the latest from sim over in the south of france.  you can email sim here: simjetlag@wanadoo.fr

Yes, it's a tough life being a pro cyclist.
 
As I drove back from Belgium after covering a few small local Belgian races (Flanders, Roubaix), I stopped off in a tiny airport in Rodez to pic up Navigator's Pro Darren Lill. 
 
The Navigators are in Europe, and Darren was going to be basing himself in Cadalen, (Chez moi) for a fair portion of his European campaign.  He'd had a fairly stressful time with lots of traveling, health issues and crashes.
 
On our first day home we had to go for UCI blood test for Darren.  But after that most of the week was spent ridding around the french countryside, sitting on the balcony and drinking beer.

 
Yep, it's a great life... those guys have it SO easy... nothing but fun and glory.  Oh but wait... Darren was out there everyday doing 7 hour rides, 5 hour recovery rides and sometimes coming home so tired after hard interval he almost collapsed.

 
Then it was off to a Stage race in Germany... Darren came home with the most aggressive jersey, but after following Milram's leadout train for a week and being pushed around by a tall Pettacchi Darren (who was wearing the best climber's jersey) missed out on the king of the mountains final GC by only 2 points. 
 
The disappointment once he got home was evident... Nothing a few days of beers, DVD intervals and recovery couldn't sort out.  And lets not forget some good Cadalen homemade jam... that Darren seemed to tuck into as soon as he got in the door from training.
 
Ok, let go over this whole Pro cycling glory thing.  The Nav boys only have 1 bike in Europe, so every trip is a baggage/bike haul nightmare.

After a few days he was back on a plane to northern france for a rainy and windy 4 Days of Dunkirk (where things got ugly), then it's off to Germany for another week long race.  The day after the race finishes he flies to London, before traveling up to Birmingham where he rejoins his wife... the next day they are off AGAIN to the US this time.  The scary thing is that that is what life is like day in and day out for these guys.  When do they train you may ask?  In the winter.. once the season starts... well.... 
 
Sim

just got a series of message from sim over in the south of france.  he just got a cushy gig covering a series of races including flanders.  he sent along some nice pictures showing some of the details of the race.  the text is from his emails...

cobbles: "And here's one for the fine people of DC.  If my memory serves me right, people are often complaining about pot-holes in DC and about the state of VA roads.... "

museeuw's super pimp'd ride: You thought Museuw had horse power?  Sure he did... and still does!  Check "da-man's" sweet, fuel guzzling, non-ecological Audi beast...Shuv that in your Eco-friendly pipe and smoke it.  No doubt about it, this one is on steroids...No need for a license plate on this bad boy... if you can't figure out who's car it is... well.... enough said.

and finally, a cake celebrating the event.  i broke out some shots detailing the details.

this one isfor rudy vercaine, the last flandrian in virginia.  when your country has an equally solid traditionat cycling and at sweets, well, you've got to roll hard.  and these guys roll hard.

and once you're done with the cakes, the kids can take the decorations and have little pretend races.  what's not to like.  i declare this union approved.

you can email sim here and reach him on the web through his workplace here.

- - - posted by scott

this post goes out to all the haters.  you simply would not believe the amount of venemous mail we receive here at central receiving under the plaza de la revolucion.  some people try to emulate our smooth rhetorical style.  others try, but inevitably fail, to achieve the incredibly high levels of truthiness we bring to the table.  but most just take an anemic stab at it; calling us names or saying ridiculous things.  it's really pretty pathetic.  if it were amusing, it would bring us joy, but it's generally just grumpy. 

today, i ran into something that is not bicycle related but which did amuse me.  i wish more of our hate mail was like this.  that would please me.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/editorial/15986574.htm

I believe that this is what passes for a quality argument amongst the "other" side.  this thing is literally a minefield of fallacies, of every shape and sort.  non sequitur?  check.  straw man?  check.  red herring?  check.  fallacy of many questions?  heck, the whole thing constitutes an emphatic yes. 

