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Tour d'laude 2009

2009-05-28T18:28:00.002+01:00

Hey,

I’m just sat in the airport having finished my 2nd ever stage race the tour d’laude its been ten days of hard racing round the area of Carcassonne in the south of France, its probably the biggest stage race for women all year, so its not surprising when all the top women turn out for it.

After my return to the bike after my break, I built up slowly doing running, gym and some riding on the bike in April, at the end of April I had a 10 day training camp with Fidea and AVB (who I will be riding with from the 1st of September) it was a really good training camp in Majorca. I did some good long rides with the guys and by the end of the ten days I felt a lot better on the bike, it was nice to get to know all of my new team mates and learn a little more Flemish too which is always a bonus!.

My plan after the training camp was to start racing, I did 2 big Dutch races (middag Humsterland and omloop de kempen) which my team from moving ladies won. It was a good kick start to the road season and I actually felt quite strong.

It was just after this I was called up to ride tour de laude with GB, I couldn’t turn it down I have always wanted to do this race and I knew if I could get through it would give me a great base towards the cross season and also some good form for the road.

I got a flight on the Wednesday from Charleroi to Carcassonne airport where I would be meeting up with the other GB girls. It was a bad start to the trip with me having my purse stolen at the train station on the way to the airport, but I soon forgot about that once I started racing.

The tour was hard, but very enjoyable, I learned a lot about how far I could push myself, and how much my body could cope with. For me its just what I needed and it has given me some confidence too, I felt very strong in a lot of the stages and was surprised that I was able to get up there on some of the days. I think the worst I felt was day 7 where we were right in the mountains, every day was flat out from the start but this day was especially hard with a 14 km climb 4km into the race. It was split to pieces and I had to really dig in to get into a good bunch in front of me. The other girls did really good too, for them its there first year as seniors and so it was more about getting through it which they all did (apart from Anna who ended up spending the whole of Saturday afternoon in hospital with gravel rash from a big crash!) not such a good start to her road racing career but she stayed out with us for the rest of the week and by the end she was back riding her bike! Im happy to have finished and look forward to a bit of easy riding and resting before my next race therme kassienomloop……

Race report on bc -

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/gbr/EventReports2009/20090526_TourdeAude.asp

Puivelde

2009-05-14T15:28:00.004+01:00

And another little one from yesterdays race!

A good day out yesterday for the men in green!

We were racing in the Pro Kermess race in Puivelde. 170kms on a 15 km circuit. Early in the race a break of around 10 went clear, with Nico there it was good for us to sit tight and let the others do the hard work. About 100ks later after a long chase by the Landbouwcredit team the break came back. We knew this was were the race would be won so the boys in green were all near the front, floating round keen as mustard. I tried a few attacks and digs but didn't have much luck. Steven Van Vooren ( a team mate ) had a bit more luck with his attack and went clear with a group of 6 also containing Nico even after being up the road already for over 100km. So we had 2 in a break of 6, the ratio was good and us boys left in the Peloton did our best to disrupt the chase and let the gap grow. 3 laps of chasing attacks and we were coming into the finish with the break comfortably clear. Job done for us and we had our fingers crossed for Nico and Steven. They were in good company up there with the likes of Martin Maaskant who has some pretty good results in the bag so far. Anyway the boys did good! Well i think that would be an understatement. They attacked clear from the break together and finished together 30 seconds up on the other 4 with Steven crossing the line first and Nico 2nd! Good work boys!

A good day out for the Green Machine

Asturias !

2009-05-14T15:22:00.002+01:00

Just got back from the Vuelta Asturias a 5 day 2.1 stage race in Spain and the Subido Naranco, a 1.1 one day race the day after also in Spain.

I had a few problems a few weeks back with my knee again so I didn’t get much training done. So naturally I was going into this race with not much condition, but I was healthy and fit. I just wanted to get the race in my legs and find some form.

First day, lots of attacks in first few kilometres saw a group of around 25 go away after 20kms. I was there with 1 team mate. The group was a bit too big and wasn’t really working. I thought I may as well try an attack and see what happens. I ended up going away with 3 others and getting a gap of 8 mins. A good day out already, good TV time and good exposure for the team. We were about 30kms from the finish and we still had 5 mins on the peloton. Sooner or later my lack of condition caught up with me and I had a “massive death”. The last 25 kms looked flat in the race book but it wasn’t to be. 2 guys went ahead to fight out for the win and 2 were dropped and caught by the bunch, unfortunately I was one of the unlucky 2! Never the less it was a good day out!

The next day was a hard day with 3 categorised climbs. My legs weren’t good after my day out yesterday, really bad at the start but I rode into it towards the end of the stage. An early break went with a team mate David O’Loughlin and got a few mins on the peloton. The leaders (rock racing) controlled the race well, brought the race together for the last 2 climbs a d delivered Oscar Seville to the line for there 2^nd stage win in as many days. I did my best in the run in, taking our GC men to the front and riding for as long as I could on the climb. With no GC ambitions in mind I rode in a few mins down in the gruppetto.

We did a bit of a test after this stage on our new Max Gear compression tights. We decided not to wear them for the day and see if we could notice a difference. We were all convinced off a big difference. We all found we had a lot more water retention In the legs and just felt generally stiffer and more tender the next morning. We wouldn’t be doing that test again!!!!

The 3^rd day was a bit of a nightmare, we woke up to thunderstorms and a lot of rain. Today was a split day with a 90km road stage and a 14km tt. It would have been easy to put a rain jacket on today and just be happy to finish and stay out of trouble but today was our big chance of a win, with such a short stage it was more or less going to be a bunch sprint. So it was full gas for Nico for the finish. It was a technical finish which we didn’t really know so we decided to get Nico to the front and leave him to do his stuff on his own. Myself, Dave and Steven Van Vooren did a good job getting him up there but unfortunately no result today! Big disappointment for us, but we gave it everything we had! The TT was a formality for me, with a kind 40% time limit (the amount of time we can loose to the winner before being kicked out the race) around 7 mins I cruised round the TT and got ready for the next day!

Stage 4 was a “proper” mountain stage with 3 HC climbs. Today was all about survival and getting to the finish inside the time limit. Half way up the first “berg” the gruppetto was called and a nice group of about 30 riders formed and rode at our own pace to the finish within the time cut. Still a tough day with over 50km of categorised climbing and over 5hrs in the saddle.

The last stage, normally a formality after yesterdays stage had more or less decided the GC, Mancebo of rock racing had the jersey so normally they would control the race, let a small group get a few mins and bring it together for the finish. There were 3 categorised climbs today but nothing as savage as yesterday. My legs were pretty sore but I thought I may as well have a bash early on. First attack of the day was from possibly the smallest guy in the race, a little Columbian guy, I went after him after 2ks and we quickly got a min on peloton. Luckily after a few more k’s 3 more riders came up to us, they were a bit bigger than this little fella so a bit more shelter was nice. There were no GC guys there so I thought we were gone again for the day. We hit the first climb of 10ks with 2 mins; half way up the gap was 1 min. The race was on behind. We battered over the hill and got to the top just before the peloton. The group was split to pieces and I immediately knew today was going to be tough. The whole day was attack after attack, windy sections, hills and descents. No rest today. What we all thought would be a steady day turned out to be the hardest day of the race! The finish was hard, 3 or 4 1km hills. Too many for me!

So that was the end of the tour, but we still had 1 more day of racing to go. The 1.1 ranked Subida Naranco. It was in the same region of Spain and just down the road from our hotel. 150km with 5 categorised climbs. A real climbers race today.

I was really really tired today and wasn’t to motivated to race. I thought I would give it all to get up the road early on and then just see how far I could get in the peloton if not.

So for the 3^rd time this week I was away in the break and 9 mins up on the peloton. I was absolutely knackered and didn’t know what I was doing! There was a long way to go and a lot of meters of climbing also. I was pretty certain I wasn’t going to get to the finish in this group so gave it everything to try to win the intermediate sprint competition and get myself on the podium. My plan worked and I won it! After the sprints I was more than spent and dropped off the back of the break on the 2^nd climb of the day. I kept plugging away on my own and somehow managed to stay clear until the 2^nd to last climb. I was caught and dropped immediately and rode in a few mins behind truly dead! Another good day out, more TV time a trip to the podium and a good suntan!

I came out of the 6 days tired but not totally kapot so hopefully after a bit of a rest the legs will be good and some results will come!

Matts March Blog

2009-04-18T14:55:00.003+01:00

Back to Belgium

The last time I wrote I was sat in the airport waiting to come home. 2 days later and I was back on “the grid” in a pro Kermess in Wanzele. It was a 170km race on a circuit of about 15kms, it was quite an interesting course with a bit of everything, a few hills and a few cobbles just to make it that bit more interesting. From what I can remember it wasn’t the best race for me or the team, a break went after a few laps with none from An post there, it was only a matter of time before we were on the front riding to bring the break back. It came back after a few ks of hard graft and the fireworks started again. We were determined not to miss the break this time. We didn’t miss one, but unfortunately nothing stuck. Last lap and I was riding to help Nico to the front for the finish. Nico and Kenny were a respectable 7^th and 8^th. My job was done with 1km to go and I went backwards like a stone and rolled in the middle of the peloton.

Waasland

Next was a UCI 1.2 race in the waasland region of Belgium. A pretty typical Belgian race, cobbles and wind for 100km and then a finish circuit with more of the same. I got stuck in all race, going with a lot of attacks and riding well. After a few laps of the finish circuit a group of 10 went clear with Jef Peters of An post there. A good situation to be in for us so we sat back and let the others worry about bringing it back. The break stayed away and Jef was a close 2^nd, just a few cms off the win. I did my job for Nico again and he sprinted in incredibly strong, catching and passing 4 of the breakaway riders and finishing 6^th! A good day out for the boys in green!

Nokere Koerse

Next was Nokere. A semi classic in Belgium and a huge race for the team. We were all full gas for the start making sure we were well and truly in the race. The race was rather uneventful with a bunch sprint looking almost 100% sure. I was feeling good all race and had followed a few attacks and attacked myself numerous times. Nothing worked and we geared up for a bunch sprint. I was sitting ok for the finish, about 20 back with 1km to go and was on for a certain top 15 place when there was a mass pile up in front of me! I managed to stay up after a few meters riding on my front wheel. I scurried across the line, glad to have not lost any skin but gutted to miss out on a result! It was a good day for the Brits as Ben Swift was 2^nd! Nico was 10^th

Road Trip

Next was an 8hr road trip to the Loire Valley in France. Without naming any names, one of the team were full of cold and managed to do his best to pass it round the team to wipe half of us out for the race. Unfortunately I was one of the victims and felt like muck in the race. I stopped after 2hrs. 16hrs in the car for nothing! Not happy!

Ronde Van Grone Hart

2 days later and I was pinning my numbers on again in a Dutch 1.1 race. I was still feeling a bit under the weather but felt well enough to race. When I hear these 2 words together “1.1” and “Holland” it makes me cringe. The roads in Holland are designed to be bike friendly, but not our kind of bikes, the kind that only go 10kph with a bag full of shopping on the back. The roads are designed to slow down the cars so are full of speed humps, random bits of road furniture and some strange obstacles placed in the most dangerous positions you could imagine. Add this with a lot of wind and you have, not a lot of fun and a lot of pain. After 30 kms of racing round the local towns dodging plant pots in the road etc. a few crashes had shed 10-20 of the 200 odd starters. We left the town and headed out onto the open roads into the fields. Soon after we hit the wind and the race was split to pieces. I was sitting nicely in the front group of about 30. Bad luck struck early and I was caught behind a crash. I was held up for a few seconds but that was enough. I ended up in the 2^nd group. That was me for the day. We rode hard all day for about 150 km non stop, “full gas” After about 150km we caught what was left of the front group. 1 few had gone clear and we were racing for the minor placings. I was stuffed and rolled in mid peloton. It was a hard day out! Some good hard ks in the legs was about the only good thing that came out of it!

Bad Times

Next up was not a good few weeks for me. I won’t go on about it as I don’t want to bore you all with my misery. I picked up yet another virus and had to rest for 6 days with no bike. I missed 2 of the biggest races of the year that I was really looking forward too. Dwaars door Vlaanderen and the Brabantje Pijl. Both Huge semi classic races in Belgium. I was sat on the sofa for both of them and witnessed Nico do an awesome ride in the first of the 2 races. He was in the early breakaway and managed to stay clear over the climbs. The race developed behind him and he was joined by the best of the best. He was racing for the win but was outnumbered by the Belgian Quick Step team including Tom Boonen. He finished an awesome 2^nd place after more than 180kms in the breakaway! Well done Nico!

After my virus I got back on the bike, keen as ever I squeezed in 18 hrs in 4 days. This, I don’t advise! A few days later I was back in the Doctors and was diagnosed with a dose of tendonitis. Another forced break from the bike and more sofa time. Not good!

Home Race

Yesterday was the Dwaars Door Het Haageland in Aarschot. A race about 10km from my front door. Luckily im all fixed up, the knee has recovered and im feeling healthy at last. The race went ok considering my last few weeks nightmares, I rode well for the team. Helped to get 2 of our boys in the move and got some good racing ks in! It was almost another disaster with just a few meters to go. I hit the final corner after a fast decent, I was going well over 70kph and was full gas in a lead out for Nico. I hit the corner and gambled on not using any brakes, my heart skipped a beat as both my wheels slipped suddenly from underneath me. Somehow I held it up and survived to live another day! I took the boys as far to the line as I could and they were 1^st and 2^nd in the bunch sprint. It must have been the lead out ! Hmmmm. The guys in the break finished 2^nd and 4^th! Another good day out but still no win for the team! It can’t be long now before we get one!

I don’t want to get into a habit of saying this but I sure hope I have something a bit more positive to write about in the next few weeks! Keep all your fingers crossed for me and the team!!

Until Next time

Matt

Next races for me :

19-04 Beavechain 1.12

20-04 Outer 1.12

28-04>02-05 Vuelta Ciclista Asturias 2.1

03-05 Subida al Naranco 1.1

10-05 Omloop Der Kempen 1.2

15-05>17-05 Tour De Picardie 2.1

Matts Blog - Jan - March 09 !

2009-03-14T07:56:00.011Z

Time for racing

I say its time for racing but I’m actually already 1 month into my year! Seven months and counting so I better get stuck in.

So what have I been up too the last few months?
I finished my last race last year and had a break from my bike for 2 weeks. I spent this time doing “Normal” peoples stuff and trying not to get fat! I soon got bored of doing nothing and started thinking about 2009. After a few weeks of negotiations I managed to secure a contract with my new team An-Post – Sean Kelly . The first thing on my mind was getting back in the gym and getting these legs fixed up. I did 2 months of gym sessions with a bit of bike riding too keep the weight down and was well on my way to being fixed.

Rambo

Mid way though December we headed out to Guadamar in the South of Spain for our first team get together. “A bit of a get together with a few spins” is what I was told to expect. This was good for me at this time of the year, however Nico and a few of the boys had other ideas! To cut a long story short we ended up doing an 8 day camp of 4-5hrs every day with no signs of “a few spins”. I came back from the camp pretty tired but pleased to have got a good block of training in. Next was a bit of a rest and then back into a 10 day block of long riding over Xmas.

Snow Joke

January arrived and the weather in “sunny Belgium” turned. We were gifted with a 15 day long spout of minus temperatures. For 15 days the thermometer didn’t rise above -5. This was all well and good for a few days, I found that I could only train for a maximum of 3 hrs without feeling totally worn out. So I would set of training with 28 layers of clothes and 15 pairs of gloves and ride for 2-3 hours before stopping at a nice warm café. I found a nice café in Hoegaarden (where the beer is made) they had a roaring hot fire and did great coffee and pancakes. So that was me for the week, 2.5hrs then coffee, pancakes, warm up a little, a little more coffee and then another 2.5 hours! It wasn’t ideal but I was getting the hours in and eating pancakes so I was happy.

The fun soon ended when the inevitable happened. It snowed, and it snowed hard. I was stuck on the turbo for a week or so and was soon starting to crack.
Lucky for us season was fast approaching and we were off again with the team on our second training camp to Calpe.

