On becoming a "man of the Ras"

That was without doubt the hardest 8 days i've ever spent on my bike as I have just clocked up around 30 hours of racing miles whilst participating in the FBD Ras, an international stage race around Ireland.

I formed part of a surrey league team which was also represented by riders Chris McNamara (Mc), Wouter Sybrandy, Chris Moores and Dave Sinclair. We also had pro like backup from Managers Keith and Richard, Masseuse Nikki and Mechanic Ray.

Some highlights for me were on stage 2 making the break with the stage winner Rapha's Dean Downing, and finishing 12th. This was even more rewarding as I'd initially missed a large split mid race and had got myself across to a chase group up a climb and then nailed it on the front of this group down a descent in order to close a minute gap to the front split. Apparently Wouter and Mc had also tried been trying to bridge across to my group on the climb. Had I known about I would have eased off to allow them get across, but when I looked back at the top of the climb I couldn't see anyone within 300m behind our group, and so had to make the decision to go hard or risk not seeing the race again. Think Wouter particularly was a bit annoyed to miss that split and sounds like he pretty much rode all day on the front of the second pack.

The real highlight of the race for me had to come on the next stage, stage 3 as both me and Mc got ourselves ahead of the peleton to finish in a chase group of 14 behind a breakaway duo of Newton and McCann. By riding a hard pace up the final climb we even split off from the rest of the group and got a small gap up the steep section whilst this was closed down over the top, showed that we could both match these pros on the hard climbs. That day I finished 6th, and was placed 4th on GC with Mc in 13th,

On the next day one of the lowlights for me was a near crash on a fast ad slippery wet descent after nailing myself to get across a large split. This really shook me up, lost me 30 seconds from the main group and also as I wrenched the bike to stay upright pulled a glut muscle.

Towards the end of the week the increasing pain in my right bottom (from the pulled muscle) meant I was increasingly riding using my left side, and every pedal revolution was painful. Wouter and Mc obviously noticed commenting that my riding was even more lop sided than normal.

As always Plowman riders seem to be shouting at me and giving me aggro. This was despite me helping their rider Simon Richardson who was wearing the yellow jersey get home on the horrible headwind finish section of the 7th stage, after we had both lost out. Some smart arse comments from PCA rider Alex Higham on the morning of the last stage (and i'm sure he could tell I was not in a good mood after losing out on the overall position I had been riding for) and then he wonders why I might not move over to let him through in the run in to the sprint, just because he shouts at me to move out of his way and let him through.

Ever increasing pain and a dropping GC position ensured I was in a pretty solemn mood towards the end of the week, and was glad to see the end of the race. However while it lasted it was fun to see my race number up on the stem of some of the UKs top pro riders such as Dan Lloyd from the An Post team.

Off to Ireland

Back at the end of the revolutions 5 day last year I was asked by Keith Butler from the Surreyleague if I would like to race as part of a team he takes every year to the Ras.

This 8 day stage race is one of my main focuses for the year and I hope to come away from it with a good result or at least by putting in a good ride, and gaining lots of experience and hopefully strength to take on for the remainder of my races this season.

In the ras I will be coming up against many of the same top riders from the UK scene, but with the addition of strong international contingent with teams from Ireland, France, Norway and the Netherlands. I've been promised by Keith Butler that the racing is full on for 8 days! This is helped by each team only having 5 riders which must make it fairly unlikely for any one team to be able to control the race. The field is a mix of full time professionals and amateurs such as myself, as such i'm sure there will be a certain people im sure who will be happy to just to finish and also those who are genuine contenders for the win.

Well except for still being pretty tired after the Lincoln, i'm all set to go. Keith has my bike and race gear which he will be driving over for me with the rest of the team. I am flying tomorrow afternoon which will allow me a much needed lie in tomorrow morning before the race begins on sunday morning.

Keep your fingers crossed that I get round safely and quickly and watch this space for updates.

Hot day out!

Just woken up from dozing whilst watching the pros on TV at the giro recovering after a pretty tough day on the bike at the Lincoln GP.

Was a fantastic race - large field and crowds on a brilliant course that goes right through the centre of the city of Lincoln. Hot sunshine for the race meant I was sporting my casper the friendly ghost look as I opted for factor 50 suncream, whilst my Polar cycle computer recorded an average temperature of 29 degrees celsius!

In the race we (sigma) missed the 14 man break from which the race winner came, and chased hard, doing which I just about blew my legs off trying to chase it back. Unfortunately started to cramp after about 30 minutes of riding hard as I was getting dehydrated, so had to sit in and recover for a couple of laps whilst grabbing a bottle every lap. I eventually got some strength back in my legs towards the end of the race and got into a small group ahead of a rapidly shrinking peleton, as riders went off the front and climbed off at the back.

Cobbled climb was hard, although position on this climb was just as important as how fast you could climb it because it was so narrow and riders were stopping in front of you all the time.

I saw a photo of me pulling a face up on BC gallery.

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/eve/ImageGallery.asp?gid=3464#

I should be in the third photo along in the slider

Matt was best placed Sigma rider in 12th. Good to see team mate rob riding and finishing along with James Williamson, who had both chased hard and sacrificed their day to try and give the team a chance of bringing back the break. A combination of the hard chase, hot weather, mechanical problems and sickness meant Wouter, Dan and Mike were DNFs, but they weren't alone as only 50 of the 180+ on the start line made it to the finish.

This will be a race for me to look forward to for next year!

Looking forward to the weeks ahead

Another dissapointing race for me last weekend at the chas messenger capped off with me being caught behind a split on the final stage andfinishing a long way behind the peleton in a small group.

This weekend I will be racing the Lincoln GP. A massive field of riders is entered and a good position at the bottom of the narrow cobbled climb through the centre of Lincoln is sure to be critical for any success in the race.

After that i'm off to Ireland for the FBD Ras. I'm riding as part of a Surrey League team and will be up against some top names of British and Irish cycling, as well as plenty of international teams. Fingers crossed the weather in Ireland is as nice as we have in the UK at the minute!