Home

Well im actually home now. Bit earlyer than expected, but due to many different things I decided to come home early. Manly as I was tired and needed to get away from full time bike riding and back to some normality.

It was defanatly a good experiance, and whilst I had highs and lows, I have discovered that full time bike riding is not for me, it became a job and not the fun I enjoy. I am back at my job at Avanti Plus Hastings now, which is great and im realy ejoying it.

For now im taking things a little easy and just enjoying riding my bike.

Yesterday I went to Rotorua with Kerri-anne Ben and Scotty. Vegas is one of my favourite places to ride. We were there for the final round of the N-Duro, a race which last year I won, which made it kinda hard not to be racing it again however this time round I was there to support Kerri-anne and ride with her as well as see how Benny was going. Iv been coaching Ben since the start of the year and hes been making some impressive progress. Next week is his goal of the winter, The Flight Center Epic in ausi where heil be racing a 50k race on Saturday and 100ker on Sunday. Needless to say he should be on good form and he was taking out 4th over all, his best result ever in an N-duro round.

Kerri-anne also surprised racing the short course 30ker and taking out 4th in the womens catagory in a pretty filthy race in only her 2nd ever mountain bike ride. I spent the race following along behind her and was pretty impressed with her ride and the way she handled her self. Could be a future for her on the MTB perhaps??

I have a few plans for the next few months but nothing realy solid yet. Will just enjoy riding my bike for now

Josh

Cooked

Well had two races over the weekend and unfortuanatly it seems the body is cooked. I was going backwards fast!!! My week off obviously hasnt fixed my fatiugue and at the moment the only thing to do is rest, reset which will mean reavaluation of the seasons and its goals unfortunatly. Will be taking a minimum of two weeks off.

Josh

Pamplona Bayonna

Well first race back was a set of two criteriums in Vittoria on Saturday night, bit of a laugh realy as we found out part way through that these races are rigged and the winner is already decided before the race begins. Pretty Gay I reakon as racing should be about battling it out and the strongest or smartest wins. Any way good laugh as we had no idea about the rigged winner and my Polish Team mate who we call Vortek or "The Vortex" (Not spelt Vortek the polish spelling is incedible) went about doing what he does best and eliminating everyone in the sprint (first race was an elimination race, which means last rider across the line each lap is out) He ended up 2nd and the funny thing was he eliminated the guy who was ment to win. People wernt to impressed about this and we got a bit of an earfull for it and hounded in the points race, but we decided to be spitefull and attack them anyway. I ended up roling acros the line perhaps 6th or 7th.

Pamplona Bayonna was the big race of the weekend. A nasty 138k from Pamplon, Spain to Bayonna, France. Which meant a nasty traverse through the low Pyrinesse. Thankfully being my first race back it was downhill since we were racing out to the coast. Probley would have to describe this race as being simliar to Round the Lake Taupo race or K2 or both mixed together. I think the only flat part of the race was the carpark we rolled out of in Pamplona. I was pretty pleased with how I went being my first race after a week off. I suffered pretty bad up the climbs and the last 30k was taking its toll. Found out why when we got home as I had picked up some wire in the back tyre and was slowly loosing pressure through the whole race. Oh well.

Not sure how many started must of been at least 100, and only around 50 finished. I rolled in 44th.

I have 9 weeks left here now and at least 15 races. SO looking to make the most and I hope I can go home with some nice fast legs for the NZ summer

Josh

Rest over, Up and Away

Well my rest is done, and im feeling a lot better for it. Iv been turning the pedals for around 5days now and feeling good which is tops. Hopefully I can turn the fast on and finish this season with a bang. Even managed to get joined by top Casse Depargne pro tour rider Jose Vecente Garcia Acosta yesterday, this guys on another level and super nice dude as well so hopefully can go out for som emore rides with him later as one of my team mates and good friends is mates with hime

We took advantage of the rest to go and join in with the San Fermin celebrations, and even got to see the bulls run which was pretty cool. The hole week long party is pretty undescribable but the entire town center is just one HUGE party. Theres some pretty funny sights to been seen as you can imagine with people drinking solid for a week. A lot of people asked me what spain was liek after the soccer win but to be honset with the San Fermin celebrations going on you wouldnt have known.

