Tim Guille

If you can remember back to Part 2, you’ll recall that we had just located Johnny’s gear and were headed back to the car. Once we made it back we packed his stuff, we got him out some warm clothes to put on and headed off to the hospital. Now that we had the Clio back and the new cable was all Hunky Dory, Jono and I reoccupied our seat in the twingo and Nicko got back into the Clio. We were off to the Hospital.

Jono had asked somebody how to get there (in French….talented man) so we lead the way with Nicko close behind. At least he was close behind…. Until of course he wasn’t close behind anymore. We had travelled no more than 500m from the race site when we could no longer see little red rocket in the rear view mirror. Surely he hasn’t stopped for another Piss!

After another illegal u-turn we were headed back to fin Nicko when we saw the red rocket half parked on the sidewalk. Nicko had a bit of a funny grin on his face before telling us that the cable had snapped again at which point our hearts sank and then we laughed a lot. Poor Johnny was waiting at the hospital and had been for some time and now Nicko had broken the car again. We quickly changed cars so that Nicko could go and pick up Johnny and then return back to see what we could do.

Jono and I once again found our heads under the bonnet on the Clio on the side of the road, investigating the mysterious snapped accelerator cable. It seemed, although had not come out until this time that when the mechanic changed the original cable for the new one, he cut it a bit short and then connected it anyway, thus making the gas pedal sit much higher than it should. Thinking that the cable was just a bit tight and would loosen up over time, Jono took the time whilst driving back to Parthenay to plant the pedal and slowly stretch the cable so that the pedal sat where it should along side the other two pedals. After time, it found its place in line with its friends and everyone was happy. That was until Nicko got back into the car and the pedal was again sitting higher than would be expected. And as Nicko often likes to drive like a racing car driver, the pedal was once again pushing against the carpet in an attempt to gain “more power”. Now, anyone with half a brain (obviously not Nicko or Jono) would realise that a steel cable is still a steel cable and that there is not much give in a steel cable should you try to stretch it. Have you ever tried to stretch a steel cable….? It does NOT stretch.

Therefore, through the subsequent attempts at the stretching of the cable, all that happened was that the special thingamajiggy which connects the cable to the engine was stretched beyond all belief and eventually gave way and the cable snapped again, but this time from the other end, this being the end that attaches to the engine and not the pedal. This left us with a bit on a predicament, in that we were still 3 hours from home, our potenital accommodation for the night had left and we now once again had a broken car. And Johnny possibly had broken ribs which we found out upon his return from the hospital with Nicko.

During the time that it took Nick o to go and get Johnny, Jono and I had been racking our brains with ideas to reconnect the cable to the engine with anything that we had in the car. We had short-listed the sourced materials from our brainstorm session and went from the “could work”, to the “could possibly work”, which were separated from the “no chance in hell” and were finally left with the “what the F%*&, let’s just try it” group. In the end, we decided that our lives would rest with two keyrings and a calliper brake pad removed from Johnny’s bike, sitting on the back seat.

A short time into our Mechanical brainstorm a nice local guy stopped on the side of the road and came to give us a hand. From what we could ascertain, he was a mechanic of some description, however all he seemed to do was take my ideas and implement them, making out as if it was his idea in the first place. After a while he gave up and headed off home to his nice warm bed and warm cup of coco leaving us Aussie battlers to fight it out with mother nature and the once loved, but now reviled Clio.

Staying in Parthenay for the night was not an option. Therefore failure was not an option, so after some time and a whole lot of fiddling and cursing we had attached the cable to the engine in a manner that we mechanically minded lads thought would last the 300km remaining to get back to Bourges. Time would tell.

But just to let you know how ingenious our contraption was created, here’s how we did it:

Although not filling us with confidence, the contraption was sturdy and after several tests in which the cable was placed under much more forced than required to safely drive the car home (Nciko’s driving not included) it was decided that we would give it a go and if we broke down on some motorway in the middle of France then we would just laugh some more and then sleep on the side of the road and hope that that Murdock bloke hadn’t broken out prison and made his way over to Europe.

Due to his track record in the Clio, Nicko was now banished from driving the Red Rocket and Jono and I were now behind the wheel of our little baby. The love had returned and the harsh feeling from before were no longer felt.

