2012

So I thought I should update on what my plans are for the coming season... After doing a good block of hard training for the elite nationals U23 time trial it was a great relief to take home the bronze medal as I had worked  hard for it in training with countless hours on the TT bike doing efforts-Thanks a lot to the Hub Cycle Center for Helping me out with a super fast Specialized Shiv. Pretty stoaked to open the year with a result and to step up to the U23 age group with a podium finish.

Nationals Finish

Pain.

After the Nationals in Christchurch I traveled back home for the local Hub Tour Based in Hawke's Bay. Four stages over three hot days meant for some fast and exciting racing. I managed to take the prolouge out on Friday night by 5s over Jeremy Vennell and Roman van Uden. The next day I went on the attack with about 5 others then we were joined to form more of a breakaway with about 12 riders with 1 lap to go. I covered all the attacks leading into the finish to retain the jersey for another stage. That afternoon was a long and fast Criterium which was a good hit out, coming down to a small break taken out by a fellow tall fellow Louis Crosby!

 Criterium fun

The final stage was going to be a toughy and with a slim 3s lead over Roman and 5s back to Jeremy It was always going to be hard to hold the jersey. So when the break got established early into the stage I managed to bridge across and start lapping with some of the local legends Blair 'Hindsight' Heney and Brendon 'Guns' Vesty which was fun. We got caught before the last hill and then Vennell and Roman attacked. I groveled over the climb and then started chasing back to the leaders. A slow leak in my front tyre added to the struggle but managed to pull the small group back to about 20s by the finish but it was too little too late.

Jeremy took out the tour and I finished up 4th, It was a good weekend even if my do or die move didn't pull off I still got some hard racing in over some challenging courses.

NEWS FLASH
On the 26th of January I will depart for Belgium where I have hooked up with the Rock Werchter Cycling Team for the 2012 season. Really looking forward to this experience and can't wait to get into the racing. The team travels to Benicassim in Spain for a team training camp for about a week and a half so it will be good to avoid the Belgium winter as much as possible and meet my new team mates and directors.

I have found a place to stay with a friend in Olen so that should make life a little easier and the best part is he has a dog! (1 more friend)


Rock Werchter is the main sponsor of the team and is one of the biggest festivals in Europe. http://www.rockwerchter.be/en/  so might have to go check it out!

Will update a lot more on here in the future as I'm sure I will have plenty of time on my hands.

Fraser

Just a quick update on how everything is going..

We leave Belgium on this Saturday the 17th and head for Copenhagen. It's been going pretty good these last few weeks and made even better yesterday when the time trial bike finally turned up. Now to ride it everyday until race day to get the position sorted. Myself and James Oram are going off to the famous Zolder racing circuit tonight to do some efforts on the smooth super quick track. It is open to the public to ride on from 6pm onwards and allows the chance to ride on a smooth wide fast road instead of the bumpy narrow bike paths which we have to ride on normally... so perfect for doing efforts.

Getting pretty excited to head up to Denmark. Really looking forward to the racing and it will be good to catch up with my cousins who live out of Copenhagen.

Will update again when we reach Copenhagen..

Fraser

Weekend of Racing

Just a quick update from the from the weekend...

Kermesse in Budingem

On Saturday we had a 94km Kermesse in Herenthout which is about 25km from our base in Blauberg. It was a scorcher of a day with my srm saying it was 34 degrees on the start line! With quite a big field of 100+ riders and with 13 laps of a 6.8km circuit it was going to be a hard and fast race.. So we got under way and by the second or third lap myself, Hayden , James and Dion made it into a small break of 8 riders that managed to gap the peloton in a cross wind section on the back of the course. We worked well together an established a lead of up to 1 minute half way through the race. With 8 laps to go Hayden attacked followed by another Belgium rider. Those two broke clear of our small break and in the next few laps I tried to bridge with a Dutch rider who sat on me for 3 laps so that was quite annoying... It managed to come back together  but with hayden and another rider up the road still we were racing for 3^rd. After being caught by the main peloton I kept rolling through hard to get the training benefit from the race so wasn’t too worried about racing for third.. Ended up finishing in the bunch about 11^th with Hayden taking it out and James and Dion coming in 4^thand 6^th

Hayden winning in Herenthout

The next Day we Headed to Budingem for a 13lap 88km Kermesse. Legs were feeling really average and after the first few laps they slowly started to wake up. It was a pretty cool circuit with a 1km climb that slowly kicked up to a sharp left hander and a fast series of corners down to the finish line. James and Hayden had set off up the road mid way through the race and a small chase group of 5 including Dion and myself joined them with just 1 and a half laps to go..