in many posts, i try to describe something by presenting a dichotomy between them and us, or how we view the world and how they view the world.  this is what we're up against.  literally.  i was riding my bike to work a few days ago.  i was as far to the right as practicable and not impeding traffic from what i could tell.  a car pulled up slowly, rolled down it's window, and we had the following dialouge.

driver: "it's not safe for you to be on this road."

me: "it's only unsafe if someone makes it unsafe."

driver: "you should really be on the sidewalk"

me: "it's actually against the law for me to ride my bike on the sidewalk"

<pause>

driver: "get your %#$&ing bike off the %#$*^&* road."

me: <silence>

now, dear reader, you may wonder why i bring this up.  i see this as a rare glimse into the real thoughts behind the driver.  they were sort of forcing this nice facade and a veneer of caring.  the whole "it would be safer for you to be off the road" is a ruse.  you are in their way.  and they want you to know it.  they try to tell you politely, but that will only last so long.

to tie the whole post togethger, i am beginning to wonder if we are being too subtle and polite to get our point across.  we have tried to take the high road, but it's like yelling at a wall.  maybe it's time to lift the rhetoric a bit.  in the next post, a description of the surreal encounter i had yesterday of how cyclign fits into the "system".

-sg

race report from the Classique Nord Charente
 
The day before Paris Roubaix, is a "mini Paris Roubaix" in north western France. 

Thursday 7th April, I get an e-mail from my DS who has just returned from the tour of Majorca saying that I am racing both Saturday and Sunday.  But Saturday is not just any race.
 
Friday 8th, I load up my car and drive up to Castelsarrasin to the team house where I sill spend the weekend.  John is at the house (of course, he lives there) and so is another team mate who is from central France in Poitier and had to spend most of the week down south for some tests being run in Toulouse.  A number of other people are also at the house this weekend as Saturday morning will be an early start.  We are supposed to have a team meeting Friday evening to discuss our racing schedule for the rest of the season... but in typical French style, the meeting is first put off for about an hour, and eventually put off all together.
 
Fearing that the team meal that night might be a big plate of simple pasta with no sauce etc, John and I sneaked out to get some food, and I also needed a new cassette and some brake pads.  So we hit the bike shop which was miraculously still open.  I got what I needed and we headed towards the shops.  Realizing that if we got some food, everyone would eat it thinking it was team food, we decided against getting actual food and sneaked into the local McDonalds for some rather inappropriate fare.  Making ourselves feel better about our sinful act by recounting the story of Chris Horner's fight to get a burger and fries during last years Tour de France, we munched our food quickly and headed back to the house.  The guys were waiting for us to go and eat... so we all piled into the team cars and went out to a cafeteria for dinner, paid for by the team.  So John and I got in 2 meals that evening.  Americans. puh. (** - see editor's note below) 

Saturday, the big day.  The team loaded the vehicles and got everything ready for the long drive up to northern France for the Classic Nord Atlantique.  2 cars and a mini-bus, 3 drivers and more wheels than you can shake a stick at accompanied the 11 rider team for this mini Paris Roubaix.  After about 2 hours of driving, we stopped for lunch.  John and I looked at each other and people started to pull out Tupperware full of food, we had prepared nothing.  A moment of panic went through us until we found out that 4 or 5 of the other guys also had nothing.  So the team paid for our cafeteria lunch.  The choice was limited, and we needed some kind of carbs.  So I went for fries and sausage, far from ideal.  Back into the vehicles we piled for more driving.  Eventually we get there.  The team helpers get all the bikes out, get everything sorted, fill the water bottles, get our race numbers etc etc.  I had put on my new chain, so I got changed and went off to shake the legs out after that long drive.  5 meters out of the parking area and of course the chain is slipping all over the old cassette.  So I go hunting in the back of the van, all we have in 9 speed is a cosmic carbon with a TT cassette, so I put the cassette on my wheel and off we go to race 130km of dirt on a 11-19 cassette that isn't shifting very well anyway.
 