Before we knew it, it was 12:30am and we had made it back to Bourges in one piece. To let you all know, the cable lasted us until Thursday when we took it back to the mechanic (who also happens to be a club sponsor) and had the cable replaced. We also travelled to Paris on Monday and returned on Tuesday night, adding another 500kms driven on our cable. It was felt between the group that it would have outlasted the car itself.

PARTHENAY RACE ADVENTURE: Part 2

Now we come to probably the most unimportant part of the story, the actual race. The roads were wet, the swim was good, the ride was not and the run was about as good as the ride. It seemed that all of the racing, training and travelling over the past 4 and a half months had left me a little tired once again and I was not racing at my best on this day. It was a little disappointing and a lot frustrating as my body doesn’t seem to want to do what my mind says it can. Nonetheless, I was still able to come away with third place for the day, however fourth would have been a much better place on this day, though we did not realise this until later…

It was a pleasant surprise to see Jono standing on the sidelines when running out onto the run however. The story that he had for us after the race was a funny one. After we left him on his own on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere it was not long until the tow truck arrived to pick him up. Now, after talking to the roadside assistance crew on the phone, he was under the impression that the car would be taken to the nearest garage to be eventually fixed on Monday as they would not be open on a Sunday. He was told to ring back once the driver in the truck arrived, which he did. It was then that he was told that the driver would take him back to his own garage and do the repairs straight away. If this was the case, Jono could not work out why the guy didn’t just bring the cable needed to fix the car and do it on the side of the road. Anyways, he went back to the garage with the driver (which happened to be 40km in the opposite direction) and had the new cable fitted to the car. He then drove the however many km’s it now was back to Parthenay to watch the remainder of the race. This was not a bad result, considering that when we left him, we were sure that we would be needing to find somewhere to stay for the night so that we could pick the car up the following day.

Only with the prize cheque for third place overall also came the mystery prize of a drug test with some wacky French doc in the toilet of the local swimming pool. The first three male placegetters only were tested by a surprise French visit from whoever it is that is in charge of athlete drug testing in

France

This was my first experience of drug testing although I had seen a lot of it around the races that I’ve done and was aware of the process. And as is the case with all testing as soon as I crossed the finish line I was assigned with a escort who’s job it was to follow me around with lots of water and make sure I couldn’t swap my wee with anybody else. He was a nice man and spoke good English. He did a good job as I didn’t swap my wee with anybody and he always had plenty of water on hand. As most of you would be aware, it can take a considerable amount of time to push out a couple of drops after a hard race, but luckily on this day it was quite cool and overcast. It still did take quite a while to “fill the cup” though. But not as long as the ensuing paperwork and protocol that went along with it.

The Wacky French Doc was a full blooded knob and made things most difficult for everyone involved. I was so glad to have Jono on board as his ability to speak French was most helpful. Especially when trying to explain to the doc that I did not have my passport and that we did not feel it necessary to bring it for a race only three hours drive from where we live. This particular conversation went on for quite some time, before it became a little heated and then the doc gave in after Jono hit him up with some Jedi mind tricks (his abilities are endless).

So, after about an hour and a half, the piss was in the cup, the piss in the cup was then poured into two other cups, then the cups went into two bigger cups with snap lock lids and then the snap-lock cups went into the esky and then I shook the hand of about 40 people who were in the room and then we left, with my wee in the cup, that wee also in the other cups, and the cups in the bigger cups which were now in the esky. And given the amount of water that I had consumed in that short amount of time, there was also a whole lot more wee in me… but I wouldn’t realise that until later.

When we finally got out of the swimming pool complex it was time to try and find the others. The presentations had been finished for quite some time now which I found to be absolutely ridiculous. Apparently they had been calling us over the P.A system to come to the stage area for the presentation, yet we had no idea as we were all the way over in the toilet trying to squeeze some wee out of our dehydrated bodies. I couldn’t work out why we couldn’t just go to the presentations and then wee afterwards. This would have given us plenty of time to drink copious amounts of water, stand up and feel really bloated and then receive our awards. Instead, the first three placegetters for the day sat in a room drinking copious amounts of water, felt bloated sitting down all the while why the race organisers were made to look like absolute fools for losing three athletes. But we were told that we had to go and do the drug testing, so that’s what we did.

