Tim Gudsell

Well, after a solid week of couch time, and being given the all clear from the Doc to fly, tomorrow I’m on the plane back home to NZ to continue my recovery.

I’m feeling a lot better than one week ago after just coming out of hospital, since all the pain killers etc are out of my system and can get up and move around a little now. They say on average five pro cyclists are hospitalised every week during the season, so I guess it was just my turn. From now on though its all about resting, and of course getting into the rehabilitation period which is very open ended time wise.

I would really like to thank Pete, Brei, Sam, Scott, and Karine for all there help looking after me during the last week (I know Pete is pretty over doing dishes by now so I’ll have to pull my weight when I return). Also to my French friends in Albi thanks for coming by, the company is always much appreciated, and thanks to all those who have left comments already on the site they have been great.

I will drop in with some more stories soon.

Cheers Tim

Well I suggest not trying this one at home. For my third crash in three weeks I really made a good job of this one. After over 5hrs and 200k in the saddle, and with still over 50km to go, we reached the main climb of the day. I was really starting to feel the pace as the sprinter teams stepped it up, and when we hit the climb Paolo Bettini (current world champion for those who don’t know) decided to gather his troops and tear up the climb to put the other sprinters in difficulty.

Well I’m no sprinter, but they sure put me in difficulty as I dropped out the back pretty quickly. I crested the 12km climb with a small group, only to get dropped again as I tried to take a drink and cool myself down with a bottle of water over the head. My team car passed me again to help me back to the group, but when I saw the car start sliding around a right hand bend at 80kph I knew I was in trouble.

Due to the serious fatigue from climbing I was slightly crossed eyed, and with reactions that would surely not have won me a game of ‘snap’, I entered the corner with a really bad line. I braked late, but quickly realised it was not enough, and slammed into the metal guard rail, hitting directly onto the up right support post, slicing open my left quad. My momentum flipped me over the barrier where in came to a grinding halt on a metre wide verge of earth, with a scarily close view of a massive cliff drop to my left.

I was rushed to hospital, x-rayed, and scanned for internal injuries, before having the muscle in my leg stitched back together. Then spent 3 nights in hospital, mostly high on pain killers as I waited out the days. I was lucky to have a passionate Italian cycling fan who saw me crash come and see me each day which was pretty cool, even though he didn’t speak English the company was nice.

My next adventure began once released from hospital, since thier were no planes available to accommodate me and my now horizontal leg, I commenced a 10hr ambulance drive back to Albi. Yes, that really was a long day steering at the scenery, mostly blue sky, out the back window of the ambulance. Once home I was stoked to be welcomed by some friends from home who had come to stay in Albi, Scotty L, Sam (wagon) Bewley, Cousin Brei (who made some magic pin wheels scones for lunch today) and my flat mate Pete.

By the looks of things I will be off the bike for up to six weeks, and will most likely be heading back to NZ for some recovery. So all in all it wasn’t really the way I wanted to exit my first grand tour, but I happy to have most of my health intact and some good friends to help start the recovery period.

A huge thanks to everyone who rang, txt, or emailed me over the last few days. The support and company was much appreciated.

Will report with my progress again soon

Tim

Hi all

Well this is my first report from Italy and hopefully a little insight for you into my world as a neo pro in Europe, as I try to find my feet in the pro peloton.

Starting in Sardinia sure made it a long trip to the start line for my first Grand Tour, but it was at the same time a truly amazing setting. The first thing I realised about grand tour life is that it is really Grand!!, the hype, hotels, preparation, size of the team and team support. Dealing with 21 days of racing is one thing, but there are long transfers before and after stages, medical control before the tour, then doping controls during, press duties (yes even for the riders who come in well behind the leaders) the ultra passionate and sometimes over the top Italian fans “tifosi” forever asking for signatures, caps, and biddons as you go by. Though you will only spend between 4-7hrs actually racing each day, your day is completely full, with little time for much else. When you get time to put you feet up after dinner, you are ready to sleep straight away, that’s if your throbbing legs have calmed down a little.

This year there was a rest day after just three days racing, not that I was complaining!! After three scorching days racing in Sardinia we had to fly back to the main land, where we would start the real lap of Italy. Even with just a 1 hour flight it sure was a long day, up at 8, left hotel at 9, on plane at 12, landed at 1, made it to next hotel at 3, to find out we wouldn’t get bikes till 8, so enjoyed a chamois free day but the legs did not enjoy the next start that’s for sure.

