well since i have a few days i have a few days of doing nothing i can update my blog a few times!

day 1 was uneventful, tries to go for a walk but it was wet and cold and i didn't want to go too far incase i got lost.

i spent most of the day hanging around the house watching a few movies! pretty boring after a while, im hoping today the sun comes out so i can have a look around Pau! which im really looking forward to.

Pau is a city of about 90 000 people! it is a popular city during the winter as it is so close to great skiing, i was told yesterday that there is still heaps of skiing at the moment! the prices for a day skiing are also much cheaper here than Australia, about $50 AUD per day here!

Anyway i'm going to continue reading about yesterday's world news before i go for my second coffee and some breakfast.

James

Hello

I have arrived in Pau for the start of my french racing season, so i have decided to start updating my blog again, as people will probably want to know what i am up to!

Well ill start with the weather, its cold and wet! a bit of a shock for the system when coming from the somewhat unpredictable but much warmer victorian climate, but its ok, ill put on an extra jacket and stop whining haha.

I am living i a host house with a family, so far it has been good, they speak a little english which is a help if i dont understand, but they are talking to me in french which is great, so i am picking it up pretty quick, i am looking forward to the day when i can have full conversations with some random in the supermarket!

As predicted there is little english in the town so far, i feel lucky that i picked up a bit last year or i would have beed in a bit of trouble!

I am getting my bike tomorrow so i will have a few rides before i start training hard again on monday! my first race in on the 6th of march, it is a 100km race around the city of Pau.

We have got some guest so im going to leave now and try and speak some french.

Au revoir

james

Hey Everyboda

sorry i have not been updating my website, during my transfer from Canada to Belgium i broke my computer so up untill just now, ( the last day im in europe) i have been only usiong my ipod touch to look a emails.

Well i am on my last day away! i fly back to Australia at midnight tomorrow. I am very Much looking forward to going home and seeing everybody, it is going to be a long few days of travell though. It is all going to start with a bus from the small town of Schellerten at 2 in the arvo, where i have been staying with Klaus for the last week. I will then arrive at the Heildeshiem train station to catch the train to Frankfurt, I will arrive in frankfurt at 6 and then pretty much wait untill i fly out at 12, then i have the flight via Singapore and Sydney and ill arrive back in Melbourne at 0930 friday.

So for the last 2 months i have been racing in Belgium for 1 month and the 2nd month i have been on a break from the bike while looking around Europe.

And Europe is an Amazing place, i could easily write many pages on each place i went to.

First i went to Paris for 5 nights, it was Awesome.

Then went across to Germany and went to Berlin, Prague and Back to Berlin, Both Very different cities, Berling being the strangest city i have ever been in, i very strange feel but one of my favourite cities ever. And Prague being very old and well Maintained and i had a blast in both places with some great friends.

The last few days i have been fixing up a Coffee machine with Klaus and making lots of coffee, i have recieved a head Barista position in a new cafe in geelong when i return Sebroso, so i need a little freshening up after a long dry spell from a good cafe latte!

I am off now to make a few more Café latte'sI also start training again on Monday the 18th oct so i will keep everyone posted with how it starts off.

Im feeling good after some time off, some new goals and new direction, strong motivation and much learnt from my first incredible season racing overseas.

Untill next time

James.

I have started Superweek! we started on the second day of the series, it was a pretty easy day, there was another race on the same day that had a lot more money so most of the riders went to that, it was good for us, it meant we could ease into it.

Both Aurelien and Myself got into the main break from the start that ended up staying away all day, from there Aurelien and a few others attacked and lapped the field before getting back across to us, i spent the day going for sprint points, in the end Aurelien won and i got 6th and moved into 2nd in sprint points.

After the race we drove to Chicago, we got there and it was getting pretty late, we were staying in an empty apartment that belonged to a guy called Todd, it was 2k from the city and a block away from a cool street full of bars, restaurants and shops, its was really cool.

In the morning we went for a ride into the city and to the lake, its such a cool place a huge city that borders a magnificently large blue lake, its awesome. Along the lake is a big path that is filled with runners, riders, walkers, Rollerblades and any other green transport you can think of, also swimming lanes.

