Road Blog | MissingSaddle

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For my thoughts on PN found at yonder Velonews.com, click HERE.

I’ve heard Paris Nice called the hardest race of the year. In fact, just moments ago I was chatting with a friend who is a veteran of many years of European racing, and he offer that unsolicited description. He was the sixth person to tell me that, which offers me some small sense of relief.

I, for one, concur.

Go to the Source – iamtedking.missingsaddle.com

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Go to the Source – bikingbros.com

Well, I don’t even know where to start…!

It has just been way too long, and it is going to take a big effort to dig my way out of this hole of bloglessness, and try to gain some of my once-loyal readers back! My plan is to be a consistent Missing Saddle blogger for the entirety of the season, and on through the Aussie Summer… BUT… First things first…

I am not exactly sure where to begin, because I have made three prior attempts to get back on track, with titles such as “Here I am”, “Back on Track”, and even “Back on Track… Again”, all without any success.

Just for a bit of background on me, computers are not my thing, neither is any form of technology, but I am trying my best to get better at both! I got a new computer, and am in the process of figuring it all out. One of the biggest problems I have had is that I can’t figure out how to put photos in my posts, and for me, that is what makes a post!

I have a stock-pile of about 90 photos that I would have been putting in various posts over the last, well, I lost track of how many months! These were going to be the back-bone of my posts, so I didn’t have to depend on writing skills, or a lack of!

Well, where to start… What I am going to do is start from NOW, and work backwards as the photos become a part of the story. I will have a bunch of photos, but they will have to be through an external website, so just click on the links and I hope it will direct you to the right thing! Thanks to Leigh for the advice there!

So right now I am sitting in Roeselare, Belgium. It is in between Brugge, and Kortrijk, and basically right in the middle of West Flanders, for anyone who is familiar with Belgium. I am this year racing for the French National Team, Dunkerque Opale Team Cycling, which is just over the border from Belgium, on the Opale Coast. The team website is in French, but most computers I think will give you the option to translate it, otherwise, go to Google.com, and go to the language tools, and translate the webpage… For the most part, it will just be results listed on the website, but I think they are going to give it a bit of a work-over soon…

The good thing about this team, is that I still have the opportunity to live in Belgium, and do a lot of kermesse races. Belgium is a great place for cyclists, because there are races 2-4 times per week, and also, the main thing, is that cycling is one of the most popular sports here, so all of the communities really get behind cycling. Also good with this team is that I will return to race with the best team director I have ever had, Nico Mattan, and also our friend Philippe is going to be involved again. The manager of the team is Laurent Thirionet, world and paralympic champion on the track and road.

So far we have done a few races, and I have had a very busy first month or two since I left Australia. First up, I went through Gig Harbor, which is in Seattle, WA, USA. I spent a week there with Keally and it was the first time I had seen Oldie Dave and Jean since I left in 2008. It was great to see them, and see their new place, as well as see how amazing Gig Harbor and the surrounding area is. We had a great time, and I am already looking forward to getting back there at the end of the year and spending a month more there! It was also great to take a step towards acclimatising to the Belgian winter, which I have to add, is not possible, except maybe in Antartica or something!

After the week, I headed off to Belgium, and have been lucky enough to be given a place to stay temporarily in Roeselare, with two friends, Tine and Eline. Tine and Eline are great supporters of cycling, and for the last three or four years, they had been housing my mate Logan Hutchings, from Cinelli last year. This year Logan is off to the USA to race for team Texas San Hose.

As soon as I got to Belgium, Nico and I went over to Dunkerque for a training weekend, and it was a quick welcome to the freezing cold weather! The two days were about 4-5 hours each, and the second half of the second day was done in the rain, and cold! Good combination that was! Welcome to Europe 2010!

Little did I know that after that weekend, the temperature continued to drop, and the next couple of days were done in sub-zero teperature. Followed by that, it snowed for the next three days! That is the first time I had really seen snow in a civilised area! I mean, I have seen snow before, but it has usually been at the top of mountains, and not in the street stopping traffic… and training!

At the end of that first week in Belgium, it was off to the coast of France, down near Bordeaux or something for the Plage de Vendee race. It was way too cold there for me! We were racing each day and the water in the guttering on the sides of the roads was all frozen, and I was just wearing all of the clothes that I had. That included 2-3 pairs of gloves, 2-3 pairs of shoe covers and socks, and the same for jackets and either knee and leg warmers, or two pairs of leg warmers! On top of that, I had a cold. Great start to the new season!!!!

