Clinton Avery Cyclist

Hey guys and girls,
                         Just wanted to let everyone know what has been happening over the last week.
Well the week started off with a two hour recovery ride the day after the race, then moving into the most solid week training I have done since summer started.

Tuesday was a double day 3 hours in the morning with 3×10min up tempo followed by lunch and a sleep, then 2 hours in the afternoon. Well I thought that day hurt me and went to bed at 9pm…..well I didnt think it hurt me, I KNOW it hurt me. However I woke up the next morning feeling rather refreashed and good to go for another days training.

Just to let you all know to before we get too far into this email, but this training camp and even just being part of the UCI team is alot like being in the army. Every day has the same routien, that why I get so bored. 7am wake up, 7.30 breakfast, 8am training, 1pm lunch, afternoon sleeping, being on the internet or playing play station. Then 7pm dinner. Every day is the same. Anyway following tuesdays efforts wednesday was 5.5hours with big gear climbs. The only thing I can honestly say I did that afternoon was go to town, buy a HUGE bottle of water the sleep the S*** out of my bed. wakeing up in time for dinner. I was thinking about “this training better work or im probably going to be angry”.
 
Thursday, thankfully we got the day off because man I was feeling those to big days….. so pretty much broke the routien, and missed lunch and went to town for the day. There wasnt much to there either tho so Matt and I spent most of that time playing this hunting game in an arcade. That arvo we had to go meet the mayor of Potchefstroom (the town we are in and I bet none of you can say that name) and please dont ask me what for because I didnt know before we went and I still dont really know now….. but we got to meet the mayor. Friday morning was an early start as we had a VO2 max Ramp test to do. Yippy! the most fun thing to do in the entire world….. NOT! For those that dont know what that is; you have a mask on like a fighter pilot that is connected to a computer which measures your breathing, then you have a power tap on your bike to measure your power output. The test starts with you riding at 150watts for 2 mins, then its up 30 watts every minute until you cant go any harder. Im not going to tell you what I did as it probably wont mean much to most of you and those that it does already know the numbers. Lets just say I have some good horse power! the rest of the training that day was easy. Saturday was another easy day as we were recovering for the race.
 
THE RACE
Well for us it was another 3 am start as it was again an hour and a half drive to the start with the race starting at 6.30am. As you can imagine not much happened up to 6.00am ish as we were all still sleeping.
Sorry I dont know what the name of the race was but this one was bigger than last week as alot of other pro teams are back from tour of Lankawi, so it was suspected to be harder. Although alot of us forgot we had probably adjusted to the altitude by now so really it shouldnt be much harder.

Sure enough I feel it seemed easier, but I will admit 100km with an average speed of 45.4kmh and a few small climbs it still wasnt easy. Not much happend in the first half of the race, just alot of attacks but nothing sticking. I think maybe because the pace is to high again. Anyway with 20km to go, up quite a long drag of a climb the pace went down and it cause a small split of about 20 riders. I managed to be part of that as well as 2 other team mates. But the pace was on as the group was trying to establish a small but big enough gap to hold on to the finish. We got out to 30 seconds and it seemed to hang around that but man it didnt come easy.

With 4km to go I punctured, and unfortunatly the commasire held our team car back from survicing me. If they had of been let through i would have been serviced and motorpaced back up to the break. But since they didnt I had to stand on the side of the road and watch the peloton go by holding my rear wheel in my hand until the team car got to me. A rather quick change and I was motopaced back to the peloton (You are only allowed to be motopaced to the group that is in front of you) but as soon as I got on to the peloton again the commassaire let the cars through to service the break away. Talk about double bad luck.

As there were 20 guys still up the road, risking crashing in the sprint for 21st was not really on my cards so I just hung back and rolled in somewhere amongst everyone else. The team did ok still….. the other 2 guys from the team rolled 5th and 6th so it wasnt a too bad a day really.
 
well hoped you enjoyed reading ill be back again soon
 
Clinton

Hey guys I just remembered that I should really let you all know how my first race of the season went……
It wasnt really what they would call a big race as it was kind of a fun ride. Well it was very similar to lake taupo cycle challenge. And with the same structure, Elite goes first, then a short break for the fun riders. I must say though it didnt really seem like a small race as the elite race you had teams, team cars etc and the biggest thing……. there is a UCI 1.1 (world cup) elite tour in 2 weeks in Cape town and there are a few professionals here trying to get early season points. Also i cant forget, there was 1000euro ($2000 nz) up for grabs so it was far to say most people there wanted to win it.

Now there isnt much to say about the course as it was just rolling hills and is way more boring then lake taupo. The best way for me to give you an idea as to how boring, is the whole race was very similar to the last 25km of lake taupo (from Hatepe hill - home) Anyway with a 46.5kmh average speed the 120km race took only 2 hours 15 so we actually weren’t racing that long. Although there were times when I thought it was taking forever, especially when it got thrown in the gutter. The altitude was one thing that made the race really hard for me as it was up at 2000m above sea level. I was ok cruising (not that there was much of that), and a short attack was ok, but any sustained period of effort really made me suffer. I did get better after the first hour and a half though.

