La Boucle du Pays de Tronçais, with a mountains race

bonjour tout le monde

I had a race on Saturday. Was a 4 hour drive in a cramped car to get there again. Had a few strong teams. but the course was apparently not to hard, for the first 50km or so then hills

To cut a long story short, I was riding my usual style at the moment and attacking all the time and following. It finally paid off for me as I rolled off after a GPM and took a little group away. Then rolled through again and only 1 guy on my wheel. So we worked together and stayed away for 80km or more, the race ended up being 140km. My break away partner was Herbet the Latvian who I already knew as he was Georges team mate last year and I heard how strong he was. He was taking longer pulls and was defiantly stronger than me. Coming into the final finishing climb he thought I wasn't going to put up a fight but I hit out from the bottom as he hesitated. I got a slight jump on him but he eventually got on my wheel, I kept the power down full but he came off my back wheel and just pulled away a little. I was absolutely wrecked after that ride. Pretty happy with second though.

Monday had another race being Easter long weekend and all.

Was a special little race of 55km long. Just a climbing thing.

Had 3 main climbs, 1st from the gun 6km then a 4km half way through and finished on a 12km climb or something.

I was going pretty good, just rode within myself on the first climb. As to not burn the legs to much.

After I got back to the main group a break had gone. I took up the chase for our team. But i made a crucial mistake of going to hard we turned on to the second climb and i was already in the box from my chase so got spat out the back. Me and team mate Esko put in a good decent and then onto the flat chopping off each 30sec and bought back the front group pretty easy in the end.

As me and Esko got to the front group we both went straight over the top of them and made them all chase. We kept hitting them until we got a little group clear with our team climber in there, our job down. Only the 12km climb to go, was really pissed off at this climb as there was know signs on how far to go and that kind of thing. but managed to get to the finish without dying, so all good.

Thats about it, also will try and get more photos and stuff going if I can find them

Ciao

KH

Triptyque de la Vallée de l'Ance

So this weekend just gone I had a 3 stage tour.

I knew it would be a gruelling tour looking at the profile before hand and the quality of the teams present.

Stage 1

5 laps with a hilly windy circuit with GPM points and sprint primes to make it even faster, this stage was much the same as the previous weekends stage 1, heaps of attacking from all the strong teams and coming back together. So a lot of energy could be wasted doing to much in breaks and trying to ride across gaps etc.

I knew after last weekend that i needed to ride a bit smarter when it came to breakaways and doing to much early on. I was still riding up front and following moves but didn't burn all the matches so to speak.

In the last few laps i was scared of the pace going super fast on the main climb and me getting dropped. So i followed moves before the climb to get a buffer. Nothing really eventuated from that.

The second to last time up the GPM climb, there was still a 8 man group clear with 50sec or so, then from what was left of the peloton a couple of the strong men attacked, i knew straight away this was going to be game over once they got across. So i followed in the end i tailed off towards the top and 2 guys managed to go across then win the Stage and the tour.

I finished in the main group @ 1.06min, couldn't get a clear sprint and rolled 22nd

Sunday

Stage 2 (9.30am) Eeekk!

Only 65km long but with nasty climbs, I got in the early break but nothing happened as the main group had the foot on the gas. Second time up the GPM climb I was tasting it, but hung in. Again really insane finishing km's and couldnt get through the bunch to get amongst the sprint.

Stage 3

Was pretty much controlled by the Yellow jerseys team and 2nd on GC's team, I had a couple of digs at getting up the rode but both teams were on me.

Eventually a couple of guys were allowed to escape, but was pretty much all bunch time at finish.

So that is about it really, pleased that the form is on the up.

Not exactly sure what's coming up. Dn2 coupe de France start of May so should be good.

KH

Tour: Haut Var

So the team had a tour this weekend in the south.

We drove 2 hours or more cramped in the car in the extreme heat.

From what we had heard the stages weren't going to be too hilly. Which was going to be a welcome change for me.

First stage was 117km

Started fast and was splintering from the get go with riders not wanting to hit the wind.

I chased down a dangerous break of 15 and then went on the attack myself.

As people scrambled to get in the break riders where soft pedalling looking for team mates etc.

Eventually the group worked ok together, but there were still riders playing around. And heaps of attacks. I seemed to be covering all the attacks and the making splits to find that other teams werent willing to pull through.

To cut a long story short, I faded with 15km to go and couldn't bridge again.

Ended up 13th in the stage @1min

Stage 2

After so good zzzz's (recovery and all that)

Had a solid french breakfast.

Was keen to have another good hit out.

Conditions for the race were super windy and 32 deg heat, beating down on us, so i knew at once it was going to be tough.

First lap was fairly quiet, i threw in a couple of testers on the Yellow jersey and his team, had them on the ropes to get me back, but then no one from my team would attack over the top.

After the first sprint prime of the day fellow kiwi Alex Ray put in a really well timed attack.

I was right there on his wheel and 2 others. 1 from the yellow jerseys team, so Alex drifted him back to the peloton. I went hard to get a solid time gap, the guy that was with me was pretty annoying tbh and wasn't contributing much at all(but then got shitty when i attacked him)

To cut along story short, got out to a 2min 10sec gap, over the group and would have taken all 3 jerseys if the other guy had pulled a bit more, but in the end we were caught with 15km to go.

Finished up in the Sprint Jersey so pretty stoked with that but looking back should have taken more. Looking forward to taking some form into the next Tour and other races coming up.

KH

Transversale des As de l'Ain

Haven't done an update on the racing in a while. The race on the weekend was said to be flat. We got to the race and saw the race profile and saw some pretty nasty hills.

Any way no point going on about that. The raced started pretty fast and windy. I positioned my self up front to look for breaks and stay out of crashes and all the breaking etc.

I was very active in the first 80km as i wanted to test the legs. But that was the killing of me as when the first 10km climb hit my legs had already done a lot of hard riding.

I held on nearly to the top of the first KOM(gpm). Rode the rest in a small group of 10 then pulled the pin with 25km to go totally smashed.

I feel like the racing is slowly bringing the form up though, which is good as got 2 tours coming up this month.

Cheers

Kieran