Stage 2

The race that day was is a town south of Chicago called Homewood, it ended up being a wet day which i didnt like too much, i tried to stay up the front as much as i could but i punctured 3 times and kept being put back in the race at the back, i kept going for sprints and at the end of the day was in 3rd place behind Jimmy Stemper and Berny Sulzberger.

Stage 3

A short course out in the middle of Nowhere, Small field and few Spectators, a few breaks got up the road and ended up taking most of the sprint points, but i ended up nabbing a few. In the second last corner i was sitting 4th wheel when 3rd wheel slipped out in front of me, I was heading straight for him! with the little room i had i tried to avoid the inevitable, which ended up not being possible and i hit the ground! Breaking my bike and breaking my chances for a sprint finish for the day. I wasn't that hurt which was good, it was just my bike that wasn't in such good shape! Luckily Sram was there to offer me a bike for the next day.

Stage 4

A road day, we went in with a team plan, i was to work for Aurelien for the first 50k of the 100k race (which was shortened to 85) On lap 4 of the 5km course i got on the front before the bottom of the 3 min climb to the finish line, i hit the climb and Shaun took over, just before the top i jumped back on the front and drove it over the top with Aurelien on my wheel, i then drove it across the top of the course and heard Aurelien yelling abloch! which means drive it! when i was done i had created a split of 10 riders with a 20second gap! my job was done, i went back to the bunch to see Fly V chasing. The break ended up staying away and winning by 3.30 min, Aurelien got 2nd and took yellow. I started a lead out for Shaun up the last hill and when i pulled of 200 m to go shaun was Moving fast and i was moving slow! as i got back to 40th wheel i was hit from behind from what felt like a car, I was in the air before i even got a chance to find out what had happened, when i got up i realised someone was sprinting for 40th with their head down, i was not happy, i wasnt sure which one of the 5 guys on the road was the one that hit me but i let them all know how i felt! i ended up breaking the handle bars of the Sram Specialized which was not good, but the Sram guys were fine.

So i was starting to get very sore now!

Stage 5

Today was In a place called Lake Geneva, Nice town on a small lake, it was a windy day with a slow uphill back straight and a fast downhill finish line. I was pretty sore by this stage, but still needed to go for sprint points as i was still in 3rd, with a 5 points to make up, the sprint today didn's suit me very much, it was a bit to quick but i still managed to make up one point. Shaun ended up lapping the filed twice and winning the stage which was great, it gave us 3 stage wins and 3 days in yellow.

Stage 6

I was a little stiffer today, but the course was just a flat .8mile block, which i thought would be pretty easy, it ended up being pretty hard for the first half of the race, the sprint today suited me much better, it was a long drag into a bit of a head wind, and i found myself sprinting very well, i managed to make up 2 points on Berny (fly V) and 1 point on Philip ( Bahatti) so now the standings are Phillip 56 Berny on 54 and me on 53. to check out results go to http://www.internationalcycling.com

Today is stage 7, i am getting back on my race wheel after i punctured both of them and i am getting a new bike to ride which was quickly organised and sent down from Louis Garneau in Canada. It is a red bike to which just by coincidence matches the sprinters red jersey, which must be a sign, so ill be riding a red bike tonight with my race wheels back, so im looking forward to seeing how i go!

Anyway ill keep you all posted on the next stages on Superweek!

Till next time

James

Well i'm here again... sitting in Alterra cafe drinking one last soy latte before we drive to Chicago for our first race of superweek.

we have a two and a half hour drive to Geniva for a 6 corner .8 mile course.

Bernard Sulzberger won yesterday but we didn't go to the race, we needed an extra day to organise housing in Chicago for a few days.

I'm not sure what the internet situation is going to be like in our house we are staying at, its a apartment in the middle of the city which is going to be cool. We will get a feel for the city which is apparently awesome.

Anyway other than that nothing new has happened since the other day.

Until next time!

James

Wow it has been too long since i wrote on this i Know!

I have been a very busy guy over the last few week, i will quickly run you up to speed as i sit in the best coffee shop i have found in America. Alterra! Proper coffee! yeah none of that pretend stuff, and i love it!!!

So as you would know i was out of training for 3 weeks with what ended up being a slight tear in my patella tendon, it was really frustrating! and i had to pull out of Beauce which was probably the biggest race i was going to do for the season which was a hard choice, but i wasn't going to be in any sort of form to ride in the tour after 3 weeks off.

