L'Hexagonal - Stage #5 - Evry

These are actually photos of stage 4:

Im not sure who took this one.

The team before the start.

Dan and AJ loking good at the start.

Today was the final stage of the Hex, a 48km XC stage comprising of 2 start laps then 5 full laps. There were a few technical bits and it was fairly muddy but it was still a pretty quick track. The pace on the start laps was really quick and i was well positioned for most of it but stupidily slipped back a little before the first single track. I got caught in a bit of traffic, and lost the contact with the lead bunch. Nick and i found ourselves well back in the pack and had to work hard to make up time. With a decent amount of single trail, we were able to use it to make time each lap. By the start of the last lap we were inside the top 20, Nick went on to get 15th, but i was fading a little and held on for 19th. The good news of the day was that Dellys put heaps of time into Laurence Leboucher to steal the leaders jersey on the last day. That is a great result for Del and hopefully will give her some good confidence for Bejing. Good luck Del and Dan!

Overall, i am really happy with my first hexagonal. I definately feel like i improved thoughout the week. The highlight of the race was definately the Montmartre stage. It was really cool to launch down steep stair cases in front of a big frech crowd. Also there were plenty of Aussie tourists that felt obliged to cher us on.

Another cool thing that i will remember was on the first XC stage, the track went past some back yards and each lap there was an old couple out in their yard cheering us on from the back fence. When i arrived there on the last lap after it had started to pour with rain, i didnt see them. Then when i got closer i heard a banging noise and "allez allez allez". The old lady had gone inside and got a big pot and was banging on it with a wooden spoon from under her verandah. It so cool to see that sort of passion for cycling.

I am really keen now for the world cup in Canberra. Im looking forward to riding rocks again.

L'Hexagonal - Stage #4 - La Ferte Gaucher

Today was a super fast & quite flat 60km stage at La Ferte Gaucher, East of Paris. It was non technical except for a 5min wood section on each of the 3 laps. This looked like being a traditional Hex stage; a very fast start to blow the field appart, then bunches would form and the pace would ease slightly until the attacks start coming on the last lap. Neil (the team coach) told me to try and go with the lead bunch on the first lap, even though the pace would a bit quicker than i am able to ride, in other words i had to put in in the red and hope that i could recover enough to hang in (it the very least it would be good training).

The start of the race was exactly as expected, i positioned my self as far forward as possible but gaps started to form in the bunch as people started to drop wheels. When we hit the technical section for the first time the field was split into a few bunches with small gaps between. Realising that i might have missed my chance, i got to the front of the second bunch and smashed it through the woods as hard as i could, knowing that the tail of the lead bunch might stretch back a bit. I bridged across to the back of the lead bunch which was my team mate Dan, but i was starting to hurt. I knew i had to stay on his wheel, but i couldn't. I joined up with a swiss rider and we swapped off turns for about 30km until we eventually got caught by the chasing bunch of about 10 riders, including Nick and AJ. Before we arived in the technical section for the last time, everyone was getting twitchy. It would be very important to be near the front because the bunch would almost certainly split in the woods. In the middle of the woods i was about half way in the bunch and on a steep climb i broke my chain...bugger. i had a spare link and fumbled around for a while fixing it but the group was long gone. A couple of french guys picked me up and we rode together to the line but they rolled me in the sprint. I ended up 34th dropping one place to 28th on GC.

Overall it was a hard day. I was pretty smashed at the finish. A good result for Dan Mac as well as he finished 10th, hopefully his form is starting to come on for the olympics. One day to go.

L'Hexagonal - Stage #3 - Montmartre Urban Time Trial, Paris

Sacre Coeur church


Jakey (our masseur) going to town on me before the time trial


Dan Mac waiting in the rain for the start of his time trial


Me about to hit the course.


The last climb, believe me that is definatily a grimace, not a smile

Today was the 3rd stage of the tour, a 5km individual time trial around Montmartre in Paris. If you have ever been to Paris you probably know what it is like. A big hill, cobble stone streets, heaps of stairs, tourists everywhere, and the Sacre Coeur church in the middle.

