Flanders U23
Just a quick one Clinton has finished 5th. Was in a break of nine and the winner soloed away
Monday, April 30, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Kermese world cups and more
Hey everyone. Well what can I say its been like two week since I last sent
you all an email, that’s pretty bad considering in that time I have done two
races already. I done another kermese race last Saturday and the Sunday just
gone was the first of the mountain bike world cups. So if you ask me it has
been pretty full on over these ways.
you all an email, that’s pretty bad considering in that time I have done two
races already. I done another kermese race last Saturday and the Sunday just
gone was the first of the mountain bike world cups. So if you ask me it has
been pretty full on over these ways.
Anyway the kermese went rather well for the team, I think between us we
rolled in most of the prize money so I don’t think you can really complain
with that. The race was 20laps of 7km. The coarse had 3 climbs per lap,
which made thing even harder if they weren’t already hard to start with. Buy
the 2nd lap the peleton of 162 riders was split into 10 or so bunches with
the leading bunch having approx 20 riders in it. On the 3rd lap I found
myself 30 meters off the front with another team mate (Kim). We both looked
at each other and with a sprint at the end of each lap worth 20 euro we put
our heads down and went for it. We went turn for turn over the sprint line
each lap and between us took 16 of the sprints. We got caught by 6 guys on
the last lap but in that 6 there were two other team mates again. (Sam and
Pieter-Jan) so with 4 out of 8 guys being from the same team, if 1 of us
didn’t win then something was wrong. But it went to plan not that there was
really a plan as such and we took 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th which as I said
before is basically all the prize money. We each got 250euro for the effort.
70euro from the team and 180 from the race, so it was a good day.
The MTB world cup, 5 1/2laps of an 8km circuit. It didn’t go quite the same
way in fact it went rather bad…….. I had an ok start position (63 out of
250), but the start was up this steep as hill. It was 1km long but it was
15%steep. That is steep enough that unless you are going slow you have to be
out of the seat the whole way up. Well about half way I blew up and started
going backwards. I don’t think it helped having to stand in your start boxes
for 20 mins before your start. That’s long enough that you might as well not
even warm up. But anyway when we got to the single and it bottle necked
something wicked! There were guys short cutting the coarse, (not by huge
amounts but they would be cheating if a commasaire was there) just so they
weren’t tangled up in it all so I went backwards a bit more with that. On
the first full lap cause we started with the half lap and thank god we only
had to go up that hill once, I found my legs and started to make my way back
up through the riders. I had moved up to around the 50s when muck turned bad
again. I got a puncture on the 2nd full lap and the tire was cut that bad I
couldn’t just change the tube. I ran to the nearest tech zone where Shimano
has spear wheels. Well I have a small disc rotar on the rear of my bike and
Shimano didn’t have any wheels with a small disc rotar. I’m not one to pull
out of races unless I have no choice. So I made him just change my disc
roater on to one of their wheels. I took way longer then it should of and
buy the time I was back riding I had lost a lot of positions. In fact when I
rode over the finish line the next time I was 184th. Wasn’t how I had
planned it but shit happens. By the end I had rode myself back up to finish
104th. I had good legs just the luck didn’t quite fall my way.
This coming weekend is another big one for me, I have the Beloften Ronde Van
Vlaanderan (in English is the U23 tour of Flanders) for cycling related
people you should know how big the pro tour of flanders is well the U23
version isn’t much smaller. All the pro teams watch this race to find new
recruits for the following year so if you can have a good race and impress
some people you will end up winding up with a pro contract. Would be a dream
come true.
Anyway will talk to you then.
Over and out
Clinton
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
TRIPTYQUE DES MONTS ET CHATEAUX 2007
hey guys,
Just wanted to give you all a race update from the last week and my second
race but my first big race.
The race, well with only a weeks training i think it was definatly harder
than it should have been. But 1, it will give me some good race experence
again (racing here is totally different to racing in New Zealand). 2, bring
up a bit of form for the first mountain bike world cup in Houfalize in 2
weeks. And 3, was just to get some miles done with out getting really bored.
To be honest, today i am really making the most of this rest day cause I
sure do need it. Just to give you and idea on how hard the tour was and how
much it wrecked me….. I went to bed at 9.30 last night and got up this
morning at 11 oclock. But anyway i’ll tell you how the tour went.
DAY 1…… well the tour started with a 178km stage and with 1 week
training I was really dreading this stage because I wasnt sure if I could last
that long. I was racing without a clock and without a speedo so I had no
idea at how long we had been riding for or how far we had ridden. The
intensity was pretty high for the whole stage so 10mins felt like 30mins of
racing. What I thought was half way through the stage was only 40km into it.