The race gets underway with a 10km neutral start, after about 20km is the first dirt section.  There are 15 in total, each one named and with a big sign at the entrance with the name and distance up for all to see.  The first hour of racing was at 44km average, and there was no hiding in the field, it was strung out all the way.  I really didn't feel well at first, and not long into the race, that greasy sausage and fries started to come up.  I threw up 3 times and got dropped twice.  I sat in the cars for a while and waited until Marion pulled up in our team car.  For some reason I was really thirsty and had gotten through a whole water bottle in only 30k.  She told me that there was a little group of riders behind me with Thibault Marc (one of our guys) in there, so I could wait for them... she was a little surprised when I asked her for a water bottle this early into the race.  In fact you are not allowed to be fed within the first 50km of the race, but I'm guessing no one saw because we didn't get a fine.  Then I worked my way through the caravan and got back into the race.  Sadly a little later the food came up again to say hello, and I was off the back, this time with Couscous (Christophe Cousinie, one of the area heroes who is on our team this year), he's not in great form at the moment as he was sick over the winter.  I sat in and let the other guys who were with us do a little work, but seeing it wasn't doing much I took control of things.  I worked my way through the caravan and got back into the race once again.  I think Couscous followed me but the other guys dropped.
 
About half way into the race, a break had got away early and we didn't have anyone in it.  As we headed up a little hill John attacked at the perfect moment, it strung us all out and I wanted to kill him because here came the food again.  Sadly for John it came to nothing.  So we put 3 guys on the front to try and close the gap to the group off the front, the 3 were Beaudet, Parks and Trouche, then we had 3 other guys sitting in the field.  As we hit another dirt section everyone flatted, there were guys all over the place.  Seemed like all but 2 or 3 of us from our team flatted.  A few meters later John got a flat too.  This race was absolute carnage back in the team cars.  Cars were stopping all over the place, they were running out of wheels, there was dust everywhere.  Seeing as we no longer had our 3 guys up front I got myself up to the front and tried to control the attacks.  But by the 2nd section of dirt near the front I started to drop back as people let gaps open.  Frankly from this point on I don't know what happened.  There were cars all over the place, riders in ones and twos, guys crashing in the middle of the "road", motorbikes going through farmers' fields.  I do remember being amazed at the amount of spectators out watching the dirt sections.  We would come crashing over the dirt, through a field out in the middle of nowhere, and there were all these people just standing in the middle of a field in the north of France cheering a bike race.  Well the rest of the race is a blur of dust and confusion.  All I know is that less than half of the field finished.  Only 2 of us from our team finished.  I was quite happy to be one of them even if that northern style of riding with lots of accelerations isn't what I'm best at.  I actually didn't flat.  Although a lot of it is luck, I think that my years of mountain biking really helped me to choose the right gear and adopt a pedal style that minimized the risk of flatting.  I was quite amazed actually because before the race I pulled out a big chunk of glass that left a big deep hole in my rear tire.
 
I'm pretty bummed for John who flatted, and then (maybe stupidly) waited for a team mate who also got a flat.  John was riding a very smart race.  Now he wouldn't have been able to do anything about the group that was off the front and stayed off the front, but I feel pretty sure John was on a good day and could have got himself a top 20 finish... which in that race would have been more than respectable.

I may not have got any flats, but I did crack my rim.  I'm pretty annoyed as I now don't have a rear wheel.  That was my race wheel, and I only have a really heavy and crappy shimano rear wheel now.  Sucks.  I also tore my saddle.
 
After the race, it was back in the cars for the long drive home.  We got in at 11pm, and it was off to do it all over again early the next morning for 150km of racing with a slightly different team consisting of 5 riders who had done the Classic Nord Charente.  John and myself were there, but that's a different story.  Another slightly modified team race on Monday as well.  I wasn't part of it, John was the only one to do all 3 days.  He didn't have to, but he chose to go monday anyway, and was totally toasted.
 