The course was crazy. It went up and down heaps of stairs and twisted around cobbled streets. And it is not like dirt, a lot of these steep stairs, would really hurt if you fell. During practice (and even in the race) there were tourists everywhere. On some of the long stair sections it was impossible to wait for them to be clear so you just had to start and hope that all the people scattered in time. Appart from running up all the stairs, i felt relatively comfortable with the course. Being quite technical probably suits me, but i was worried by the looming clouds because cobbles get very slippery when they get wet, especially steep stairs!

The riders were realised at 1 minute intervals in reverse order of GC (fast guys last). Since most of us Aussie are quite close on GC, we were all off at about 40mins in. Right on que the rain started about 5min before i had to go...bugger. I was really scared. I had know idea whether the lines i rode during practice were even possible anymore. I decided to take it easy in the start and hopefully build confidence as i went. That was a good strategy becasue i was super careful in the first few corners and i still nearly slid out. The climbing sections were so hard, it is tough to run up stairs when you only ever ride. Running is something you do if you are late for a bus! Overall my run went well, i passed the three guys that started in front of me so that is a good sign. i made a few mistakes but considering the rain i think i rode well. Then after my rdie the rain stopped and the roads dried out for the probably the top 20 riders, very frustrating.

I just checked the results and it turns out i got 17th and was the first Aussie. That is an awesome result! i was 58sec down from the winner but all the quick guys had a dry track, so i'm realy happy.

L'Hexagonal - Stage #2 - Vittel 50km

through the feedzone


Today was the 50km second stage of the Hexagonal. We went for a lap to familiarise ourselves with the 12.5km course and it was a complete mud fest. the rain from the previous night had soaked the ground making it the very worst kind of claggy type mud. The kind that sticks to your bike and clogs up everthing. The track was pretty fun though, i was pleaseed that there were a few really fast and slick downhill sections. I cut the lap short to get back to the car and put one the Maxxis Medusa mud tyres, perfect for this kind of stuff.

The race start through Vittel was super fast. I started from the 5th row of the grid so i had to work hard to move forward. I hit the first single track climb way too far back and got caught up in the grid lock. I rode most of the first lap on my limit, trying to stay in touch, but eventually i had to drop back to a sustainable tempo because i was affraid i would blow. The course was so much fun, we were sliding around eveywhere. I had some trouble with mud clogging up the bike but i was very careful to take and extra bottle of water each lap in order to hose the drivetrain regularly, and my bike semed to be working better that others.

After 3 laps i was still feeling pretty good and it started to pour down. This was actually a good thing becasue i makes the mud a lot wetter, and it doesn't stick to the bike so much and it is easier to ride. The last lap was awesome, i lifted up my pace and managed to reel in 5 places. The downhills, were still slick but so much fun. I was super happy to be able to finish strongly, i just have to work on my speed at the start. I ended up in 33rd. AJ was the quickest Aussie in 25th.

L'Hexagonal - Prologue & Stage #1

"Don't poo in the shower please."


L'equipe nationale d'Australie


Warm up for the prologue

After much anticipation, the Hexagonal is underway. We arrived yesterday here in Vittel for the presentation des equipes, and we were surprised to discover that the organisers had decided to run and ad-hoc exhibition event as a curtain raiser to the grand depart, which was sheduled for the following day. The race was a team pursuit format run over 2 laps of a 600m course made up of logs, piles of gravel and sandpits. It not really my cup of tea but, our team of Dan McConnel, Adrian Jackson, Dellys Starr and myself made it to the semi finals where we came up against the Russian team. Everything was going well until AJ had some bad luck and dropped his chain on the last lap. Since the time was taken as the third rider passed the line so we lost the pursuit. However our time gave us the 3rd place and a Hexagonal podium...not bad!

The second surprise of the race was that the hotel that the race put us up in was 50km out of town, and was a "fomule 1" in a dodgy industrial estate. Our room smells like cigarettes, not really cool. There is a few good point though, like the thoughful sign on the shower that says: "les douches ne sont pas des WC, merci de votre comprehension". That basically translates to: "don't crap in the shower". I do not what to know what prompted them to realise they needed those signs!

