeated itself as Neave finished third again, but she gained enough time on her nearest rival to climb to second spot overall.
Competing against a full line-up of Australia’s top junior riders, Neave’s result gives a good indication of her current progress, and bodes well for her international cycling future.
Local rider Sean Joyce from Havelock North competed at the same tour in the Junior Under 19 Men grade. The Revolution Bikes cycle mechanic was a designated helper for the New Zealand team leader. A “no glory-just hard craft” job of controlling the bunch, fetching water and chasing down break-away riders.
After doing a ton of work for the New Zealand team in Saturday’s criterium Joyce finished strong in fifth place. Showing that given a change this dedicated youngster can compete at this higher level, and will be the one to watch.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Josh Finishes Final Stages
Hi all
Well I've made it to Seoul and the finish of the tour. I think when i last updated it was just before the rest day. Well the rest day was as relaxing as could be, went for a bit of a Cruise on the bike to keep the blood flowing and my legs felt sooo dead.
I think the lack of prep was catching up on me so I was pleased that today was the day I was going to feel crap.
Josh and Teammate collect team prize earlier in tour
Stage 7
Today was a biggy in fact the 2ND longest of the tour at 192k. It started with a small climb up out of town, and then a quick decent before pretty much being false flat up hill all day long till we got to over 900 meters above sea level. I pretty much sat at the front all day just keeping an eye on things and staying out of trouble. Wasn't feeling to bad but part way through the stage near the half way mark I started feeeling realy dead. Quickly smacked some water and food back and that helped a little, unfortunately just after the feed zone on the decent I ended up stuck in the middle of the road in a mine feild of cats eyes. Quite simply blew my tyres out front and rear. Dam!!
We changed them pretty quickly, dam I could not believe how fast our mechanic fixed it, I stopped whipped my wheel out and stuck it in the van and he had the other on and ready to go, all done in half a minute, unfortunatly we didnt realise at the time that both were out due to the rear one going down slower. But that was ok as once I had new wheels "Tyre"(our mechanich) just held my back and made it look like he was adjusting stuff on my bike while "Wizzard"(manager) drove rediculously fast to sling me back in to the convoy. I got back on easy enough but that wasn't really what I wanted with my legs feeling average and the last big climb coming. Well we hit the climb and it was false flat for a few km's and then kicked up for the last 2. I was going backwards on the false flats and completely cracked once it kicked up. I dragged myself to the top and got a bottle from the feed zone and got ready for the chase.
I dont think I have ever ridden down a hill like that before I think we had 30km of decending with the top couple being realy steep hair-pins which we flew through thankfully in the dry as in the past they were saying it has been really wet there and super dodgey. Once we had that part down it was huge long staights where you just tucked in and coasted wicked fast, I'm sure we must of been almost doing 100kph.
Anyways it was just lapping it out in the group to to the finish now. I was pleased to finish and hoping that I'd feel better tomorrow.
Stage 8
Today was NASTY, from pretty much sea level to just over 900m in not long.
First 30km's all uphill, false flats then the climb just ramped right up. It was on from go, and part way in to the start of the main climb I was not in a good way, feeling dizzy and like I was going to pass out or something. I was a bit worried as I didn't want to dnf or have to pull out. I just focused on riding a good tempo and making the top with a group as far up the bunch as I could. Well I made it over the climb and we had another dodgey as decent this time in the wet.
The rest of the stage was pretty straight foward.
lapping it out in the groupetto with about 10 or 15 other guys. We had more behind us which was good to know but as the day wore on and people got worn out eventully we were the last group on the road with 5 or 6 of us left, I cant really remember because with 20km to go I cracked so bad and was just struggling to stay with the group. Well I got there in the end finishing the stage in 80th place dead last but pretty dam glad I had made it. After the stage we had to transfer to Seoul for a half hour crit tomorow.
Crit Stage 9
Well the crit looked pretty nasty, 3k circuit through a park over pretty much cobbles, dam I hate these things as it is but with 3km loop of cobbles as well!?!?! oh well got to be done.
Well to cut it short by now my legs are completely screwed to the wall and weren't really to keen to go, so I dropped and lapped out of the race pretty quick.
So I've finaly made it and finished the tour, with jsut short of 1500km in 11 stages it was pretty dam hard to say the least and pretty tiring to. My legs are pretty worn out but I now have to recover up and get ready to start the Tour of Quinghai Lake in China in about a weeks time.