First race back is a Criterium this friday in Vitoria which should be an interesting affair and then the Classica Pamplona Bayonna on Saturday. Bayonna is in France which means crossing the low pyrinesse, so that should be a good hit out.

Anyway time to fly as the rain and thunder is coming and im using the internet in the court yard after ours got blowen up by a lighting storm

Josh

Extra Day of Relax

Well, I have been feeling a bit smashed and tired the last week or so and not training or raceing well, so have decided to have a few days of the bike to reset the body. Comes at a good time after tomorows race we have two weeks till the next race which gives a chance to relax and then get some good training in to the legs. In the words of Alberto Contador at the tour presentation "if you sleep one hour more than next rider, then at the end of the tour you get extra day of relax". So thats pretty much what ill be doing over the next few days, getting my relax on.

And good thing to as there is a lot of racing between now and season end so ill be pretty worn out come home time.

Josh

Another day of Poridge Veins

Well its been a few days since my last race and havnt been to excited about putting anything up. Again im plagued by the inability to sleep. Which as you can imagine is making things pretty dismal at the moment.
I was determened to get through the race however and had to go pretty deep. Its kinda dissaponinting as a lot of the courses we race on suit me quite well. But oh well will just keep plugging on.

Highlight though is the Tour d France has now started and since we dont have to get up at midnight like back in NZ the afternoon is dedicated to watching the racing live. Its all pretty exciting really. Deffanatly being here and living the life of a pro bike rider have to say I have a hole new respect for these guys.

WEll thats all for now, San fermin is now so hopefully one day we will go and check out the running of the Bulls

Josh

Sleep Deprevation Racing

Well pretty much Mondays race in Haro was a dismal affair, im not going in to huge detail except to say I dont opperate well on sleep depravation. All week we have had the Baranain Feista happening literal outside our bedroom window, fire works and bands playing till sometimes 3 even 4 in the morning is not good for racing cyclists. After four hours sleep I CREPT. Pulled the pin affter an hour an half.

Last night I managed to get a good uninterupted 6-7 hours after a nice glass of red wine. Bang out like a light which was choice. Today I could still feel the lag in my legs a tad but got stuck in anyway. From the go things were looking good as almost 15 of us were away and with a lot of riders tired from tones of racing, and pretty well every team represented int he break it looked like we were gone, not to be however and attacks came and went till the 60k mark when after a pretty solid effort 10 of us got away, we stayed clear till about 90k. Unfortunaly at around 95k the last monster climb began which destroyed me. I crused home to finish around 65 palce but was happy as my legs seem to be returning after a pretty stink couple of races.

Josh

Searching for climbing legs in Tolosa

Today we had another round of the Euskaldun cup in Tolosa, about half hour drive down the autopista from Pamplona. Tolosa is nestled in the bottom of a valley surround in nasty bit hills which meant a hilly day racing. 6 hills all up today in a bit of a curcuit race format.
Needless to say from the gun I was again on the front smacking it hard following the moves. I decided no to attack myself but just following attacks to save a bit of energy an dbe able to go with more. This continued for the first 25 or so kilometers before we hit the first climb. Unfotunalty my climbing legs were left in Pamplona it seemed, Im guessing the four hours sleep because of the massive week long festival that seems to be going down right out side our apartment. But that besides. The race turned in to a strugle up the climbs, smash down them straight to the front to follow more moves, get flicked up the next climb. This was how my day turned out till eventually I just got brutalised and the break finaly went on one of the climbs.
Mike wasnt racing today so he rode out to the race and we had planned to ride home together which made for a sweet hard training after the race.
Next race is on Monday so not to wurried plenty of time to recover from our 185kday. Plus looking to get some more climbing efforts in to get those legs back that were starting to show up.

I must say i think today was probly the hardest race I have done here so far, it was just pressure on the pedals all day long weather up hill or down hill. So hopefully some form starts to sneak up on me and I can start getting in those break aways

Adios

Josh

Euskaldun Cup Round

Yesterday we had a round of the Euskaldun Cup. A serries of race in the Euskadi area of Spain, Yes the same Euskadi that sponsers the Euskatel pro tour team. For those of you who dont no, the pro team Euskatel Euskadi is a sponsership between the phone company Euskatel (eg vodaphone in NZ) and Euskadi the Basque area of Spain. Its kinda like a regional team for the Basque people.

