It’s an annual date for FDJ to meet at Alpe d’Huez for a training camp with most of the team, as we prepare for June’s two big stage races le Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and le Tour de Suisse and of course the following Tour de France.

I was a little hesitent of heading to this camp at first mainly due to my current problems though as it was only a 3 and a half hour drive from Aix, a nice change of scenery and a chance to catch up with the coach and team I decided why not?

The plan for the team was two days of team time trial training and two days in the high mountains.  So after a scenic drive up through the Alpes via Gap with my team mate Jussi, up to our base at the top of Alpe d’Huez we set off down the mountain for our first ride of the camp.  As the low time trial position aggravates my nerve more I sat out this one and had a really enjoyable ride around the valley.

The next two days were spent tackling some of the hardest and well know cols in the Alpes, such as the Croix de Fer, Col du Glandon, Col du Madelaine, and of course the Alpe d’Huez.  I took my time on the climbs as its been a long time since I had been in the mountains and also my physical condition isn’t so flash, though I did quietly surprise myself on some of the climbs keeping up with my team mates.

Happy to see that I can still ride my bike for 4-5hrs but still very frustrated with losing sensation in my left leg when climbing, or even pushing a little on the flat, I left the camp feeling even more motivated to sort this problem out after spending a good couple of days with my team mates.

I have more doctors appointments coming up, including one with a nerve specialist so hoping to start taking some steps forwards instead of sideways very soon.

Will be back with some news on next steps in this very very long rehab period soon.

Cheers

Tim

p.s Had some cool pics to post, though the ever so amazing iphone decided to crash this week and lost them all, will try find some from my team mates if possible though.