Gold Fever Le Tour 2014

The Gold Fever wrapped up for another year. What can i say it was a great weekend for racing. The sun was out in force making sure their was some fast racing.

The event kicked off in the outback town of Charters Towers inland a hour from Townsville with an Individual Time Trial.

This would end up being my let down for General Classification contention for the tour finishing a poor 16th.

Though in the Stage 2 Criterium  I came with my racing legs, 

Creating the break with  Jacob Restall of team Charter Mason and Jayden Copp of Bianchi DCM Arbitrage we managed to successfully break away from the peleton.

Start of break away

We would later be joined by  2 others riders who managed to bridge the gap. Though from then on we just put time into the Peleton. 

In the end it came down to a 5 man sprint, starting my sprint a bit to early I managed to get 4th. Along with putting a gap of almost 40secs into the field was a good way to end the first day of racing. Great job Restall who took the honors on the day and Copp solid ride. 

5 way sprint finish

 The next morning was a 121k road race back to Townsville. A undulating highway out in the bush, which is virtually a straight road all the way to the finish until we would turn into Oak Valley for a small circuit to the finish.

Grabbing Water Bottle

The race started slow, besides a few efforts for the intermediate sprints unfortunately I only came away with a  few 4ths. After passing through the second water stop, I put some pressure on trying to get the pace going.







This managed to wake up some people and a few more attacks came which helped bring the pace up. From then on we were able to burn off some weaker riders leaving a breakaway group of 12.

With 20k to go i tried my luck making another breakaway attempt but it was all pulled back on the final hill, along with a wild horse which had thrown its owner off and ran near the riders this made for a interesting/scary finish.

As it come down to the line i just had nothing for a sprint and rolled in for 8th.

This was me after the race being interviewed by Cameron Elmore, cheers Cameron for the entertaining commentary throughout the weekend. So at the end of the tour  I came in 9th on General Classification, which was mainly because of my timetrial so dropped from 16th to 9th.

Oh well was still happy with form and look forward to heading back to Europe next week. Before i leave Australia again I would like to say a big thank you to my family for all their support without it none of this would be possible. To my girlfriend for being my rock. To my coach Luc Wante for taking me on. To my team ASFRA racing for giving me a opportunity and to everyone that has lent a helping hand, it has all been much appreciated.

Summer Living

Once again time has cruised by and its been almost 3 months since my last post.

I am currently still in Australia as my Visa for Belgium has really turned into a big hasssllleeee..

Just endless delays from Australia post losing my documents, too doctors not even knowing where Belgium is who are apparently the designated doctors for giving visa medicals and so on and so on...... Though my flights are booked now and I will be back in Europe on the 19th of August.

Riding has been a blast of fun, I've been able to soak up the Summer bliss here and get on with some good hard training and racing.

Along with my new coach Luc Wante, I have won a handful of events, gradually building my form and confidence back to top level.

My first race back in Australia was a good battle between me and Reuben Donati from team erdinger alkoholfrei, just managed to lunge for the win.

From then on I've been able to just improve, watching my power figures go up.My latest victory was the Copperlode Cup a hillclimb race which has been held in my home town dating back to 90's. This was a race that i hadn't managed to win in the past, Especially with riders such as Adam Hansen who dominated the race before leaving for Europe. So this made winning with a solo breakaway even sweeter.

I also managed to get down to the local track racing meet again, where it all started for me and give the old track bike a good thrashing. It was great to see the new generation of young riders coming up definitely some young talent.

It really has been fun and exciting getting out on the local group rides again, getting some Strava records, Getting a few shifts back at my local bikeshop, along with lots of free Coffee :).

Now I focus on my next race the Gold Fever Le Tour. A tour down South which i competed in last year but only managed to come away with 9th Overall. I feel in much better shape so i will be gunning for the win. There will be some tough competition but hope to leave Australia with one final big win :) will keep updated on results :)