Clinton Avery Cyclist

Just me again,
Last week after the race we had a little change of plan with the program. I think with the team director following me after my puncture on Wednesday, he must have thought I deserved another chance. One of the other riders got sick from the race Wednesday so was taken out of the team for the Trofee van Haspengouw and I was put in. I was rather happy with this decision, because I think having a new team I needed to prove myself that I deserve to be in the big races.

It was the race I needed. 159km, 120km over rolling, exposed country side finishing with 5 laps of 7.5km. The weather at the start was a lot the same as last weeks race being wet, and cold, with a little less wind. But it wasn’t long till the sun came out and it warmed up a little. The race started quite fast with everyone trying to get in an early breakaway but no one was letting that happen. I had a couple of attempts with my best one lasting 6km with 4 guys, but like all the other times we were soon pulled back. Later a break got away, but the team was represented there, so the rest of the team no longer had to worry too much. I just went and chilled down the back but still in a safe position in case it went in the gutter again.

With 250 riders it looked impressive when it was lined out in the gutter. Like last week, there was cross wind enough for the gutter, but not enough to do any real damage. The only real job I had now was to shut all the attacks down and either go with a small group across to the break or stop it going all together. Long story short, mess the chase up.

Coming on to the finish laps the peloton had been reduced a bit and the break was 1min 15sec up the road with only 4 guys left. Team member Yannik Eijssen was doing a superb job in the break, riding defensively against the attacks from 2 riders of Beveran 2000. Back in the peloton there was only 3 from the team left and only about 50 left in the peloton. The finish circuit was hard with a section of cobbles, a climb and a solid cross wind section so each lap the peloton got smaller and smaller and became more of a chase group rather then the peloton.

I was still doing my work shutting attacks down or following strong raiders in case they were going to make it across to the break. Nothing really eventuated. On the last lap, when there was no doubt the break was going to make it to the finish, for us it turned into attack mode instead of defense mode. With 1 km to the finish and only 25 guys left I was riding good position for the sprint. As dangerous as it was I needed a good ride for the team. The sprint began and I cramped in both quads. However I found if I didn’t stand right up I could ride through it and keep sprinting.

Well doing what I could I finished 6th in the gallop, with team mate Yannik finishing 2nd. For me 10th made the team very happy, as they noticed the work I was doing for Yannik and then finished strong in the sprint. I think I have made a good first impression and will be selected for a lot more big races. For me now my next race is Saturday, but just a kermese. I am first reserve for Tryptyque Mont et Chateux, a 3 day tour this coming weekend, But with tour of Flanders in 2 weeks, that is why I am reserve.
That’s all from me
Clinton

Hey just me again, Just letting you all know about Race number 2 for the season. Yesterday was my first big race for the season and for the new team, so I wanted to go into it and make a good impression. The race was also going to be the selection race for the team for all the races in April. For me it didn’t matter to much as there is only one race for the team which I will be available for. Triptyque des Mont et Chateaux if you can pronounce that? It’s a 3 day tour from the 3-5th of April. The reason for not being available in April is the races on the team calendar clash with three races in which I will be racing for the National team. The three races are: Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaanderan), Picardie, and ZLM tour. All which are Nations Cups. You will here more as i send you updates about them. The race yesterday was 3 large laps and 4 small laps totalling 127km. It was probably one of the shortest big races but that didn’t mean it was going to be easy. There were a couple of nasty wee climbs, one on the big lap being cobbled. Also on the short laps were 2 sections of cobbles. The Weather conditions weren’t going to help the situation either as it was gale force wind, and pissing down with rain and hale, and a max of 9 degrees. For those that raced southland, Day 3 of the tour was nice compared to yesterday. Anyway I started strong, moving straight to the front because the first cross wind section was 4km into the race. That one didn’t do much however. The part of the course where the most damage was done was a 4km straight which was exposed to the direct cross wind. Every lap the peleton was reduced by half. The end of the first lap there were maybe 60 out of 250 or so riders left in contention, the second lap there was lucky to be 30 riders left. For me up to this point was going splendid, as I was never looking like I was one to be shelled in the cross wind. My legs were good and I was riding good position. At the start of the 3rd large lap things took a turn for the worse when I punctured. I stopped, removed my rear wheel and waited for the neutral service wagon to give me another wheel. It took 15-20 seconds longer then it should of. Now I was behind the second bunch and the car is only allowed to pace you up to the bunch in front of you. When I got to the second bunch, I used the speed I had from motor pacing the car and rode straight past it. Everyone was yelling at me because it’s not a very sportsman like way to do things. To them I should have helped the whole bunch get back up. Well I didn’t care and I was going for it. I knew if I didn’t make it before the cross wind section I would never make it. Well the second bunch never made it I can tell you that. I reached them 500m before we turned into the cross wind, which didn’t give me enough time to move up to the front. And again for the 3rd time the race went in the gutter. The first 10-15 riders are the only ones getting any real draft and the rest are just doing everything they can to hang on. I was determined to get to the end of the straight still in tacked with the front. But that was getting harder and harder to achieve as one by one riders were letting the wheel in front go. I kept yelling and cursing for them to hold it but they would just swing out and let me close the gap. It got to the point where I was 3 riders off the back of the echelon when the last 2 swung off. I was left with no draft 3m of the back, and it didn’t matter how hard I tried that gap wasn’t getting any smaller. As it started to get bigger and my legs had blown up with lactate I had no choice but to drop back. We chased and chased, but our bunch would not get organised because no one wanted to push in the wind. Two laps to go we were 9 minutes behind and freezing cold. Cold to the point where hot lemon and honey tea wasn’t having any effect on our body’s core temperature. Right then I called it a day and went to the car to try warm up. It took a while with a few cups of coffee and a hot water bottle up my top but I finally stopped shivering. I am racing again on Saturday, just trying to get some speed back. So when I have done that I will let you know how I get on. Talk to you then Clinton