We were there for 10 days and we were blessed with the weather. The evening we arrived it was raining and windy and the morning we left was the same, it just so happened that in the middle of this the weather was perfect for bike riding, light winds and between 15-18 degrees!

The 10 days consisted of the usual long rides and base training with 3-4 hill efforts each day. We took a rest day mid camp and had some press duties to get out of the way. Apart from that it was a pretty solid and uneventful camp really.

Race time

After a few days steady at home I was on the TGV and off to Marseille for the season opener GP Marseille. I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say it wasn’t a good day for me. The weather was bad, so the whole race was full gas, sprinting up the climbs, sprinting out of hairpins on descents and crosswinds on the flats. No Fun. After 80ks and 2 mountains I was down and out!

2 days later and we were on the start line at the Etoille Besseges, a 5 day race in the south of France.
Again it wasn’t a particularly great race for me. A few tough days in the hills, but I got through it and came out of it satisfied and not dead!

Algarve

Next on the teams agenda was the Vuelta Algarve in the south of Portugal. I had had some problems again with my back, my Psoas muscle (the one that joins from the top of your hip to the bottom of your spine) was still pretty weak after 3 months of doing nothing last year so it needed some work. We decided it was better for me not to race but to train instead, I travelled to Algarve with the boys but got stuck into my own Physio and training programme. Good weather, good training. Faultless.

“Proper racing”

Back to Belgium and time for some proper bike racing! Spain, France, Portugal. They were all nice but we all know where it’s at! 1st of March and the fun Begins! Kuurne Brussels Kuurne. Kuurne is one of the early season openers and apart from the Ronde, it doesn’t get much bigger out here in Belgium. I was nervous to be here but also excited. My preparation had been good, training had gone well, I had eaten well, lived in my compression stuff so I had nothing to be scared off. Team orders for me were to try everything to get into the early break. My race was the first 50km full gas. I started at the front and didn’t drift back for the first hr, I was determined to get up there. However, nothing went. We had covered over 50kms in the first hr and people were starting to think about the hills. The pace hotted up and a few crashes later we were at the first hill. It was in these few ks I made my mistake. In races like these the race doesn’t happen up the hills it happens the 5ks before the hills. I was mid bunch, climbing well but just too far back. I found myself in no mans land in between the break and the 2nd group. I made a last ditch kamikaze effort to get across but soon realised it wasn’t going to happen. My director had other ideas. After a few groups caught us up we were ordered to the front and told to ride full gas. So 80kms later we were at the finish, well and truly spent. So what did I make of my first semi classic? To be totally honest I loved it. Although the end result didn’t look good from the outside, I was really pleased with how I felt today. I really think this is a race I can do well in one day!

Posing & the Soens

Next on the agenda was a trip back to the UK. I had a Photo shoot to do at Max Gear for some of there new advertising. Luckily my family live just down the road so I was able to fit it in quite nice and also I got to ride a bike race for good measure. After a few hours of piss taking and posing in head to toe Lycra and I was thinking about the race. While I was back I was going to ride the Soens in Liverpool. It’s a race that I always wanted to win, since I was a kid. I remember myself and Cav every year when we were kids. We had a master plan to use our handicap advantage early on and lap the field. It never worked. Anyway, I was here with good form, a lot of racing in my legs so I thought I’d give it a bash. The legs were good, I followed a little move mid race and ended up in a good group about 1 min up. The finish was closing in and I realised that I had a good chance of winning. We had only a few laps left, were 1 min up and I hadn’t actually pushed on the pedals yet. I was just planning my master attack when I punctured! 4 laps to go. Race over. I tried a frantic chase but it was to no avail. I was pretty disappointed to say the least so I took my anger out on the bike and did a few hours after the race.

Home time

So I’m sat here in the airport waiting to go “home” and thinking about my next races. My legs feel good, I wouldn’t say I have good form but I have good condition and all I want to do is race!
So hopefully next month ill have some races and results to write about!

Schedule March 09

15-03
Omloop van het Waasland
1.2
18-03
Nokere Koerse
1.1
22-03
Campina Ronde van het Groene Hart
1.1
25-03
Dwars door Vlaanderen
1.1
29-03
Brabantse Pijl - La Fléche Brabanconne
1.1

Feb 2009

2009-02-09T14:46:00.000Z

How time flies……

So…. Where do I start?
.
It was very busy for me over the Christmas period and even now after being a month into the year all things are still a bit crazy with racing and I have 3 weeks of racing left now before the end of the cross season which finishes in Oostmalle on the 22nd February.

I will start with what happened after I last wrote on here. So I went home for Christmas and came back Christmas day afternoon, after opening all of my presents and sitting down for Christmas dinner my focus turned to the world cup at Zolder the following day.

Zolder 26/12/08
Luckily my dad was able to come back with me for one of the biggest cross races of the year, Zolder world cup on Boxing Day. We caught the train from Folkestone and headed back to Belgium to get here around 9pm. The next day we had an early start travelling only 40 minutes down the road to Zolder. I had a few laps of the circuit which was one of my favourite so far J very fast and quite technical. The crowds were great and it was probably the biggest race I had been too since the start of the season, also it was the best field of riders I had ridden in. I was yet again gridded at the back due to my lack of uci points. I had a rubbish start but worked my way through the other girls to finish in 16th. I was happy and looked forward to my next few races.

Video from YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAMdGSjOkRQ
Report- http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2008/dec08/worldcup7_08

Loenhout uci race 30/12/08
It was the day of my 22nd Birthday; I had woken to a room full of balloons and cards with a fantastic chocolate cake made by matt (However I did wait until after I had raced to eat the cake). We didn’t have to leave to early as again the race was only about 30 minutes from me. The weather had turned very cold this week and the ground was very hard. I arrived at the race to watch the end of the junior boys race which looked more like a criterium, with the front group being about 20 strong!. I again liked the course, there were some long fast straights with corners coming back on yourself. There were a lot of women today, 60 lined up. I got a great start and found myself in the front group on the likes of Hanka kupfernagel and Katie Compton’s wheels. Unfortunately I made the mistake of being last wheel and got stuck behind Mirjam Melchers who wasn’t so good on the technical pieces which slowed me down and I ended up loosing the wheel, I was left hanging about 8 seconds off the front group for the last three laps and I finished with a 7th place, my legs felt great and my confidence was improving.

Video from YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjHIXGpq1ks
Report - http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2008/dec08/GVAlazencrossloenhout08/GVAlazencrossloenhout083

Teuveren-4/01/09
Another good day out for me here. I loved the circuit again; it was a hard course with a little drag after the start finish area as well as some tricky little pieces in the woods to contend with. I had a good battle with Helen Wyman and Pavla Havlikova , we were fighting it out for 3rd place. We all came in to the last corner and Helen was just in front, I ended up focusing too much on the third place when I should of thought about getting forth and Pavla came round me in the finish so my position was 5th.

By this point everything was going well toward the National Championships this is when 2 days after this race I came down with a chest infection, I went to the docs and was put on a 7 day course of antibiotics, I travelled home as planned on the Wednesday as I hoped I would be feeling well enough to race by Sunday but It wasn’t to be and ended i up spending the whole time I was home in bed. I was very disappointed, I really wanted that jersey but it looked like I would just have to wait till next year for that.

My next plan was to get recovered and well enough to be able to compete in Roubaix world cup which was the following weekend. During this week I was told I would be going to the world championships due to my results over Christmas which I was made up with, it was 3 weeks away which just about gave me enough time to get my racing legs back.

Report - http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2009/jan09/tervuren09

Roubaix World cup 18/01/09
After 5 days back on the bike, I was on the start line in Roubaix. I didn’t feel sick at all now, but was still coughing quite a bit of rubbish up from the infection. This circuit was completely different to the ones I had last done over Christmas. The weather had gone much milder and it was pouring buckets of rain. The course was very muddy and I knew it was going to be a tough day; however it was a fantastic course with the start and finish being on the famous Roubaix track. My start was great, but then I just lost some time toward the end with having lost some of my top end from the time I had off. I finished 20th position today, which doesn’t sound so good but from the way I had felt that time the week before I was satisfied with the race and looked forward to getting back with some hard training for the world championships.

Video YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MvsF7futYQ
Report - http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2009/jan09/worldcup8_09/?id=results/worldcup8_093

Zonnebeke & Wilrijk 24/25th January
I skipped going to Milan world cup this weekend, I thought it was a lot of travel for one week before the world championships and also I couldn’t really justify going as the amount of uci points wouldn’t really change my positioning for the start grid at the worlds.
I had two solid days racing with the junior boys, both very hard going courses with a lot of running, the weather was wet and I came away happy to have the races in my legs and now feeling like me on the bike again ready for the following weekend.

World Championships Hoogerheide Holland 1/2/09
I travelled to Bosschendhoff on the Thursday before the championships which is where the team hotel was, around 20 minutes from Hoogerhiede, I was very happy because since the previous weekends racing, the weather had turned much colder and the ground was now frozen, so instead of me thinking the race was going to be a mud fest with a lot of running, now it was going to be very fast. Which I think was great for me going back to how I was going in the fast races after Christmas.
I had a few good days on the course training before Sunday’s race and I loved the circuit, it was great for a championships. I wasn’t so nervous before the start to be honest, I just tried to treat it as another race, although when I seen the amount of people as I stood on the start line I realised this wasn’t just another race it was the world championships!
I was gridded at the back on the left. As I stood waiting for the traffic lights above to turn green I focused on the race ahead. I got a good start……until the first corner ,by this point I had passed a lot of girls on the right and coming in the first corner I was around the top 10, then some girls came down and I was right behind them I had no where to go but on the floor. I didn’t panic and I quickly got back up, got my bike out of the tangle and carried on, by this point nearly everyone had came passed me and now it was a case of chasing hard and passing as many girls as I could. By the end of the 2nd lap I was in 12th position and I could see the main group of 11 in front of me only 100m or so. I was trying so hard to get up to the group but on my own with a headwind it was very hard. I gave it everything in the race and the atmosphere and amount of people that were cheering me on was crazy. I came away with a 14th place in my first world cross championships which I was very happy with, but also came away with thinking what if…. If I hadn’t of crashed in the first corner, I think maybe I could have been with the group just in front.
I stayed to watch the men’s race afterwards and it was brilliant there were literally thousands of people watching. I had a great weekend.
Thank you for everyone who was supporting me J.

Video youtube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaiG1VXLw2k
Report- http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2009/jan09/CXworlds09/?id=results/CXworlds093

I now have three big cross races left in Lille, Heerlen and Oostmalle, and also I’m planning on doing het volk on the road before a good rest.

Here are some interviews and reports with me from the world championships
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/cyx/News2009/20090204_nikki_harris_interview.asp

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/gbr/EventReports2009/20090201_cyclo_cross_worlds_day2.asp

pics on www.nikkiharris.co.uk

At last...... A WIN !

2008-09-30T14:04:00.001+01:00

Good things come to those who wait…. This is what I’ve been told all year whilst racing. Well it seems to have come true. This year whilst racing I have had so many top 10’s, 2nds and 3rds but no win….until Sunday!

I’ve been wanting a win all year, I have raced a lot in Belgium and Holland and always come close but hadn’t got that illusive top spot on the podium, which I wanted so much. It was at a road race in Wilrijk, Belgium where I got my win.

The race started out and it was a typical Belgium race, twisty roads, mainly flat with a bit of a drag around the back which really got to your legs after a few laps. There were around 70 riders which set out for the 18 lap 90km race.
The first few laps were quite negative, people would attack but with everyone so fresh I knew nothing would go, I sat in near the front and tried not to make any massive efforts. I was sat on the side of the bunch just behind the Belgium National Champion Ilse Geldhof, I could see her flicking through the gears and I could tell she was going to attack, I went with her, we got a gap of about 150 metres but down the back of the course It was very fast and it ended up coming back together with a few serge’s from the peleton behind. I decided to take a breather and just be patient.
The next couple of laps I just watched at the front, to see who was attacking , chasing etc. It was with 12 laps to go I made a do or die move, the pace had been high and a few attacks had gone and come back it was then I decided to attack out of a corner through a twisty section of the course. I sprinted flat out and got a gap of around 200m I looked behind to see everyone sit up and look at each other, I knew with a little gap and some speed I could pull out a bit of a lead, a lap later and I was still out on my own, the lead car had come past me. I looked behind to see a girl chasing me but I didn’t want to wait as if I did the peleton may have come back to us, she eventually got up to me and for the rest of the race we shared the work and ended up getting a lead of over 2 minutes. The legs we screaming and with 4 laps to go my team manager passed me up a bottle of coke which was great, it just gave me that last little bit of energy I needed to keep digging in on the front. I attacked with about 350m to go and crossed the line with my hands in the air, I was so made up and happy with the way that I had won, we were over a minute in front of 3rd place isle geldhof and 2 minutes in front of the peleton. My dad was also there, he had came over to watch me for the weekend so I was made up to have won when he whilst he was there watching.

I had a break at the end of August and since then I have been preparing for the cyclo- cross season where I’m planning to stay in Belgium and hopefully compete at the top level in world cups and super prestige’s, this is definitely the place to be for the cyclo cross season and it’s the first time I will be taking it seriously since I was a junior so I cant wait. I’m sure I will get a good kick-in at first but if I want to improve this is where I have to be!

Thank you to everyone that has supported me this year, you know who you are.

POwerCranks

2008-09-05T20:55:00.000+01:00

Matt and his PowerCranks !

How long does it take a bike rider to recover from 2 broken legs? Last November Matt Brammeier a cyclist from Liverpool picked a fight with a truck whilst out training. Unfortunatly the truck won and Matt had both of his legs broken!
3 months later and he was back on the bike, 5 months and he was racing and just 7 months until his first win! How does that sound!
After a lot of hard work Matt was looking for that extra bit of help from whatever he could get. He had heard about a new training aid PowerCranks and thought he would give them a go.
He was lucky enough to be supplied with a set of Powercranks too see if they could help!

Congratulations on your first win and your comeback so far, are you happy with it?
Yes, for sure. After what happened in the winter I just wanted to get injury free and enjoy racing and riding my bike for the year.

You’ve done a bit more than get back on the bike?
Yeah I’ve done alright I suppose, I won my 3rd race a couple of weeks back, which is 1 more than last year so I cant complain.

So, you were supplied with some PowerCranks? How did you hear about them?
I was recommended to use them by a friend and Physio, and as soon as I looked into them I knew I had to get some.

Why?
I broke my left femur, so I couldn’t put any weight on it for a long time so there was a lot of muscle wastage not only in my leg but my hip muscles too. These muscles are really hard to work, so the PCs made me work specific areas more than I could have before.

What are they? What do they do?
They are basically 2 independent cranks. They don’t allow you to cheat when your pedalling. They work the muscles that you wouldn’t normally as much on normal cranks and help with your pedalling.

What were your first impressions of the cranks?
They day I got them they were straight onto my bike, they were real easy too fit and only took 10 minutes or so. I thought I would be able to ride them right away so set off out on the road. I got about 5 pedal revs down the road and had to turn back! They were hard work! All my weaknesses became obvious in a matter of seconds.

So where are you at with the “PowerCranking” now?
I’ve worked up to be able to ride them for about 40 mins max. Most of my training on them is to work my left hip muscles though so it doesn’t take long for me to fatigue and have to stop.

So you think they are helping?
Yes 100%. I ride my normal bike on the road and don’t feel a thing in my hips. 5 mins on the PCs and my hip in burning!

Will you continue to use them after your injuries are all fixed up?
Yes defiantly, I’m going to set up a PowerCrank bike and try to use it as much as I can. They teach you how to get the most out of your pedalling. Normally we only put power out through 70% of the pedalling circle. So if I can use 100% surly it will make me faster!

Does anyone else you know use PowerCranks?
Not personally but a lot of the top pros are using them season long. There’s a full list on the www.powercranks.com

So, what are your plans for the rest of the year?
I saw my Physio last week for the first time in a while. Lets just say she gave me a kick up the arse! I’ve got a long way to go to get back to 100% so a long winter of hard work I think!

Thanks Matt, and good luck for the rest of the year !