Chase group about to catch Break

 There were a few attacks going into the last few kilometres and a lot of cat and mouse. After two Belgies attacked with about 1km to go i found myself in between them and the rest of the breakaway. I hit it across to the two riders then went straight passed them heading into the last corner before the finish. I went into it a bit hot and clipped my pedal on the ground but managed to keep it up take out the race!

The Win!

Now into another hard weeks training then two interclub races on Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th should be hard and will be our first real test to see how the form is coming along... A big thanks to Team Zannata who are helping Hayden and myself out with getting race starts.

Will update how it goes!

Cheers

Fraser

Found a Fan... great success!

Belgium

Hi Guys

Jut an update on how things are going over here.. I am currently based in Blauberg Belgium at the Bike NZ house training and racing up to 3 times a week. I won another race the other day so the road form is coming back and starting to feel road strong again.. The training around here is pretty boring and I needed a break from the house so went and stayed a few nights with my friends Rauraidh and Sean who live in Zweveregem which is a 2hr train ride away on the other side of Belgium. I wanted to do a kermesse that was in their region so decided to stay a few night and do some training up there also.

The Kermesse was on Tuesday and was 23 laps of a fast 5.5km circuit. It was good having nobody there to look after me or give me any bottles during the race so I had to rough it for once which is always a nice change from getting things done for you all the time. Anyway the race went well I stayed at the front the whole race and attacked a lot then came 3^rd in the sprint finish which I was quite happy with.

That night we met up with some other kiwis and went bowling in Kortrijk. It was a nice change from staying at home on Facebook then going to bed.

The next day I met up with my partner in crime Alex Frame and went out on a mini tour of Flanders. He took me up the famous Koppenberg which has a length of 600m, an average gradient of 11.6% and a max gradient of 22%!

The Koppenberg

 The the Muur van Geraardsbergen which has a length of 475 meters, average gradient of 9.3%, max gradient of 19.8%. We had lunch at the top of it and watched young Belgium hopefuls tackle the steep cobbled ascent. It was a good hard day on the bike in some Belgium sunshine for a change...

Muur van Geraardsbergen Tour of Flanders 2008

I caught the train home the next day and now I am back in Blauberg training hard for the Junior Road Worlds which start for me on the 20^th with the time trial, and 24^th with the road race.

Thanks for reading will update soon..

Fraser

Silver In Madison!

Tonight Alex Frame and I had the Madison which was 100 laps of the Moscow velodrome with sprints every 20 laps.. It didn't start off the best as i came down in a stack 3 laps in when there was a big crash ahead of me which I couldn't avoid. Oh well back on the bike and thrown back into it. As it was my first ever madison I didn't know what to expect and our race plan of holding back at the start and going for the sprints later in the race nearly paid off as we fell short to the strong Aussies by just 1 point!! so close to being world champs!!

Madison Sling with A-Frame

So now the team splits up and most head home apart from 5 of us who head to road junior worlds in Copenhagen next month. So back to Belgium for a few weeks for a road build up and mission to get my road legs back. Can't wait for the next couple of weeks..

Madison Podium Silver Medal

Cheers for all the support back home!
Fraser

Final Days Of Junior Worlds

Hello from Moscow...

Here are a few shots from the Teams Pursuit the other day...

On the start line of the Teams Pursuit (I'm 2nd from left)

Today myself and Scott Creighton had the individual pursuit which is 3000m or 9 laps of the Moscow Velodrome. Scott was off early in the field and set a time of 3.22.8. I was off in the 12th round and recorded a time of 3.23.3 which I was happy with as it is a new personal best.Two of the Aussie boys who won the Teams Pursuit came in around the 3.21-3.22 mark so Everyone was pretty close as the track wasn't as fast as previous days.. Scott finishing in 7th overall and Myself coming 9th.

Team in full flight around 60kmh (I'm at the back)

Madison Tomorrow with my partner in crime Alex Frame should be good. Haven't race one before so it will be the definition of winging it! Should be fun!

Happy Times, 3rd in the world, new NZ record by 4s, 2nd fastest time of the champs, 3rd fastest junior team ever,
 (4.05 for 4km)
Yeah boy

Fraser

Bronze in Teams Pursuit!

BRONZE MEDAL

So happy! team went great in the final producing a 4.05 after a 4.09 in qualifying to claim the bronze medal and set the 2nd fastest time at the championships + Fastest NZ junior TP ever! coming in behind Australia 1st and Russia 2nd, everyone is fizzing.. Following this result the team sprint girls got bronze and Hayden McCormick having a huge ride getting 4th in the scratch race..

So now I have 2 days off then the Individual Pursuit on the 20th and the Madison with Alex Frame on the 21st, looking forward to it!

Will update more over the next coming days.

Fraser