Anyways, got that off my chest. The task of finding the others was going to a little more difficult than would normally be the case. Finding Nicko was easy enough as he was standing outside of the pool, but looking for Johnny was a different story. During the race, poor Johnny had had a little spill on one of the corners. Fully aware that he could possibly be in a right mess he did the only thing he could and attempted to jump back onto his bike as quickly as possible. Being in a country where you don’t speak the language and having to go to the local hospital to have a whole heap of stuff done to you that you don’t understand is not cool. And Johnny was aware of this, so quick as a flash he was trying to remount his bike before the crowds rushed in. Before he knew, little Johnny was in the back of the Ambulance arguing with the staff that he was fine and did not need to go to the hospital. But poor Johnny didn’t stand a chance, so off to the hospital he went. All of this took place before and during the time that I went off to the see the doc watch me do a piddle, so by the time I got out Johnny was all checked over, had told the hospital staff to go and stuff themselves and that he wasn’t having any x-rays despite his sore chest and that he wanted to leave. Therefore, all we had to do was to pack the car, go and pick up my cheque, grab Johnny’s bike and race gear from transition and then pick him up from the hospital.

The first bit was easy as pie. The car was packed and we had left plenty of room to put Johnny’s gear inside. But when we went off to transition to get Johnny’s gear we had a bit of a problem, Johnny’s bike was not in transition. We searched for a good 15 minutes but it seemed that nobody knew where his bag, bike, runners or wetsuit were. After some time, somebody was able to find his bag up on the stage which we took and filled with some goodies from inside a big shed. Then, with a bag full of dried apricots and ginger cake we resumed the search for the remainder of johnny’s gear. We found it rather difficult to understand how his bike and gear could go missing, but this is France after all. After another 10 minutes of searching we were able to locate the whereabouts of Johnny’s runaway gear and safely took it back to the car. Left upon his frame was the remanence of the crash he had earlier in the day. It seemed by the small paddock stuck to his bike that he had fallen into some grass and if his bike was this dirty, we were scared to see how dirty poor Johnny was. (somewhere in the middle there, I located my cheque….very important. Stuff Johnny’s bike, get me my money!!)

PARTHENAY RACE ADVENTURE: Part1

This one is a bit on a longy, so I’ve decided to split it up for you all. And since this is the first part of the story, I have decided to call this:

It was decided early last week that on the upcoming Sunday that we would travel as a threesome to race the Parthenay Triathlon, which is about 3 and a half hours from Bourges. Not long after we had decided to do so, Johnny P had decided that he would travel from Aix to come and stay with us in Bourges for a couple of days and also come along to race on the Sunday.

And even that our Beast (the ’97 Renault Clio) is only a touch smaller than Keaysy’s head, the chances of fitting 4 bikes, 4 bags and 4 humans inside was near on impossible. This left us with a little bit of a dilemma…

The next few days were spent trying to organise a suitable vehicle for our journey but as hard as we tried, we came up empty handed. It was not until on Friday that Jono had the idea that we borrow Shazza and Tezza’s Renault Twingo and take both cars for the ride. The Twingo is in fact quite a deal smaller than Keaysy’s head, and as I sit typing this blog on my double bed it would be safe to say that the car would fit comfortably inside the confines of my mattress.

Nonetheless, we now had two cars to travel in which was by far the cheapest and hopefully easiest way to make the journey. With only two occupants in each car, we would have enough room to fit both bikes and all of our bags, along with a few travel goodies to keep us well fuelled as well as interested along the way. We were set to go.

The race was not until 4 in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time to get there and had scheduled our departure time for about 10am the morning of the race. The morning had not started off to well with the internet deciding that it would not work. Little did we know it, but this was to be the least of out problems for the day, a day which would see us finally arrive back into our apartment in Bourges early the following morning.

The first and possible my most devastating occurrence for the whole day was discovered when we stopped for a widdle after about an hour or so of travel. After having a little wee on the side of the road I decided that I was ready for a lucky dip into my bag of goodies. Only to find that in order to have a lucky dip from the bag itself, I had to take the bag off the table from our living room. Shattered…

So after a brief bit of cursing and yelling at the cows on the side of the road, I hungrily and now somewhat grumpily made my way back into the car for the remainder of the journey. Little did I know that soon after we would be stopping again and that I could then have a grab at the Johnny and Nicko’s bag of goodies.