August 08

2008-08-21T12:25:00.000+01:00

Hiya,I can’t believe its mid august already, the year is flying by. The Olympic games have been great to watch and have definitely lifted me and given me some inspiration!. Unfortunately that hasn’t really been showing in my races. I’ve done so many kermesses the last few weeks and now trying to think back it all seems a bit of a blur, I have had a lot of top tens but still no win, ive been very close but I just need that bit of luck.

This year is turning out to be a big learning experience for me; it’s very different to previous years where ive been told: where I’m racing, when I need to be at the airport, when I need to eat, sleep, rest, recover etc. Now I have to do every little thing for myself which is definitely not a bad thing and I think if anything is going to help me so much for hopefully the next few years.

One of the bigger races which I did do recently was Holland hills. This I knew I would find difficult I haven’t ridden in the hills all year or competed with all of the top women for a good few months. My form was ok but to be good in those races your form has to be good. I started right at the back of 200 keen riders it wasn’t long before we reached the first climb and when we did I was half way through the field, people were stopping leaving gaps and I made the mistake of getting stuck behind a lot of people and getting put into a bit of a rubbish small group, for the next 30km I was racing through the cars to get up to the 2nd main group which eventually I did, as I was racing round I had seen a lot of people had pulled out and we got told if we were 5 minutes behind the main break they would pull us out, and that they did after us racing 85km of the 100km race which I was disappointed about. I really would of liked to have finished and in myself I felt strong but I had just made a very bad choice at the start which put me in a rubbish position for the rest of the race, needless to say if I ride that again I will do things very different.

Last weekend I did 2 kermesses one of which I came away with a 4th and the following day I ended up with a big nail in my tyre halfway through the race. I have three more races this week, 2 in Belgium and finishing off with one in Holland before returning home for a little break.

The season has been a very up and down one so far, and its very hard to be able to compete in the bigger road races when for most of the year all ive been doing is kermesses in Belgium, they are completely different types of racing and to be able to step up in the bigger races you need to be in them. At the moment I’m quite tired in my head with all the smaller races which is why I have planned a break for next week where I return back home to see my friends and family.

Nikki xxx

JUNIOR TOUR OF IRELAND

2008-07-29T15:28:00.006+01:00

The fund recently sent a team to the Junior Tour of Ireland. The team was managed by Keith Lambert, assisted by Derek Smith the fund 'chairman'.The riders all rode very well.

Nathan Edmondson - 5th Overall + Stage 5 winner
Dominic Schils - 6th overall + 1st placed young rider
Tom Scubala - 11th overall
Dan Mclay -Stage 6 winner - 28th overall
TEAM - 3rd overall

detailed results

Nathan Edmondson wins the 'toughest mountain Stage' - (above)
well done to the whole team

Ups and downs in June !

2008-07-07T14:45:00.002+01:00

Hi Everyone,
The end of May and and June i have been really busy with lots of Racing, The last weekend in May i travelled to Holland to ride in a criterium in Puttershoek when i finsihed with a 2nd place. I then had a really bad two weeks off the bike with Bronchitis which wasnt so good.

After coming back from illness i had 3 days to get my self ready for the Rabo ster 1.2uci stage race in Holland.

On Thursday 19th I travelled to Holland with my team. We arrived at Vissingen where the first stage (7.1km Prologue) was going to start, it was right on the coast and the wind was very bad, we wanted to get there early to check out the course and decide what wheels would be used. We had a quick ride round before leaving back to the hotel for our pre race meal. Racing began at 18.30, I wasn't off till 21.10 so I had some time before hand to hear off the other riders in the team what the effort was like and how the wind was, also I had chance to see what kind of wheels the other girls were riding on. I went with the decision to ride with a disc on the back and also a carbon on the front, the weather was very windy but I felt these would be the best wheels to ride on. I ended up having a good time trial finished 23rd with a time of 9.41 the winner was Kirstin wild of AA drinks. After a cool down on the rollers and a rego it was time to go back to the hotel to eat and get some sleep. The next stage was a 109km flat typical dutch course, lots of wind,wide open roads and lots of very fast racing. There was a big crash after just 25km which i came down in, i had to chase back on through the cars and finised the stage in the main peleton. I was awarded the pink jersey for the best club rider which both myself and the team were very happy with. The last stage again was a very fast hard race but i felt more confident today and was able to hold my own at the front and fortunetly didnt get caught up in any crashes , i finised around 20th place and i finshed with a 22nd overall out of over 190 riders. I was very happy considering the week before i had been laid up in bed !.
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/roa/EventReports2008/20080623_jersey_in_holland.asp

The following week i spent doing easy rides before returning home for the road nationals where i had hoped to retain my u23 national title, unfortunely this didnt go to plan and i ended up having a dnf with some bike troubles and also a hole in my training the weeks leading up to the race which really didnt help. I was dissapointed but ive now put it behind me now im back in Belgium and have over 18 races lined up for me in July which i look forward too.

Nikki

Wins are like Buses this week!

2008-06-30T17:18:00.000+01:00

Wins are like Buses!

I had a bit of a rough start to June, after not having raced for so long and the weather being so bad I got a bit over enthusiastic and raced 4 times in 8 days. 2 Professional Kermis’ and 2 Amateur ones. I was pretty screwed after this but thought it was what I needed. After a couple of easy days I was back at a Pro Kermis and feeling ok but still a bit tired, after 10 mins the heavens opened and we endured a thunderstorm and torrential rain for the better part of the race, in Italy the race would have been stopped or everyone would have got off. But Belgium, oh no, the hammer went down and the race was on. I had no aspirations for today really, not feeling great and being up against the cream of Belgian Pros I just tried to get round as good as possible. This I did but it was the next day when it went wrong. I woke up in the morning feeling ill and with a dose of Broncitis.
9 days later and I was able to ride my bike again! A bit of a blow after just getting going again, but as they say “s*** happens”.
I decided to ease into the racing after this bad spell and took a couple of weeks training again with some longer rides to try to get a bit of fitness back. As you could imagine I was once again raring to go, it was June and I’d only ridden 10 races!
Anyway I headed to Lede Pro Kermis alone, as my team where racing else where. To cut a long story short it wasn’t one of the best days, I had a flat after 3km and for some reason there was no neutral service and was game over for me! 3.5 hrs followed, sat in the car waiting for the finish, (in case of a control).
2 days later I was at yet another Pro Kermis’ at Ruddervorrde, traditionally this is the last race before the Belgian Pro champs so as you can imagine everyone and his dog where there. I got stuck in at the start hoping to get in a soft break to ease me into the day. I didn’t manage to make it and was stuck in the peleton for the remainder of the race. It was grippy all day but a good few ks in the legs, at last picked my morale up a bit. My director was happy and asked me if I wanted to start the following day in Oetingen (1.2). I happily expected the invitation immediately. He informed me that there were a lot of Kassei’ (cobbles) and it was a tough race. “Nothing out of the ordinary there then” I said. He just laughed!
I checked out the course when I got home and realised why my director had laughed.! The number of climbs was in double figures, including a few of the Ronde hills, the Bosberg, Muur etc.. also there where 2 cobbled sections on the finish loop to be covered 4 times! That’s a fair bit of cobbles.
Anyway I didn’t let any of that scare me (honest) I was on put on early doors so had to be active early on. I did a good job and got in the main break of the day. 6 of us battled through the strong winds and over the bergs with a maximum of 4 mins. The Bosberg was tough for me, the Muur a little harder and the next climb was that little bit too much. I cramped and was quickly dropped and riding alone in “no mans land”. I plugged away, got some food in me and 20km later was caught by the main contenders after the battles over the bergs. If I had any type of form this could have been a good position for me, but. I was finished. Game over for me. I did what I could for my 2 team mates in the front, bottles etc then hung on for as long as I could. This wasn’t long! We had just entered the finish circuit and the first time over the cobbles I was down and out. An early shower for me. I wasn’t disapointed, quite happy really considering my situation. The team where pleased with 2 hrs TV time, and I forgot to mention I won a couple of intermediate sprints for a fair few euros. Stijn Neiriynck from Beveren 2000 was the winner! Look out for this guy in the future, he’s no slouch!
A couple of easy days and I had the racing fever again. A short drive across the border to Holland, an 80km Criterium was on today’s menu. I expected a bit of a kick in today but it wasn’t to be. I had great legs and got in the main split of the day. 70k into the race and the break was coming back and I was still feeling good, I put a little dig in and 2 only 1 guy could follow. We went clear and were sprinting for the win. He was probably stronger than me so I was a bit cautios. I had the feeling he was a local as every one was screaming for him when we came though the line with a lap to go with about 45 seconds. I bided my time and hit out with about 500 to go. I won easily and for the first time after being driven over I had some faith back and was feeling proud of the progress Id made since November 22nd!
Next day and I was racing again in Wolvertem, a small town just west of Brussels. I expected to be a bit rusty today after yesterdays efforts so treated the day as purely training and planned 50km motor pacing before and after the 120km race. The race started fast, a break went after 2km and I had missed it. Damn!! I thought I may as well try a kamikazie attack and see if I could bridge across. I hit it full on and actually felt pretty good. I just about crossed the 45 sec gap before the crosswinds and was there. I felt ok but surely this couldn’t last. The laps counted down and it was nearing the end of the race and my legs were still good. Normally my feeble left leg was starting to moan at me and give me some problems, but good old “lefty” was going strong! There were 2 laps left and the lead group was down from 19 to 15. I attacked though the prime line and 4 of us pulled clear. I was amazed that I hadn’t cracked yet and started thinking how best to play my cards. There was a guy in the race that wins quite often out here, so I had my eye on him and knew he would attack. I was right and he went, I went with him and “then there were 2”. 1km out and he wanted to do a deal, I wasn’t interested and again hit out early and won for the 2nd day on the trot. From being dropped on the Muur last week and embaressed on national TV to winning twice in 2 days! What did I eat!!
As you can imagine I’m pretty happy with myself and have a bit of confidence back at last. However I need to keep it real, these are only small races. I need to be winning bigger and better races if I’m to get to where I want to go. Times starting to run out for me as I’m not getting any younger, there’s a few exciting things starting to happen in British Cycling at the moment. I think these next 18 month will make or break my carer. So I better get out training and hope the results keep coming!
Thanks again to everyone who has helped me out. You know who you are ! !

Matt

Doms highly exciting blog

2008-06-11T15:05:00.007+01:00

Dominic Schils

On the 18th January 2008 I travelled to Belgium to meet up with my new team mates from Lotto Olympia Tienen for the Team presentation at Hoegaarden – the home of the famous Belgium white beer. I was quite impressed with the set up and to find out that the junior team mechanic was called Tom Boonen. At first I didn’t believe him but when he showed me his passport so I had to.

Olympia Tienen is a founder member of the Flemish Cycling School. They have got 37 under 12, 25 under 14, 19 under 16, 14 juniors, 9 under 23, 12 Elites, 6 Managers/coaches, 5 coaches, 3 mechanics. The Godfather of the team is Michel Wuyts - the figurehead of the Belgium BBC1 Sport EEN-Sportza. I was also being interviewed on stage by one of the Belgium top TV and radio presenters Luc Verschueren in Flemish. Needless to say I didn’t feel too comfortable – I would have rather gone with a bunch of 200 riders to and over the Koppenberg a few times!

The day after I went with my team mates on a 80 km easy club run.

The weekend gave me certainly extra motivation to put some extra miles in and in early February I convinced my parents to let me go on my first ever training camp to Mallorca where I was very lucky with the weather and got plenty of quality training in. On 15th February I flew back to the UK and the day after my father drove me to Belgium for my first Junior race – also organised by my club in a small place outside Tienen called Glabbeek where over 130 juniors took the start and I finished 5th.

One week later I raced in a place called Vollezele not far from Geraardsbergen where I missed a 10 man break and finished 11th.

As I have been chosen to be the Essex Talented Young Athlete of the year my school St Benedict’s College in Colchester gives me special dispensation to have time off from school to race in Belgium so long as I keep my studies up because this is my GSCE year and I cannot miss too many days so I travel back to England.

I rode the Crest Road Race in Ugley on an undulating circuit and I ended up in the winning break but unfortunately I punctured. When I had almost given up hope I got a wheel from a team mate that pulled out of the race but by that time I was nearly 5 minutes behind the break and over 2 minutes behind the bunch. I thought I must as well go as hard as I could for training and was amazed that a lap later at the bottom of the climb I had caught the bunch. I decided to go straight passed them. A bit later I had the break in sight but then the Commissaire drove next to me and told me to take another wheel from my father because has a junior am gear restricted and I must be overgeared because of the wheel swap. My father gave me another wheel but because of this I lost momentum and finished 19th.

A week later I started the Jock Wadley where after missing the break I ended in no-mansland for 3 laps. I decided to wait for 10 riders chasing me as I thought together we would have a better chance getting across but they didn’t want to work. The break rode further away and the bunch came back to us and I finished 22nd.

On the Saturday, via Dunton, Essex where I rode a 2/3/4 race and finished 2nd I travelled to Belgium to start in my first Belgium Cup event. Quite an experience with 30 teams of 5 riders each with their own team car, neutral services, motor bikes etc, a lot of wind, narrow road, rain and quite a few crashes. The legs felt quite good but I got stuck behind a big crash and ended up in the 3rd group. I managed to get across to the 2nd one but only finished 45th.

A week later I travelled to Borlo for a 5km prologue time trial on a completely closed circuit with the start of a ramp and the Team Manager Hugo shouting his orders over his load speaker and mechanic Tom Boonen hanging out of the car window (just like on the TV). Unfortunately Hugo’s English confused me somehow as when he wanted me to shift down he told me to shift up. I still came in 22nd out of 162 starters. By the afternoon the rain had stopped and under some mild sunshine we took the start of the 2nd stage for a big circuit of 71km and 5 circuits of 8km. Hugo had warned me that the break usually goes in the beginning so went after a few early attacks. Some useful riders made a move. I decided to go with them and a leading group of about 20 riders formed and I was in it. Instead of keeping working together some riders started to attack and 30km later the bunch came back and swallowed us up just when all heavens opened up. I was racing on my second hand Bora’s that I had bought with the savings of a few years. The day before the race I had polished them up to the limit and after a few minutes of snow, sleet and rain I tried to use my brakes but the wheels kept on turning, the silicone polish on the deep rims had run down to the breaking surface and did nothing for cornering on the five ‘wriggly, wraggly’ local circuits where riders with the posture of a bear were literally seizing up because of hypothermia. I still managed to come in a respectable 31st.

Day 2, nearly 100 riders came in out of the time limit but because of the circumstances the UCI Commissaires decided to fish about 70% of them back up just before the local circuits in Trognee . I had been in a 3-man break for a while and nearly the complete bunch caught us. I ended up in the second half and before I could work myself back to the front of the bunch split in half. I did all what I could but that was it. The next day I was going to take revenge in the quick stage through the Ardennes but the snow was laying 10cm thick and the Commissaires called the race off. I was very disappointed. On the Wednesday I started a race at Nechin, on the French/Belgium border near Roubaix. The Lithuanian and Bodysol teams tried to dominate the race. Moves kept going throughout the race. I was in a few of them but when a break went of about 10 riders I wasn’t. They took a minute on the bunch and with 10km I decided to put in an all or nothing attack. The break had shattered and kept going up and over, then with about 3km to go I saw the lead car in the far distance with a “yellow” rider 200m behind him and a “green” rider 200m behind him. I squeezed everything out of my body, caught up the “green” Bodysol rider who sat in my wheel came to about 50m of the yellow rider, asked the Bodysol rider for some help (which he declined) started a bit of an argument, looked behind and saw the bunch coming back and decided that a third place would be better than a possible 50th.

The weekend after I travelled to Abergavenny to take part in the Martin Ashfield Classic where I finished 8th in the prologue but managed to crash after 10km. In the afternoon road race, at first I thought I came out of the crash unshaved but after the race I discovered a swelling the size of a ping pong ball at the back of my knee. This swelling and the pain it caused troubled me for a few weeks. A week later I entered a local 80km ¾ race (another race in sleet and snow). I managed to win it but my knee still troubled me. The week after I was back in Belgium in Boutersem for a race with a quality field and 111 started. I ended up in what I thought to be the break but with a few kilometres to go it got too tactical and again we got caught. I decided to put in an all or nothing attack on the last drag because the finish was ‘dodgy’ – it was nothing as the 80 man bunch caught me in the last corner then about 20 riders came down. Some of the bunch were sprinting on the pavement and tried to get back on the road before the barriers finished. I finished 31st.

