AFRICA!!!! Part II

Ok so the last blog ended quite abruptly, I'd like to say it was a cliff hanger but.............. it wasn't, it was my crap computing skills.

This blog contains content of an adult nature....... ish...... 

At the time of the last blog I was nursing a dicky stomach, a pass time that seems to be very popular amongst the europeans who race in this part of the world........ Of course many hours were spent on the toilet and this gave me time to reflect on my condition.............

yeah....... thats pretty much how it was......

I came to the conclusion it was a mixture of the heat, fatigue and completing a stage of 120km riding through sewage washed out of the drains in heavy rain, a lovely day for drinking from the bidon. Many others suspect the food but I'm not so sure, as others on the trip didn't ail anything.

Got shit faced in my homemade under jersey Gilet, fashioned from a coach seat cover...... snazzy eyyy.

Washing machines are hard come by in this part of the world, however brummies bribed with cups of tea....... aren't, and as luck would have it.......

Moving on from this short sharp bout of illness we went into a very hard mountainous 3 day. The Tour of Setif, Setif is a sizeable town which sites at the same altitude as the summit of mount Snowdan in wales.

The first stage was a 130km day with 2 main climbs and constant rolling roads all the way into the finish. After 3 days off the bike it's fair to say I didn't feel great and this was clarified when I attempted to get in the break in the opening kilometers and instead of putting others in the red I managed to go from leading to last man within about 500 metres

                                     and there I stayed for some considerable time, about 125km as I recall. 

About 1/2 way up the first climb I was shelled along with many others and from then on it was a case of recovering over the top and getting to the finish..... it was only 65 km...... The 2nd climb came in quick succession and I was distanced from my group, clearly I hadn't quite recovered from the Delhi Belly but I grovelled on and got over the climb, then came the suffering, the group i'd been with were literally 500 metres infront, but sods law was in abundance this day and me and them were doing exactly the same speed and so the gap stayed the same for 30 extremely frustrating kilometers. Eventually after a few descents, 3 gels, a banana and 2 bidons, I started to get closer and one big push got me up to them, I was relieved to finally sit in the wheels and for 20kms I sat on and died a thousand times...... theres a song in there ...... With 10 km to go I popped again and road in on my own,.....I took the coveted lantern rouge that day and picked up some serious man points. 

                                                                            Just a picture...... because I like it

Stage two was a similar set out to stage 1, an hour of gutter racing on a big open motorway road before we hit the KOMs of the day where the race would be split to shit and see the GC contenders do battle. We covered 53 km in the first hour and on the flat atleast I felt cracking, However as we hit the first climb, the efforts of the previous day began to show and I came to stand still on the steep accent and my day was done. As I made my way to the top of the climb the heavens opened and the descent was treacherous, I wasn't going to regain contact by this point and taking risks on the slippery downhill was silly and I decided to abandon and recover for the coming races. Which were only in the next few days. Crash your bike out here and your knackered, of course when your in the running risks are taken but in the situation it was silly and so the bus was the ride home. 

                                   Could'v done with him...... either for his horse or his sword to make it less painful

The next race was a criterium in the centre of Setif, a pretty dull circuit to be honest a point to point between 2 roundabouts making a distance total of 96km. For 28/30 laps I didn't feature at all in the race but with 2 laps to go the perfect opportunity arose to attack and I did, I got a good gap of around 10 seconds "according to the lads" but bridgestone Anchor weren't letting anything go and  by the lap bell they had shut me down, however there was a slight gap and we had maybe 10 of us, George Moore went over the top and gave the signal but I was bollocks and couldn't react. This was the final lap I got myself in a good position up the front for the gallop but a serge came on the right hand side and I was too pussy to forge a path through gaps and I was out of it, I rolled in at the back and was pretty pissed with the outcome. Bad Day.... 

                                                                             A lot of lurking tashes.....

So thats week 2 In AFRICA, not a great do but It could have been far worse....... I'll right a final blog about my rest day with a difference, the Tour of Constantine and our final Criterium before heading home to a meal that didn't contain  A- Chicken or B- Rice......

