Contemplating Racing

It was the night before christmas...
no, no, wait, that's the wrong story. The night before a big race, the Wally Gimber, and for once I'm actually pretty much ready to go before 11pm! So I thought I'd share a few thoughts.

The last few days before a race are always nervous, so when the evening races kick off in the summer, I practically end up living on a knife edge with races barely 48 hours apart! I have been feeling fairly strong during training this week, albeit a little tired as this is the end of a 3 week hard block of training. So that's my ready made excuse if I should do a bad ride Sunday! Generally though I feel confident. The field is not as strong as last week, also the course is a bit less exposed and less narrow. So I should be able to stay up at the front easier. Meaning I can contemplate really being a part of the race this week. So all the possible scenarios have been running through my head for the past few days, and the nerves are well charged. I could talk all night about what might happen, so I won't, I'll just wait to tell you what has happened...

The other bit of excitement is the current procurement of a new bike, having had one smashed up by some inconsiderate motorist (No, not another one, just the black bike as mentioned last post!). So the frame will be a team edition Fuga, as pictured above. The tricky bit is getting everything to go on it. The ever weakening Pound etc. making getting components a lot more costly, everything comes from either the Eurozone, America or Japan. All of whose currencies are now battering the Pound! Not good. Still, watch this space, soon enough a new white and orange beast will behold your gaze.

And in other cycling news, I'm just watching todays stage of Paris - Nice. Alberto Contador, apparently the worlds greatest stage racer, has just blown up spectacularly! He's been walking all over everyone all week, even beating World and Olympic pursuit champ Bradley Wiggins in a flat prologue time trial. Not to mention attacking at every opportunity to try to 'stamp his authority'. Well, any authority he had has just totally disappeared! There he is propping himself against the barrier, having just lost the maillot jaune by 1:50. What a stage, it's not very often you see one of cyclings 'heads of state' fall apart so badly. Credit to Luis Leon Sanchez who attacked, took the victory, and the maillot jaune. Tomorrow is the final stage, around Nice, there's sure to be fireworks. God bless Sky+!