Classic Nord Charente (Paris Roubaix) in a few words and numbers:
 
130km
15 dirt section:
1st hour at 44kph
41kph average for the whole race.
 
website: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pascal.baudouin/velo.htm
France 3 coverage:
http://jt.france3.fr/
and click on 19/20 Poitou-Charentes and then click on Dimanche 09 avril.
around  7minutes in
 
Results:
1- LEBRUN Charles Henri (CC Marmande)
2- Limoges V. (Blois CAC 41)
3- Mainguenaud (Deux-Sèvres C)
22- Pozza S. (CC Castelsarrasin)
36- Siméon G. (CC Castelsarrasin)

(** editor's note - - - there is no real literal translation for what sim is giving you here: "Americans. puh."  the french have a stunning array of dismissive gestures and phrases.  the gestures tend to be small.  you are generally not deemed worthy of any sort of vocalization or arm waving unless you run over their citroen with tractor or you're caught stealing their heating oil or groceries.  as a result, the most common thing you're likely to encounter is this "puh".  it's very amusing as i knew immediately what sim was talking about.  to make this work, you puff out your cheeks ever so slightly, form your lips like you're going to say the letter "p" or the beginning of the word "pug" and then push the air out your lips.  the rest of your face is motionless.  to add emphasis, you can supplement this with an almost indiscernable shrug or a barely detectable flick of your hand.  try to look off slightly from the object of your disgust.  these small gestures speak volumes.  oh yah, and i'll try to get some pictures up fairly soon from the race.)

Sim Green used to live and race in the US, but now lives and races in southern France. Read more about Sim here.

Finally I get some time to write another diary.  Well... more like I finally get my ass in gear to do some typing.  Since my last update the team has kicked off the season with some pretty good races.  I start my season next weekend along with a couple of the other guys. 

John Parks has arrived and has been racing already.  Last weekend was the Grand Prix D'Ouverture de Montastruc with a good field, including some Pro teams such as Aubervillier 93 (previously BigMat) and even a surprise showing from across the pond in the form of Navigators rider Oleg Griechkine.  (ed - picture below: i can never remember if it's oleg or vasilly who's the russian concussion...)

 
I have just got back from a week at the team house.  I went up there with JP to get him settled into his new home.  (editor's note, i have asked sim to write a longish diary entry on the team house where jp is living.  i will try to get input form both sim and jp and a bunch of pictures so you all can see a concrete example of how different the system is over there  - sg)

The house is pretty basic, but there's everything you need there.  JP is having a little bit of trouble adapting to life in France.  The team has been very nice and friendly to him, our DS speaks English and I have been putting him up at my place to insure a smoother transition into the life of racing in France, but just because his situation might be easier than for most Americans who come to race in France, that doesn't make it any easier.  With a little time I'm sure he'll settle in and be fine. 

I have been plagued with some back and knee issues during the last 2 weeks.  I had a week off school and was planning to get in a lot of good training, but sadly I wasn't able to get what I had hoped for.  That said, I still got in 3 hours with the team Wednesday, 3 hours Thursday, an easier ride Friday and a 4 hour ride Saturday.  I felt like crap throughout each and every ride, but I still got in the miles, so that's good.
 
I did want to mention something that might amuse readers in the US.  The team has a mini-bus.  Although I had seen it before I really hadn't paid much attention to it, and it was only the other day as it was parked in front of the team house kitchen window that I noticed there is a big picture of the riders on the side of it, with the every rider's name listed below.  Kind of like on the side of the T-Mobile truck, only... not!  Even as a "mortal on a bike" it's easy to start thinking of yourself as a star when you see that.  Then you go for a ride and you remember quite quickly that you are in fact a mere mortal. 
 
Today some of the team went to south eastern France for an Espoir race, another bunch of riders left early for Brittany in Northern France for a round of the French National Cup (Coupe de France de DN2), and the rest of team is pretty much sitting on their asses (or training) waiting for their season to kick off.  I am in the latter category, where as John Parks is in Brittany... it is snowing up there!  Ha ha, I'm happy I'm aiming for fitness later in the year! 

I've just been reading some of the questions and Answers on the Racing Union website.  The question about capitalization brought about an impressive reply from Scott Gibbons... nice one Scotty, talk about bullshitting your way out of admitting to laziness.
 
