Clinton Avery Cyclist

Hey guys, hope things for you all are going slightly better then things are going for me at the moment. For starters, those who keep a regular eye on my blog, Im sorry. I dont really have an excuse for not keeping it updated with race reports, the only thing I can say is that, at the end of each day the last thing I want to do is sit down and write up a report on whats been going on.

Today I have ALOT of spare time up my sleeve so I have made myself write a report now.

Over the last week in a bit (was the last time I recall I sent something) there have been a few changes with alot of up and downs, with the sad thing being alot more downs then ups, but hey I’m picking I have just hit a run of bad luck which I am hoping will end shortly.

The positives……. 1. I changed my training so that now Im am training off John’s (my coach) training programmes again instead of the team coaches. What they were doing as training was not working for me. It showed too in the race we did 2 weekends ago. It wasnt a huge race but it was still a good “legs Tester”. 180km and since I did alot of work at the start, I wasnt expecting to be in the lead group with 20km to go.

The race did not go how I had expected. We had alot of wind on a rather flat and exposed coarse so I was kind of thinking a large group would get away early and stay away till the finish, or the peloton would just splinter in the cross wind and that would be it- race over. But it didnt really do either. Really long story short…….Groups got away, then groups came back together. Groups got away, groups came back together but were smaller. And so on until there were 14 left at the finish. 2 guys up the road both solo, and a group of 10. I was in the group of 10 as were 4 other of my team mates. Anyway with only 1 week of johns training in me I didnt have the legs for a sprint so I finished 10th.

Another very slow week of doing not much except training goes by and now the Tour of Flanders is over. A race I have had on my mind as one I can possibly win since I raced it and came 5th last year. But this is where it gets sad…. For me I guess it just wasnt to be this year.

Most of you will remember me telling you I was in hospital for some sort of bite….. It wasnt as I have recently found out. It was a STAPH infection (skin infection). However since I didnt take the full dose of antibiotics the first time, I still had the bugs. Halfway through last week I ended up with another boil thing in a place not so pleasnant when you have to sit on a bike seat.

Anyway again it blew up like a balloon and as with 5 days to go to my race of the year, I didnt want antibiotics in my system. I got a cream which helped a little until I got a fever with it. I managed to get the fever under controll but it was looking like I wouldnt be racing as I couldnt sit on my seat. The day before flanders it felt good and I could sit on my seat. A little unconfortably but I could sit down. I decided to start and see what happens.

The first 50km was good, I had good legs, was riding good position, had avoided all the crashes. It was looking good. At about 70km it started hurting, so I dropped back to the car to get some pain killers. They worked………. until we got to the first section of cobbles at 102km. That section was 2.4km long and after, I was in so much agony the last thing I wanted to do is try sit on it again. But I tryed anyway. I rode sitting off to one side of my seat for 3km till I got dropped in the cross wind. Sitting off to one side of your seat, you might as well cut one leg off cause its not doing anything anyway, your only getting power out of one of your legs. Trying to win a nations cup one leg wasnt going to happen and I was still in pain. With 7 sections of cobbles left I didnt want to be in that much pain ever again, so I stopped at the feed zone. I was really really disappointed but I know I have another shot at it.

I am now on Antibiotics again, and will take the full coarse this time…. but unfortunatly ill be missing out on the up coming nations cups so any update I send probably wont be about racing.

Well I hope my bad luck stint is over and I get on with what I came here to do.
talk to you all again soon
Clinton

Hey everyone,
This is going to be quite a brief email as today I had to go to the doctor for an ECG test for UCI anti doping. Now Im back and things are closed so Im sitting outside some flash resturant that is closed too steeling its wireless internet. But to complete the excuse it is very cold outside (4 degrees) and my fingers are starting not to work, hense why this is going to be brief.
 
Last week 6 days out from us leaving for portugal I was admitted into hospital for some sort of Bite on my leg that ended up rather infected. I had to stay in Hospital for 3 days on Intravenus Antibiotics. Well for some reason, even after I told them I dont race well with antibiotics in my system, they still decided to send me. I was out of hospital got one training ride done then it was off to Portugal for the first Nations cup tour.
 
Stage 1. 148km with some rather large hills. I knew it was going to be tough so I thought I will just hang on for as long as I can and see what happens. Well on the frst climb (10km long) I was dropped, but about half way up found a good rythm and managed to get back on before the top. That was all good and I was rather chuffed with myself. On the 3rd climb of the day as I went to change out of my big chain ring to my little one, I dropped the chain right off and it wouldnt ride back up. I was forced to stop and put the chain back on manually. I never got back on as when I stopped the hammer really went down and I wasnt feeling good enought to get back on. I ended up loosing 20 mins.
 
Stage 2. 111km the shortest stage, but being a circuit race with 6 laps and a 2.5km climb it was still dam hard. I was feeling much better today and even tryed a couple of attacks to see if I could sneak up the road but it wasnt meant to be. I got brought back everytime. I lasted with good legs and with the front group till the last time up the climb then I blew up. and ended up only loosing a few minutes so I was happy. And even better the team work paid off and we came away with the stage win.
 
Stage 3. 138km and the hardest stage of the tour. We had a couple of bluff hills in there as well as two 9km climbs a 12km climb so you can imagine what would happen if you wernt feeling the best. Well for me nothing happened. I rained 2mins after we started the stage and it was freezing. for me nothing wanted to work. However I got up the first big climb with the leaders, except after my crash in South Africa im a little more affraid. On the Decent with a wet road I was a nanna! that much of a Nanna that I got dropped on the decent. I wasnt trusting the tires we were riding one little bit. But any way for me after that my stage was over. I ended up just riding with a couple of other guys until the broom wagon picked us up. Once again the team road well again tho and we won this stage also.
 
Well thats it from me as I can now not feel my fingers.
Im going back to where it is warm!
Clinton