Well that's all for now
Josh
Well I've made it to Seoul and the finish of the tour. I think when i last updated it was just before the rest day. Well the rest day was as relaxing as could be, went for a bit of a Cruise on the bike to keep the blood flowing and my legs felt sooo dead.
I think the lack of prep was catching up on me so I was pleased that today was the day I was going to feel crap.
Josh and Teammate collect team prize earlier in tourStage 7
Today was a biggy in fact the 2ND longest of the tour at 192k. It started with a small climb up out of town, and then a quick decent before pretty much being false flat up hill all day long till we got to over 900 meters above sea level. I pretty much sat at the front all day just keeping an eye on things and staying out of trouble. Wasn't feeling to bad but part way through the stage near the half way mark I started feeeling realy dead. Quickly smacked some water and food back and that helped a little, unfortunately just after the feed zone on the decent I ended up stuck in the middle of the road in a mine feild of cats eyes. Quite simply blew my tyres out front and rear. Dam!!
We changed them pretty quickly, dam I could not believe how fast our mechanic fixed it, I stopped whipped my wheel out and stuck it in the van and he had the other on and ready to go, all done in half a minute, unfortunatly we didnt realise at the time that both were out due to the rear one going down slower. But that was ok as once I had new wheels "Tyre"(our mechanich) just held my back and made it look like he was adjusting stuff on my bike while "Wizzard"(manager) drove rediculously fast to sling me back in to the convoy. I got back on easy enough but that wasn't really what I wanted with my legs feeling average and the last big climb coming. Well we hit the climb and it was false flat for a few km's and then kicked up for the last 2. I was going backwards on the false flats and completely cracked once it kicked up. I dragged myself to the top and got a bottle from the feed zone and got ready for the chase.
I dont think I have ever ridden down a hill like that before I think we had 30km of decending with the top couple being realy steep hair-pins which we flew through thankfully in the dry as in the past they were saying it has been really wet there and super dodgey. Once we had that part down it was huge long staights where you just tucked in and coasted wicked fast, I'm sure we must of been almost doing 100kph.
Anyways it was just lapping it out in the group to to the finish now. I was pleased to finish and hoping that I'd feel better tomorrow.
Stage 8
Today was NASTY, from pretty much sea level to just over 900m in not long.
First 30km's all uphill, false flats then the climb just ramped right up. It was on from go, and part way in to the start of the main climb I was not in a good way, feeling dizzy and like I was going to pass out or something. I was a bit worried as I didn't want to dnf or have to pull out. I just focused on riding a good tempo and making the top with a group as far up the bunch as I could. Well I made it over the climb and we had another dodgey as decent this time in the wet.
The rest of the stage was pretty straight foward.
lapping it out in the groupetto with about 10 or 15 other guys. We had more behind us which was good to know but as the day wore on and people got worn out eventully we were the last group on the road with 5 or 6 of us left, I cant really remember because with 20km to go I cracked so bad and was just struggling to stay with the group. Well I got there in the end finishing the stage in 80th place dead last but pretty dam glad I had made it. After the stage we had to transfer to Seoul for a half hour crit tomorow.
Crit Stage 9
Well the crit looked pretty nasty, 3k circuit through a park over pretty much cobbles, dam I hate these things as it is but with 3km loop of cobbles as well!?!?! oh well got to be done.
Well to cut it short by now my legs are completely screwed to the wall and weren't really to keen to go, so I dropped and lapped out of the race pretty quick.
So I've finaly made it and finished the tour, with jsut short of 1500km in 11 stages it was pretty dam hard to say the least and pretty tiring to. My legs are pretty worn out but I now have to recover up and get ready to start the Tour of Quinghai Lake in China in about a weeks time.
Well that's all for now
Josh
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Josh Stages 4,5,6
Hi everyone
Time for another up date, sort of lost track of things so I think I'm up to stage 4
Stage 4
Today was the biggest stage of the tour at a mega 218km and certainly not at all flat and to make things more fun it was rain rain wind and more rain.