My first race of the season is a small National race called Castre.  My next race is the boucle du Vaurais, which is a race Scott did over here last year.  They have changed the format for this year: it used to be a 1 day, 2 stage stage race, and it is now a 1 day race.  My first few races are between 100 and 130km, so it'll be good for me to start with some reasonably short/standard distances.
 
Tomorrow is also the Start of the Giro Del Capo where my buddy Darren (wearer of the Mountain jersey in Langkawi) will be racing.  Sadly he isn't team leader, but I'm looking forward to the race anyway.  Right now, I'd better be off to do some school work and take care of my knee.  I hope you are all staying safe an away from the Bird Flu.

Thanks for reading
Sim
PS: I just got a call from JP, he's up in Brittany and has forgotten his license at the team house.  Woops!
jetlagsports@wanadoo.fr

JP and ex-Credit Agricole rider Mathieu Lamothe

Swedish Aubervillier pro (ex Big Mat) John Nilson

Sim Green used to live and race in the US, but now lives and races in southern France. Read more about Sim here.

Finally here it is, Diary # 4.

In my last update, the team was doing it’s training camp, and we had completed phase 1.  Phase 2 didn’t go as well.  A freak snowstorm that had been causing havoc in the Ukraine, Russia etc hit France and covered the country in many inches of snow.  Naturally training camp was cancelled as we could even get out of the house.  So the few team members who had made it to the team house in preparation went cross-country skiing… the rest of us stayed at home and watched the snow come down.  I went back to roots of off-road stupidity and went out for some sliding fun on the Cyclocross bike.  I had a blast riding though totally white countryside and getting lost in the blanketed countryside. 

Apart from that there is fairly little to report on.  The usual early season stuff.  Licenses etc, I finally got my license from the British Federation, I was starting to worried it would never show up.  I still have a few tests and paper to submit to the BCF, but I have a little more time for that.  I have spent a little time doing a few tests on the Time Trial bike to get my position figured out.  I have got a new TT frame for the season, so I want to make sure everything is fitted perfectly and that it all fits into the UCI regulations for TT bikes. 

I’ve also been piling up the miles.  Nothing special seeing as I spend most of my days sitting in class, but I’m getting in some pretty nice 4 hour rides, so I’m feeling fairly strong, but we will only know once I start racing.  I did get my early season schedule the other day.  I will be racing the Grand Prix D’Ouverture de Castres, the Boucles du Vaurais, and the Boucles Gerssoises.  I can’t wait to get back out there racing, I only hope I’m in good enough shape to at least help the team.

The big news has been the arrival of John Parks.  He got here a little over a week ago.  We got in some nice rides before he headed off to yet another team training camp.  We put in a few pretty hardcore 4 and 5 hour rides. 

I like riding with John, because neither of us ever give up, and we just seem to push each other to the limit while both trying to pretend neither of us is feeling it.  Great fun.  We usually end up riding full blast, side by side as if on a little afternoon jaunt.  This time the team was meeting in Amelie les Bains in the eastern Pyrenees on the Spanish border.  Most of the team was there except for those of us that have school.  The team did about 100miles a day for three days, including some races in Spain that they used for training.  They rode into Spain to the races, did the races, then rode home to the hotel.  One day things got a little miscalculated and they ended up riding home to the hotel in the dark with only the following team car’s headlights as guidance… Epic story I’m sure. 

The week’s training camp then ended with the Essor Basque, the tour of the Basque country.  The team performed well on Saturday’s event with one of our young riders spending most of the day in the break with a Pro rider from Russian Pro team Omnibike, he was caught near the end and Julien Schick (ex Credit Agricole) finished 5th!  A great performance for our team in such big races with some competition that included some pro teams from France, Belgium and Russia.  Today (Sunday) was a double stage day including a mountain top finish.  I don’t know how the team did there yet.  I have just got a call from John saying things went OK, it was interesting.  He’ll be back here tonight, so I’ll find out more.