A week later I raced at Sint Gillis Waas (again over 100 starters) on a pancake flat circuit with the constant speed too high for someone to ride off the front. I finished 21st. 7 days later I started in another Inter Club event with 180 starters at Korbeek Lo on an undulating course that didn’t give you the chance of any recuperation. I tried to position myself near the front of the bunch most of the time and of course you guessed it the one time I ended up for a few minutes at the back the bunch split and I finished 52nd.

5 days later I raced at St Martens Bodegem near Brussels. I started at the back and after 200 meters we turned right into a narrow road, 6 riders rode off the front and for some reason nobody chased and by the time I got to the front I was too late and I finished 7th.

A week later I was back in England and school took priority. I managed a few wins and placings in 1/2/3 cat races, with revising taking top priority.

I am looking forward to going to stay and race in Belgium for the remainder of the season after my GCSE’s and hope that the results of those will be good enough for my parents not to give me a hard time.

The Adventures Of Matt Brammeier

2008-06-06T09:14:00.003+01:00

Hello again people,

Just thought id let you all know what I’m up too again. I haven’t written for a while now as I’ve not really been up too much and didn’t want to bore you all.
Well I think it was March the last time I mailed you all. I’ve moved on a bit since then!
After weeks of pumping iron I was starting to become of the regulars at the local meatheads Gym and things were going quite well. From having to lower the weights on nearly every machine I used after the grannies had been on them I got a few funny looks sometimes from the locals. However at last my skinny leg got a bit of meat back on it and I could finally hold my head a bit higher in the gym and throw a few more kilos on the bar! I started leg pressing 5kg with my left leg and I was now on 70kg so quite an improvement there. So slowly but surely I phased out going to the gym and started getting some good hours in on the bike.
I was training a lot on my new Power Cranks and was finding them nearing impossible to ride. My left hip flexor had wasted so much I could barely pedal on them. However after some perseverance I’m now up to 30 min sessions at a time on them which I try to do 2-3 times per week. I could feel a difference in my walking and pedalling after using them for just 2 weeks! So not just an American Gimmick!
A few big weeks of 25 plus hours and I was raring to go, I was soon getting my heart rate up and doing a bit of intensity work and surprisingly feeling pretty good.
I soon got fed up of training and bashing round the lanes with a big red face and entered my 1st race on the 6th may. It was just a little Kermess race in a village near by so I thought “what the hell”. I didn’t feel nervous at all but was a bit worried to how I would go. I hoped I wouldn’t be too rubbish. Anyway I started the race and it wasn’t too bad, I probably held back to much as I didn’t know what to expect. I went with a few little moves and did a bit of jumping round and my leg immediately shouted at me to hold back. I got a few little aches and pains and decided to take it steady and just try to get round. If you’ve ever ridden one of these races you know that that’s not really as easy as it sounds. I ended up in the peleton a couple of mins back and unfortunately we were pulled out after 85km. I was fairly happy with that and even happier with how I felt. I was pretty sure that if I used my head in my next race I could get round pretty comfortably.
My next race was a few days later and it went a bit better than my first outing. I made the decision at the start to sit in and take it easy for 80km then take it from there. It was a fairly fast race so nothing went in the first 80km so I moved to the front and started to get stuck in. I felt pretty good and was well and truly part of the race until I felt a soft front tyre with about 15km to go. There was no way I was going to stop so I soldiered on, after a few hairy moments on the corners I managed to get to the last 2km of the race before my tyre finally blew out and I rode in just behind the group! Oh well, this was a finish in my eyes!
Until now I’ve done 10 races including 3 Professional Kermesses. I’ve got round every one apart from the first without any major problems really. My best result is 10th so far which isn’t bad for someone with one and a half legs!
I’m still not sure on my plans for the next few weeks, I’m still waiting on the green light from my team to be selected for some proper races and get going properly. What I do know is a lot more training, a bit of Physio and a couple of sessions on the Power Cranks a week!
So it’s slowly coming back and I don’t think it will be long before I’m back in the big races and getting some more results on my Palmeres.

This is me looking seriuos at my first race !

Nikkis May 2008

2008-05-22T09:47:00.000+01:00

Hi,
Lot’s has been happening in Belgium the last month, there has been quite a few races to get stuck into, the summer weather is here and I’m really enjoying being over here permanently.

As usual the racing over here is always up and down sometimes I go into a race feeling good and end up having a not so good day and other days I’ve felt like my legs are going to fall of and have ended up having a good ride.

At the end of April I had two big races with the team. Omloop van Borsele and Grote Prjs Roeselare both of these were uci races with a world class field, both were totally different race Borsele was pan flat and very windy and Roeselare was undulating. I didn’t have a great weekend there I struggled with the pace in both, they were very fast and I haven’t ridden hardly any of these big races this year so it was a bit of a shock to the system. Borsele I ended up in the 3rd group and Roeselare I was in the 2nd group. It was a good block of work however I was a bit disappointed with how I rode.

The past month I’ve had two punctures one was in the middle of a race in Wortel and the other was last Saturday at Sinaai Sint Niklaas with just 400m to go in the sprint! I’ve also had one crash last Friday at Begijendijk, I had only been racing one lap when i sprinted out of a corner and my cranks jammed as my back wheel fell out which wasn’t good ! I ended up hitting the deck really hard landing on my head and knocking myself out, I had cuts and bruises all down me, I was in a pretty bad way and after having a couple of fainting sessions I had to ring Matt to come and drive me home with concussion.

Ok that was the bad luck however before that happened I had a really good ride last Thursday in Bornem, the year before I had ridden and ended up with a 5th place this year I really wanted to improve on that, the course was fun and twisty and with the rain before hand it was going to be an interesting race. The race was fast right from the off, I felt really strong that day and just sat top 5 all race, the race had split completely from behind and with about 3 laps to go I looked round to find there were only about 10 of us left in the front group. A girl had attacked from Lotto after the first lap and she was away all race so we were left battling it out for 2nd place. There was a good class of riders there some of which were real good sprinters so I knew it was going to be important to position myself on the last corner I came out in third position then went for it I sprinted as hard as I could and ended up with the 2nd place ! I was really happy with that ride and was looking forward to the next two days which didn’t go to plan as in the previous paragraph tells!

On the 10th May I rode a kermesse at Burcht, I didn’t have a great race I did abit too much early on and ended up being in a few of the early breaks but nothing which stuck, then for the moves which did go I missed them and ended up being boxed in and not being able to get out to go with them, my own fault and I will learn. I came away with 20th place which I wasn’t happy with!

During the next month there are plenty more kermesses to get stuck into over here before I return home for a week at the end of June for the National road champs.

Nikki

Une Année Décisive

2008-03-27T09:10:00.002Z

Hi all, having the support of the Dave Rayner Fund was one of the deciding factors on my return to France this year, which I see as a real make or break year. Following a couple of disappointing seasons for various reasons, as a third year espoir this year I hope to see enough development for me to continue next year at the next level, for example within a DN1 feeder team over here in France.

This year I am based in the Ardéche department of France, which is within the Rhone Alpes region, for a DN2 team named UC Aubenas. I have been extremely impressed with the team so far. In addition to the usual bike and kit provided by most teams, they provide me with accommodation at Village Vacances Vogue (http://www.vogue-vacances.com/) as well as a car to commute to and from the local town! It didn’t take me long to realise how fortunate I am to be here when at the start of the season there were teams from all over France and Europe basing their training camps from there! Another big difference with this team is that everyone within its organisation are impressively friendly, never give me any pressure and are genuinely interested in my development as opposed to other teams I’ve been in who are just there for the money and have the win at any cost attitude just to satisfy sponsors. Which I believe is the biggest problem in cycling.

For training the area is fantastic it has a perfect balance of routes for any type of session I want to do, be it in mountains or motor paced sessions on the flat.

I have done 5 races so far, they are manly classed as elite open (1ere and 2eme cat in the French category system) or elite regional (1ere, 2eme, 3eme) races. I should have done more but I ended up getting ill when I arrived forcing me to take some time off, which was real annoying as I got through the whole of winter in the UK without a single cold or any illness! I have learnt a lot from the races I have done so far, I wasn’t going too well for the first 2 and took a bit of a kicking just achieving peloton finishes, after these 2 races I began to race a little more competitively and actively in the races I was doing and noticed a difference in the way I was feeling during the races particularly when it was lined out in the gutter I felt comfortable in the line whereas only a couple of weeks it was really hurting!
The latest race I competed in, GP Forca Real was more successful and I managed to win alone by attacking my breakaway companions in the last 5km of the final 6km climb. The decisive move went after only 10km and was dominated by Spanish riders who had crossed the border to compete and had won this race every year over the past few years apparently. I attacked with 40 km to go to split the group as people were starting to miss turns. This left myself and 2 Spaniards in the lead ahead of the chase group by around 30 secs at the bottom of the final climb, I knew that the main group were closing pretty fast so I jumped earlier than I perhaps would have liked but managed to stay away and finish over 2mins ahead of my original breakaway companions by the summit.
Now I have the valuable confidence boost I needed I hope the rest of the season continues to progress in the same direction, I have many big races and opportunities coming up over the next few months starting with the GP St Etienne this weekend.
As always thanks to the Rayner Fund and particularly to my coach Dave Wilkes.

Back in Belgie !

2008-03-24T12:48:00.004Z

Hallo!
I arrived in Belgium a few weeks back to begin my 2008 racing season with my new team De Sprinters Malderin. After packing the car as full as it was possible to do so, me and matt set off in two cars down to Dover to catch the boat before arriving in Belgium to our apartment in a place close by to where we have lived before in a little town called Wiekervorst.

The previous week before moving out I decided to give the Eddie Soens a bash seeing as I wouldn’t be racing in England for a while and I wanted to see how my legs were after getting the winter miles in.
To be honest the race was a big shock to the system, its always hard getting back into racing after the winter training but racing with about 200 keen men is even harder . It was a good race to test the legs and with 6 laps to go of racing I lost the wheel on the back straight and didn’t have the legs to jump back on so I finished early with a good remembrance of how hard racing is, but also looked ahead for my first race out here in Belgium.

We had a busy few days over here at frst, getting our apartment kitted out with bits borrowed and cheaply bought to make it look a bit more like home in here which I can say it now does.

My first race here was at Wieze it was the first race of a brand new women’s series over here which is sponsored by AA drinks. I didn’t realise how big this series was going to be until I saw the start list of 200 riders made up of all the AA drinks team, Flexpoint, lotto, and so on, so I knew it would be a good hard race to get my teeth stuck into.

The weather had been fine, and as per usual it came to race day and it had turned into a full on gale with high winds and rain which is always to be expected in Belgium at this time of year so I cant really complain.
I met the girls from the team and stocked up on some food and drink from the team car then set off to the start line for a bit of a warm up which I didn’t get much of as when I got there everyone was lining up to set off. There was 170+ starters and the race was 90km 9 laps of a 10km circuit, which is just the basic kermesse circuit out here. The roads were wide and in parts quite twisty.

The race began and I made my way to the front, I tried to keep as near of the front as possible, I didn’t want to be in the middle or a the back otherwise I was sure to get caught up in a crash, the girls have a habit of screaming and shouting the first few laps if you get close to them which is quite funny especially when they slam on the breaks round corners and all you can hear behind you is a tumbling of bikes. I managed to stay out of trouble, the first few laps I found quite hard but once I got into it I felt a lot more confident in myself and managed to have a half decent race ending up 14th. There were 3 girls which got away one from each of the three main teams so once they had got away it was going to be hard to get across to them. I sat in for the sprint, I was in 2nd wheel coming into the last corner and the finish line was about 800m down the road , I didn’t have much of a sprint and found that when I tried to kick I just didn’t have it.

Het Volk the week after was a tough day which I would rather not go in to , my legs felt rubbish all race and I just knew from when the flag went down it was going to be a tough day. However I put this race behind me and last week I got back on with the programme and did some good training , some of which included matt taking me behind the car a few times doing between 60-70kmph down some long stretches of road by where we live. This obviously helped as I was feeling so much better in myself by the end of the week and also in the race I did at Hamme yesterday. There was a big field of 100+ riders , I felt strong all race and was in quite a few of the moves, with 4 laps to go 6 girls got away I was boxed in and couldn’t get through so bided my time and attacked with another girl with 2 laps to go and stayed away to take 7th place.

Over the next few weeks there the team go to some of the big Dutch races, some of which I did last year so I have a pretty good Idea of how hard they are, so I look forward to them.

Hope everyone elses season starts off well !

Nikki xxx

Matt

2008-03-24T11:12:00.002Z

Hello again,

Once again I’ve made a few big steps forward since I last wrote. I’m starting to feel a bit more “normal” now. The crutches are well and truly gone now and I’m walking round with a slight gangster limp which I’m told will be totally gone within a few more weeks!
After a few hectic days of travelling and moving in over here in Belgium I’m all sorted and settled in.
So what have I been up too? Nothing too exciting really, apart from training I’ve been out watching a few bike races and just normal day to day stuff.
About 80% of my training now is in the Gym. I’ve been doing quite a lot of weight training and core stability work too. On the bike I don’t feel too bad but I can feel the weakness a lot more when I’m in the Gym. When I first started in the gym I could just about manage to lift 50 kg with my right leg which I thought was pretty good. The left leg however could barely manage 5kg! After 2 weeks of this I’m up too 20kg on my left leg, and I can see myself improving pretty fast.
On the bike I haven’t done much at all. Up to about 10-15hrs a week is all I’ve been doing. This is because my left leg is so much weaker than my right one if I did any more I could end up over compensating with my right leg and damaging something in the future.
However I have been lucky to be supported by an American company PowerCranks. They have designed some crazy cranks that are completely independent of each other. This basically means that when I’m out riding there will be no way I can cheat and use my good leg more than the bad one. So when the cranks arrive I’ll be able to get out more and hopefully get some good kilometres done in the next month.
People keep asking me when am I going to be back racing. It’s a hard one to answer really. I obviously want to race as soon as I can but my Physio and Team are holding me back a lot and understandingly want me to come back slowly. My team has been great and the Dave Rayner Fund has continued to support me, so luckily there is no rush for me at the moment.
So the next few weeks will be a lot more of the same for me. Training, training and more training!
I have one last appointment at the hospital with some more X Rays and checks and will hopefully see my file closed and a fully repaired set of bones!

Thanks again to everyone who has supported and continued to support me to get back to where I was !

Take it easy !

Matt

P.S -How hot is she !!

Back at it in Belgium!

2008-03-08T10:48:00.002Z

Hi,

I’m back out in Belgium and settling in well at my new apartment! After a bit of deliberation I decided to stay with the same team, so i'm staying in the same area but in a town called Aarschot for this year.

I’m really impressed with the town. I’m smack bang in the middle just 30meters away from the square so see everything that goes on! Its very picturesque in parts, has 2 squares, a huge church, a market every Thursday morning and all sorts of events going on. There’s been a kermess (Belgian fun fair) on all week and a carnival last Sunday! I’ve kept of out most of the shops for now as they look rather expensive - not good for a bike rider! There are loads of cafes and the best/worse bit is one of the best choclatiers has a shop just over the road!

Well, I started full time training in January and had a week in the Algarve, Portugal, at the end of the month. It was spot on for training. The weather was nice, from 15 to 22 degrees and most days were sunny, not bad for January! The roads are also pretty good with decent surfaces and plenty of varying terrain. We had a good laugh with plenty of piss taking and getting some good training in, totalling 30 hours for the week with some intervals included to make the lads grovel a bit (and make sure it wasn’t me they were taking the piss out of!!!).

During February I ventured down south again for some training and a few early season TT’s. The first weekend was the GS Stella weekend, quite a prestigious event. I wasn’t going that well and despite giving everything in the event finished 2nd on both days and overall.

The next weekend I was going better and on the Saturday got the first win of the year in the Crawley CC Sporting TT. It was a nice day and with £50 up for the course record I had something to go for! I felt back to normal and had a good ride. I won the event by a minute and 10 seconds and took the course record by 20 seconds, which was held by rider Pete Tadros.