The other thing I found hard about the race was there were really good riders there, haha no…. it was the fact that the race started at 6.15 am and we had to be up, to drive to the race at 3 am. Its fair to say that was a real shock to the system.

All that aside, there wasnt really enough wind or hills to really do damage to the peloton, and it was too fast far any break away to get away. So coming into the most dangerous sprint in the world I was riding really good position and apart from the crash in front of me it all went well. I rolled across the line in 6th place in the bunch sprint.

So all in all I really enjoyed my first race and am really looking forward to the next one next weekend and will see if I can improve on that result.

will keep you all posted with more up and coming news
peace out
Clinton

Well everyone, I know its been a long time since I have sent you all an email, but as some of you already know I have been on holiday….. Just enjoying the New Zealand summer as I knew what I was going to be in for when I got over here. My summer was ended on the 7th of Feb when I was boarding a plane for an excruciating long time of airports and flying. I was on my way to join up with the team I am riding for, for the first 4 months of the european season. However, I was not alone. I was travelling with another fellow Kiwi Matt Haydock, who is riding for the same team. It definately made the flights seem alot shorter travelling with someone you know.

We arrived in Switzerland at the UCI (Union Cyclist International) center which is located in Aigle, the last stop before you get into the mountains. All the time travelling had made us lose alot of motivation towards going training for the next few days… although later realised that it had nothing to do with the travel and more to do with the temperature. I had forgotten it was the middle of winter.

Our spirts were very soon lifted that afternoon when it was time to collect all that we needed to be part of the team. And boy it was Christmas all over again! Everything we got was NIKE, and we got everything….. Shoes, both casual and riding. A few sets of riding kit both summer and winter riding gear, down to the smallest thing you can think of. And also at least 3 sets of casual clothing. It is very fair to say that bringing a bag of stuff from home was a complete waste of time! to this date I havent worn anything I had brought over. And I cant forget the rest, A carbon Look 585 bike, Giro Atmos helmet, bags (travel, sports and back pack), its to much I cant even remember what I have anymore.
Anyway that afternoon we decided we had to get out and try our new kit even though it was only 5 degrees. Had to go sus out the place and make sure we became familiar with our surroundings, then it was to dinner in the resturaunt at the center. We just happen to eat there for all lunch and dinner meals. This is pretty much as Professional as you can get as an amature team.

All that aside training has been going good and all the team is coming together nicely, everyone trains together aswell as the coach. Except on long or really cold days he follows in the car. HAHA like the other day when we had to do 4 hours with the high being 2 deg and the low being -1. Those are not really ideal conditions for training i must say.
But the bonus with it being cold is having stuff to do like playing in the snow….. building snowmen, tobogining etc etc.

Now after spending 3 days in Switzerland we are now soaking up the hot sun in South Africa. There isnt really much to tell you about since we have only been here for 3 days. The only thing I want to tell you is, we did this 3 hour ride yesterday and it was seriously the most boring ride in the history of man kind! 50Km deed straight out and back into a block head wind with no hills and not much to look at. Fair to say if they want to do that ride agian they can count me out!

will catch you all another time
cheers
Clinton

Two titles for Avery family at the NZCT North Island Cross Country Cup (UCI Class 1 round)

It was a family affair for the Avery’s today at the 2nd round of the NZCT North Island Cross Country Cup.

Maryanne Avery started the day with a win in the Masters 3 women, followed up in the afternoon by her son, Clinton Avery, who won the Pro Elite race in convincing fashion.

Not to be outdone Clinton’s younger brother, Patrick picked up 2nd in the Under 19 Mens race.

Despite pushing Avery hard in the Pro Elite race, Stuart Houltham had to make do with 2nd to cross the line followed by Eric Drower in 3rd.

Home advantage was evident in the Pro Elite Womens race with the top four places being local Rotorua riders.

Annika Smail rode a fantastic race in hot conditions beating Genevive Matthews, the winner of the 1st round of the North Island Cross Country cup.

All riders without exception were impressed with the course which is considered one of the top 5 cross country courses in the world.

Focus will switch tomorrow to Downhill with Rotorua also the venue for the 2nd round of the Subaru North Island Downhill Cup.Over 250 riders will test their nerve on the Downhill track which starts at Tawa Road and finishes at the junction of Pipeline and Nice Roads.

The 3rd and final round of the NZCT North Island Cross Country Cup will take place in Palmerston North on 10th February and the 3rd and final round of the Subaru North Island Downhill Cup will take place in Dome Valley, Auckland on the 17th February.

Events to come for mountain biking include the NZCT National Championships in Wellington February 21-24 and the NZCT Oceania Championships in Nelson 13-16th March.

Results: Pro Elite Men

Clinton Avery (Rotorua) 2:14.20 1,
Stuart Houltham (Palmerston North) 2:18.59 2,
Eric Drower (Cambridge) 2:25.45 3,