All in all the team have had a great training session.  Our Director Sportif would like to have our team do some races in the US.  Hopefully that will work out, though we don’t know which riders would be on the team yet of course.  Hopefully there will be more to read about next time.  I’m sure there are some epic race stories just around the corner.  Think of it as “suspense”, right now it is mainly just training and getting the season kicked off.

Thanks for reading.
Sim

Conducted over 2 weekends at the end of January, the team training camp is one of the few times we will all be together as a team.  Once the season starts, we will be split into three race programs covering races from France to Majorca, and from Under 23 races to International Elite.  Myself and a couple of the other guys were not able to make Saturday’s standard team training camp ride, due to other obligations such as studies or the track season.  The plan for the morning was a shorter, 80k ride with some hills reps.  Saturday came as a drizzly and gray day, so although the main team group were supposed to do 2 rides, they merged them into one.  They started with some big gear hill reps, and extended the ride to cover 4.5 hours and 140k.

Most of the guys stayed at the team house over night, but some of us elected to stay at home and drive back up on Sunday morning for the second day of the training camp.  We headed off with pretty much the full team: the only absentees were John Parks who is still in the US and has just come back from his own little training camp in Florida, and Christophe Coucsinie who is still in Hospital.  The full 16 or so headed out on the roads around Montauban.  We first had an “easy” 40km warm-up ride all together.  Great warm-up ride at 31kph over some hills.  Then we stopped and formed groups according to fitness and race schedule.  Our 3 groups of about 5 or 6 riders then did four 20 minute team time trial intervals over varying terrain including some mean climbs around the Penne area in the Aveyron Valley.  After each interval we all re-grouped and rode together again for about 10k.  After only the second interval some people started grumbling about the intervals.  I must say it wasn’t easy.  On the last interval, our little group caught the group ahead of us, which had left 2 minutes before us.  We were rolling pretty well on that interval, probably knowing that it was our last one. 

Once the intervals were done we all regrouped once more and rode the 40k (25 miles) back home together.  I must say however that these recovery, warm-up warm-down sessions were a NOT easy… oh well.  At the end of the day we had 160k (100miles) on the clock in a little under 5 hours, and with some pretty good hills… Ok fine, they were climbs!

Next weekend is more of the same.  This time I should be able to make it to both days for the full program.  The plan for Saturday is to be 2 rides, same as this past weekend.  Big gear hill reps in the morning, and some high cadence workouts in the afternoon to cover 140k; then another 160k on Sunday, but this time “harder.”  I’m not sure what “harder” means, but I don’t like the sound of it!!!  Once again these training camps include a DS and team car that follows us the whole way with spare wheels, food, water and anything else we might need.  We actually had both DSs (Directeur Sportif) with us, so that they can 1) tell us what to do and 2) both see how we are riding and how we relate to each other as a team.

It’s been good to get to know everyone, start learning their names and riding styles.  After this training camp, there is another training camp down by the Spanish border for a week.  Sadly I won’t be able to make it to that one.

Overall, my training is going pretty well.  I have just had a load of exams, and I didn’t touch the bike at all all of last week.  So having a pretty good weekend of riding, it was interesting to see how my body reacted.  I thought I would feel really bad, but I felt OK.  Despite my studies it looks like I will be starting my racing program a little earlier than I had initially planned.  I will be starting in the lower ranked races that are in this general area.  That suits me fine, as I’m not going to be ready for the big races half way across the country.

I tried to take some pictures during the rides, but it wasn’t really the sort of riding where you take pictures and look around at the countryside… so I apologize for the poor pictures.  Also note that the team does not have their bikes and clothing yet, so in the pictures everyone looks a bit mix and match; patchwork-bike-team.

This week I will be getting in some good training locally, mainly alone and with Alphonce, then a couple rest days and back to Team Training Camp for part 2.  After that it’s back to school.  By that time John Parks should be here, so hopefully we’ll be able to get in some training together.

Tune in soon for an account of Training Camp part 2.

Thanks for reading.

Sim

simjetlag@wanadoo.fr

Sim Green used to live and race in the US, but now lives and races in southern France. Read more about Sim here.

