Tuesday 24 May 2011

Royal Smilde Olympias Tour - UCI 2-2

The latest race i have competed in is the Royal Smilde Olympias Tour.
On paper this race could look quite an easy race! Pan flat everyday except for a hilly final day, but no we are in wind swept Holland. 
The race started of with a prologue around 4,7km course, quite technical which could suit me fairly well,  but with me going of early in the day and the soaking wet road drying up towards the end of day, my time of 6.20 didn't look to pretty! The winner Luke Durbridge, (who was 167th rider to start compared to me being 3rd rider off) did a 5.53 and put a whopping 27" into me!


 Over the next few days i set about trying to help Luke who had put in a good time in the prologue. Over the next few stages not much happened really, breaks went and came but all stages ended in bunch kicks with Luke contesting and picking up vital bonus seconds, the last day changed all of that with the route taking in some of the climbs used in the pro race Amstel Gold, with the terrain much more suited to me i tried to save as much energy as possible on the 50km before the first "berg", once we hit the first climb the it was a witteling down process, i managed until 162km before we had to ride on the front as we had missed the break, with Me, Luke and Andy the only riders from GB left me and Andy set about trying to bring the break back, this took its toll as now with riding on the front i was missing the recover time between climbs and after a few more bergs i cracked and slopped back into the convoy, although i did get back on after a few km's my race was done and the next climb saw me be shelled out the back! Luke finished 8th overall and once again i felt as though i helped as much as i could!

Thats all for now then but ill be back with a report from my next few races, although i don't actually know what races i will be racing, it is a busy period in our program so hopefully i can get a good result!
ps. check out my Twitter for more regular updates!!

Simon

Results from the past few months!

So, its been a while! 
Won't go on about all the races since my last post as it's been well into the race season now (partly why i haven't been updating as regularly!) 
Here are a few quick results though just so you know where i came, 

Roy Thames RR - 6th
Jock Wadley Memorial Race - 16th
Wally Gimber Trophy - 11th


Then we move onto the European races, starting of with two 1 day races which are part of the Under 23 Nation Cup Series.
The first nation cup race was the Tour of Flanders and with me not being selected i put in some solid hours on the bike with my flat mate in preparation for the second nation cup which was the Cote de Picardie. This was my first race in Europe as an under 23 and it  didn't go to well in the end! Although feeling good in the bunch and putting a few moves in at the front, i got caught up in a small crash just after the feed at around 110km, a touch of wheels a few places in front of me on a narrow road ended my race, and also the end of my bike.

Next was the ZLM Tour in Holland, finished in 101st place a few minutes down, i tried to go with some moves early on and then after nothing was going clear a tried to preserve as much energy as possible so could help the team in setting up Luke for the win. 
Although Luke got the win, i blew on the second lap of the finishing circuit so couldn't help out much, but with helping the team early on it was a successful day!

Then the team split up with a few went to race in Brittany and some in Italy to compete in the next nation cup event the 5 day stage race, Toscana - Terra-di-ciclismo.
This being the first stage race iv done this year i didn't have great legs, never felt as though i could go and win a stage, also crashing heavily on the first stage just outside the 3km to go banner didn't help and meant with losing so much time on the first stage i would be on team duties for the rest of the tour. With being a domestic for the tour i got a great workout and come the last stage i thought i would have a go myself, the last stage was by far the hardest with a few sections of strade bianche! 
The race was blown part on the white roads and coming into the finish there were only 40 or so riders left in the front group. I felt as though i had a good chance coming down if it came down to a sprint. Coming into the finish and some bad position i was 6th place with 150m to go but going a hell of a lot faster than the guys in front, but with everyone taking the big risk i came down again someone taking down the guy in front of me, with no were to go i face planted the barrier, injuring the same shoulder i had done from the crash on stage one, annoying as i could of had a good result but thats racing!


The Paris - Roubaix of Italy!

Thats it for now, ill post soon with some more results!
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Cheers 
Simon