Roundabouts, traffic islands and barriers, roads more like over sized footpaths, a few cross winds, and you have yourself a day of start stop racing in Holland, as the peloton tried to navigate it’s way around all the obstacles without to many incidents.  Though it was inevitable there would be a few casualties.

With the fairly flat 210km parcour the race was flat out for the first hour until just one dutch rider was let go to catch some TV time for him and his team, though it was short lived as the straight after the feed station the peloton started to fire up and the race was on and didn’t let up until the finish.  It ended in a bunch kick with Gerolerstiner’s Robert Forster taking line honors ahead of his team mate who had lead him out.

Though the race had a lot more interesting feelings and sensations for me as it was my first race since completing my first Grand Tour.  I was concerned how I would fair being only 9days after the Giro and not really knowing how well I had recovered.  It didn’t take long for me to find out though, as after about 20km I launched across a small gap to a breakaway and found myself close the gap quicker than I imagined, the heart rate got into the 190′s and recovered almost as quickly.  To be honest I was just glad to see my heart rate that high as I hadn’t seen that since the first week of the Giro.  It wasn’t all that easy though, as at many stages through the race my legs still felt heavy as did my head and the thought of my bed seemed like a good place to be.

So after a dragged out journey home due to accidents on the motorway, overbooked hotels at Brussels airport and canceled trains back to Albi, I made it home to get in some more good recovery and prepare for my next race “Route du Sud” which starts on Thursday.  This will be a real treat for me as it is the only race of the year in this region, so nice little 2hr drive to the first hotel instead of flying across Europe will be a nice change.

Will be in touch with action from on the road soon.

Cheers

Tim

Well it’s been a week since I crossed the finish line in Milan, and it’s been one very slow one. Up until today it’s felt like I have had a wicked hangover, but I didn’t even get to hang around to party in Milan.

When I finished in Milan, it was off to a hotel near by for shower and bite to eat, waited for another couple of team mates to finish, then we were in the car an off to the airport, before Alberto Contador had even rolled down the start ramp. This shows you it sure is business here, and really no matter what race your doing there is probably another one not far away.

Just to back track a little to the race, and the last two epic days in the Italian Alps. 7.15 and 7.30hrs (well for me anyway)  respectively stages 19 and 20 were two of the toughest of the whole race. Not just the parcour but the weather conditions and the length of the stages made them extremely tough. I was quite nervous heading into them but soon found that there were a lot of other tired guys in the race and as the race got down to business I found myself in a grupetto that was around half the peloton. That definitely didn’t mean we could muck around it just meant a few more pairs of legs to share the work load, and stay clear of the time delay.

I know myself I really had to find something else from inside to finish these stages and the tour, a mental and physical strength and progression that you can only get from this type of event, a Grand Tour. Now I am sure it is something I can keep with me from here on, in my progression as a professional rider.

This week has been a mix of easy recovery rides weather permitting, and a couple of days off too. Next week I am back into with the Dutch Food Valley Classic and then the following week Route du Sud, before taking a well needed mid season spell to freshen up for the end of the season.

Thanks again to all of those who left comments during the Giro, I will endeavor to keep you all interested and informed with the happenings in my world the of the professional peloton.

Back soon

Tim

It’s 5degress celcius, but with drizzling rain and nasty breeze the chill factor can’t be much above zero.  Perched at the 2618m above sea level somewhere deep in the Italian Alps you will find the Passo Gavia, also known as the Cima Coppi.  The penultimate mountain stage of this years Giro would pass over this mammoth Mountain during the 224km parcour also including the famous Mortirolo later in the stage.

So here I was in what would be the days grupetto of around 80 riders all battling to finish the Giro.  I’d just donned a vest, rain jackets, cap under the helmet, and picked up a musette from the team car with biddon of hot tea and some gels for the 50km descent ahead of us.

Then with 500m to go to the summit here are two hard kiwi blokes, frezzing their arses off waving a black flag with the silver fern on it.  I didn’t even have the energy to acknowledge them at the time but, damm fellas big ups.  All I could think was now thats ‘dedication’ if I’ve ever seen it.  Craig an Glen had been following the race with their partners all the way from Palermo to Milan, but this effort really took the cake.

So I would just like to say thanks to all of you including Kyle Rika and Teresa who joined team along the way, you guys really helped make some of those long days seem a lot brighter.

Below is a pick of Kyle, Glen, Craig, Grom (Slipsteam mechanic) and me at our hotel on the second to last night of the tour.

Cheers team.