So the story of how i ended up in America Starts now

The whole team was at the condo the day before the race start waiting to leave that arvo. Aurelien the French national champion was told thet day that his previous conti team had not taking him off the list so he was unable to race with Garneau for Beauce. As you can Imagine he was pretty angry but wanted to do some racing. There was to be no races in Canada for the next 3 or 4 weeks and the team had put all there thoughts into beauce and forgotten all about the rest of us not doing it, so we could have ended up doing no racing for 4 weeks, which in my books wasnt going to happen. So we took it upon ourselves to organise some racing in America.

we found tour of America Dairylands which is 11 days of 1hr30min crits, i thought it would be the fastest way to get back to top form.

we decided to catch a bus to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Yeah cool a road trip!! NO!! it was the worst bus trip i had ever taken, we got to sleep two nights on the bus during our 35hr trip, we started in Quebec city stopped in Montreal, Ottowa, Toronto ( where we had breakfast, cool city!), Detroit ( apparently the worst city in America!) we went for a 3 hour ride in the city and looked around, the city is empty it has lost 1million residence in the last 2 years, its like a ghost city, ill post some photos when i have my camera with me!. Then Detriot to Chicago then To Milawukee! we were stuffed!

So we started racing a day after we arrived, it was pretty tough! as i had been off the bike and was going to use this racing to get fit again, but it killed me, especially considering we had lost 2 nights sleep from a massive bus trip.

9 days of racing we ended up doing, 7 crits and 2 road races, it was awesome, I was starting to feel fitter, i wasnt getting any big results but i was working for the future.

then after we had finished racing we got a few free days in Milwaukee which we spent just hanging round having a look at the city which is really cool.

we then flew to Boston to start racing the Longsjo classic which is a four day Nrc tour. I was stuffed and the first day i got through but it was pretty tough for me after smashing myself at dairylands on no training, then by the second day i had hit the wall and pulled out, i wasn't too happy about it but i was stuffed! I rested up so i could come into superweek feeling fit and strong, Super week starts Tomorrow and its 17 days of 100km crits, its going to be Awesome and im going to be flying after it.

So thats it so far, Next time i get a chance to get on the net ill write about some experiences i have had in Milawukee as it is an awesome town.

Untill next time

James

Hey Everyone

just a quick update with what i have been up to over the last 2 weeks.

i had a crash out training 2 weeks ago which was a pain, the roads in Quebec are really bad so you have to concentrate all the time, i was riding to a town called Trois Rivieres which is 110 km away, i got within 13 k of the town and came home, i had hit my head pretty hard and decided it would be best to ride the 92km, it was a long day in the end i got 184km up and a lot of cuts and bruises.

i raced that weekend, not feeling that great but got second in a wet crit, a crazy guy bombed under over me in the last corner, as i was a bit nervous in the wet i didn't want to come down again.

the next day we had a 140k road race, nice undulating course i tried to get in the EB, but it didnt stay away. there was a big split and i missed it so i just did a bit of tempo work to try and not loose too much time, i was working with some of the spider tech guys, In the last 2 laps we were gaining on the front group and i ended up getting across by myself, when i got there i found out there was a group of 5 up the road with 4 of my team mates. I ended up winning the bunch kick and got 7th.

I put in a pretty hard week of training the following week, but got to last Thursday and injured my knee, just before Killington stage race, i hoped it was just a bit bruised but when it came to the first stage of the tour i couldnt make it round for the first 30km lap and had to pull out. i spent that weekend taking photos of the race in Killington, Vermont. It is a nice place, really hilly and forest everywhere, but i wasn't very happy that i was watching a race i should of been racing.

So since then i have been doing everything possible to try and get my knee better as quick as possible, i am suppose to be going to Connecticut this weekend and then Beauce starts next week, so im getting anxious, i don't really handle set backs like this too well! i have booked in to see a Physio today And have been talking to my Australian Physio Sam Leslie ( a huge Thank you) to try and get myself back on track.

Anyway ill keep you updated.