Well that wasn't so bad as it was pretty warm, as warm as wind and rain goes, thankfully not Southland wind and rain. Well the worse part about it all was I was feeling AVERAGE!! and that is putting it lightly. For the first hour I was struggling to get my heart rate up to 150 and my max is 182 so that wasn't making things easy for me. I was really scared I was going to get dropped and not make the time cut. I didn't want to go out like that so I just grit my teeth dug it in and suffered like a dog all day. Slowly through out the stage my legs gradually came right and by the time we got to the first decent climb of the whole tour at the 150k mark I was feeling better. I new I had to dig deep though as it was a long climb and yesterday I got popped out on 2k drag climb nothing steep or big and really normally I shouldn't get dropped on a hill like that. (Well i consider myself a climber so i don't really like getting dropped at all on the hills) But this is a level above anything I've ever done before and these guys go fast up hills. Any way I rode really well up the climb and surprised myself going over the top with a group, we all got moving and pulled another bunch back, and we were pretty much the main peleton. From the top of the climb it was still another 70k to the finish, thankfully I had grabbed a coke at the top from the feed zone and I rode the last 70k on coke and water. By the time we got to the finish i was hammered and looking forward to bed. It was about 6 hours we had been racing for in the wind and rain and I had made it. Plenty of people were behind as well including the yellow jersey who lost massive time
Stage 5
Today's stage wasn't looking much better weather wise and again we set off in the wet, from the gun my team mate David was in the break and away. Small groups tried to go across and I jumped into one of them, it looked like it was going to work but a few people were just there to mark it including myself so we weren't going anywhere.
The team of the new yellow jersey jumped on the front and rode tempo all day long and by the half way mark the rain had finished thankfully. I was feeling great and knew there was a hill with about 30k to go so I wanted to be near the front to see what I could do. Well once we arrived at the hill I was right at the front and with a km to go to the top my team mate Eric now 3rd overall put a huge effort in to try split it up, it worked and the field was broken up pretty good. I really had to dig the last few hundred meters in but made it over the top on the back of the front group. now it was all down hill and highway run in to town so it was pretty fast and attacks going constantly, it wasn't fast enough to hold the gap though and the rest of the peleton rejoined. The great news of the day though was that Dave had gone clear of the break away on the climb and was going to the finish solo a few minutes up the road in front of us. He took the win which was awesome and we also got the teams classification prize of the day. So the whole team was pretty stoked.
Stage6
So we have just finished stage 6 a few hours ago a big 180k affair, and not the easiest one either, Before the start of the stage Alex and myself were told we had to go to the presentation. Didn't know why but we soon found out that it was for the teams classification prize from the day before. So I got to stand on the top step of the podium which was pretty cool I'll try get hold of some of the photos to send out to everyone. But it was pretty mint to be up there.
Well I decided I was going to try and make the break today as tomorrow is a rest day so it doesn't matter if I waste my self today. From the gun I was mixing it up the front following moves and trying to get in the move of the day. Twice I made good looking groups and we had small gaps, but nothing ever stuck. By about 50k mark I was starting to feel the constant jumping around and thought I'd better have a rest as nothing was making it. So i just cruised in the bunch and attacks just kept going and coming back. It took till the 93rd km mark before something went.
By about the 100k mark I was feel really not good at all, and was feeling like I was stuck to the road. I wasn't sure why as I had just smacked back a fair bit of food but I think it was because I hadn't drunk enough so I downed as much water as I could and grabbed some more bottles from the team car and hoped I would come right. Thankfully I did, and by the 140k mark it was the business end of the race, the break was bought back pretty quickly and its was a hilly final 40k. I made sure I stayed near the front so if there was a split I'd be in it, and my bad patch had thankfully gone. With around 30k to go we smashed it up a steep climb and I was stuck behind some Skill Shimano rider who was going backwards pretty fast, as I went to go around him disaster struck me as some one smacked my rear wheel and buckled it. It wasn't making a healthy sound and I was pretty concerned that I had popped a spoke or broken the wheel.
Straight afterwards some one came down right in front of me and as I rode past I ended up 'accidentally' kicking him in the head as I was turning the pedals. There were some pretty fast descents with some tight corners and not being the worlds greatest descender at the best of times I was pretty cautious on a buckled wheel (not to keen on going back under the knife anytime soon). As a result I got tailed of the small chasing group I was with and ended up just cruising to the finish with a group of other riders. I felt pretty bad as I had been feeling good through those final Kim's and didn't want to finish like that. But oh well these things happen.
Tomorrows a rest day then we have two monster hilly stages before the final criterium
Until then catch you all later
Josh
Time for another up date, sort of lost track of things so I think I'm up to stage 4
Stage 4
Today was the biggest stage of the tour at a mega 218km and certainly not at all flat and to make things more fun it was rain rain wind and more rain.
