breaking post!

This my not be the longest blog ever but I can ensure that it was one of the most time consuming blog as for the next 6 weeks I only have 1 working hand, anyways more about that later. Well since the last time quite a lot has happen. Its yet again been up and down over the last couple of weeks. After Manche Atlantique I caught a pretty manly cold that took me out for a good 6 days!! So I missed out on the 2 weekend races. Alastair yet again managed to get a top 20 result! The week following I was back out on the bike enjoining the incredible weather that we have been blessed with for the past couple of weeks. In fact I managed to get out in shorts one day so it must have been hot as Im normally called the southern pussy for always wearing to way too much clothing. So after a really good week of training with everything going well I was well up for my next race on the weekend. The race itself was called Eumande and it was an 1,2,3 race and was 115km. As we set off attacks went straight away, after trying to get in some for the first 10km and none getting even close to succeeding I thought I sit in for a while and attack on a harder part of the course. But as soon as I decided this the main race break went with none of are 10 man team init. This would of not been so bad if the group that went wasn’t 15riders! But as some other big teams had also missed the break we didn’t chase it straight away, but then again this must have been the same thought that the other couple of teams had coz the breakaway soon had a minute and it kept it getting bigger. Half way through the race my team got to the front to try and bring it back. They eventually got the gap down to 20sec with about 40km to go. I try a few times to bridge the gap but I just didn’t have it in my legs and every time I went the riders who followed just sat on. At this point the team had all worked there arse’s off for me to try and get the win and they were knackered and I couldn’t bridge the gap and its just wasn’t going are way. I eventually managed to get away with 3 others with 10km to go. We slowly brought the group in front back but we were quickly running out of time and found are self sprinting for 12th, but I wasn’t really in the mood for sprinting for 12th so I just kept a really high pace and I eventually finished 13th. The only good thing that came from the race is that I won a peleton prime that pocketed me 60 euros so I took out Nathan and Alastair for a gourmet dinner. Well when I say gourmet I mean I took out them out to subway!!! The week following was a fairly interesting week. Halfway through it we had the front door open to let the toxic gas which Alastair produces by the gallon air out and we could hear shouting through the mega phone. All are first thoughts were that there was a party going on. So me and Nathan both paused are pro cycling manager games and Alastair stopped doing what ever he was and we followed the sound. It led us to the town centre were there were about 1000 people all stood in the road protesting about something. This was my first ever protest and I was starting to get in the protesting mood and I was feeling passionate about what ever they were protesting about so we joined in and followed the march around town! With drums drumming and people in cars shouting in a mega phone and a police escort I thought this was excellent, but it was all an anti climb max as they just went and stood outside some political building quietly doing nothing. With no hint of a riot we headed home.
The next couple of days went past with nothing much interesting happening but just preparing for the race on the weekend. The race was called Fleche D’Armor and was a 2day 3stage race that I was hoping to get a top 5 placing in but it turned out to be the worst race I have ever done!!! Stage 1 looked prefect for me with a good tough parcur and strong crosswind and as I set off it was going really well. I was feeling excellent and as the peleton was about to spilt due to the crosswinds and high pace I was nicely tucked in 5 wheel in the echelon pushing the pace. Then the wind decided it didn’t like me as much, as it blew a mighty gal across the peleton forcing the rider in front to swing across the road with his pedal ending in my front wheel. Lets put it this way he was still cycling with a perfectly good pedal and I was next to the team car with a front wheel that looks more like an egg and 3 broken spokes and one broken hub! After a good change I had a new front wheel and was chasing furiously back through the cars to get on to the peleton. Big thanks to the bic 2000 team car who helped me massively to get back but it was all in vein as after my 40 min chased the peleton had split with front 25 riders going front the front and going the correct way and the rest of the peleton with me in it going the wrong way, after eventually turning around nobody could be bothered to chase as pretty much every team was represented so we rolled in 22mins down on the winner. The next day there was in 8km tt in the morning. I was hoping to do well even through I was on my road bike. In the end I finished 6th and Alastair 8th. But the talking point from the tt was someone called Johan le bon who has yet again got a mention. This time it was because he average 51kmph in 8km tt that was a constant drag up hill. Put it in to context 2-8 places ave speed was 48kmph. In the afternoon there was an 125km road stage. After a delay of 30 mins because le bon’s team decided to drive their team car under a low entrance breaking le bon custom bikes, lucky he had a spare frame in the boot. As we set off attacks went straight away with big break of about of about 15 went with break away specialist Alastair in it. The peleton let it go. But with 50km they started to up the pace then on the first big climb of the day I not really knowing it I started the counter attack after riding up it a tempo I managed to open up a gap then over the top the other big riders including team mate Nathan Edmondson came, we worked well and started to pull the group back. Then over the next couple of climbs the group started to whittled down leaving me, le bon, 3 Lanester team, and an Skoda octiville rider. At this point we were really giving it beans and in fact I was giving it to many, because as we approached a sharp corner on one of the descents I was going too fast, I locked the rear wheel and went straight into a concrete barrier at about 25mph and over the wall and landing about 5ft down in someone nice garden. Then the only best way to describe the next 1hr was just absolute confusion! It was quite a spectacular crash so I had a lot of people trying to help me but there was I sight problem, as I can only say yes and no in French and the people helping can only say yes or no in English but after a lot of confusion I was stretched to hospital. A couple of hours later I appeared with a cast and a sling on and told to rest for a week, leaving me feeling like wimp for going to hospital. After getting home and inspecting the bike I didn’t feel to wimpy as my steerer tube on my forks were snapped and the headset had exploded. The next few day I spent on the turbo hoping my arm would be ready for the weekend race. On Thursday I decided to take the cast off I go out on the bike. All was well till about 40mins where it was to painful to hold the bars. When I got home I just rested it but it slowly kept getting more swollen and more painful but I thought I would go to sleep and see what it like in the morning, but I just couldn’t as it was too painful, then when I started to shake I thought it might be best to go to the hospital. The only problems was it was now 2.30am and I had to get there somehow which meant I would need Alastair to translate for me and one of the coaches to drive us there. After waking up Alastair and maybe the most awkward phone call for Alastair to one of the coaches we were on are way. After lots of pain killings and some x rays it turned out that I had broken my scaffoid (the bone from the thumb to the arm) a common bone to break for a cyclist and has left me in a full length cast for 6 weeks.
Well I think that’s all the interesting info from the last couple of weeks, I don’t think there will be much to report in the coming weeks as Im not racing and will be based on the turbo in front of the TV. Quick well done to Alastair who won the king of the mountains at the tour of levensen. Also a big thanks to Phil Corley’s cycles who have shipped across a band new trek 6.9 so quickly.