I thought, “man this is going to be a long day!” but any way after about
4hours 10, we were coming into the finish with a bunch sprint of 147 riders,
so you can imagine how pushy everything was. I was totally shitting myself
because sometime someone in the bunch will hit the brakes for some reason
and at 50kmh you have to react quick without causing a crash. Sometimes you
cant prevent it but you do evrything you can to try stop it. Anyway I had my
brakes around euro style which is opposite to what I have in New Zealand. So
everytime there was a panic situation I would grab the back break rather
then the front so all I would do is lock up and keep going foward as fast I
was. I was so lucky I didnt crash. I dont know how I didnt. That night after
the stage I changed them to how I normally have them. I just finished the
stage in the bunch.
DAY 2……. well in the morning we had a 8km time trial. It went good
considering the bike I was riding was briefly set up for me. The difference
between my time trail bike and the one I was riding is, the aero bars were
uncomfortable for me the extentions out the front were too short, the cranks
were 172.5mm long, mine are 177.5mm long and I think the frame was a
fraction to small cause I had the seat post on the limit and maybe I think
it was still a fraction to low. I know I sound like a winger but in a race
against the clock in a tour is probabaly the most important. Im going to get mine
sent over hopefully before the next big tour or time trial. Anyway all that
aside I still did better than I thought. I did 10.33 and the fastest time
was 10.15 so I was rapped with that.
That afternoon we had a 121km stage so that was more my distance for the
moment, the stage was kind of boring nothing happend becuase the leading
team wouldnt let anything happen, so it was just hard with no reward. So
anyway long story short, on the climb with 20km to go a group of riders got
away but on the climb I was to far back in the bunch to try go with them,
that was dumb on my part cause in the back of my head I knew a group would
go there. Anyway it was left to finishing in the bunch again. With 3km to go
I found myself in a mint position in the bunch so I fought for it till the
line and ended up getting 3rd in the bunch sprint. So for a training tour I
was stoked. The best thing was though its not an U23 tour or anything, it
was a division 3 pro race so pro teams are racing, they just not putting
their best riders in. Still I thought that it was a bit of an achievement.
DAY 3……well this day was always going to be hard. 148km. and not one bit
of flat road in the whole stage so it was hard, especially after already 2
days racing. Well it was hard for me anyway. Again Rabobank, the leading
team wasnt letting anything go away, prob because after 2 days there were
still 100 riders inside 1 minute off the leader. But anyway long story
short, I got dropped with 30km to go, I guess I just didnt hve the legs for
3 days. Bit more training this week. Maybe a Kermise race on the weekend and
a bit more training and racing I will have some legs for the next big race I
do.
well that was the tour wrapped up so I went to be to sleep
Next big race is Houfalize world cup in 2 weeks and the following week is
either a 6 day tour in france or the U23 tour of Flanders so looking foward
to the up and coming weeks.
Clinton
Saturday, April 7, 2007
First race photos, waiting for paperwork to get team kit
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
road team
http://www.soenensgermond.easy.to/
but you may need a web translator unless you speak flemish
First race
Hey Guys, well this is an email about my first race over here. It was only a
small profile race but because there is so many riders in this team you kind
of have to get selected for the big races. There is a big race next weekend,
I can say I know where but it’s a 3 day tour with a time trial. Benny, my
team manager said he wants me to race, but he cant select me if I hadn’t
done a race for the team. He needed to select the team by Sunday night so I
that only left me Sunday to race. Well let’s just say the race went slightly
better then I was expecting. For starters I have only ha 3 days training
since I got here. I had 2 weeks off before oceania’s rode the coarse the
2days before the race and that’s it, so I’m surprised I won that. But then I
had 2 days on a plane and the 1st 2 days here I never rode. So that’s nearly
3 weeks off.
small profile race but because there is so many riders in this team you kind
of have to get selected for the big races. There is a big race next weekend,
I can say I know where but it’s a 3 day tour with a time trial. Benny, my
team manager said he wants me to race, but he cant select me if I hadn’t
done a race for the team. He needed to select the team by Sunday night so I
that only left me Sunday to race. Well let’s just say the race went slightly
better then I was expecting. For starters I have only ha 3 days training
since I got here. I had 2 weeks off before oceania’s rode the coarse the
2days before the race and that’s it, so I’m surprised I won that. But then I
had 2 days on a plane and the 1st 2 days here I never rode. So that’s nearly
3 weeks off.
Anyway we turned up to the race and I couldn’t wear my team kit so I had to
wear my NZ gear. The reason being is I need some papers from the Belgium
cycling federation saying I can race for a Belgium team and they haven’t
come through yet, but that is all good. Well the race was 16 laps of a 7.3km
circuit (115km. On the 2nd lap I managed to initiate a break away of 6 and I
must say I was kinda feeling like I could actually win the race. Well it was
all looking good till about 4 laps to go and my back started playing up. I
don’t think the set up on the bike is exactly right, it felt ok but when I
measured it up it wasn’t so ive re measured it and it should be good to go.
