Been a while since I last blogged, so apologises. Had a fair few races in the meantime which included a freezing, rain soaked pro kermesse, couple of normal kermesses and a double weekend racing in France. The legs have been feeling good and I’ve been hanging in the mix. Closest I came to a win so far was an U23 Kermesse in Zwijnaarde. But not close enough. Legs are getting better each week though so I’m hopeful that things will come together. The French weekend was cool. Rode 2 elite national races in Brittany. They were tough races going over very undulating and hilly roads, with tough finishing circuits. Both races being the usual 160km ish mark.

Riding out to the start of the Boucles Guegonnaises
We kind of stuffed up the Saturday race (Prix Gilbert Bousquet) after a big season ender of a crash went down 7km after the start. Bunch split in pieces and we ended up having to take responsibility for the chase for most of the race. The front group of 15 riders that went away at the crash were never seen again and that was that. Bit of a bizarre one. The Sunday race (Boucles Guegonnaises) was a good one. With 220 starters over French roads it was pretty nervous and chaotic at the start.

I stayed out of trouble and kept my legs fresh for the finishing circuits where the race would surely be decided. Felt good on the climbs and entering circuits was feeling good with 50km to go. Went with a few moves as was sure it would split but nothing was going. Gave it one last ditch sneaky attack when everyone else sat up. Felt like it had potential but we were brought back. So from there with about 10km to go my legs blew to pieces and I rolled over the finish in the bunch. I was happy because i’d given it everything I had and I like that feeling. Would of liked to have had something left to give Chris a lead out for the bunch finish but oh well, he should be more complimentary of my cooking in future! Haha. He got 14 in the end which was a solid result. I must say we actually stayed in an awesome French hotel with, for once, awesome food. I was in Heaven! I had 4 puddings and so much mains from the buffet that I was man down for quite a while. Was a bit of an epic drive back home through the night, always a fun experience. Next races coming up for me are a hilly Kermesse this weekend, 2 days of Gaverstreek (a hilly 2 day stage race pretty local to me), then the Cote Picardie and ZLM nations Cups. Should be good!
Life in the house is good. My spinach is sprouting, I am the now chief gardener. We have also worked out how to play our ipods through the 2 old massive speakers… I feel pretty sorry for the neighbours as Mike has now bought a subwoofer as well! My cooking is going strong as usual and I actually made a spag bog that didn’t look grey yesterday. Weather has been sublime, which made for an awesome rest day in Gent soaking up the sun in the cafe. Can’t beat it. Also managed to earn some money the other day. Me and the guys went down and rode our bikes for some tv commercial. Just rode up and down some cobbles for the cameras whilst all these extras cheered us on… it was a bizarre bizarre experience. But got paid 50 euros for 2 hours work haha! Beauty! I have also reached a new low in how ruthless I am at shopping. Yes, I have been eating and buying horse from lidl. Its cheap, its tasty and it feels so wrong. Also been on the 1 euro for 300g of liver hype, which leaves my housemates horrified.

I'm sure this guy was at the RAS
There will be more sophisticated blogging and English grammar from me shortly,
Cheers Conor