Have a good one.

james

The Tim Horton Experience

The morning of the 19^th I woke up at 8 to find we had no power, living in an all electricity house it meant we couldn’t do the simplest of things, like cook my toast, but more importantly we couldn’t use the electric stove top to make our morning coffee, using my stove top mocha pot! So we were in a bit of a pickle. Over the last few years, especially as a cyclist I have become dependent on my morning coffee, (I know... probably not the best thing)

Anyway with this little predicament on our hands we had only one choice, to head to the famous Tim Horton’s. Over the last 3 weeks we had not yet had the chance to get to Tim Horton’s. Every time we are picked up for a bike race, our team mates have Tim Horton’s cups in their hands. After much discussion with our team mates, they assured us the coffee was great. Now let me tell the people that have never been to North America before, but they don’t prize themselves on great coffee, and a lot of people have no idea of what a good coffee machine looks like let alone what type of coffee comes out of it. So anyway we were under the impression that we might be in for a surprise with a great Cafe Latte or Cappuccino. So we threw caution to the wind and decided to get our morning caffeine hit from the Famous Horton cafe!

We started our “road trip” by going to get the Garneau van, we drove down the road until we saw the big yellow and red Tim Horton Sign, (maybe the only sign that’s not in French) we walked into the cafe. First thought is it’s more like a bakery, shelves full of famous American baked goods (self explanatory), as I walked up to the counter, being a barista myself I instinctively look for the machine they use, the set up of the grinder, beans and group handles (yep I’m throwing some Barista words out there!!) To my surprise I didn’t see any of these things. I started to get worried, I tried to comfort myself by thinking they might have it out the back.

I let Shaun Order first. As he knows close to no French, and the young girl behind the counter knowing no English I couldn’t see it go smoothly, which it didn’t, he started with a simple order of “could I please have one cafe latte” she didn’t know what he was talking about, but we ended up coming to some sort of an agreement, after I pulled some of my French “Une cafe au lait” (I thought it meant a cafe latte, but it just means a coffee with milk). As Shaun ordered I saw them take the cup and fill it with the most popular coffee in America, their filtered drip coffee, at this stage I was very worried!! Not wanting to buy a cup of this coffee myself I tried to look at the menu, with no help I ordered the one drink that pretty much directly translates, Cappuccino. I thought mine might be a bit safer, I thought I saw an automatic machine that makes a quick cappuccino, still not very good coffee but a bit better. It was lucky I knew a bit of French as she asked me if I wanted it “Frais”, which means cold, I think like a Frappe, I said “no chaud“ which is hot. I ordered and walked to my table as I thought it might take at least 30 seconds for it to come out of auto machine. I was wrong as I sat down they had it ready. I opened the cup up to see there was a bit of foam on the top, I took a smell, it smelled like a vanilla, my first taste confirmed my suspicion, I looked across the shop to see the reason for my flavoured coffee, it was not coffee at all, I had ordered a French vanilla cappuccino, which come in... Wait for it... a powder! I was not happy, they had mixed some powder into hot Water, so not only did I not even get some sort of filtered coffee, but a flavoured milk drink!

We were both not impressed. I have since looked t the website of Tim Horton, this is what they say about their coffee.

“Since 1964, Tim Hortons famous coffee has been served one way: fresh. Our premium blend of 100% Arabica beans is sourced from some of the world's most renowned coffee regions. It contains no additives and no artificial flavours - just the great taste you love.”

And this is the picture of the coffee they provide, unlike Australia they think this looks like a good cup of coffee, where back home every shop that sells coffee has taken good pictures of a cappuccino with a bit of latte art. Seeing this picture beforehand would have given me a fairly good idea of the coffee treat I was in for this morning.

It is a completely different coffee culture in North America, I’m not sure how they would handle a Proper coffee, being brought up on drip coffee, but Australians these days have come accustom to good coffee and I imagine any place back home that tried to sell this type of coffee these days wouldn’t last.

I hope I have given everybody a bit of an inside of one of our many Canadian Experiences that we will be having over the next few months, I hope this one has been interesting for everybody to read, I will make sure the next “experience” I have will be a positive one. I’m thinking it might be an inside to the old city of Quebec, which is truly beautiful!

Until The next Issue!

James Langedyk

So it has been 3 weeks since I arrived in Canada. I left Australia at 11 on a Monday to avoid our winter and do a big international racing season in Canada and America. An epic 51 hours later I arrived in Canada, to my surprise it was snowing, something I didn’t expect, it was freezing! My first thought was that this is going to be really hard to train in, especially considering the week I left Australia it was 28 degrees. But to my relief it did get warm, and then it got cold again. Once I had spoken to a few of the locals I found out that the weather in Quebec is more volatile than in Melbourne.