As seems to have been the case over the past few years of mixing cycling with real life, I have yet another jam packed season ahead of me. For the past 2 years I have been studying, taking planes at the last minute, and racing the day after a transcontinental flight.  I suffered it in 2004, in 2005 and it doesn’t look like anything is going to change in this final school year.  Along with racing and going to school, I have just got news that I will going to Italy in May for the Giro d’Italia.  No, I won’t be racing it, but I’ll be working once more as a guide for Bikestyletours.com.  However, May is when my finals are.  My finals finish on the 19^th, and I need to be in Italy on the… yep, you guessed it, on the 19^th.  I’m not totally sure how this is going to work out, but it looks like I’ll be sitting an exam and going straight to the airport to ride 130km a day after a couple weeks of exams with no training.  It’s going to be both hell, and fun.  I can’t wait.  It’ll be great to be back in Italy, I haven’t been back there since a racing stint 2 years ago.  If anyone out there reading this has booked a trip for the Giro with Biestyletous.com shoot me and e-mail and let me know.

In the meantime I am right in the middle of exams right now (we have 2 big exam sessions a year), I have to go to one in a minute in fact.  I’m not getting in much riding these days.  Last week I only did 2 rides: one was a 130km cold, windy, hilly and pretty fast ride on Saturday.   It felt good to be out there.  I have a team training camp at the end of the week.  I’m really worried because I won’t have been riding for over a week, and it’s really going to hurt!  Oh well, such is the way when you try and mix everything up, C’est la vie.  I hope I get some good grades so that I can concentrate a little more on racing with a clear mind next month.

Things are also taking shape for my 2006-2007 winter.  My plans to spend next winter in the Australian summer, working in a bike shop and riding and racing are slowly coming together. No Cyclocross over there, but I’ll make do with some sunshine instead.  What a tough life! That’s going to be SO much fun!

So until next time with a Team Training Camp update, stay warm and stay riding…

Thanks for reading.

Sim

e-mail Sim with questions or comments on: Jetlagsports@wanadoo.fr

Sim Green used to live and race in the US, but now lives and races in southern France. Read more about Sim here.

For my more serious approach to the 2006 season I have therefore joined a new team.  I was lucky enough to be accepted on the strength of a couple of summer results (some TTs this year and some results from Austria from a European racing tour in Summer 2004), and also thanks to a few well places friends, on the Castelsarasin Bouygues Telecom development team.  January 7^th was our team presentation.  I was asked to join the team for a press release photo package, training ride and press team presentation.  Stupid as it may sound, I was pretty nervous about this.  My aim until May is to get my university degree (something that isn’t easy in the rather strict and difficult French school system, where there is only a 10% success rate), I have therefore not been riding much.  We’ve had a rather cold and frosty winter so far down here in southern France, so I’ve been mainly staying indoors, working on school stuff and thinking about my friends who are spending the winter in South Africa and Australia (lucky bas***ds).  The Bouygues Telecom Team presentation was going to be the first time the Elite team riders got together.  There is a high return rate from last year’s team, but there are also a few additions to the team including 2 pretty good riders, one of which has come from Credit Agricole (sorry, I don’t remember their names).  Most of the guys on the team are full time riders, and what with the European racing season kicking off in the first weekend on February with some big international races, I was pretty sure these guys would be pretty fit even at this time of year.