But anyway I hung in there but by 2 laps to go my back was getting quite
painful and I dropped back to the paleton which had been whittled down from
120 riders to 30 riders. And when it came to the finish I just rolled in
with the bunch. Finished 20th. Had lots of people telling me that if I had
of stayed with the break away that it would have stayed away, but I didn’t
and it didn’t. But now my manager has seen what he has got, he is impressed.
He told me, “man if you can do that with no training then what can you do
when you have some form?” But I am racing next weekend in the 3 day tour but
I have been told it’s just for training and there are no expectations on me.
So everything has gone good for my first race and will tell you about my
next one next weekend.
Clinton
3 days in Belgium
Hey guys, well i must say for those that bag belgium i must say you dont
really know what you are missing aye, i am actually really enjoying it. No
it has nothing to do with the fact that the people i am staying with are
spoiling me rotton! haha what i mean by that is, all i have to do is eat,
sleep, train and race nothing else. haha i am staying with my managrs wifes
parents. i know some people might think creapy, staying with old people…..
but i must say, for 1, they arent that old actually. 2, i dont have to do
anything. like i dont have to cook, dont have to do my laundry, dont have to
do dishes, or even make my bed. But the best thing of all is i have a double
bed. haha i have it all done for me, so who in there right mind would
complain with that! lol i do feel kind of stink tho that they do all that
for me so i still try and help out by keeping my room tidy, making my own
bed when i get up, rinsing all my dishes and just all the small things. they
keep telling me its their job, and for me not to do it. they want to do it
and try make my stay as pleasent and stress free as possible…… Im there
to race and train nothing else. Haha how sweet can it get.
really know what you are missing aye, i am actually really enjoying it. No
it has nothing to do with the fact that the people i am staying with are
spoiling me rotton! haha what i mean by that is, all i have to do is eat,
sleep, train and race nothing else. haha i am staying with my managrs wifes
parents. i know some people might think creapy, staying with old people…..
but i must say, for 1, they arent that old actually. 2, i dont have to do
anything. like i dont have to cook, dont have to do my laundry, dont have to
do dishes, or even make my bed. But the best thing of all is i have a double
bed. haha i have it all done for me, so who in there right mind would
complain with that! lol i do feel kind of stink tho that they do all that
for me so i still try and help out by keeping my room tidy, making my own
bed when i get up, rinsing all my dishes and just all the small things. they
keep telling me its their job, and for me not to do it. they want to do it
and try make my stay as pleasent and stress free as possible…… Im there
to race and train nothing else. Haha how sweet can it get.
anyway my first day i arrived with no luggage……. haha i had 70kg of
luggage and i had not 1 bag turn up! so i had my lap top and helmet caue i
had those two things with me. anyway they were going to deliver it to me
when it arrived so i didnt really have to worry about it. i met the people i
waas staying with and some of the family etc but by 5pm i could barely hold
my eyes open so i had to go to bed. bags arrived that night at 8pm.
Day 2…… had to sort all this paper work saying im aloud to race in
belgium and for the belgium team so it wasnt really that fun. photos and
paper work! you can imagine. after that leasy (team managers wife) went to
watch the start of some pro race that was just down the road so that was
kinda exciting but it didnt seem as big as it would of a couple of years ago
so i cant really say it seemed like a big deal. went back and had a cooked
lunch, and headed to the bike shop to pick up my team bike…….. well not
mine cause mine isnt ready yet its a costom built one…… but another one
so i can ride in the team. and it is Axel Merkx bike and im just borrowing
it for the time…. mine should be ready in the next week or two. also was
kind of sorting out with Benny (team manager) wether i should race this
weekend or not, cause he wants to put me in a 3day tour next weekend but for
the team he needs me to do a race so he can select me. if that makes sence?
(john what do you think? i dont really want to race this weekend so he might
be able to find me a mid week race next week or i can do a 2 day tour next
weekend which isnt as big as the 3 day one.) was out to it at 8pm that
night.
Today well i went for a 3 hour training ride at 10am with Logan Hutching,
which was good. Bloody cold! but otherwise good. the roads are kinda cool
over here, narrow, flat, cobbles etc so i had kinda a good time. got home
haha had lunch on the table waiting for me. so that was awsome had a shower
and when i went back into my room found all my dirty washing gone….was
already in the washing machine when i got down stairs. Awsome! but now i am
sitting here sending emails and talking to people on msn.
Everything is going good sofar and am having a really good time.
Talk to you again soon
Clinton