So the days race was fairly rolly country no realy big climbs probly the longest not any more than 1.5k MAX. But there was a bit of wind to contentd with. Not the brutal winds Southland or even some nasty winds some of you may have raced in at the recent Tour of Taranaki but some solid wind none the less.
I was pretty keen to try for my current goal of a top ten today as i was feeling good. So from kilometer zero I was right on the front at the pointy end of the race getting stuck in. Attacking and following attacks. Once or twice things looked good only to have guys try come across and spoil it. The pressure stayed on for the first 30k and it was a round 20-25k mark my lungs were screaming and werent delevering any oxygen to my legs whats so ever. Wise words from David McCain from when I rode with Giant Asia were if its easy no break goes when its hard and your hurting your likley to make it. So i sucked it up for another crack unfortunatly even with the determination and a quick sling from Mikey T the legs just werent going to co-operate with out the oxygen so I had no choice but to sit in for a quick breather. 2 riders slipped clear and the break was formed. The race settled down for the next few ks and Team Cafe Baque, managed by non other than Joseba Beloki, the very man who chased Lance around France to take 2x3rd and one 2nd on the TDF podium, settled on the front to keep things in check for their sprinter. I was sitting just behind in 5th wheel and thought id drop back to Mikey for a quick Stratagy meeting. Conclusion, Cafe Baque have a super fast man and where going to set it up for a sprint which meant we needed to set out Columbian fast man Willian up for a sprint if we want to win. Choice.... Wrong as soon as wed had this discussion only a few minuets after dropping back we hit some tight little roads and lots of rolling climbs and x-winds.
Pretty quickly I was cursing myself for dropping back and not just staying on the front. I had to skip through a couple of groups to work my way up and we ended up with 5 team mates in the 2nd group, fortunatly Brad and Willian were in the front group. Unfortunatly for us we had team Bidelans top sprinter with us, which meant sitting on and letting there team try to bring the front of the race back. So pretty much the rest of the day was spent as a fast training ride following to the finish as the gap went further away.

Lesson Learnt: when your on the front just stay there. Sometimes itl all just blow up in your face.

So I ended the day pretty angry. Fortunatly We have a good block of four races this week. Thursday, Saturday followed by Monday and Tuesday, so ill be out looking for Redemtion.


TIll then
Josh

3 Races 3 Days

3 Races in 3 Days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Saturday and Sundays Races were in Galicia a province of Spain around 700+ Kilometers away form Pamplona, thankfully due to the Autopista we were able to do this in around 5 hours.

We had a pretty awsome Motel to stay in, in a little village just out of the city of Ourensen around where the two races were to take place. Saturday and Sunday were pretty big with peletons of around 200 riders, I have never raced in a peleton of this size with guys all pushing hard and wanting to be at the front. And I can tell you it was pretty daunting and i was fairly nervous.

SATURDAY

Unfortunatly due to the travel my legs were pretty smashed and swollen and the first hour or so of the 144k race was spent on the back holding on for dare life. Not the greatest thing when the Peleton stretches out to over 500m long. Fortunatly the first climb was around 40k in and by that time my legs had loosened up and I was able to use the climb to move my way up. I spent the next portion of the race looking after myself and getting through. At around the 80-100k mark we hit the 2nd last of the big climbs which came off a nice wide main road to a super skinny almost 1 laner. YOu can just imagine how hard squeezing 200riders through there was and i found my self again near the back. So there was nothing else to do other than grit my teeth and go for it. Powering up past riders i managed to go over the top with a bunch of team mates. We had 1 rider in the days break but the rest of us were in a small group together which meant on the front and pull some laps which was pretty much how the rest of the race panned out for me. Pulling turns on the front. Fortunatly Mauricio Muller our team mate stayed near the front and finished in 5th. The rest of us were quite a way back and i ended up around 80th somewhere. pretty pleased to finish such a big tough race and i must say i was pretty destroyed afterwards.