So I loaded my bike and winter clothing and drove up to a town near Montauban in southern France.  I got to the team house/HQ (where they lodge foreign riders, keep the bikes, team cars etc,) as instructed, but I was a little late.  I was about 10mins late, but this is France and nothing ever runs on time, so…  I walked around hoping to find someone.  Even though I as running a little late, I figured no one else had got there yet, like I said: this is France.  Luckily a van pulled up and parked, and Didier Rous got out and looked around with the same confused expression on his face as me.  We shook hands and embarked on a conversation about where everyone was, how to get into the house and what we should do.  Luckily Didier had the phone numbers of the team president etc, and so it was that we found out we were supposed to be doing the photo shoot in town by the canal.  In the cars we jumped and I follow him around the narrow streets of god-knows-where until we came across the rest of the Elite team waiting by the canal.  We all got changed into our summer team kit, and stood around a team car with the president, Directeur Sportif, etc etc.  We stood there for a while balanced on various parts of the car holding our breath for the photos to be taken… and we waited… and waited, remember that it is January and we are wearing summer kits; we were waiting for Didier to get off the phone and come pose.  Didier was knee deep in a conversation about where he was going hunting later that afternoon.  Eventually the photos were taken, we all got changed and drove back to the Team house to get ready for our training ride.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (team house), the junior and Regional team members had showed up to join us on the ride.  It took ages for everyone to get changed and ready, but we eventually headed out onto the gray-cloud covered open road.  There must have been about 20 or 30 riders, with a team car up front to open the road, and a team car behind with spare wheels etc.  Despite the car having spare wheels, pretty much everyone had a pump and spare tube with them in case of a flat… everyone that is except for our friend from Credit Agricole.  This is where you see the experience of a true Pro.  Obviously used to these kinds of supported team training rides, our friend was riding a bike that hadn’t been cleaned in about 10 years, and rather than ride around the French countryside, he squeaked, cracked and crutched his way around, only interrupted with a bit of silence when he pulled over to the side of the road with a wheel in his hand ready for a spare from the car… evidently he takes about as much care of his tires and tubes as he does the rest of his bike.

So our group pretty quickly split and the Elite team tried to kill each other up every climb.  Luckily I found I was in much better shape than I had thought, and actually surprised myself to find I was one of the 3 or 4 strongest in the team on the hills.  The sitting in a classroom training method seems to suit me.  After 60miles of killing everyone up the hills and generally riding in a manner I wouldn’t recommend for January, we got back to the house, took turns taking a shower and eventually headed over to the town hall for the official presentation.  Here we were all crammed into a little room back stage where we joked around and generally acted like kids.  Why is it that as soon as you get a group of guys together, they all automatically turn into 10 year olds?  After much waiting and messing around, we each walked out on stage and where introduced one my one to the crowd of reporters and… I have no idea who all these people were, or where they came from, but there they were.  After we had all been introduced by name and a few results, we stood for photos; photos on stage, photos in front of this banner, that banner, in front of the team bike, in front of this, in front of that.  Finally we were let loose to get changed.  Our bit was done, so while they still went on talking about the season, sponsors etc, we all sneaked through the crowd and surreptitiously slid out of the room and went on home.

Overall it was a good day.  It was good to meet the team and get together.  It was good for me to find I wasn’t in bad shape.  It’ll be more interesting once the entire team is together.  We are still missing Christophe Cousinie (who is a well known and respected rider who apparently rode for Festina but had quit very early due to knee injury, and is right now in hospital), possibly a New Zealand rider who should be here soon and District 20’s very own John Parks from Warrenton who will be joining us for the whole season starting in February.  The team actually has something of a Mid Atlantic, Washington DC feel to it.  I started riding road in District 20 back in the late 90s early 2000s, John Parks is obviously from D20 and our Team DS is Marion Clignet who also started riding and racing in D20 with NCVC.  I am very excited to work with Marion; she is a very very knowledgeable person with lots of experience and enthusiasm, and I look forward to working with such a great DS.

Over the next 2 weeks we have team training camps locally.  I won’t be able to make the first one as it is exam time in school for me.  Then we have a training camp down by the Spanish border followed by the season opener races that I once again won’t be able to attend.  I’m not too worried about that as they are rather big events with good international fields from Belgium, Australia, New Zealand as well as teams such as Agritubel, Jean Floc’h, FDJ, AG2R etc.  Hopefully John will get here in time for the second round for these big races down in the Basque Country of the Pyrenees.  This is a Stage race that a couple of D20 riders have come over to do in the past.  John and the team will be doing the UCI 2.6 Criterium des Espoir Tour of the Basque country with the Pros.  Good luck to them and good luck to all back over there who are preparing the 2006 D20 season

Thanks for reading.

Sim