"Dossards" For Grand Trophée races handed out!

The number of the racer you have to allow sitting in your wheel on these races are: 3 Ballons Master: 148 La Morzine Vallée d'Aulpes Master: 309 Vaujany Master: 369 Appearently the nice people at Sportcommunication didn't find me worthy enough of a "place prioritaire" for the Morzine and La Vaujany. In Les 3 Ballons, finishing in the top 140 twice (2009 and 2010) is largely sufficient for a place amongst the first starters (you need a top 300 result). Since I've never ridden La Morzine or La Vaujany, I can't really complain on a "regular" starting position in these races, but from what I've heard this shouldn't be much of an excuse since these races shouldn't be too crowded (especially La Morzine).

When you feel it coming....

Training with the "Scheldepeloton" yesterday, after not having felt 100% since Tuesday night. A soar throat, bit of phlegm,... I figured riding would give me the answer as to whether it was just a small cold that had already passed or whether I should take it even more slow than I already did these last few days. Unfortunately, I immediately felt that I wasn't 100% fit. Whenever the pace went up, I suffered instantly! A sky-rocketing heart rate, and a bad feeling overall. Some of the guys decided to throw in some extra Ks, but I was happy to see that most of the riders took the "normal" way home. After all not a bad training (95K: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65774550), but I'm not sure that counts, given that a sick body can't be trained.

Well, I guess I'll just have to wait and rest, and enjoy the Australian Open Men's Finale and the World Championship Cyclo-cross from the couch. Being sick has its advantages as well;-)

25K run?

I had some reactions about how my 25K run was in fact a 24K run, rounded to the nearest K. Well....never mind that 25K run post...check this out;-)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65240991

7,6 kilo

... is the weight of that thing that will have to help me up and over all those climbs in September. A brand new Giant TCR Advanced SL ISP (2010).

4,7 kilos without chain,pedals, cassette and wheels. For a size Large that is.

Now it's only a question of the rider being "as sharp as a knife" as well!

The UCI weight limit for a bike is 6,8 kilos... Anyone knows what the weight limit for cyclosportives is?;-)

25K run!

And with that a new personal record! Many thanks to Pieter for keeping me company!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64560083

Luck

When going all out, it's a well known fact that especially less experienced riders tend to only look at the couple of centimeters of  road in front of them. Dangerous for the rider in question but even more so for other riders in the chain or riders coming from the other side.  I behaved like such a rookie today, but luckely a crash could be avoided. Still...sorry guys, won't happen again!

Sent from HTC hero smartphone

EoY

And so 2010 has ended! and unfortunately, it's been way too long since my last blogpost.
After going to London very last minute the week before Christmas (cfr. pictures of the way there (that took us 10hours!) and the apartment I lived in for 3 months), I've been forced to limit the trainings to running due to the excessive snow. That's going quite well to be honest, I even ran 22K on New year's Eve.

While I'm very close to finishing the final program for 2011, I can give you the 2010 numbers:
203 sports activities in 498hours, and 12 453 kilometers overall. 10 836km on the road, with an average speed of 27,4 km/h and an average heart-rate of 137.

In the meantime, I'm also "scheduling" my other big races and holidays. Delphine and I just booked our trip to New York (leaving the 24th of September, just 2 days after the Last stage in "The Challenge"). Stay tuned for a final update of my 2011 program!


Tour of Flanders is in a little less than 3 months from now! See you there!