11/04 – Paris – Roubaix. France

15/04 – GP Denain. France

17/04 – Tour du Finistere. France

18/04 – Tro Bro Leon. France

5-9/05 – 4 Jours de Dunkerque. France

14-16/05 – Tour de Picardie

2-6/06 – Tour du Luxembourg.  Luxemberg

17-20/06 – Route du Sud.  France

Aug 18-24 – Eneco Tour, Holland, Belgium

Aug 30 – Chateauroux Classic de l’Indre Trophee Fenioux, France

Classic Hamburg – Aug 16

It may be the end of the season for most, but for me its just the beginning!  Keep a look out for some race grit soon…

Well as the European summer really starts to heat up, so has cycling’s biggest show Le Tour de France.  Its a great spectacle and this year is proving to be a very open and exciting race, along with the ‘soap opera’ like story of Astana and its start studded team.

Back here in Aix the temperature sure has been rising though thats about it to be honest.  Since returning from the Route du Sud and taking a long weekend in London to catch up with friends and family, I have been back in the peloton for one day at the Tour du Doubs.

Though called a tour it was just one day, though we sure did do a tour of the Doubs region and all its rolling mountain roads.  Not the easiest place to get to it was a long train ride then another 2hours in the bus to the hotel which took up most of Saturday.  Sunday kicked off with a very low key start in a small town as I’d imagine most other cycling enthusiasts were glued to their tv’s or on the side of the road under the Mediterranean sun.

The race started full gas with attacks left, right and centre and that was pretty much the story of the day.  Attack, attack, attack!  I managed to hang on for 150 of the 196km but that was me done, after such a long time without racing the body’s ability to be “redlined” that often isn’t so good, so an early shower was called for as the heavens opened just before we hit the finish circuit.  I was fairly happy with my day though as my nerve pain had just been on and off during the day and was able to feel just good old sore legs after almost 4hrs of racing.

The train trip home was a long one and a few restless sleeps due to the heat started to catch up with me so this week has been very quiet.  Though it seems I can handle the efforts of a race physically, my injury is still struggling with the intensive efforts it is put under, so recovery is slow and important.

So this week we have been back to the specialist and stepped up the treatment in an effort to get on top of things before August.  It’s a slow process, and is made slower by hard efforts on the bike, though if it’s not tested I will also never know.

Now with the rehab program in full swing, and the privelage of a good nights sleep due to our new portable air con unit (best investment ever made) I hope I will be reporting in very soon with some real life stories from the pro peloton.

Cheers

Tim

Route du Sud, June 18-21