The start of the race proper was today, a 7km individual time trial. With the clouds looming, it looked as if the starting order could have a big influence. Keepy, Nick Both and I where roughly half way through the field starting about 50min after the first rider, AJ was half an hour later and Dan was right near the end with Christoph Sauser (current world champ). As i was warming up i felt a few drops of rain, but it held of for my race. I felt pretty good, and clocked a time of 14m54s. As i was warming down i bumped into Dan Mac (our team's GC hope) about to start, i said to him: "go with clear glasses because it is getting really dark in the forest, and that the track is getting quicker so you can pin the D". Just then it started to sprinkle, then by the time i was back at the car it had started to chuck it down. Just as Dan rode out of the start house, it started to hail. It was ridiculous, the hail got heavier and heavier at at one stage they were up to 2cm in diameter. Dan came back in wet and muddy and covered in welts from the hail stones.

So the weather really shook up the general classification after stage 1. A few of the favourites were lucky enough to score a dry track, where as Dan Mc, Sauser and Ludwig Dubou lost a far bit of time. It turned out well for me as i ended up in 24th, 1m13s down on GC, 2sec behind Nick Both (1st Aussie) and 2 sec in front of AJ who had an awesome ride despite coping a lot of rain.

Tomorrow is a 50km stage made up of 4 laps of a track around vittel. I should get a pretty good spot on the start grid but there will be some hitters down the back that will be keen to make up time from today.

Les Arcs

Our five day training camp in Alpe d'Huez is over and i'm feeling pretty good about my form. AJ and i did some good efforts the other day and i felt strong, even at 1900m, so that is a good sign. Yesterday we drove to Les Arcs to spend a night with my friends Nico and Vanes that i meet when i came here for the ski season in 2003/4. I was really good to see them and their new baby, and Vanes is still an awesome cook! It is cool to see all the mountains that we skiied too. We are off to Annecy today and then on to Vittel for the Hex.

Transalp and Alpe d´Huez

Sorry it has been ages since I updated the blog. I left you last time 2 days into the Transalp. The remainder of the race was really good. Matty and I continued to achieve consistent performances to place in the 50’s on most days. The tough days in the middle of the race were made bearable by the spectacular scenery and the well catered feed zones. The only technical problem we had was a broken chain on stage 5 which cost us less than a minute, other than that not even a flat tire. The last day was fairly easy but had a very long technical downhill section that a lot of riders walked. On that day we had our best result of 41^st despite Matty ragging it in the last corner in front of a big crowd. We finished the tour in 53^rd overall. Not too bad i reckon.

My friends Rob, Julie and Meg (Matty´s girlfriend) were there to meet us at the finish in Riva del Garda, Italy. We spent a few well earn days relaxing at a little place near by called Lago de Ledro. It is a beautifully secluded turquoise lake surrounded by mountains. Rob and Jules spoilt us with food and as usual and I probably drank a few too many “Aperol con spritz” (my new favourite summer drink). Rosie and I still trained every day and one day managed a really cool ride up and old roman road that weaved its way along a very steep ridge. We also did a bit of cross training one day when the 6 of us hired a pedal powered boat to explore the lake. Does it still count as training if I just sat on the front of the boat drinking proseco while Meg and Julie pedalled?

From Italy, we smashed the autostrade west back to France, picking up our buddy AJ on the way. Our destination was the famous ski village of Alpe d’Huez, where Cadel lost the tour to Sastre one week ago. We have been here a few days now and have had a lot of fun riding all the trails. Both Alpe d´Huez and neighbouring Les Deux Alpes have heaps of trails dedicated for mountain biking in summer. Today was an easy day so me bought a lift pass and went up the the highest point of the resort, Pic Blanc, at 3330m. From there we rode the entire course of the Megavalanche (famous downhill mtb race) all the way to the valley floor. The XC bikes were not the best choose of machine for this course, but it was fun to get an idea of what this race is about. We had particular trouble with the snow sections finding it almost impossible to stay upright. There was also a section across a glacier, which was surprisingly heaps easier than the snow. I must say that i never thought i would ride on a glacier, i felt like i should be roping up!

Matty and I before the start of the Transalp.

One of the biker camps, we were on centre court.

Relaxing on the pedalo on Lago de Ledro

The top of the Megavalanche, Pic Blanc (Alpe d´Huez)

AJ taking on the snow at the top of the megavalanche.

Me riding the glacier