12/8/08

G'day

Punctures, punctures, punctures, last two races i have felt really good, and managed to get into the top 20 remaining riders, however I have punctured on both occasions, just unlucky I spose but very frustrating... none the less. So when you puncture and you are in the top bunch here you still get some money for your top 20 finish as all the other dropped riders have already been pulled out, so am at least still getting some income.

 My form is very good at the moment and health is strong. I will return to little old Mackay with some good form and should be able to clinch some results at the up coming tour of New Caledonia. That said though I now have all my energy focused on the remaining 3 races, Thursday, Friday and Monday. Mondays race also has some hills which will suit me.

Over the weekend i managed to ride down to Oudenard and ride some famous cobbled climbs from the Tour of Flanders (ron van vlaanderen). These things are insanely hard but very fun. I have attached some photos, basically like riding up a set of stairs the gradient on some of these monsters in 20%.

Date of return Friday 22nd

P.s. have just put a new set of tyres on my bike so no more punctures.

Team presentation photos

The famous Staf Boone

Naglis the Lithuanian, our mate at the farm


Random


Training in the famous cobbled climbs...



5/8/08
Hey all,

Back racing, healthy and strong again so good news, took a few races before my lungs opened up again, made it hard to get in any breaks but now I'm finding i have some good strength. Raced in a Criterium yesterday, managed to get in the breakaway and win a sprint prime for some euro, rain came down and managed to get tangled up in a crash at the half way mark. Was a bit frustrating after taking so long to get back into the breakaways but the beauty about racing in Belgium is that you can always race the next day.

Yesterdays Kermise was in Zelzate about 30km north of Belgium on the Holland border, we raced the same circuit one week prior, The pace was hectic from the gun, but managed to get into the break again, and won another sprint Prime. Coming into the last few laps as one rider broke from the bunch i tried to get across to him but only just fell short, the effort of trying to get to him had me spent physically, bad cramps on the last lap saw me come in for 13th. But its good to see improvement and that i am getting opportunities to get onto the podium.

I have pretty much just been concentrating on racing and training since returning from France, i only have another 2 and a half weeks here in Belgium so am doing my best to get onto that Podium. We have a team presentation here at the Farm this Saturday night which sounds pretty big, bout 150ppl so will post some photos for you all.

CHeers


Hey!

Just got back from a week at the Tour De France, Was bloody awesome, managed to get down to Alp Du Heuz on Tuesday and ride up it a few times before the tour came through. The mountain is one huge party, riding up whit thousands of people on the sides of the road was a once in a lifetime experience. Managed to run into a few exhausted Mackay cyclists on the mountain and stole some accommodation from Gary and Roman so thanks for that guys was better than sleeping in the car again.

I escaped to France for some better weather after catching another damn virus of one of the guys in the team. was pretty annoying getting crook again, ended up with a chest infection but a dose of antibiotics has me fit again, France also has sunlight, which is something Belgium is yet to discover so that helped. Raced yesterday and managed to get in a few moves and open the legs up again after a week of travelling and being crook so good sign. We race again Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So should be flying by the end of the week as I get better

I feel that my form is building and definitely think next week will be my week, so look forward to giving some positive updates then.





Hey all,
Time to pull my finger out and give another update, so been racing heaps which is always good, getting in some big kms. There are a few more riders here in the team now which means we ride to and from races, add to the km count but is good for training. However after riding 40km to the race. Racing 120km in the rain the last thing you want to do is ride home.

Having still been finishing my races strongly and winning some euro, but have been missing a few important breakaway groups that I need to work on to get back into the top ten finishers. My form and fitness is still holding out and I feel strong on the bike. Would be good if some of the other guys weren't so strong though.

Aside from the racing i did have a chance to go into Brussels and do a bit of touristing which was cool. Big Wade Mitchell back home told me to go to the "Atomium" which was way cool. Its this big model of an atom left over from a world fair in 1058. Pretty amazing, like 20 stories high with an observation deck. Also looking forward to going to Paris for the Tour de France finale, have hired a car so should be good.

CHeers


Mid Race, cobbles but the good small ones.

Head down, driving it
120km of wet cobbles, Hard work

Team Car, nice day (dosent happen often here)

Gent Roof Top




Video / Photo update

These should play with QuickTime, if you cant get them to work email me at evan@corrycycles.com.au

Taken on my phone so not the best quality.

Bikes rule in Gent
More Bikes
Gent Centre
Racing through the streets in Belgium (melle)




Riding through town is hard in Belgium, If the cobbles dont knock you off the tram lines will


Casino in Gent, not quite as nice as back home...

Bikes at the train station, see video... bike rule here

Every race we go to there is a street carnival, with dodgem cars, rides etc, Dagwood dog stands

Old castle in City from 1100's






4/7/08

Belgian Hell

Good introduction to Belgian racing yesterday, 7km circuit, with 1.5km of cobbles, some narrow farm roads, and did I mention rain? bucketed down. I missed the front bunch by mere meters, in a side wind of 60km/ph. Settled into the second bunch. by settled I mean worked my guts out to stay in the race.

When it rains on cobbles they become like ice, muddy ice, hard to explain but you literally cannot turn your bike on them you slow down to 5km/ph turn with one foot clipped out then accelerate like helll out of the corners in the seat, as you cant get out of the seat or your front wheel will slip out from under you.