I couldn’t get out of there soon enough, and the next part of the trip was the fun part, heading down on a drive to Sant Feliu de Guixols, for our training camp, at Eden Rock hotel. Now that was something! We got in a great week of training, lots of climbing, and nice weather. Apparently we got very lucky, because it rained all week before we arrived, then was glorious weather for us every day, and then after we got back to Belgium, I hear they are having snow storms in Girona, which was just 20km away!

There are a great bunch of photos of the training camp below. All you have to do is click on each of the different names and hopefully the photos will appear!

After a quick flight back to Belgium, we went to race Gent-Staden, which was on the same day as Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. It was in the middle of a massive storm that was big enough to be given a name; Xynthia or something. Apparently the storm killed around 60 people it was so bad, and we raced right in the middle of it! I have never seen anything like it, it was just ridiculous. Every 30 seconds to a minute, we would just see riders get blown off their bikes and into the grass or shrubs at the side of the road. It really was something, but not something I ever need to do again!

So since then, we have been doing a few more races in France and Belgium, just the usual, but no podiums or wins to speak of just yet. I will report in when something nice happens! I just want to get everyone back on track, and I didn’t even know where to begin. For now, consider yourselves up to date with now! There will be more to come shortly, after I get settled in, and once I get some photos figured out. I will be able to go back and cover the time in Australia, and have all of the photos and stuff on the website soon I hope!

So, provided it is all going to work, just click on the following words, and you should have my photos. I think each one is going to have to be clicked on seperately, but I think it should be worth each click!

descend faster like this!

bridge with Mt Ranier in the distance

Bridge to Gig Harbor, WA

It is as cold as it looks!

team car

1st training in Belgium, weather check!

Do I have to train today?!

Welcome to Belgium!

Atlantic Ocean by the race hotel

chamon, vanhaecke, me, aziz

Mechanics wash bikes, then the water freeezes!

Atlantic Ocean

out the hotel window!

ME!

Corniche

team photo

Costa Brava coastline

me and Chamon

practise for the blog photo

Good spot for wireless

So I hope they will all work. There are plenty of different ones there, and I think they should all be worth clicking on to see what they are. I hope this is now the biginning of a new me!

By the way, for anyone who is still a reader, or a hopeful reader (ie. check the blog to see if it is updated), please make a comment and let me know of anything you would like me to write about. You can also use the comments section to give me a hard time and express your disappointment with my complete lack of posts, or entertainment, if you like!

I hope everyone is keeping well.

The word “queue” is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.

Go to the Source – tommynankervis.missingsaddle.com

They say that Paris-Nice is the hardest race on the calendar, by “they” I mean guys like Millar and VDV, also have the numbers to back up the claims. I had six days in a row where over 3400 cal and was seeing average power for road stages that I had before only ever seen in a hard North American crit, throw in the cold temps, winds, hills and snow and you have quite a race.

For me the race was progressing nicely and my form was getting better as the race was moving forward until it all came crashing to a halt, literally, on stage 6 when I went down hard. I remember a row of metal poles on the right with the pack riding closely, then for some reason or another some riders from FDJ decided to stop in the little space available between the pack and poles. Rolling at 60kph I had two options, metal poles or other riders and I tried to avoid both and ended up hitting the FDJ guy’s bike. I went one way my bike another, judging by the picture my bike chose the metal pole direction, and I just laid for awhile as my head rung a bit. First thing is always the mental checklist, “does anything hurt really bad right now?” . Slowly moving all limbs without much pain was a real sense relief, and they got me up and and got Tom P’s spare bike set up for me as my spare bike was on the first team car. From there I got rolling again as car two shot ahead to get my own spare bike and I waited for the last groupetto and rode it in. When I arrived at the hotel I had some huge swelling on my lower right back and on my left leg, some whiplash(helmet was smashed, so wear your helmet kids), and luckily only a few minor road rashes.

The next morning I woke up a bit stiff but better than I was expecting and decided I wanted to take the start of the race and see how it went, it didn’t go. If it had been a slightly easier day I think I would have been able to complete the race but the last stage around Nice is short and very hard and with the GC battle very close the action was intense from the go. I raced the first 45km up the valley before turning around and riding back to the start. It was a frustrating end to the race as I felt like the form was coming along but now I just have to look ahead to the Volta Catalunyia, which starts next week.