The next day I rode the Kingston Wheelers Sporting TT. I don’t know where to start with this! I was up for the double this weekend and should have had it! I had a puncture riding to the start and despite getting a wheel from an old teammate Marlon Moncrieff (top man!); by the time I got to the start I was 2 minutes late! That meant I had to wait for a new start time and got a 2 minute penalty! I knew I was going well but I knew 2 minutes was too much to over turn. Still, my actual time was the fastest by over a minute again, equalling the course record from last year set by another top rider Ben Instone. However, with the penalty I was put back to 5th. Still, that’s how it goes sometimes hey?! Hopefully next time it will work in my favour!

The next and final weekend was the Central Sussex Hilly TT, where I won last year. As this weekend was the last in a training block I was little tired but nevertheless had a solid ride, winning again! I was off to Belgium the following Thursday so decided to travel home for the Sunday and ride a local reliability ride (race to most riders around my way!), and say a few farewells!

The Thursday soon came and it only felt like a few weeks had passed since the end of last season! I find it quite a horrible time of year as you don’t really know how well you are going compared to everyone else and its too late to do anything about it! However I know I’ve had a decent winter and am a few kilos lighter that this time last year.

I had my first race of the year on the Sunday. It was the club championships, as they call it! It’s a normal kermess race but only open to a few local teams and the first from each team is the club champion! I had a strong ride, making all the moves but unfortunately suffering from cramp on the last lap came in 6th from in the lead group of 9. Still, it was a good performance and with my team mate winning my manager was happy, so it was a positive start to the year allround!

I had a good weeks training and I can tell you it’s a relief to be back training in Belgium away from the crazy British drivers that are so common on our roads!

The next Saturday, the 1st of March, was my first UCI race of the year, the Beverbeek Classic. This is 180km of flat, open and normally wet and windy roads! This year was no exception and it was blowing a gale! I started come down with a bit of a cold on the Friday but it didn’t feel bad so decided to go and see how I felt. It didn’t go very well! I got held up after the first crash of the day, just 2km in – I think still in the neutralised bit! After chasing back at nearly 60kmph (being on wide roads the bunch fly’s along for the first hour or so – normally covering 50/51km in the first hour!) I got back on with no real trouble but then it was already lined out at the back of the bunch in the gutter! I started moving up and got back into the pack, to get caught in another crash after 10km! So again I had to ride stupidly hard to get back on, hitting 61kmh this time! Again I was back in the gutter and in the next crosswind couldn’t hold the wheels given the efforts I had just made! I dropped back to the car for a bottle and got towed back up! I got back but the race was split all over the place and I was then in the ‘bus’ or ‘laughing’ group! After a few more kms, the race was well over for us and I could start to feel my chest and throat getting bad from my cold so I spoke to my manager, got off and had a ride back in the broom wagon!

My cold has nearly gone now and I’ve got Brussels - Zepperen Interclub race this weekend. I can remember it from last year for having a cobbled section of nearly 4km long!

Till next time.

Dan

Adam Illingworth wins the GP Faucigny, 4th win of the season.

2007-09-26T12:42:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I finished the 2007 cycling season by winning the GP Faucigny. The race was my last event on my calendar so it was good to finish the season with a bang. Going into the race I was very motivated to do a good ride if not myself, I wanted to help my team mate Fred Perriat who lives in the region and knows the roads very well. The previous weekend I had raced a three day, Tour de Gevaudan, and had not had very good sensations in my legs. On the second stage I managed to get into a very promising break away and with 15km to go my group had a minute and a half lead with a steep 6km to the finish. On the climb we tried to push out to hard a rhythm and soon the break lost its momentum, getting caught by the remnants of the peloton just before the finish. I was disappointed with this stage because it was a good opportunity wasted. Overall the Tour of Gevaudan didn’t offer to many rewards to neither my teammates or me. The following week I was very tired and took it easy, as my body felt better I started to get focused and motivated for GP Faucigny. I decided on the Friday before the race to drive down to Cluses, in the High Savoie, and have a look at the race circuit. This proved to be a good plan.

The race circuit features three laps round an undulating valley course near Morzine before turning off to tackle the steep col de Mont-Saxonnex, a hard 6km climb at 8% average gradient. It was on this hill where the race is won or lost. I arrived at the bottom in the peloton 30sec behind a small breakaway of 7guys. Right from the bottom fellow Brit Andrew Jackson (CG Orleans) made a big attack, knowing his skills as a climber I followed him up passing the breakaway and distancing ourselves from the other main challengers behind. Near the top of the hill I went it alone, I only had 10km to go and we had to take many risks on the decent but by the finish I managed to hold out. Jackson finished second and third was teammate Sander Maasing.

The win caps a good season for my team Charvieu Chavagneux with 20wins (17wins in Elite) with every Elite in team claiming a win. Now I will sit back and relax a bit as I winde down my training. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Dave Rayner fund very much for their continued support this season.

Third win of season for Adam Illingworth-Tour de Pays Gex 3rd Stage

2007-09-12T15:26:00.000+01:00

It’s with great pleasure that I am able to report my 3rd win of the season. Just two weeks after winning the Tour de Loire Pilat good luck and good legs struck again at the right time as I was able to take the Final stage of the Tour de Pays Gex

The area of France called ‘Gex’ is for those less familiar with Eastern France the little strip of French Territory that lies between Lake Geneva and the Swiss Vaud Mountains. The race was two days long with two road stages and a 10km time trial. My team Charvieu Chavagneux was fortunate in having three riders familiar with the area so we where able to plan well for the stages.

The First stage was hard with a fast 42km/h average over many short 2-3km climbs and narrow descents. Charvieu placed two riders in the breakaway but lost out in the finish with team mate Fred Perriat’s 4th place in the stage all to show for day one

On the second day we had to wake early to tackle a deceptively hard time trial with a stiff climb in the final kilometre. I was off around half way through the starters and was pleased to record the provisional fastest time. I had worked quite a bit in the past few week on my time trial bike and felt really good during the stage. However before long my time was beaten my none other than my Geordie friend Johnathan Rosenbrier of St Etienne cycling team. He held the lead until just before the End when he was beaten by 30seconds by a Polish cruise missile. I finished the stage in 4th and by the nature of the previous days close finish I also found myself in 4th on the general classification.

In the afternoons stage I was very motivated because I felt I had good legs and also stage profile. The final 20km featured four steep 2-3km hills with little rest between. The team tactic for the day was to get a rider in the first breakaway and then if that don’t work then attack to hell on the final four hills. This is exactly what happened, my team-mate Fred was away in a small break of five riders. The yellow Jerseys team was working hard and as we reached the first climb with 20km to go the break had been brought back. Then started a barrage of attacks by my team-mates which weakened the other teams. With 18km to go I managed to get away and create a good gap of 30seconds. I held the gap until the final 5km when a stiff headwind came into play bringing my lead down to 15seconds in the final kilometre. The Next 995metres I don’t seem to remember but luckily I was able to hold off the peloton to win by 10sconds with my team mate Nico Inaudi taking out the 2nd place sprint. In addition to my win the time bonus moved me up to 3rd on the final General Classification. Charvieu claimed the team prize and king of the mountain title to cap off a good weekend for all involved.

My season is coming to an end with two more races left on the calendar.
The Tour of Gevaudan starting this Friday (14th Sept) and the Grand Prix Faucigny in the Alpes the following Sunday (23rd). Hopefully I can find a fourth win somewhere in there.

Matt Brammeiers August 07

2007-09-03T21:07:00.000+01:00

Engelse Tijtrit Kampioen !!!

Busy, busy, busy ! I can’t believe there has only been 31 days this month; it feels like the 1st of august was 50 days ago.
What looked like a steady month as far as races went turned out to be quite the opposite, 11 races again this month and a bit of travelling thrown in there for good measure.
After a bit of a break after a hard tour in august there wasn’t much big racing going on in Belgium so it was back to basics for a couple of weeks with some hard core Kermess and Crit racing.
First up was a Kermess at Linden which I was up there in last year but crashed out in the finish, so I was keen to try to stay on two wheels today and get a result. After a couple of laps I was in a bit of a sticky situation with 2 team mates in the break which was pulling away pretty fast. I didn’t want to take everyone with me but I was determined to get myself in the front. I attacked hard on the finish climb and got a comfortable gap on the peleton with 1 other guy. We battled round for a couple of laps and somehow caught the break! However I was pretty spent after this so pulled a few turns for my team mate Sander who went on to win! I was a few seconds back in 6th place.
A few days later I was back on “the grid” and racing in the town of one of the team’s directors so the pressure was on. The race started faster than i`ve ever experienced before and after 2ks there was a group of 4 of us 30 seconds up on the peleton. This group grew to about 10 after another few laps of grim crosswinds and not so good Belgian roads. My legs were feeling pretty tip top today and I was up for the win. All the eggs went in one basket and I hit them with all I had with 4ks to go. I got a gap but couldn’t quite hold it. It was all together with 1 km to go and looking like a group sprint. I did all I could to win but just didn’t have the legs after my attack. I finished a respectable 3rd place less than 10cm behind the winner!
The next day I crossed the border into Holland for a post tour Criterium support event in Roosendaal. The day didn’t go quite so well for me today when I got a puncture after about 30 mins of racing. So a bit of a disappointment but what can you do!!
One days rest and I was craving a win again and back pinning my numbers on in Grobbendonk Kermess. I arrived at the start with 15 mins to spare after a good old fashioned Belgian road diversion.
Obviously no chance for a warm up so I took the first lap easy and stayed in the wheels. After a lap of doing nothing I got bored and went on the attack. 3 of us got away and stayed clear for 60km! I could sense I negative race and didn’t want to play ball so I went on a kamikaze mission and kept attacking and attacking. I didn’t stay in the peleton for longer than 2km I think. I rode like an idiot to be honest. I remember an old director of mine John Herety telling me to never attack unless you attacking for the win. If only he could have seen me! Ha ha. Anyway somehow the rest of the guys slowly gave in to me and I managed to escape with two others and got a decent gap of just over a minute. A few laps later we were coming into the finish and it was time to go again, I made my last attack of the day and made it count, 1 km to go and I was way clear and smiling already. My 2nd win of the year and some more plastic flowers for the collection!!
The next day took me into Holland again for another post tour Criterium in oostvoorne. The weather was bad, the circuit was bad, the legs were bad and the moral was bad so yes you guessed it the result was bad! I did just over half the race and called it a day.
A few days later I was back for more at a Kermess in Ninove, the finish town of the tour of Flanders. So as you can guess there were a few hills today and quite a good course for Belgian standards. However I rode like a donkey and missed the break with every one of the favourites in it. Unless I made a move quickly it was all over, so it was all or nothing. I made a good go of it, crossed a 30 second gap and caught the front group. Unlucky for me I caught them at the bottom of the prime hill just before a sprint. So after a short 30 second stint in the break I was dropped and ended up back in the peleton. The gap went up and the race was over, I finished in the peleton and a bit disappointed to finish a race with good legs out of the results.
Next was a purgatory pro Kermess in Heusden, Belgium. I was told by my team that this was the biggest race in Belgium. I didn’t quite grasp how big it was until I saw the amount of people lining the streets. The whole 13km circuit was 4 or 5 people deep! I’m not quite sure why. It was just a normal grim 4 hrs at stupid speeds around a tatty Belgium town! Maybe the presence of the great Frank Vandenbroek had something to do with it. That guys a legend out here; I couldn’t believe the amount of supporters that were out for him. His name was on the road, painted on people’s houses, flags flying everywhere, banners lining the course! Crazy hey! Shame he got dropped hey! Ha ha. Anyway maybe I shouldn’t be laughing; I didn’t quite have the best result either. I had a few digs but those guys where just too fast for me that day! I finished somewhere in the peleton.
After a bit of counselling and a bit of a rest I headed down the road to a U23 Kermess which I remember we won with the national team a few years back with Cavendish. After a lap I had a dig and found myself away with 2 others. Unfortunately these guys weren’t in the best of shape and I was doing a good 80% of the work. We had a gap of just under 1 min for about 60km. Slowly the gap started to come down so I upped the pace a bit on a climb on the circuit and got rid of one of my breakaway companions. So it was 1 down and 1 to go with 60km to go. I did another 20 or so k`s with this other guy until he called it a day and went back to the peleton. I thought id keep plugging away and gave it everything I had. The gap was coming down, but not very fast. It was looking good for me with 10ks to go I still had about 40 seconds. However there was a Russian team there with a sprinter and decided to chase. I was swallowed up with 4ks to go after over 100km out front. Day over for me, I rolled in just outside the top 10.
The next race was one of my favourites of the year and one of the biggest in Belgium too the UCI 1.1 Drievenkoers Overijse, which translates to the grape race at Overijse. Something to do with a local sponsor or something. The course was a good one with a few rolling hills in the first circuits which we had to complete 4 laps and then a 10km finish circuit which we had to do 8 times. Everything was good for today, good moral, good legs, good form good weather….. Maybe not the last one! The weather was pretty awful and got rid of half the race before we made it to the finish circuits. It was quite a scary race with a few nasty crashes and hospital runs for the teams. The cobbled descents and death ridges claimed a few more victims today. Lucky for me I stayed out of trouble and made it to the finish circuits in the front. There were about 30 of us left and lotto and rabobank were riding hard every lap on the climb. I was riding well and was in the first 10 all of the time. Typically as soon as I dropped back the race split and I was in the back pretty annoyed with myself. I tried to attack but couldn’t quite get them. I rode in a few mins down in the 2nd group just outside the top 20. The moral of that story is, don’t ride at the back!!
A few hours recovery and I were back at it. A local Criterium in the town of aarschot. I was up for it today and wanted to win. It was a similar story to last week apart from I came off a little better. To cut a long story short, I attacked after 1 lap, was away for 50 of the 70km with 1 other guy when a group of 7 came across. 1 guy went clear in the closing stages and I couldn’t quite go with him. I went after him but couldn’t catch him and somehow managed to finish 2nd too. Not a bad result after 200ks yesterday! I couldn’t be disappointed really.
Next in the diary was the UCI 1.2 Vlaamse Havenpijl. A pretty awful race really, a circuit of about 20km which we had to cover 9 times with everything from, parked car, tractors, HGVs, tram lines and piles of cut grass in the road. A few near misses went by today I can tell you that. I followed an attack and found myself away with 9 others with 30km to go. We got a gap of 1 min and were all riding pretty well. I really felt good and when we took the bell lap the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I really thought I could win today and polish off what’s been a good year so far. Unlucky for me the right riders weren’t there and a few teams started to ride behind and we were caught and swamped with 5km to go. Pretty disappointed but pleased with my form. I had just 1 week until one of my major goals of the year (the British TT Champs) and knew all I could do now was mess up. All the work was done; all I had to do was not crash and not get sick.
I had a good flight home and after a good night’s sleep I was out on the tt circuit doing laps and laps and laps and laps…….. I had the whole circuit memorised 100%.
I had a think about how I was going to ride on Sunday and did a full on Dress rehearsal race effort on the Thursday before. It felt hard today but I did a good effort and got a lot of information on how I was going to approach the ride on Sunday.
I arrived at the start line in Holmes chapel in 100% condition. My legs were good but most of all my head was good. I had looked at the course in detail; I knew were all the holes, turns, manhole covers and just about everything on the circuit was.
I started hard and just kept it going, everything that I planned had happened and as I got a time check of “15seconds up” after ½ distance I knew I was on a good one. The next check was “30seconds up” , the next “40 seconds up” and the next was with 200 meters to go when I was told id “pi***d it”. I crossed the line and fell off my bike; I hadn’t tried that hard in a while! I was pretty happy and relived to say the least and proud to be British Champion once again!

Tour de Loire-Pilat. Second victory of 2007 for Adam Illingworth

2007-08-28T14:15:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I recorded my second victory of the season in the Tour de Loire Pilat. The race was held in the Pilat Mountains that surround St Etienne and open to all riders under 26 years of age. The hilly nature of the race, which consisted of two road stages, one individual timetrial and a team timetrial, appealed to my team and me for a long time.