SUNDAYS race was a shorter affiar at around 120k and finishing up a 2k climb. Unfortunatly for me my legs were pretty tired after the previous day and again the first 30k was spent dieing near the back. Luckly it was the same first 40k as the previous day so I new what was coming and when I needed to move up. Again I used the climb to move forwards, however unfortunatly on the decent the bunch tore apart and I was caught on the wrong side of the split. With the high speed and presure on there was no coming back, and so the rest of the day was spent as a hard training ride. Brad however finished the race strongly in 21st place. And our manager also delivered some awsome news that Mike had won his race in another area of Spain

MONDAY was by far the highlight for me. Due to a mess up with the licences myself and Brad only were able to start the race with 5mins to spair so there was some rushed number pinning happening. Todays race was a bit smaller with around 90riders starting. I made sure I was right on the front when the race started and was driving hard attacking and following attacks. I wanted to get a good result as I no I have it in my legs I just need to be in the right place. Due to lack of warm up my lungs and legs were screaming and after 15k I faded out to the back of the race where I suffered till perhaps the 60-70k mark to ride myself back in to the race. Unfortunatly due to this i missed the days winning move. Not alot I could do in the start I was though. However I grit my teeth and rode myself back in to the race and at around 70k was back up front following attacks to try and bridge up to the front. With 20k to go I skipped across to a group of four riders and we went across to a group of around 6-8. A few of us were keen to drive hard and i pulled some pretty solid turns. The peleton was closing down on us inside the final 5k so I through down a couple of hard attacks to keep us clear but inside the final k I just about bottched it as I was on the back and with 500m to go the road went to 1 lane beacause of road works. I took a few risks and smacked it up the inside and started sprinting to take 3rd from our group. It meant I finish 18th and took my best result here so far. Pretty pleased to finish 3days hard racing with a top 20 and it shows my legs are slowly getting used to the hard and fast euro racing.

My next goal is to go for a top 10. Not realy sure whats up next but certainly the next few days will be taken pretty easy to recover for the next hammering

Till then
JOSH

First Euro Race Experiances

Hi everyone.

Over the weekend I have finialy completed my first ever two races in Spain. First up on Saturday was the Memorial Luis Munoz, and then on Monday was a Copa Iberica round, which is a series of races. We rode the San Antonio round which is in Cantabria region of Spain.

MEMORIAL LUIS MUNOZ

This being my first race in Spain, and first race in 5 weeks!!! I wasnt realy sure what to expect. I guess it was going to be a case of take it as it comes and see how things go. My number 1 goal was deffenatly to finish the race and beyond then I wasnt realy sure what to expect.
On Paper the race was a cicuit of 120k 3x40k laps. In actualy fact the race was only 108k so you cant trust the race maps here to much. The Race profile also showed two hills and the rest of the race being down hillish. Again not realy to be trusted.
The race started like any tipical race with attacks going hard and fast. I Made sure i stayed near the front keeping an eye on what was happening and how things work here. After about 9k we turned of the main road and things started getting hard. The race was now slowly rolling up hill for the next 10-11k and it was on..... 14k in and i found my self going backwards FAST!!!! All of a sudden the demorilization started seeping in. WHAT AM I DOING?? HOW AM I GOING TO CONTEND with a year of this???? I managed to find some sort of a rythem and followed wheels to the top of the first big climb which ended at around 26k mark. From then on the race was pretty much over for us. And it was a case of finishing now. Which i did by myself. Here guys dont seemed to wurried about weather they finish races or not. But Jeremey Yates once told me "while your legs still turn finish the race, even if its just for training, youl get more benefit than the guys who dont." So i carried on my for the last lap rolling around to the finish 15-20mins behind the winner.
I must admit I didnt realy no what todo after getting smashed so bad. Though in my mind I new what Carl (coach) told me was true that not having raced for so long always makes my legs slow and laggy.

Sunday Afternoon we got the email that we would be racing another race on Monday, so i was pretty pleased i decided to reduce my 4-5hour ride to 3 hours after i was feeling tired from Saturday.