So as you can see it’s not just about the racing you have deal with a lot more that comes with riding the big races. I will be back soon with more stories, its now time to concentrate on making it though another day at the tour, with 3 mountain passes it sure will be interesting.

Tim

1st posting from the Giro coming very soon….. watch this space!

Kiwi’s at the Giro (L-R) Greg Henderson, Julian Dean, Me, and Craig Geater

With the first ‘Grand Tour’ of the year the Giro d’Italia to start only 6days later, the Tour de Romandie is usually seen as a good indicator of form for many top riders. Set amongst some of the most amazingly picturesque scenery in Europe the tour started in Fribourg with a prologue. Followed by four days in the mountains, and finishing with a time trial in the beautiful setting of Lausanne.

I went into the race with the sole goal of finishing, plus getting in some good, tough mountainous race miles in my legs as prep for the Giro. Generally I felt quite underdone form wise going into this race, and a little nervous of how I would fare, especially being my first Pro-Tour race in the mountains.

I stepped into the opening prologue with full gas, but unfortunately not the form I would like to be able to tackle the relatively short (3.5km) though very technical course (15 corners). With a tricky descent and very nasty climb to finish, it was not a great day for me, 24 seconds down on Paolo Savoldelli (Astana) already…. Never mind, I’ll nail it next year! (See pics from the prologue below)

The first road stage started under grey skies, and cold temperatures, but that didn’t slow the racing. However, the barriers at a train crossing did, they came down midway through the peleton, leaving about 40riders stuck on the other side, luckily we hadn’t gone far, and the race was stopped so we could catch up. The racing intensity really increased after this, as we passed over four categorised climbs. My heart rate was Maxed for most of these, as the leading teams set a quick pace. By the last few kilometres of each climb I would find myself swinging on and off the back of the pack within the last few riders, all the time praying the top of the climb would come quicker than my heart rate would pass its threshold. I finished the day in a group of riders often referred to as the “grupetto” (last riders on the road) nice not to be alone and even better, have the company of fellow kiwi Greg Henderson + a few Aussies to boot!

Day 2 brought slightly easier terrain, not that that necessarily meant an easier ride. The major event of my day came when I found myself slamming into the barriers on the side of the road with 30km to go. As we came into the start-finish circuit, the road set up changed, and was lined with barriers (nasty looking metal fences) unfortunately I got no warning from the riders in front of me, and clipped my handlebars on the first one. 20 metres later I looked down to see my front wheel folding in half under me, nice!! I managed to pick myself up off the road relatively quickly, though a bit shaken from the experience, I was most fortunately physically unhurt by it. Got my spare bike from the team car, and I was off again! Pursuiting my way back to the bunch tucked behind the car. Taking a few ‘’sticky bottles’’ (hand sling off the side of the car) along the way, to get back onto the last group on the road after the peleton had split up on the final climb.

The next day the bunch rolled at nice easy pace. Three riders got away to contest the stage, and since the overall lead was not threatened by the break, Astana controlled the bunch and took us home.

As we rose for the final road stage, the hotel was being pelted by rain, with the forecast for a lot worse in the mountains! We all got a great treat that morning, a very timely hot leg, feet and back rub!! Choice!! Today would be a day where moral an motivation would get you to finish. I was determined to keep good bunch position today. After only 15km I was having other thoughts as the peleton hit the first col at full gas, and I was tailed off with many others well before the summit. We regained contact on the next climb and the pace was a little steadier after that. Though this was a real mountain experience, riders were often loosing control on the slippery descent, with vision being particularly limited by the conditions as we raced down hill at over 90kph at times, a few millimetres of rubber between you and black wet tarmac. Coming into the final climb of the day, and after some risky descending I was almost in contact again with the leading bunch, only for the cars to be pulled off the road, leaving an agonising 200-300m’s between us and the bunch. This left a 15km climb at tempo to the finish, not entirely comfortable. However, I marched on in the knowledge that with only tomorrows 20km time trial to go; I would complete my first Pro-Tour race.

I gave the TT a full warm up and hit it hard to try and set a good time. During the TT I quickly realised that four days of mountain racing had taken its toll in my legs. With little to spare, I hit the 15% pave climbs at the finish of the course, and almost came to a stand still. They certainly don’t make things easy for bike riders over here in Switzerland!

All in all I left the race feeling pretty good, and more confident heading into the Giro. So, its feet up for a day or two before travelling down to the Island of Sardinia off the western coast of mainland Italy, where the Giro will commence its first three stages.

I will work on keeping you all posted every few days at the Giro, just the reports may get shorter as the race gets longer and my legs get heavier.

Thanks for reading
Tim