The opening team time trial was on a short 8km circuit but included a steep 15% climb in the middle. My team rode ok to finish 6th on this stage. The next days 130km stage included 4 climbs in the beginning and then a 15km finishing circuit. Early in the stage the race split into many groups, which made holding a good position vital. When we arrived on the finishing circuit there was a breakaway of four including a team mate of mine Wilfred Exertier. Wilfred kept his cool in the closing kilometres to win the stage by 36seconds. I finished the stage 3minutes down in 16th place.

The next day involved two stages. A 5km timetrial in the morning and a 105km road stage in the afternoon. The time trial was very hilly and it meant that all the riders rode on standard equipment with nobody wishing to use extra aerodynamic time trial gear. I was pleased with my time trial however was disappointed to come 4th, 9seconds down on the winner, Kalle Kritt from Estonia. My team-mate will rode a respectful time and finished 22nd and still held on to his lead in the overall classification. A few hours later we were all lining up again for the final stage of the race a 105km slog over the Col de la Gachet, montée de Chavanol, Col de la Croix de Chaubouret, Col de l'Oeillon, Col de la Croix Montvieux eventually finishing in the town of St Paul en Jarez. Attacks started as soon as the flag went down and soon a group of 35 riders had formed by the time we reached the summit of the Col de la Gachet. 40km later and the race was far more split up by the time we reached the summit of the Col de Chaubouret with one rider ahead two minutes in front of my group which contained three riders. At this point with only 30km to go until the finish I was in a good position to win the race’s overall classification. I worked to keep my group ahead as well as tried to catch back time to the lone rider ahead. In the end I didn’t quite manage to win the stage but my 3rd place was enough to win the general classification.
The win is my first stage race victory in France and my second win of the season.

With just over a month of racing left on the calendar I am very motivated to try and bag a 3rd win for the year. Here is my end of season race schedule.
1 September- Paris Chalette
2 September- Paris Chauny
8-9 September-Tour de Pays du Gex
14-16 September-Tour de Gevaudan
23 September- Grand Prix Faucigny

Knelpunten Overwinning !

2007-08-01T11:13:00.001+01:00

Knelpunten Overwinning !

I can’t believe it’s august already. Well July was another busy month, 12 races, one more than last month.
46 races so far this year ! Thats 736 pinns ive stuck on this year ! I think thats an achievement in itself!
I’m sat here trying to remember what i`ve been up too this month. Not much to be honest, just the usual bike racing, training in the rain and lying in bed watching TV! Life’s great hey!
The first day out was the Ronde Van Beveren on the 2nd July, a pretty bog standard Belgian race, one big loop and 5 finish circuits of 12ks. I had a bit of trouble at the start with a puncture and missed the break of 12 that went pretty early. However my team mate saved us and was in the break and managed a respectable 3rd place! I finished a couple of groups back in a dull 32nd place.
Next on the programme was a trek back to good old blighty for the National Crit Series race in Rochdale. I thought it would be good to get back to race at least once this year, just so you all don’t forget I exist. The race didn’t really go to plan, I had to make a last minute wheel change at the start and was then at the back of the grid at the start. Anyone that thinks racing in the UK is easy id wrong! My god it took me 20 mins before I saw the front. The break was already gone with Newton and Downing at about 40 seconds. I had a bit of a breather and tried my luck on the climb, I got them to under 10 seconds but the 2nd time alone on that savage hill finished me off and my hopes of a win were quickly over. I trailed in 7th place in the bunch sprint. A bit disappointing but was good to be home and good too see a few faces!
After that I had a few days easy in the UK before travelling back for my next race at Geel.
The Grote Prijs Stad Geel was a massive race for the team. It’s a top competition, which is something like the Premier Calendar back home. We have one of our guys (Kevin Van Den Echout) in 2nd spot and are looking to take the lead going onto the last few races in the series. I was unsure how I would go after travelling and a bit of a rest. It would either be very good or very bad. It turned out to be a good day for me; I got myself and Kevin in the front split in the first crosswind section and was in a good position to get him a result and move closer to the lead in the Top Comp. We hit the last hurdle of the day a 3km section of cobbles and I committed to Kevin 100% rode over the cobbles full gas with him on my wheel, split the race down to 20. Luckily for us the leader of the series missed the split and had to settle for a minor placing. Kevin finished 10th and moved to within a few points of the lead with 2 races to go. The pressure will be on in the next race!
The next race arrived just 4 days later on the 15th July at Willebroek TopComp. Again the plan was full gas for Kevin today. I slept a bit funny last night and had a really bad stiff neck, I could just about get on my bike. But after a bit of bone cracking and pain killers from the soigner I was on my bike with the job of covering the early moves. To cut a long story short I did my job, was in the first group of 8 that stayed away for 50 or so k`s. The peleton behind split and 30 guys came across to us including Kevin and 2 other team mates. I was feeling pretty rough by this point after a few hard k`s out front and decided to pull out the stops for the team rather than a bunch finish. Kevin finished 2nd and was now just 1 point away from the lead with 1 race to go!
4 days later I was on the start line again at Ninove Pro Kermess. Id started this race a bit tired so didn’t expect much at all. With names like Wilfred Cretskins and Jimmy Casper on the start list I wasn’t too hopeful of a cracker of a day. As you have probably already guessed I was on the back foot before Id even started and ended up climbing off after 100ks.
Next on the cards was an amateur race at Hulshout, which is just down the road from my house and the race actually came past my front door. I rode this race last year and had a fairly good idea of what would happen. I decided on doing nothing what so ever for the first 100ks and getting stuck in just before the finish circuits where the race usually begins. It felt weird today, sitting in the peleton doing nothing at all. It was quite enjoyable actually! After 100ks it was time to come out of “Cavendish” mode and stick my nose in the wind. Everything worked out more than perfect, I moved to the front just as the race long break was caught and a group of 18 went clear on the finish circuits with me in it. However I cramped in the finish and cocked up the sprint finishing 7th. So it wasn’t all that perfect after all!
Next was the Ronde Van Vlaamse Brabent a 5 day tour in the Flemish Brabent region of Belgium. I was feeling pretty good in training this week and was up for a good battle this week. We fielded our best team this week so we had to go good!
Stage one started pretty good, I got myself in the break from the start with 2 team mates in there too. On the first day we picked up no less than 5th on the stage, the GPM Jersey and the Points jersey was on my Back! Oh yeah the team prize too!
I was pretty keen to take my jersey all the way to the finish and myself and the team rode well on stage 2 too keep both jerseys and I managed 10th on the stage.
Day 3 was a 12km TT. I was kitted up and determined to keep my GC position and pull out a good ride. The course wasn’t the best for me, just an out and back with 1 turn but I managed 10th place just 20 secs off the leader and moved myself into 7th in the “Klassement General” The other guys rode strong too with 5th 10th and 14th on that stage we took the team leaders yellow numbers back with a good advantage of 1 min 20.
The legs were staring to feel it after 3 days but I was still feeling strong and went on the attack again, I got myself into a group of 18 and took some more intermediate sprints too all but sew up my jersey for tomorrow. After a few k`s we had an advantage of 1 min 30 and with myself the “virtual leader” with 2 team mates in the break things were looking bright for me. With 10 k`s to go I was feeling good and gearing up for an all out attack to the finish when disaster struck. I was told I had to lead out Tom (my team mate) for the penultimate GPM with 7ks to go. I decided this was going to be my launch pad for my attack. I rode 90% on the climb and eased over the top for Tom to take the points. However Tom was feeling it a bit more than I realised. He must have been a bit spaced out after the effort and rode right into the back of me, nearly wiped me out and put him self in the corn field picking corn out of his helmet! That went down well on TV that night I can tell you! Ha Ha! Anyway my poor Flemish skills confused me in the next few K`s. I thought I had to wait for tom and couldn’t attack; the fore the peleton caught us and the day out was all but wasted!
It could have been worse; we still had two jerseys, 7th on GC and the team’s classement.
The last day arrived and my legs were pretty much good done for. There were 2 people who could take my jersey today but they would have had to win all the points of the day so when a group of 8 slipped away after 50ks a smile was on my face as the jersey was mine, all I had to do was finish. I quickly realised it wasn’t just me that was feeling under the weather. There were a few grimaces on faces and a few gaps appearing so I thought I could maybe try something in the finish as I was only 40 secs down on the leader. I waited and waited until the last climb and hit them with everything I had. I wasn’t feeling great but thought id give it a crack, I pulled away on my own and got to 30 seconds! I thought this could be it, the biggest win of my career, but it wasn’t to be! The leading teams got the acts together and caught me with 2 k to go. After that I was done for and finished mid peleton!
I had to try hey!
After an easy day I headed out to a Criterium just on the border of Holland. The legs were good but unfortunately I wasn’t in “the click” and had to watch 4 guys ride away. I tried a few times to get across to them but the guys in the peleton didn’t seem to want me to bridge across to there team mates and chased me every time (maybe the 75 Euro prime ever other lap was to blame) I gave up on attacking after a while and sprinted in with a brief cuddle with the barriers I finished 7th!

So with a boot full of dead flowers and a room full of trophies and jerseys and can safely say i`ve had a pretty good month! Things are on the up again, the legs are good and my arms are itching to get up again!

Juni - Eerst overwinning dit jaar!!

2007-07-06T18:36:00.000+01:00

June has been quite a busy month for me as far as racing goes. A pretty heavy month of 11 races and a few good sessions on the bike in preparation for the race that wasn’t too be. Unfortunately the road nationals in Beverley were cancelled with all this rain we’ve been getting lately.
Well the old weather hasn’t been to kind to us in Belgium but ive still managed to get some good work done and come into a bit of form.
Off the bike I’ve had a pretty steady month. Not really had much chance to get up to anything really, any spare time ive had was spent sleeping or lying in bed!
My first race was a local one for the team in Ruisbroek so good show was necessary. I was given orders to get up the road in the first group. I’d just come back from my break and was unsure of how id feel so it was me who had to go on the kamikaze mission and get the jersey on TV. Anyway, cut a long story short I got myself in the front and was out there for 80ks with 8 others. We were reeled in on the finish circuit and that was my work done for the day and I rolled in in the peleton pretty shattered.

2 days later and I was on the grid again in a Pro Kermess race in Gullegem. This race was by far the hardest ive tried all year. My legs weren’t great and man was it fast. It was a circuit of about 12ks we covered enough times to clock 170ks at 44kph. At sign on I was amazed at the number I was given 260!! There was Just under 300 starters that day including no less than 13 Lotto rider (with McEwen) 16 Quickstep (with boonen, van petegem) and nearly every top Belgie you can think of. I had a bash at the start and tried to get in the move. I followed an attack by a lotto rider and got away in a group of 5, after doing a few turns I was struggling to get past these guys to do a turn, it was then I noticed I was with Boonen, Leif Hoste and Nick Nuyens !! My god those guys are not human. This group wasn’t too being anyway and I suffered in the wheels, dodged the crashes and made it to the finish. A good day in the saddle and time for a rest!

Next came the UCI 1.2 ranked Wavre Rijnem race on a rolling circuit finishing with 4 local laps round a savage finish circuit with a few cobbles thrown in there for good measure. I was pretty up for this race, I was 18th last year and hoped to go a few better and get on the podium. I rode a pretty bad race, I played my cards too early and tried to force an early break after 60ks. By the time I got to the finish I was nailed and didn’t have the legs on the pave. I finished in the 2nd group somewhere in the top 30.

My next few races where purely for training so any results where pretty much thrown out of the window after a solid 3 hr rr in the morning before each race. 3 days of 200ks with at least 120ks of racing each day. Each day was pretty hard, feeling good in the races but didn’t have anything at the end of each one. But I soldiered round to finish each one and got the k`s in the race for the big day that never happened on the 1st July.

The next “course” was the Romsee – Stavalot – Romsee in the Liege area of Belgium. The hills today were pretty savage but my legs were good and I was up for the challenge. The weather today was crazy; we went from 12 degrees and rain to 28 degrees and blistering sun! I was right up at the front as soon as the flag went down determined to be in the front from the off. The tactic was today to follow everything but not touch the front until the finale. 2nd climb and the peleton were in one line, lucky me snapped a spoke and has to stop for a change. By the time I battered back through the cars a group of 20ish had gone. So I stayed relaxed and waited for the next climb. Made a massive effort on the “berg” and managed to bridge a 1min gap with 2 others up the climb of Stavalot which features in Liege Bastogne Liege. But once again it wasn’t to be when I punctured on the decent at 65kph on a hairpin bend. Nether the less I came out ok when some bushes saved me from a tumble down a mountain. I stayed upright and rejoined the peleton. My chances of getting back to the “kop” were over and the peleton which was now down to about 30 riders were pulled out after 120ks. Bit of a bummer but c` est la vie hey !!

Next was yet another Pro Kermess at Lede. Last year I really struggled in these races and lacked a bit of confidence so I thought it was about time I stuck my neck out and tried to do something. I tried like hell to get in the break and I nearly just made it. 11 guys went away and I was 50 meters behind with one other, I went full gas to get them but failed and ended up suffering in the peleton for another 150ks. Another race another bunch finish!

2 Days later I was on the grid again in The Rudervorde Pro Kermess in western Flanders. For those of you that know how windy it is over there and know how fast Philip Gilbert can ride you can imagine what I was in for. I still wasn’t recovered from my last race at Lede but battered round suffering like hell just thinking of getting some condition for next week. I finished just outside the top 20 and in the money which wasn’t a bad one I suppose.

12 hrs later and I was back pinning my numbers on with bags under my eyes and some sore legs from yesterday. I was at the UCI 1.1 ranked 200km Halle Ingooigem and the pros were there in form ready for there championships on Sunday. I pretty much knew I couldn’t ride a result today with the guys that were there so I tried my best to get in the “kop” at the start. My director told me there was no pressure today and to just enjoy it! He pulled a face and laughed when I told him I didn’t just want to make up the numbers today. I don’t see the point in just riding round and waiting to be shelled at the end. We were having a joke in the neutral zone of the “low standard” of riders in the bunch. Boonen was to my left and Nick Nuyens to the right. Haha. Anyway I thought id try something and attacked as hard as I could after 2ks! Crazy I know but it worked! I was on my own for 5ks then 8 more came across with some big guys like Steph De Jonge of quickstep who has just started the TDF!! We stayed away for 150ks and were on TV for a good 3hrs. When the group caught us there were 9 lotto’s on the front riding far too fast in the crosswinds for me to do anything about getting on. I had a crack and lasted 2ks before I called it a day and got off. My work was done for the day! A pat on the back from the team and a good day at the office for me!

After I finished the race I found out the news of the National being cancelled. Obviously I was really frustrated and disappointed, mainly because id spent a whole month racing tired and forgetting about the end result just thinking about my condition, but what could be done. Half the country was under water so it was to be expected really.

So instead of getting down and getting annoyed I stayed focused and tried to use my form, which was starting to come really good. I headed to Bladel in Holland where I got my Eerst overwinning dit jaar (first win of the year) My legs felt awesome and I knew after 2 laps that I was in with a good chance. There were guys attacking in the wind and I could ride across comfortably. I waited as long as I could help and rode flat out across to a group of 10 that had just broken away. I went straight to the front and drove it hard far a good few k`s to make sure it had a good chance of going. Lucky for me the peleton didn’t react and we quickly gained a minute. I was feeling good so sprinted for a few primes to see who was sprinting well. It turned out to be me as I won every prime by a fair margin. So the last lap came and I was hungry to get my hands in the air for the first time in a long time. So I followed everything and gambled for the sprint. I hit it flat out with 25o to go out of the last corner, took a quick look under my arms and got them up in the air to take my first win this year.

Im told once you win once you win a lot. So im hoping this saying is true! I missed the feeling of winning, but now its back and im hungry as ever!!

Ps. All rosters and selections for races in July are Posted on my teams website

Chow

Matt

Matt Brammeiers Great Month of May !!