I’ll start of by telling you a bit about the city of Quebec and Canada. The old city is a beautiful old European type city, it has old stone buildings and cobble streets, with high walled Street front buildings and steep winding hills. There is a Magnificent Castle at the top of the city that looks over the St Lawrence river, that runs from the North Atlantic Ocean, through Niagara Falls (which I found out is a mere 12 hours from Quebec, doesn’t look that far on the map!) to the great lakes, its cannons that are placed Strategically all along the border leave a reminder that there has once been a battle fought along the shores of this little city. After speaking to a few more locals I discovered that 402 years ago the French founded the town of Quebec (hence the French Language and culture) and when the English found out there was land to be had, they tried to invade (that’s history of Quebec in a nut shell).

So the team I have come over to ride with is the Louis Garneau team, we wear a nice pink, white and black kit and race in Canada and some of America. I am living in Louis corporate condo which is a 3 story apartment across the road from the Garneau factory, it is a Great little place, I would say about 2 or 3 years old. In the Condo I am living with my only other Australian Team mate Shaun McCarthy, who hails from Bendigo.

We have raced 5 small races to date, 2 time trials 2 crits and a 3 stage tour, I have been feeling pretty good in all the races. My first race I did was a 75 min Crit in Montreal, I was pretty nervous at the start but as soon as the race started the nerves eased and I got into it, not Knowing who to follow both Shaun and I missed the main break, Not without some effort to try and create some moves for ourselves. I ended up winning the bunch kick and got 14^th.

The next race we did was a small Time trial on a Tuesday night, something a few of us do to get a extra hit out during the week, it was an 11.5 km race, we didn’t end up racing till 8.30 at night and by then it was starting to get really cold and dark. Shaun ended up winning and beating me by 5 seconds, we had beaten 3^rd by 1 minute, and we did the course in 13.13 and 13.18 respectively, averaging 52km/h.

The next race was a 19 km time trial near Montreal, with a better field including some riders from the top Canadian team Spider Tech and The national TT champion and 10^th u23 world tt rider From Kelly Benefits David Veilleux. It was a freezing wet day. As I warmed up the rain started to turn into snow before it then returned to rain! I ended up getting 5^th averaging 47 which I was pretty happy with.

Then we had another Tuesday night race, this time it was a 40km Crit right around the corner from the condo, it was a super fast course with 70 riders in the field, A break of 3 got up the road including Fly v rider Charles Dionne and My team mate Shaun and One other guy, I was in the next move of 3 trying to chase them down which we couldn’t do, in the end Charles won over Shaun and I got 4^th, it was a bit of fun and a nice little hit out.

Then we came to our first tour and first road race, we had a 90k circuit race, Undulating course but pretty good, I got away for a lap by myself which was a bit of fun, I felt pretty tough riding off the front solo, but I found the race very negative so they chased me back pretty early, then 2 of my other team mates got away on the last lap and ended up staying away, in the end I won the bunch kick to get 4^th.

In the arvo we had a 11.8 km time trial, I had a bad gut warming up so I thought it might be pretty tough. I felt pretty tired and ended up getting 3^rd 12 seconds down.

The next day we had a 136km road race, a break got up the road and we had our team chase it down on the last lap, I was feeling good for the sprint and had a few team mates that were going to lead me out, but as the finish got closer they got white line fever and attacked, our team leader who was first on GC tried to get away at the finish ( which he didn’t need to do he was up by 1 min), so I was left by myself chasing small attacks and at the end I had to sprint twice before the finish and I ended up getting know where in the sprint. I was pretty angry at the circumstances, but we ended up winning the tour and getting 2^nd and I got 5^th, so for my first tour I was pretty happy.

So in the next few weeks I am going to America for the killington stage race and have tour de Beauce in 3 weeks which is the biggest race we will do.

So ill keep you all updated on my training and racing over the next few weeks.

Until Next time!

James Langedyk

Well i just wrote a great blog entry and when I went to publish it, it told me to log on to the site and it rubbed it all,

Im going to have to write it all again and i took me all morning to do, but now i have to head out and organise a bigger bike so its going to have to wait a while.

It is so frustrating!!!

anyway ill hopefully put an update on later this arvo.

Au revoir