SAN ANTONIO TROPHY

I must admit today i was pretty nervous about the race especially after Saturdays pounding.
Today was also the first time Mike and I were going to be racing together again since Hub tour way back in January.
The team won the race last year so I think a similar result was being looked for, which was sounding like a bit of a mishion as other than myself and Brad all the boys had jsut finished racing 2 tours back to back the day before. SO theyd either be flying or dieing.
We were told we had to work in pairs and were expected to be in every move that went. I paired up with Mike, for the first 10k we pretty much sat on the back of the race as we weaved and ducked through little lanes and the villages around the coastle area we were racing through, before I decided id had enough. Im not the most confident pack rider in the world and I tend to either be on the front or on the back never in between and you dont get anywhere sitting on the back, so i quickly scooted up to the front as fast as possible. Pretty much as soon as i got to the front a rider rolled away and i was on his wheel. Within a miunet we had joined the brake away and were on our way. What a turn around this time 14k in to the race and im off the front. I held nothing back either and on more than one occasion was asked by Deaigo one of our team mates who was in the brake with me to ease back on the climbs. Slowly small groups came across to us but we stayed away for perhaps 3/4 of a lap before it all came back together. Soon after another move went and we had Brad and Karol in it. On all the climbs around the circuit on this 2nd lap the elastic was stretching and constantly snapping through the top and then coming back together on the other side, so you could see the fatigue setting. I couldnt believe how my legs were feeling today, I must admit I havent felt like this in a long long time, as I was going over the hills no wurrys. Mike said the final lap it was going to happen so i was trying prety hard to stay on his wheel. Unfortunatly i slipped back abit before the decisive climb. As soon as we hit the bottom i slammed itdown through the gears and powered up the out side to arrive at the front just a tad to late, mike had a hundread meters with another rider. I was gutted to miss the move but amped mike was going clear. The work started now as we had to cover moves that would try to bridge the gap and at the same time hoping to slow the chase down. I was also hoping i could hitch a ride on a group going across. Unfortunalty i didnt. BUT Karol and Peter did. which ment a 6 rider Brake and 3 of us in it. With a few Ks to go Mike and Karol unleashed the 1-2 and went home for Karol 1st and Mike 2nd. Peter our Lanky Dutch team mate took out the sprint for 3rd.

All in all it was a pretty awsome day. We were all stocked with the way we had riden and then for the boys to finish it off with 1st 2nd and 3rd.
Inside I was super pleased with how I rode. I was a polar oposite of the rider I had been on Saturday which was awsome. The massive Ks i have put in over the last few weeks are starting to shine through.

Next lot of Racing i think is next weekend Saturday and Sunday so till then.

Josh

Spain 2010

Hi everyone,

Thought I should do something about doing a blog again like i did for the Asian races way back in 2008. Managed to find the old blog site I started but lost interest in doing.

Any way firstly a big huge thank you to everyone who has helped me to get here. Mike Torckler who hooked me up with a start in the team. Carl Paton my coach for keeping me on track when things got a bit shakey. My bosses John and Jamie for letting me have the winter off work.
Mum and Kerri-anne for all your support getting me going again after breaking my bones at the start of summer. And everyone else who hasnt got a mention.
How ever a Huge thankyou to Bridgett Robertshaw for pulling together and fundraising for a airling ticket for me almost two years ago. All the people who donated a massive thankyou. And then to Sally Lockhead our travel agent for all the work she put in to get me here, thanks soo much. If iv missed you out, sorry. It wasnt intentional.


Any way, iv been here 3 weeks now and unfortunatly havnt yet had a chance to race. It took a wee while for the licencing with the team to get sorted out. And by the time that got sorted it was to late to be regestered to race last weekend. And due to a large tour in our area, Navarra, this week looks like there will be no racing for us this weekend. So another week of training for me. Its has been good though getting out and seeing the country side and just getting some solid good training into the legs. Especially on the long climbs they have here that tend to be in every single race.

For those of you who dont know. Im living in Pamplona. Yes where the running of the bulls happens. Its a pretty cool city, about the size of Palmerston North I reakon. So a lot bigger than Havelock, Which can be a bit daunting at times. However we are in a cool little suburb called Barinain. Which has a nice little village feel to it realy. Even though its all just appartment towers. Everything we need is quite close and easy to get to like the supermarket, and there is a fruit and vege market on sunday mornings about 10mins walk away. Pretty much at the moment the days are comprising of awake, eat, train, eat and watch the Giro d'Italia (tour of Italy) live. Its quite a treat as up until now the only way I have been able to watch this race is on dvd. This is followed by dinner. perhaps a walk for some fresh air and then Bed

Well anyway training time calls so i can be home in time to watch the Giro

till Next time

Josh