Well it’s that time again, except this time I have a little more exciting news. Everything since I have been here has gone rather smoothly….. Apart from a couple of hick ups with sizes of clothes, bikes and anything else that has a size. I wasn’t sure if they actually knew how tall I was. Other than that, everything has come together too easily. Since I arrived and got settled in, I have been doing not much apart training and recovering and it has woken me up to what’s in stall for me this year. Unfortunately for me, not attending the training camp from the team in February meant I wasn’t selected for any races during March as the selection for this month were based of the form of the riders at the camp. However fortunately it has given me time to get my fitness back with out rushing too much into things. I raced a kermese yesterday to test the legs and just to see if the training I was doing was working. It was 18 laps totalling 110km and with no wind in the race made it hard and fast. During the race I did notice I was definitely strong enough, nearly fit enough but nowhere near fast enough. I found myself pushing a slightly bigger gear then I normally would and really had to concentrate on keeping a high cadence. But I could go with any attack and even attack that attack (counter attack) but when it came towards the end of the race I was really limited to what I could do. Well on the 4th lap a small group of 3 slipped up the road, 2 guys got across and another was playing “piggy in the middle”. I noticed no one from the team was there and since the team director was at the race I figured it would be a good idea to have someone there. I was in a good position so I attacked out of a turn and gave it stink, I rode straight past “piggy….” and straight onto the back of the break. I could tell me being there made the director happy so I was in his good books. Around and around we went for 11 laps, but with the race being so fast the max time gap we had was 45 seconds, and there was never a time what we call “lunch time” in the break where we could settle down and get organised. The whole race was just go, go, go. We got caught with 3 laps to go but like I said earlier (nearly fit enough) I was fading fast. I sat in the back of the peleton to calm down, get some sugar into me and wait for the second wind. It came on the last lap. I tried to move forward but with 50 out of 170 guy left in the peleton and it being strung out in single file I found it hard. When it came down to the sprint I was still to far back to make the sprint mine, but was in a good position if a door opened. Unfortunately it never did and I sat up and rolled in mid peleton. It was a good day and for my first road race in a while the team was very happy. I hope the big race I have on Wednesday goes good and the selections for next month involve me. Will just have to wait and see. That’s all from me Clinton

Well guys, I know it has been a long time since the last update has been sent out and for that I apologise. The honest truth is though I was slack. All the things I wanted to do over summer took priority over sending out emails. Once again I am sorry. Saturday 28th February was the 2009 Cross Country Mountain bike championships in Nelson, which this year despite not racing mountain bike much, I decided to participate. For me I was going there well under prepared as most of my summer revolved around scuba diving, fishing, hunting etc and with the Euro season fast approaching and me knowing exactly what I was in for, the last thing I wanted to do was ride my bike all day everyday. So I was well under prepared but felt I still had enough training under my belt to be able to pull it off. We arrived on the Tuesday before so we could get plenty of practises on the course. It was a rather hard but interesting course that didn’t really get far out into the wops at all, making it a really good spectator course. The reason being spectator didn’t have to walk far to be out the back of the coarse and could see riders up to 3 or 4 times each lap. Anyway most of the week leading up to the race was wet and muddy which with the weather forecast being raining on Saturday gave us a good opportunity to test different combos of tires. With tire selection though it was hard, because you needed a tire that griped well but also had good puncture resistance as a lot of sections of the course was really sharp rock. My final combo was a Tioga Red Phoenix front, and a maxis High roller rear. I got through the course without any problems. On the race day, after everyone had practised in the wet the coarse was a mud hole, although with the rocky base was still mostly rideable, the was until the rain stopped and the mud became sticky, and clogged up even the most open tread pattern. It was that bad that there was a bit of running involved (the bit that hurt me the most) and clipping in and out became a problem. Because the following Saturday I was flying out to head back to Belgium I knew in the back of my mind my team would not be happy if I crashed and hurt myself therefore I was nanna-ing the descents and trying to make up for it on the climbs. Well this wasn’t really working and i was losing time on the leaders and starting to get frustrated. I thought to myself at that point…..Clinton what have you done for your sponsors while you have been back in NZ?…… NOTHING! that was the turning point. My team wouldn’t be happy if I crashed and hurt myself but then if I loose my sponsors in NZ I wouldn’t be able to afford to keep riding the way I do. On the 3rd of 5 laps I let go, just let loose. In one lap i pulled the Minute lead the Stu Holtham had on me back and began taking time out of him. Talking to him after he thought then and there his race was over. It wasn’t to be however on the last lap I began cramping from the running and my energy level was depleting fast. By half was around the last lap Stu had caught me back up and regained the lead. On the last decent the rider who finished second had also caught me up. In a desperate battle to hold on to 2nd place a turned myself inside out on one of the hair pins. After all that I finished 3rd, I was hoping for better for my sponsors but i was happy with out the race turned out under the conditions. It wasn’t over however, On Sunday was the National short track championships. For those of you that don’t know what that is, Its exactly the same as a cross country race, just 100 times more intense! Its an off road criterium, 20 mins plus 3 laps on a 2 min circuit. After my defeat the day before I was determined to go home with a National Title and gave the short track everything. I prevailed! after the first lap I took the lead and from then on increased the time gap further and further only allowing 5 riders to complete the race as everyone else had been lapped out. I really enjoyed the weekend and no for sure next summer is going to be a lot different as i want all the national titles back! Well I’m over in Belgium now so I expect you will be getting a few updates on what is happening so I will let you all get back to what ever it was you were doing and catch up with all you guys again soon. Clinton