As you can see by the pictures riders were quite dirty at the end, just like the Paris - Roubaix pictures I use to look at as a kid back in OZ., but I really enjoyed the race, one of the hardest I have ever done mentally. But managed to escape my bunch for a credible 19th. Then off to the Paris - Roubaix style showers.

We have a new rider from England who looked strong till he cart wheeled into a ditch in the side wind, also had another two crashes today from the team due to the slippery cobbles.

Cheers

Pre race, me in the middle again.


Post race. Dirty

Quite Muddy, winner not me


2/7/08

Heya

Been a while since my last update, one reason for this, racing and heaps of it. I have raced the last 5 of six days. some good some not so good, racing here is also about recovery, when racing day after day you need to be good at eating, sleeping and recovering or you wont last. My best result from the past week is a seventh so was pretty happy with that, top ten was one of my goals so there's one ticked off. A few to go yet though.

We also travelled to France and raced a Derny race on Saturday, basically its a Criterium (1km course) and each rider get s a derny rider, which you sit behind out of the wind. What isn't commonly known is that these derny riders can corner like mad, having big wide tyres and low profile means they corner fast. I managed to end up in the crowd on one corner in my first race but got the hang of it for my second and managed 17th overall for the day. by the way our second race was 1hr and we covered 56km. So that's an average 56km/ph.

Also been winning a bit of Euro from the races we've been doing, I'm up over 200 ($400 AUD)total at the moment, which doesn't begin to cover costs but definitely helps. Also get paid 25euro sometimes per race for appearance / danger money which helps.

So am really enjoying my time here now, healthy and racing which is great. Have another race tomorrow, so heart rate is up already.

next time...

Ev

Link to results for race
http://www.cyclingnews.nu/Wedstrijdverslagen/wedstrijdverslag42.htm#Zondag

Example of a Derny Race (not me)


Pre Race, nice weather (thats me in the middle prior to getting shelled)



25/6/08

Heya fans.

Finally some good news, I'm over my cold and feel much better, had my first ride back yesterday and managed to make it into the winning breakaway and score an 11th placing. Still on antibiotics so am pretty happy with my ride, finish the last of them today so hopefully will feel much better. Having been doing a lot of canal riding over the past three days, which involves choosing a canal here (plenty to choose from) and riding on the bike path that runs parallel. Some of these will take you all the way to France, or Germany. No traffic, just for bike riders which is wicked. Also helmets are not mandatory here so am enjoying rolling around in a cycling cap looking very euro, we have to race in helmets however.

One word I have picked up while here is D-R-I-V-E everyone who owns a bike here does it. Racing here is not like Oz, here they just keep smashing over the top of each other no matter if its a side wind, tail or head, this goes on until there is a winning breakaway, once in the break riders keep driving till the finish, never sprinting just smashing each others legs out on the road. I was the only one to finish in my team today as the main field gets pulled from the race with 4 laps to go if they are not going to bring back the break. But the other guys are definitely getting better as well. Oh yer, today's race had a 1km section of nasty cobbles, 16 laps so that's 16km of cobbles, picture a 1km section of cattle grid and you know what I'm talking about. Hopefully have a podium result by the next update.


Driving on the front...


Canal Riding


20/6/08

Hey Hey,
Am sitting around a very depressing team house at the moment, I arrived at the farm on Friday and settled in quickly and was shown around the farm thanks to Josh an American guys staying here, who has now gone home. Depressing because we are all sick, a virus has swept through the house and we are all unable to race until next Tuesday, very frustrating to come here in good form after months of training and get sick in the first week, but nothing can be done, we all went to the team doctor yesterday and he gave us antibiotics so we should be on the up soon.

On the plus side i did get in a race on Saturday before i went downhill, the racing was fast and hard, i was nervous as hell, but loved every minute of it, to finally be over here racing was awesome. I was happy that i was able to mix it in the bunch, that said i have a lot of work to do before i can match the horse power that some of these guys posses. we covered 120km at 44km/ph. so was very fast. I had bad cramps on the last lap 5km circuit,  maybe due to the long plane trip, maybe from the virus ?? dunno, but i was happy to finish the race none the less. We raced again on Wednesday, but we were all ill and no one finished.

The farm... what can I say, I'm here to race so this will do the job, its actually not too bad. There are some great guys staying here, Jeremy Hill form Tassie, Andrew from NZ and James from Moe. We have others who race for the team but stay elsewhere, Simon Price and a few others. The farm (nickname for the house we live in) is about 5 minutes out of Gent city centre. Its old, its cold, i think its a converted barn shed? but its comfortable, i think its a good venue to launch your racing from as it teaches you to be hard. Staf Boone has come to some of our races and was happy with my race on Saturday. He does a great job providing support for the team, along with Eddie (i will have to send you a photo of him on the derny, funny as hell, he is so wide he has 4 pockets on the back of his jersey) Fred, Jean and others.

We also live on the farm with Naglis he is a Lithuanian, use to race for national team before turning pro and racing for a Colombian team in the 90's, racing tour de France etc...  Awesome bloke funny as hell and great to live with, his diet is appaling fried eel, deep fried ribs fried chips, fried vegetable... you get the picture, needless to say he no longer races but looks after the farm.

Any way, till next time, stay safe, and hopefully I will have some actual racing to talk about!

Here's some pics again.

Gent City


Training at midday, sun is finally out but still 8 degrees


The world famous farm


Is it a Kitchen or a shower?? apparently both? Farm


The chickens next to the farm




15/6/08