2007-06-15T17:03:00.001+01:00

Good day everyone,

Well here goes with another tale of the life of Matt Brammeier. May is well and truly over and to be honest I haven’t had the best of months. It all started well with a bit of a result in an amateur kermess in Glabbeek. Id had a bit of a bad day in the Ronde a few days ago so was pretty keen to do something today. Anyway I managed to get my arse into gear and get in the break of 12 riders which split to 6 and then 4 with about 15 ks to go. I was feeling pretty good and didn’t really have to make any big efforts at all so was starting to think about how I was going to try to win my first bike race of 2007. Before I could come up with a plan I was informed by one of the riders that he wanted to win, as the race finished in his home town. So after a bit of talking I had no choice but to let him ride away and take the win. I rolled in to take 2nd place which was still quite pleasing but I honestly think I had the win in me today.
Next on the cards was a trip to the dentist. As I explained in my last ramble it wasn’t the best of experiences and my legs and form certainly didn’t see any benefits in the following weeks. I struggled round my next race 4 days later in Mal and somehow managed to finish inside the top 10 in 7th place.
After that was a bit of a dry patch in the way of races with the team, I was given a bit of time to train and recover from my tooth before my next big race at Hasselt Spa Hasselt a Belgian Top Competition race.
Before hand I had a dabble in a couple of kermess races back to back not far from home. The first day of two wasn’t great, the race slit after roughly 500 meters and 6 guys rode away to never be seen again, I worked hard in the 2nd group trying my up most to get the fuckers back but it wasn’t to be and I finished 9th about 1 min down on the winner.
I enjoyed the small, concrete, narrow, bumpy and muddy roads of Bornem that much that I decided to return the next day for a 2nd days of racing on exactly the same course at the same time with near enough the same riders. Today I made sure I was at the front at the start and hit the crosswinds in 2nd spot. I was pretty determined to get in the “kop” group today so rode flat out for as long as I could into the crosswinds. Luckily enough my plan worked and about 15 of us went away. Unfortunately the legs weren’t too good today at the finish and I struggled in in 10th place. But a top 10 was good enough for me today, about what I expected so I want feeling too suicidal.
3 days and another illness later I was at the start line in Hasselt unsure on how I would feel. A few of the girls in the house had been sick and I wasn’t feeling 100% so I was taking it as it came. After 80ks my chest felt slightly tight so I made a quick exit and got off at the feed.
After that came 4 days of the bike and 7 days with no serious training with a virus which was pretty hard to take as I was just on my way back after the tooth. A bit too much to soon maybe or maybe just too many germs floating round in the house. Who knows!!
Soon enough I was back on the bike and feeling healthy again, a few days of easy riding and I was ready to race again. I had the option a Pro crit in Keulen Germany to ride so thought I would give it a bash. Didn’t want to push it too hard though so just rode round in the bunch for 100ks and got a pretty good work out with a few of Germanys top renners dishing it out at the front.
At the start of the year I decided on having a mid season break away from the bike to freshen up a bit mentally and have a bit of a chill. Unfortunately it was planned for the end of May, just when I wanted to be riding my bike and getting stuck in. But I know in October when im still pinning my numbers on ill be happy I took these days off. So me and the wife set off too Paris for 3 days for a quick look around the city and a day at Euro Disney. As you can imagine we had a great time and all ran with out disaster. All until I got back and found my car had been towed! 3 hrs later at 1am and 200 euros down I got the thing back. I don’t think Ill Park on a zebra crossing in a town centre for 3 days again hey!!!
Anyway im getting a bit fed up of writing words like unfortunately over and over and telling you all how sick ive been so its time to get the ball rolling and get some form back!
Until then

Chow Chow

Premiere Win of 2007

2007-05-14T13:33:00.001+01:00

Its been a hideous season for me so far, after missing the whole winter through a knee injury I started to get going for the start of April, only to contract an illness just before the Circuit des Ardennes which developed into Gastro-Intestinal issues for the Tour du Loire-et-Cher and which dragged on until Bourg-Arbent-Bourg.

So when the team decided I needed to rebuild gently as opposed to my usual 'you must be joking' I took their advice and opted to stay at home and race on the Cote d'Azur. Friday night was Piste, down at Hyeres, with decidedly stiffer opposition in the sprint events (Bourgain, Sireau and the Chinese National Squad) but I started the weekend with 3 wins on the Wood.

Sunday saw me take the start of the GP d'Antibes, an tough race closer to Sophia-Antibolis than to Antibes, which nonetheless included some 1700m climbing in little over 90km. I took off in the early 10man move which by the time the race had reached half distance was whittled down to 4. Not long after this point a series of attacks left myself and Martial Ricci-Poggi (also of AVC Aix) at the head of affairs. We soon tucked 2minutes into the chase pair and 4min into the peloton, decimated by the heat and the circuit.

Being team-mates and both of whom need a win, we decided to race 'a la pedal' in a clean sprint, unfortunately for Martial, im pretty rapid in a small-group sprint and I took out my first Road win in France since the end of 2005.

Next up is the Coupe de France Individual Time Trial where on current form im hoping to grab a good result.

2007-05-09T21:44:00.000+01:00

Matt Brammeier update. April
Well another month and 12 races have gone by and as usual I’ve had a few ups and downs along the way. It seems like only a few days ago that I was sat trying to remember what I’d been up too in March. Anyway I`m sat here in quite a bit of pain (ill explain later) so excuse any bad spelling or stupid comments!!

I’m well and truly settled in my new place now, and I`m really taking to this new era of Belgian weather, I haven’t seen one drop of rain or the thermometer drop below 20 degrees for a solid month now!! Is it really April?? It feels good to have somewhere that feels a bit like home with a familiar bed to come home to after a hard day in the saddle. I can really feel the benefit of getting home to a comfortable house and chilling out, with depending on the time a good coffee or glass of wine.
As I said before I’ve had 12 races this month so quite a busy months riding with not much chance for any serious training, just recovery rides and a bit of cruising round really.

My first race of the month was the Trophy Van Haspengouw in Aalst. A pretty big race on the calendar and pretty near to home which made it a bit of an aim for me. The parcours looked good with a few rolling hills and a nice finish circuit with the usual 1 in 4 climb and the mandatory cobbled stretch, not to mention the vicious crosswinds!!
It was a pretty nervous bunch to start of with a few crashes early on to try and dodge. I got through the first 20ks unscathed where I received the warning of a real bad crosswind section on a big open road. For once I used my head and battled to the front out of trouble, sure as hell we turned onto this road, straight in the gutter looking out for the invisible road furniture and the parked cars which are rarely pointed out by the other riders!! It was pretty grim for a few kms here and I had to dig deep a bit to hold the wheel in front, but I was just glad I was in the first 10 and not at the back chewing my stem. Anyway I found myself on the front and didn’t feel too bad, I had a quick look behind at the carnage and thought what the hell! I moved right, got out the saddle and rode as hard as I could for as long as I could. Sure as hell there was a nice little split of about 20 guys and we rode away to about 2 mins, which was nice as I didn’t have to battle for the front all day to stay out the wind. I felt real good all day anyway until the finish circuit where I started to feel it a bit. To cut a long story short I rode like a bit of a D**K in the finish laps and hesitated like a 90 year old women and let nearly the whole break go up the road, I ended up in a pretty disappointing 13th place.

Next on the cards was a smaller but by no means easy Amateur kermess race at Herne. The conditions were tough but just not tough enough to split the 220 strong field. I didn’t have the best of luck when my cleat came off about ½ way through, I had to stop and do a bit of a bodge job on it screwing it back on with just 2 screws instead of 4 which was a bit dodgy. Being the cheeky scouser that I am, I hid in the bushes and jumped back into the front group after an 8k lap out! The race came down to a mass sprint but with the 2 screws in the back of my mind I didn’t commit 100% and just rolled in the top 20 somewhere.

Next came the epic Tryptique Des Monts Le Chateau a 3 day battle around the border of France and Belgium. I rode this race 3 years ago with the U23 Academy and it was still in my head as the hardest race I had ever ridden so I was looking forward to
seeing how much id moved on. Last time I was here I was literally hanging on from start to finish each day and finished lantern rouge! The first day was a long road stage with no major hills or obstructions which ended in a massive sprint in which I was too far back and without a chance of even a top 20. So not a great start. The next day was an 8km TT which I was pretty excited about as I was 18th at my last attempt. Unfortunately I had to ride today on a road bike with clip on bars and normal wheels so the chance of a result was out of the question. I still went full gas to try to prove myself to the team and hopefully get a nice bike for my next tt, I rode pretty well and only lost 27 secs on the winner finishing inside the top 30 which I was quite pleased with. A few hours later and I took to the start again for a 121 km road stage. It was a pretty fast race today and was pretty easy in the peleton, it really looked like it was going to stay together for a big group sprint which was gradually up hill and on cobbles which excited me a bit and I was hopeful of a result. It wasn’t to be and a group of 17 slipped away on a small hill and made it to the finish. I finished quite strong in 7th place in the group sprint. The last day was a bit of a disaster for me, we hit a climb which I can only describe as a cobbled wall after about 120ks and that was game over / grupetto for me for the day. I rolled in quite a way down looking for answers and quite disappointed.
3 days later I was on the grid again in the GP Pino Cerami a UCI 1.1 ranked race in south Belgium. My legs weren’t great from the start but I tried to ride through it and race hard. I found myself in a break of 15 which didn’t get much room from the strong peleton behind and was quickly reeled in. After this the big Pros from T-Mobile and Quickstep decided they were too tired ( a lot of them had just finished gent-wevelgem and had Flanders in 2 days time) they decided to call a time out and neutralise the race and keep the bunch at a steady 30kph for about an hr mid race. My legs totally seized up here we were going that slow and when they decided to start racing again my legs didn’t want to play and I was on my way to the showers early.

A few days later and I rode out to ride a local Kermess race. My legs were really good and I was riding really well, going with every move and not really having to go too deep. The last 5 ks were really fast and I decided I was going to sit in for the last 2 laps and 100% gamble on a group finish. My numbers didn’t come in and a group of 12 went away and was yet another day out without a result!!
Next on the programme was the 2.2 ranked Rhone Alps Isere tour in the south of France. And yes it was as hilly and as hard as it sounds! It was a bit of a trek down there but my legs felt fine in the evening when we went for a bit of a spin. The first day was “flat” according to the locals, but with 2 5 k climbs I chose to ignore that statement. However I got stuck in battled hard and got in the breakaway. I managed to hang on over the hills and get to the finish in the front group of 16 nearly 3 mins up on the peleton. In the finish I felt great but just chose the wrong side of the road, I ended up a respectable 4th place and in the young rider’s jersey! As per usual I wanted more and could only think what could of happened if I would of gone to the left side of the road not the right. Straight after the race as if by magic I had a massive bout of tooth ache which lasted for the next 3 days, kept me awake till 2 am and close to tears sometimes. My whole body shut down and I was unable to continue racing. A quick trip to the race doctor and I was prescribed with codeine and penicillin. Unfortunately it was a Saturday and all the chemists were closed until Monday !! However I had a bit of good luck when the chef from the hotel noticed I was in pain, asked me how I was. When I told him the story he came back 5 mins later after a quick phone call to his mate ( who was a chemist ) with an address of his chemist. The guy opened up his chemist especially for me and sorted me out with my drugs!!
My next race was a massive goal for me before the tooth pain kicked in but I still decided to make the start for the Espoirs Tour of Flanders. The course looked savage with no less than 12 cobbled bergs including the oude kwaremont, valkenberg and the taienberg. I decided to forget about the tooth and go full gas. To my surprise I felt great and was in the front all day on the hills. A small group of 10 went on the Valkenberg with about 50 k to go which was a bit early to start showing my cards do I chilled out and let it go. 30 k later the gap was 40 seconds and looked bridgeable on the crazy cobbled section coming up. I hit the cobbles with everything I had and made it to the break just before the end of the cobbles, however I think it must have been the last cobble on the stretch that I hit hard and had a massive blow out. It was chaos behind so neutral service were unable to help so I was forced to wait for the team car which was all the way back n position 29 as you can guess this was game over for the day for me and a dull end to an up and down month.
But all isn’t bad, it’s now the 2nd of May and i`ve a bit of a result to write about in my next months fairytale!
So until then
Take it easy !!

P.s unfortunately though the antibiotics didn’t clear the infection in the tooth so i`ve just had to have my tooth pulled out! I didn’t take it too well and passed out with the pain! Don’t laugh!!

Chow!

Matt

Peter Bissell scores a win

2007-05-03T17:48:00.000+01:00

the race was called the GP Quimper it was an Elite race around the town of quimper over 100 km's, it was quite a tough circuit rising up along the home straight over to a climb of about 400m, then descending to a flat section past the finish. there were 80 odd starters, a break of 8 went away after 6 of the 18 laps and had around 45 seconds, i decided it was time to go across so i attacked at the foot of the climb and crossed solo in about 3 laps, after riding with the front group with 3 laps to go one of my team mates in the break attacked and i countered taking team mate, Anthony Moran (ex Credit Agricole pro) and a rider from lorient, with the advantage in numbers we proceeded to attack him to wear him down and with 3km to go i attacked solo and crossed the line to win with around 20 seconds in hand at an average speed of 43kmph.
Classement : 1. Peter Bissel (VS Quimper); 2. Nicolas Jouanno (VCP Lorient); 3. Anthony Morin (VS Quimper); 4. James Canévet (VS Quimper); 5. Fabrice Morcel (TC Granit Rose); 6. Radek Blaska (VS Quimper); 7. Niel Canévet (VS Quimper); 8. Mathieu Raoult (CC Blavet); 9. Fabien Kéromnès (Bic 2000); 10. Bartek Oswit (VS Quimper); 11. Damien Folgar (UC Nantes); 12. Anthony Vignès (VS Quimper); 13. Alexandre Aulas (Chambéry C.); 14. Nicolas David (VS Quimper); 15. Denoël Chedaleux (V. Vannes)

from Adam Illingworth

2007-04-26T18:04:00.000+01:00

The recent European weather has made it seem like summer has come already. The flowers are all in bloom, days are long and everywhere there seems to be flies buzzing around. Another reason it seems like summer is here already is because the stage races have now started. Normally this means the beginning of sore legs and ridiculous tan lines while bidding a sweet farewell to whatever it is that makes the early season so tough

This year the early season races failed to produce much of a harvest but instead a string of positive showings right from the off meant I kept coming back for more, motivated. After our team training camp in February the season has so far consisted of racing on the weekend and spending the week training. Fairly normal stuff and it is good to be able to race and train without the one disturbing the other. The racing is good because you can see progress, which motivates the following weeks training. In March I raced GP Vallee Bedat followed by the Rhone Alpes opener: GP de Mattias Nomblot, a hard test just north of Lyon. I finished 23rd there. The following week involved a two day through the roads around Bourg en Bresse with me finishing 15th helped by a hilly final stage through the hills of Bugey. A different affair waited me at Troyes Dijon with dry roads and no wind really levelling things. My 39th was a bit of a downer and gave me more respect for directional arrows rather than the trusting hells angels motorcycle marshals.

In April I had high hopes for success. March had gone better than expected and with some good races added to the mix the desire for success only grew stronger; Annemasse Bellegarde, a massive race in the shadow of Mont Blanc, got shot down though by a surprise attack of fever! I felt it coming on in the week as I tapered off the training and started to study the race route on a sketchy 1786 Michelin Map. The fever was coupled with flu, bad news for any athlete. I returned to racing over a week later for the GP de Vougy. A real nice event held in a small town, village maybe. The route covers a 12km circuit out into the farm lanes and back but includes a hill that is cursed more and more as the laps and heat build. I had good legs and made the most of it collecting some of the many prizes up for grabs along the route. My legs however didn’t quite hold out as long as my excitement and I was tailed off from the leading group before and ended up in a group far more eager than I was to finish 27th. The following week was a Bourgoine double header. Tour of Charolais followed by Dijon Auxonne Dijon. Two very different races. One hilly the other flat, one good the other bad, I crashed in Dijon Auxonne Dijon. As this race was just a few days before the UCI ranked Rhone Alpes Isere Tour (RAIT) I was please to only come away with only cuts and bruises. A visit to an osteopath left me in more pain but at least he straightened me out.

So we get to the present, stage race time. The crash suffered in Dijon Auxonne Dijon didn’t really change much. The Thursday following I started the RAIT. A great race held locally with teams from all over Europe. Consisting of four stages over hilly terrain the race is important for me and my team. I had hoped to do a good stage on day 3. I was however kept in my place the entire race. Apart from a brief 10km leg stretcher off the front of the peloton on stage 4 I spent the entire race in the peloton. Although I was pleased to have never been put into any difficulty I was disappointed to never have much freedom off the front and finished the race in a rather anonymous 36th overall. The only contribution I made to race was from a team point of view at the services of team mate Nicolas Inudi who recorded a 2nd place on the 2nd stage and a 5th on the final classification. Hats off to him.

