Salt and Pepinster...

(Catchy title from the lyrical genius himself R. McLeod)

Well these last few days I have been down in wee Pepinster in the French speaking part of Belgium. I'm down here catching up and training with fellow kiwi Ruaraidh McLeod (Pronounced Rory), Really funny guy who lives in a loft up a three story building 20m from the train tracks I arrived on. So Serene but the earplugs are a must at night.. Have done a few good days on the bike with a fair bit of climbing as where I normally live in Belgium i'd be lucky too climb 50m in a ride, today we did 5hrs and 2500m of climbing. So this is going to be my new fortnightly trip to get some good training in as the flat isn't great all the time..

So antics galore down here with loitering in the local GB Super mache and wild times spinning stories in the loft. We are both very excited for when the Harlem Globetrotters come to Pepinster for a one off performance in April. So I will be back to pep's for that!

Just a few average photos I took when I was riding along. Didn't get the most scenic pics as I was either riding up a hill or riding down one. But you get the picture.

Fraser

Aaaah the Serenity

Serene Bridge

Renowned free sample sampler- Ruaraidh McLeod

Hills in Belgium

Token

Serene

Spa Serenity

Buildings Spa

Riding through Spa

Sickness

After racing a Kermesse in the rain last Sunday I got the flu quite bad with temperatures and sleepless nights. It forced me off the bike for a week which was quite annoying as I was slowly started to find my feet and get into shape. But I believe everything happens for a reason so I wasn't over stressed. During the week I went and got a bike fit and turned out my saddle has been a little bit low... So that's why I have been feeling terrible on the bike! So things are looking up from here, I have started training again just taking it easy until I fully recover...

Haven't really been up to much other then that as I have been bedridden all week. At least it is starting to feel like summer here in Belgium with blue skies (today) and the temperature is suppose to reach 19 degrees!

Will update when I am back racing

FG

Just a quick wee update..

First race last Sunday wasn't pretty as I had been experimenting with my position on the bike and it didn't work at all that day.. just rolled home in the main bunch.

http://www.devlaamsepijl.be/content/welkom/welkom.php This is the race this Saturday. Pretty big one that goes up some of the famous climbs of races like tour of Flanders and E3 Harelbeke. Going to be a tough day in the saddle but looking forward to it. Feeling a lot better on the bike this week then I did last week so that's a good start.

Have been shown a great coffee shop La Bas in Diest which is about 30km away.. so it is ideal for a mid ride fuel up with a coffee and a slice of one their amazing cakes.

La Bas.. So Good

That's about all I have been up to lately have done some solid training these last couple of days and the form is on the rise. I have a new game where I ride in a direction for 2hrs then when I am in the middle of nowhere I turn my phone gps on and find home! yea... I need some friends.

Will update after Saturday

Fraser

Team training camp Benicassim

 So I have been busy these last couple of weeks with settling in to my new home in Olen Belgium and training down in Benicassim Spain with my team on training camp. The team is really good, a great group of guys and staff that like a bit of fun. The training in Spain was so good, fast roads and long climbs. We did about 900km for the week and rode some sweet roads up in to the mountains. I was rooming with the closest look a like to Ben Stiller aka Derek Zoolander I have ever come across, Stijn Bruyndonckx. Very nice lad who speaks great English so we joked all week long. I also turned 19 when in Spain and was treated to a nice 200km ride in the sunshine and mountains as a present.. Had a good day :)

looking out my window in Olen

The top of climb we did

 It was also good to get away from the cold weather for a few days as it has been -6 to -10 some days here in Belgium and it was a tropical 15 degrees in Spain.

So serene....

My first race is on the 26th of February, Brussels-Opwijk. Should be good as I am feeling fit at the moment and hanging out to race! But before then I have another team training ride next Sunday followed by the team presentation on the Monday.

Rock Werchter team with team bike

It's good having my team mate Jeff living 5km away in Herentals, I will be able to train and hang out with him so I don't get completely crazy and lost..

Jeff yeah boooy

Will update after my first race, hopefully some good news..

Peace 

Fraser

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!