Well that wasn't so bad as it was pretty warm, as warm as wind and rain goes, thankfully not Southland wind and rain. Well the worse part about it all was I was feeling AVERAGE!! and that is putting it lightly. For the first hour I was struggling to get my heart rate up to 150 and my max is 182 so that wasn't making things easy for me. I was really scared I was going to get dropped and not make the time cut. I didn't want to go out like that so I just grit my teeth dug it in and suffered like a dog all day. Slowly through out the stage my legs gradually came right and by the time we got to the first decent climb of the whole tour at the 150k mark I was feeling better. I new I had to dig deep though as it was a long climb and yesterday I got popped out on 2k drag climb nothing steep or big and really normally I shouldn't get dropped on a hill like that. (Well i consider myself a climber so i don't really like getting dropped at all on the hills) But this is a level above anything I've ever done before and these guys go fast up hills. Any way I rode really well up the climb and surprised myself going over the top with a group, we all got moving and pulled another bunch back, and we were pretty much the main peleton. From the top of the climb it was still another 70k to the finish, thankfully I had grabbed a coke at the top from the feed zone and I rode the last 70k on coke and water. By the time we got to the finish i was hammered and looking forward to bed. It was about 6 hours we had been racing for in the wind and rain and I had made it. Plenty of people were behind as well including the yellow jersey who lost massive time
Stage 5
Today's stage wasn't looking much better weather wise and again we set off in the wet, from the gun my team mate David was in the break and away. Small groups tried to go across and I jumped into one of them, it looked like it was going to work but a few people were just there to mark it including myself so we weren't going anywhere.
The team of the new yellow jersey jumped on the front and rode tempo all day long and by the half way mark the rain had finished thankfully. I was feeling great and knew there was a hill with about 30k to go so I wanted to be near the front to see what I could do. Well once we arrived at the hill I was right at the front and with a km to go to the top my team mate Eric now 3rd overall put a huge effort in to try split it up, it worked and the field was broken up pretty good. I really had to dig the last few hundred meters in but made it over the top on the back of the front group. now it was all down hill and highway run in to town so it was pretty fast and attacks going constantly, it wasn't fast enough to hold the gap though and the rest of the peleton rejoined. The great news of the day though was that Dave had gone clear of the break away on the climb and was going to the finish solo a few minutes up the road in front of us. He took the win which was awesome and we also got the teams classification prize of the day. So the whole team was pretty stoked.
Stage6
So we have just finished stage 6 a few hours ago a big 180k affair, and not the easiest one either, Before the start of the stage Alex and myself were told we had to go to the presentation. Didn't know why but we soon found out that it was for the teams classification prize from the day before. So I got to stand on the top step of the podium which was pretty cool I'll try get hold of some of the photos to send out to everyone. But it was pretty mint to be up there.
Well I decided I was going to try and make the break today as tomorrow is a rest day so it doesn't matter if I waste my self today. From the gun I was mixing it up the front following moves and trying to get in the move of the day. Twice I made good looking groups and we had small gaps, but nothing ever stuck. By about 50k mark I was starting to feel the constant jumping around and thought I'd better have a rest as nothing was making it. So i just cruised in the bunch and attacks just kept going and coming back. It took till the 93rd km mark before something went.
By about the 100k mark I was feel really not good at all, and was feeling like I was stuck to the road. I wasn't sure why as I had just smacked back a fair bit of food but I think it was because I hadn't drunk enough so I downed as much water as I could and grabbed some more bottles from the team car and hoped I would come right. Thankfully I did, and by the 140k mark it was the business end of the race, the break was bought back pretty quickly and its was a hilly final 40k. I made sure I stayed near the front so if there was a split I'd be in it, and my bad patch had thankfully gone. With around 30k to go we smashed it up a steep climb and I was stuck behind some Skill Shimano rider who was going backwards pretty fast, as I went to go around him disaster struck me as some one smacked my rear wheel and buckled it. It wasn't making a healthy sound and I was pretty concerned that I had popped a spoke or broken the wheel.
Straight afterwards some one came down right in front of me and as I rode past I ended up 'accidentally' kicking him in the head as I was turning the pedals. There were some pretty fast descents with some tight corners and not being the worlds greatest descender at the best of times I was pretty cautious on a buckled wheel (not to keen on going back under the knife anytime soon). As a result I got tailed of the small chasing group I was with and ended up just cruising to the finish with a group of other riders. I felt pretty bad as I had been feeling good through those final Kim's and didn't want to finish like that. But oh well these things happen.
Tomorrows a rest day then we have two monster hilly stages before the final criterium
Until then catch you all later
Josh
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