Well like I said at the start this is stage racing time now. From now until the British National Championships in July I have a full programme of stage races. From the Hills of Chablais (famous for evian water) to the flat islands of the tour of Estonia (famous for a different kind of water). The greater concentration of racing/days means there is more chance of results, a constantly pursued rabbit. Thank you for reading my latest diary entry. The team I am riding for this year, Charvieu Chavagneux has gelled nicely and although we lack a victory we all share a collective motivation. This is for me the real start of the season.

from Adam Illingworth

2007-01-16T15:32:00.000Z

I am busy getting my suitcase out and packing my bag for the up and coming season!
I leave next week for France where I will be joining my team Charvieu Chavagneux IC. It will be my second year in this team, which is, situated just East of Lyon. For anybody who has ever raced over there it is the team in pink. The team has been slimmed down a bit from last year, from 14 to 7. Some riders have left. The old man fro the team David Pagnier has left to take up a job as Director Sportif at SCO Dijion. Team joker Allan Oras has decided to open up cycling’s new front in Estonia. Unfortunately one of the best-loved members of the team Daniel Bennett passed away recently due to a heart attack. He was my roommate and would have been again this year. His passing will be missed all season. As a sign of respect the teams annual cyclo-cross will be named the Daniel Bennett Challenge.

The team has made two big recruits this winter. Nicolas Renauld and Nicolas Inaudi. Renauld although a ex-professional he has been amateur for a few years now and returns to his old home from Aix en Provence. Inaudi has spent many years in the bright colours of Cofidis and Ag2R and will bring lots of strength to the small squad. The one day specialist Guillaume Lejune who pretended to retire at the end of last season just so he could throw a end of career party will come out of his 'retirement' to boost the ranks at the front.

The team leaves in February for its annual training camp in St Maxime. Good weather and Roads together with some races make it idea preparation. Also the chief sponsor has a house near there so it makes him happy I guess. We can also use the good roads to test our new Isaac bikes. See if they make us faster, see if the Campagnolo is better than Shimano and check how much the tyres grip. All-important to things to get right before the season.

Living and racing over in France is great fun, certainly something any young and motivated cyclist should aim to do. However nothing is a give away. My team is very sympathetic and tries to help where they can. The real support always comes from Family and friends, this is where the Dave Rayner fund helps the most. I am very grateful to them for helping me live abroad and racing. I hope to fill this blog with many stories of heroics this year! Now back to packing that bag...

Adam

daveraynerfund - riders news results, and discussion

2006-10-24T16:32:00.000+01:00

dinner 11th Nov

MATT BRAMMEIER - August

2006-09-04T22:09:00.000+01:00

The form is really coming good at the minute, and the results are starting to come also. I had a bit of a disappointment this month with the team selection for the TOB strangely not including me, even with my current form and results I was not picked. Some politics somewhere along the lines I think.
Most of the races ive ridden this month have been UCI ranked 1.1 or 1.2 and have been pretty tough – Below is a description of what happened and how I did in each race –

Kappellen 1.12 01/08/06 10th
This was a shorter kermes or crit at only 60kms, I found out after 5 laps that the race had already been fixed for a local guy to win as I watched a group of 6 ride away and no body but me chase, I was told by one of the riders “its impossible to win today so stop chasing” I tried several times to jump across but the gap got o big and I ended up 10th

Linden 1.12 03/08/06 DNF
Today didn’t go too good, I had great legs, was in the break leading the berg prize completion but got caught behind a crash and couldn’t rejoin the group, got on my bike and rode home, pretty disappointed.

Ronde Van Antwerpen 2.12 10-13/08/07 30th gc
The prologue went ok but again lady luck wasn’t on my side, it threw it down with rain just before i was off, I was fastest out of the riders who went in the rain but only managed 22nd. First stage went bad too, I missed the break of 15 was 3rd in the sprint so 18th. Had a better day on day 2, was in the big break of the day and got the jersey on TV, attacked hard on the last cobles got a small gap but failed to stay away, got swallowed by the group and ran top 30. Stage 3 was a big bunch kick, had to break hard in last 500, and ended up 14th. Stage 4 was pretty similar, group went away came back before the finish, I ran 15th struggling in the sprints with no team help,

Heusden Pro kermes 15/08/06 25th
Legs felt pretty stuffed today with only a day off in between Antwerp, I had a real deep massage too so my legs felt like wood for the 1st hr, rode into it and finished ok, missed the front group with 2 laps to go but was top 10 in the sprint against some good pros.

Hoelden 1.12 17/08/06 6th
This was a bog standard kermes race not far from home, feeling really strong today but missed the break, got in a chasing group and caught the break just before the finish, ended up 6th in the sprint, a bit disappointed as I know I had good legs and could have done better at the end.

G.P Stad Zottegem 1.1 22/08/06 19th
Zottegem was the first big race of the month, a few big pro tour teams there made it pretty tough, I got stuck in at the start but sadly missed the breakaway of 11 riders, this got a gap of 3 mins and was never seen again, it got pretty tough on the hard finish circuit and I managed to be in every split from the peleton, got in a split on the last lap and finished 19th, a great result for myself I think in such a big race, some solid UCI points in the bag with some quality riders behind me!

Overisljel 1.1 23/08/06 top 40
Felt pretty stuffed today from yesterdays race, played a team role, helped Russell Downing all race, keeping him up front and out of trouble, Russ won so a great result for the team.

Havenpijl UCI 1.2 27/08/06 25th
Disappointed with my self today, was really windy at the start and I knew it would split early on, I sat too far back and missed the break of 20, was in 2nd group riding really strong, think I could have got a big result today if I was in the break.

Merksem 1.1 29/08/06 29th
Again really good legs today, a massive race all the big pros here, in front group of 30 with 50ks to go, survived the cross winds, narrow roads, cobbles and all but one crash, got caught up behind and missed the split of 20 to the finish, I finished in 2nd group AGAIN! 29th, which was still a respectable result in such a big race.

Rummen Geebets Classic 31/08/06 2nd
First amateur race for a while now, one of the biggest amateur races of the year at 140ks with a bit prize list and massive crowds, got in the break early on of 20, followed a later attack and was in a group of 7 going into the finish, legs were great today was still floating along after 135ks, but o helplessly had to watch the Belgians doing “the deal” in the break to who would win, I couldn’t understand what was going on, but they obviously didn’t want me to win, one by one they attacked me, I followed 2 but couldn’t go with the 3rd one, he stayed away and won, I attacked hard with 2 k to go, got a gap and ran 2nd, which was a pretty good result but disappointed not to win when I was in such a good position.

So the form has been good this month and ive started to get a few good results. Just need a bit of luck to slide into one of the breaks in the big races and a big result will follow I hope.

Overislel GP 1.12 01/0906 2nd
Decided to race again today, Feeling good again , really hilly race, in group of 20 which split to 6 on finial lap, one guy slipped away with 2k to go, I won group sprint by 5 bike lengths!

National Champs June 2006

2006-08-19T14:49:00.000+01:00

This is just a novice attempt to put a movie on the blog ?
Let me know what you think
Stuart

News from Kieran Page

2006-08-17T16:17:00.000+01:00

I came back from the UK at the start of July and kicked off the summer with a Promising result in the Elite Race of Les Avenieres. I ran in 4th which all things considered was a disappointment, I cost myself the win by riding far too agressively for the heat and ended up paying the price in the finale by running out of steam in the 38c temperature and being caught by a small group and beaten to the line.

From there I went into the next races with good morale and optimistic in my form. The Tour de Dordogne being the first, I ran a promising 6th in my first Individual Time Trial of the year unfortunately this was as good as it got due mainly in part to having one of our ex-pro`s coming into a rich vein of form and the rest of us being relegated to domestic duties. From there I moved further up the west coast of France to the Tour de Deux Sevres, a race usually suited to myself, however having just two days between the races meant I went into this jaded and I suffered havily from the heat and associated stomach troubles, leaving me with a dissapointing week.

Next up was a mini training camp with one of my team mates in the Alpes Maritimes, where on the agenda were several sorties into the mountains with a beast of a day including 5cols with the biggest a 29km slog from sea level up to a ski station at 1900m altitude. From there we raced across the Route des Alpes for GP Bouvesse a race based upon a circuit including a 5km and a 1km climb, after our tough week we found ourselves on the back foot for when the break went inside of 3km. I ran in 19th hardly a place of honour but a solid base for the 4jours d'As at the start of August.

The As went fantastically well for the team, 3stage wins, 4th on GC, King of the Mountains, Sprints Jersey as well as best Provencal. However on the first day after making the weeks crucial break I crashed heavily on a marble paved corner, knocking myself sidways and leaving my form in the gutter. Having a leg that doesnt move makes being a bike rider tough job, I then compounded this by getting a cold.

The rest of August should show a change in fortunes as I am starting a second camp in Nice before heading back to Aix for the Ronde du Gard a 4day stage race, where I won a stage last year, followed by the Surrey League 5 Day, something I havent had the pleasure of doing before but m looking forward to. Rounding out August is the penultimate round of the Coupe de France, GP Plouay, another race I am looking to get a result in.

Kieran

Funding Applications for 2007

2006-08-08T21:02:00.000+01:00

Please note applications are now required for 2007
Closing date is 20th September.
Forms are available on the web site.

Dan Fleeman Results July 2006

2006-08-08T19:38:00.000+01:00

2/7 - Tour Pays Ronnais 3rd Stage (Elite-Open) – 7th
6/7 – Tour Dordgne 1st Stage (Elite-Open) – 8th
20/7 – Tour de le Creuse 3rd Stage (Elite-Open) – 3rd
25/7 – Bourg-Les-Bains (Elite) – 6th
29/7 – GP Bouvesse (Elite-Reg) – 5th
5/8 – 5 Jours Des As 3rd Stage (Elite-Open) 3rd

Ian Murray scores first win

2006-07-24T18:43:00.000+01:00

Stood on the top step of the podium on Friday the 14th July when i won an elite crit at Evergem just outside of Ghent beating riders including local National Belgian U23 rider Cocqurt.
After 5 laps of the 44 i got myself in a split of 8 riders but this wasnt really working so i headed down the road with a Bulgarian, this turned out to be a good move as lap after lap we worked well to keep are gap of 30 secs on two chasers including Cocqurt with the bunch at 45 secs. I was pretty strong and getting stronger which was a good sign but the Bulgarain started to suffer and soon i was pulling most of the turns. As we reached the halfway point at 22 to go he cracked and just sat up leaving me out there in the middle of knowhere ploughing round on my own, the team manager told me to ease up and wait for the chasers i wasnt convinced but i did what he said, turned out to be the right move as toghter we pulled out a race winning gap of 50 secs over the rest of the field.

I was still pulling the harder turns and looking at the faces i felt and looked to be the strongest, i weighed up my options and decided that Cocqurt would probably win the sprint, at 4 to go i attacked hard into the headwind stretch took the initative i just kept hamering the pedals for the whole lap before glancing round coming upto the 3 to go point, id pulled out a good 20 secs and i still felt strong, at 2 to go i was still well clear but not daring to think id won, at the bell everyone was going wild but i managed to keep it together. I rounded the last bend well clear had time to milk the applause and throw the hands up to take the biggest win of my career and my first outside of the UK.

On Sunday 16th July i lined up for a 140Km kermis in Aarsele, when i got there the Belgians were taking bets on the race and i was pretty chuffed to be a 7-1 at the start, not bad. Anyhow keeping up recent tradition, i was down the road after 2kms with a Lithuanian and i was to be out there all day, we were caught by 5 chasers two laps in but then 3 of us left the rest after 5 laps to ride to a 1 min 15 second gap. Everything was rosey until about 4 to go when one rider left the other two of us to solo to victory leaving me and a rider from the Sean Kelly Academy team,somehow we managed to hang out there to the end and i beat him in the sprint to the line for second. Another great result.

Final Results - Junior TOI

2006-07-17T21:47:00.000+01:00

Well done Luke, Andrew, Sam and Matthew it was a privelege to work with you. Best wishes for the future.
The DRF support team. Final Result

Luke Rowe wins the Junior Tour

2006-07-16T17:32:00.000+01:00

In a breathtaking final stage, Luke Rowe took the Yellow Jersey, and Team Daverayner won the Team Prize.
Commiserations to Adam Bonser who crashed out of the Tour in the final 20 miles. Full Results

GC
1st Luke Rowe
13th Andrew Griffiths
16th Sam Webster
35th Matthew Greaves

Young Rider (White Jersey)
1st Luke Rowe
5th Andrew Griffiths
8th Sam Webster
14th Matthew Greaves

Points (Green Jersey)
4th Andrew Griffiths

KOM (Polka Dot Jersey)
3rd Matthew Greaves

Irish Cycling Web Site

2006-07-14T18:30:00.000+01:00

For more info on junior tour
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/

JUNIOR TOUR OF IRELAND

2006-07-14T18:25:00.000+01:00

Stage 4 http://www.juniortour.org
1st Adam Bonser - North West
2nd Alistair Carr - West Midlands
3rd Denis Dunworth - Stena Line Ireland
4th Amdrew Griffiths - Team Dave Rayner

GC
1st Adam Bonser - North West
2nd Luke Rowe - TDRF @ 1min 25secs
11th Andrew Griffiths TDRF @ 5 Mins.
14th Sam Webster - TDRF @ 5 Min 20
19th Matthew Greaves TDRF @ 5 Min 44

Junior White Jersey - Luke Rowe TDRF
Points Jersey - 2nd Andrew Griffiths TDRF
Polka Dot KOM - 2nd Matthew Greaves TDRF

MORE INFO

JUNIOR TOUR OF IRELAND

2006-07-12T18:00:00.000+01:00

The Team have made a great start to the Junior Tour
Stage 1 - Prolog
1st Dennis Dunworth - Stena Line Ireland 6.59.00
2nd Andrew Griffiths - TeamDave Rayner 7.02.56
3rd Stephen Halpin - Stena Line Ireland 7.02.63

Green Jersey Andrew Griffiths

Stage 2 - 61 miles
1st Adam Bonser - East Midlands - 2hrs 30.07
2nd Luke Rowe - TeamDave Rayner 2hrs 30.50
11th Andrew Griffiths - Team Dave Rayner 2hrs 34.48
14th Sam Webster - Team Dave Rayner 2hrs 34.48
23rd Matthew Greaves - Team Dave Rayner 2hrs 34.48

General Classification
2nd Like Rowe - @36 secs
Green Jersey - Luke Rowe
First Year Jnr - Luke Rowe
KOM - 2nd Luke Rowe
Team - 3rd Team Dave Rayner

Four More Stages to Go

News from Tom Murray

2006-07-10T06:45:00.000+01:00

News from Belgium
The event: U23 Dikkelvenue 150km Finished 3rd
On Sunday 2nd July was placed 3rd over a challenging 150Km hilly course in Gavre, the original break of 7 riders which had formed early on in the race became four with 3 laps remaining and this soon became 3 when one was
dropped on the climb coming upto the bell lap.

Feeling sure that i was weekest in the sprint i attacked hard at the foot of the last climb and put my head down for victory but was caught with 200 meters to go but took a strong third never the less.

This is my strongest result of the summer so far and came after strong performance in the intercub event over the Tour of Flanders course on the Wednesday. The strong week has seen me become one of the team leaders for the coming races, hopefully my form will hold and i can turn a place on
the podium into top spot soon.

Tom Murray

Welcome to Riders - Your chance to publish

2006-07-07T23:13:00.000+01:00

hi this is a platform for riders to publish their results, thoughts and generally communicate to the world of cycling.
Congratulations Lorna for your 2nd place in the National Championships

Junior Tour of Ireland

2006-07-07T22:08:00.000+01:00

Great news a junior team is representing the fund in the Junior Tour of Ireland. 11th - 16th July.
Team Members
Matthew Greaves
Andrew Griffiths
Luke Rowe
Sam Webster
Managers - Keith Lambert and Sid Barras

NOTE - Results will be published here