Hope you enjoy

2014 of to a start with a difference.

Hey there to all my fans and welcome back to this top blog, I'd love to address you all personally, but lets face it we aint got time for that.

Right the title... 2014 has started very different for me as opposed to previous seasons. Firstly Ive not headed off for a season of racing in France or Belgium like previous seasons, I've had a 2 week mallorca training camp and I've been dry this winter..... oh no thats not right, I've been soaked since November.

So to kick of this blog I'll begin from January, Team wise I had multiple chats with several teams over winter but nothing came of any of them and I was set to start 2014 as a man in black, "unattached". However as the first races became ever closer the Green Jersey Bike Shop in Clitheroe told me I could ride for them, they've helped me a lot this winter with one thing or another and I was more than happy to represent them in their jersey, "its not green". Unfortunately for my first races in the UK there was no kit and I was back in Black, theres a song in see......

I had some cracking training this winter, coming into training fitter than ever carrying through from last year, spending most of it with the usual crowd, Superman Wilks, Old Hopkin AKA Big JON, Robbie P and Big Sambo. November/ Decemeber were pretty soggy, reckon I had about 3 rides with dry feet, so when my bank account told me I could go to Mallorca for 2 WHOLE weeks I was more than over the moon. I went out there on the 31st of Jan and got 2 really good weeks in, doing the majority on my own and a few days hooking up with random dudes on the sea front, sounds suspect eyyy......

Fair to say I didn't need overshoes on here.

So 2 weeks in Mallorca gave me some nice dry miles and a load of climbing which was  perfect and fair to say tired me out for a good week. Now unfortunately 1st race of the season was with in a week of getting home and I wasn't going too well, some illness picked up on the journey home knocked me back abit and made sure all I was doing that day was "getting" round. But I knew what it was and know it wasn't condition. 1 week later was a double weekend, Eddie Soens on the Saturday and Ronde Van Pimbo Sunday.

Something about Hennebont...... Misty the cat maybe

Soens always attracts some good names and a result here was a big aim for me, get up there someones going to take notice. Cut a long story short, well 30 laps..... in the last lap around 500 meters to go, going for 4th best a top 10 definite, I was took out and straight into a horse racing fence, yes pretty painful at 50 kph+ but more painful for the bike which had been finished been built up 9:30 the previous evening. The forks were smashed but everything else was ok and a spare pair of forks slotted in "again The Green Jersey came to my rescue" and so Ronde van Pimbo was a go go.  

I started the race a little nervous in the bunch but soon got back in the groove and was well away. I had good legs but not good enough, unfortunately at a crucial part, I jumped away to get to the break, 2 Rapha boys came up to me and fair play to them I just couldn't get on the wheels to bridge and that was the day done, but it's early days and they've had 2 months racing so you got take that I suppose. Managed to get away again near the end in a group and rolled 19th so from 80 I guess it wasn't too bad, but lets face it not good. 

Nice Matching forks

And so to my biggest adventure on a bike yet, yes I've gone to Belgium and France, but you kinda know what to expect... but my season has been properly kicked off with 3 weeks of UCI races in Algeria, YES AFRICA !!!! Lets just say it very very different to anything I have ever done or for that matter seen in my life.  I've been here 10 days now and raced 7 of them. 

My first race was a criterium in the capital Algers. I've never known anything like it, people wandering all over the road, kids asking you for your sunglasses, bidons and Garmins!! "MR can I have your Garmin?!! haha, As for the race it quite well considering Id had 3 days travelling and no spin to prep the legs, and a finish in the bunch was a nice opener.

Straight after this the 5 day Tour of Algeria Started, which on paper looked like it was going to be good, and it was, I'm not certain of my GC placing but out of the 120+ riders who started only 50 ish finished, I'm happy to say I finished the race, every stage was hard and racing day after day at such intensity has given me great confidence in my ability and form, and to say its only march I'm very happy. I know for definite that if some days my positioning had been better I'd have had better results avoiding splits and crashes that happened in the windy sections.

As I write this blog there is a 3 day which Im not doing, I race again wednesday in a mountainous 4