Clinton Avery Cyclist

Hey everyone, just letting you know how the Chrono Champonoi (time trial in France) went……

From the New Zealand worlds team only Sam Bewley and I competed. We rode the course the day before and it wasnt anything like what people had told me. It was almost dead flat with one climb in it. It was very exposed aswell, so if the wind had got up it would have made it one hell time trial. Anyway it was a 33.8km time trial which I must say would be the longest time trial I have done since road nationals in January. Only doing 10km tts all season made this one just that little bit harder also. I was looking foward to doing a long one for a change but then I knew it was going to hurt aswell.

I didnt really hear much about Sams race, except that he rides his seat a little lower then he does on his road bike, and the 33kms made his quads really hurt. After he was complianing a bit about it, but quads hurting or not he rode a good time trial. For an open catorgory TT 7th overall was good but he was 3rd fastest U23. It was a good effort for someone who hasnt raced for a couple of weeks.

My race, I cant really complain with it, except like sam getting sore quads I got a sore arse. Well when do dont ride your TT bike enough sometimes your glutes tighten up doing efforts in the tt position. That was about it. I had an ok race aswell I finished 9th overall 5th U23, so I think as the selection race for the worlds tt Sam and I have the spots. We have 2 more weeks to put the finishing touches on with the training the its bring on the worlds.

Nothing is certain yet with the tt spots but Jacques seemed happy with the result so Id say we are in. I’ll let you know more as we know more.
Thats all for now
Clinton

Hey everyone, I have recieved a few emails from people on my group email list who dont have much to do with cycling, wanting to know exactly what I have been selected for etc. If this doesnt appy to you then you dont have to read this email otherwise read away.
 
OK, Well for starters I have been selected into the NZ Under 23 road cycling team, for the 2007 World road cycling Championships in Stuttgart (Germany). I am hoping to compete in both Road race and Time trial, Otherwise ill only be competing in the road race.
 
The Time trial is the first event of the week, on Wednesday the 26th September. It is 38km, Riders will start at most likey 1 minute intervals. NO drafting. Fastest person over the 38km is the winner. Pretty simple. The Chances of me doing this race is 99%, as NZ has 2 spots and only 2 of us in the team can time trial. The 2 from Rotorua, Sam Bewley and Myself. The other 1 percent will be determind on Sunday. We have a TT race where the NZ coach can decide whether or not we are going to be competitve. will let you know how that turns out.
 
The Road race is on the Saturday which will give us plenty of time to recover from the time trial. It is a wopping 189km and it just goes up and down all day. The stats on the coarse say we will do 4000m of climbing though out the race. And 4000m is altitude gian not the distance of the climb. I’d say it is going to be one tough day!
Now this race for me is certain the only way i wont be is if something happens between now and then. This race works like any normal race but incase some of you didnt know, Road cycling is as much of a team sport as it is an individual sport. So I would say the night before we will be sat down in a team meeting and all be assigned jobs to achieve 1 objective……..(try get someone on the poduim) whether the plan works or not is all determind on the day. And yes the plan can change during the race.
 
And so you all know, I am home on the 4th oct and am having atleast 2 weeks off when I get back so am looking foward to that. Would be keen to catch up with some of you in that 2 weeks also
 
Well thats all from me
Have a bbq to attend too.
later
Clinton

Hey everyone,
                    Its time to say that the road worlds team has finally been named! And yes I made the team.
It was kind of a long wait considering the team was suppose to be named on the tuesday the 4th, and then it didnt end up getting named till Friday the 7th. There isnt really much to say about it, but I just wanted to let everyone know that im in the team.
 
On another note tho, I did a U23 world cup tour in the weekend called the Tryptic des Berrage. it was 2 days, 3 stages including a 15 km time trial. I dont know what it is with the Europeans and their short time trails? I like the big ones. Anything over 25km.

Anyway, Stage 1. 182km, with not one piece of flat road anywhere. It wasnt as demanding as the Ronde Van narmen or the Ronde van Luik, but it was just rolling up and down all day. Being my first race back after 4 weeks of no competition I knew it was going to be tough. I was hoping for a good result because I havent had one I a while but I wasnt expecting one. It took me a good 60km to get some racing legs, they were not good ones but I knew they should get me to the finish. In saying that tho, when you start with useless legs, fighting to get them to come good uses more energy then what you would normally, so I knew that wasnt going to be a good thing in the long term for the following stages. I got to the finish successfully and rolled across the line 10th in the bunch but 24th in the stage.
 
The following day started with the 15km TT which was reasonably flat but rolling, if you know what I mean. I must say for someone with FRB sindrome (First race back sindrome), An average speed of 48.6kmh is fair moving. I knew I probably wouldnt win the tt all because I dont have any speed in my legs yet, but I was pretty impressed with how I went considering. I did a time of 18 mins 44 (12th fastest time), which was the fastest time in my team by 28 seconds but was 24seconds to slow to win. I do think however when I get some speed work done and are back on top of my game…………watch out worlds here I come. After this stage I went to 16th on GC going into the last stage.
 
Stage 3 was 125km. But for me this tour was just training. I still need my speed and strenght back before I should be racing for the win. Anyway with me only 54seconds down on the tour leader and sitting top 20 overall my director decided that I was was now racing for a place. Well my legs, this early back, couldnt cope with it and I only lasted 2 of the 4 laps. For me it was just back to riding training pace which was origonally what I was there for. Only now I was riding off the back of the peloton. I rolled across the finish in the last bunch on the road. I wasnt happy with that, going from where I started that stage but I was thinking about worlds and I cant go cooking myself again.
 
Well thats all from me for now, am racing again this weekend so will email you all again after that.
Laters
Clinton
 
P.s…… Amanda, I honestly cant say I can find any problems as yet of that tt bike. It corners well, its fast, stiff, and most of all looks BLING! haha but if you have any questions about it dont hesitate to ask cause I dont really know what you want to know. I really rate riding it though. I think its a comfortable bike to time trail.