A little way down the road and only about 30 minutes after we had previously stopped, Jono observed Nick and Johnny in the Clio falling behind after passing a car in the overtaking lane. Once we made it over a small rise and the others did not we pulled over to the side to wait for them to catch. After a few minutes of waiting, it was obvious that the boys weren’t coming. “Surely, they don’t need to go to the toilet again”, Jono said to me so we turned around and went back to see the Clio sitting on the side of the road and Nicko having a little tickle in the grass. If this were the only reason for the stop we would have been stoked, however the fact that the accelerator cable had snapped off the accelerator pedal meant that Nicko having a wee in the grass meant that he was wasting time and this made us angry.

After raiding the boys goodie bag for a few minutes, we finally decided that something needed to be done. We then had to decide what it would be that we would do. Hmmmm

In order to take part in the brainstorming session, it was necessary for me to have a few more lucky dips into the goodie bag, which I did and then we decided on the plan of attack. We now had 4 humans, 4 bikes and lots of bags to take in a car no bigger than one of my spoon thumbs (which although I have been told are enormous, are not really that big). The fact that the larger of the two cars had broken down, made little difference to our situation as the chances of the 4 of us making it the remaining 130km to Parthenay in the Twingo were as good as Owen trying not to get stuck in the trap that is “his ex-girlfriend”. Ahhhhhhh!!!!

After a short discussion, it was decided by myself that we would remove the cable from it’s casing and as it was still connected to the engine to drive the car. By simply tying the cable to an Octopus strap we could pull the cable through the window of the driver’s side as by pulling on the cable with the left hand (the steering wheel is on the other side over here) you would be able accelerate and use the other pedals to perform the medial tasks of braking and changing gears. Genius!! (photos to come)

And as nobody else was game enough to try, I was left with the task of getting the car to Parthenay. My co-driver, now Johnny P was a great deal of help throughout the next 25km as he screamed and carried on like a little girl. I mean, all we were doing was driving a car at 120kph using a piece of wire through a window. Easy. The only problem was changing gears, as with one hand steering and the other working the throttle there were no hands left use the stick. After Johnny had contained himself and I thought that he were in a position to handle the responsibility I left him in charge of gears. This worked well for the first few goes until Johnny decided that he would change gears when he wasn’t supposed to skyrocketing the engine to about 5 million revs and scaring the absolute shit out of both of us.

This process continued as I said earlier for around 25km until my hand started to get sore and we thought it best to stop for a rest. I had hope for a new co-driver but after stopping and giving me a few more dips into the goodie bag it was decided that this was probably not the safest was to continue on.

Our new plan of attack from this point on was that we would leave Jono with the car and he could call the roadside assistance. This was the case as Jono is the only French speaking person of the four of us and therefore the only one who could get it fixed. The onky problem was that it was a Sunday and we were pretty sure that there was no way that after the car was towed to the nearest garage that the car would be fixed until the Monday.

The next 15 minutes we spent strategically packing the pint-size Twingo with Johnny, Nicko and my bikes, bags and bodies. Simply fitting the gear in the back of this car was a mission, let alone fitting three bodies into the front, or cockpit as we like to call it. I had nominated myself as the driver as I was the tallest, but I also knew that the other two wanted to spend some quality time together in the passenger seat. With the driver seat so close to the pedals that I could drive them with my hands (haha) and my knees around my ears we took up with first Nicko sitting on Johhny’s lap. (photos to come).

100km and almost as many position changes later, we arrived into Parthenay to get ready to race. We all took turns in straightening out each others limbs and then made our way to the registration area where we realised that Johnny had left his wallet (with race licence) in the other car. Luckily for us the woman who helped us spoke English and we were let through without a hassle. This is an extremely rare occurrence in French Triathlon racing.

Bourges Again

I began writing this blog the other night after the Women's triathlon earlier that morning but wasn't really in the mood so i threw in the towel like Keaysy on a hot day..... or a cold day for that matter. Even a perfectly normal day.... B ut he is training partner to the stars so i'll let him off lightly this time. So keaysy, what is it like to swim in the same lane as Erin Densham??

Anyway, enough about the man who single handedly trained up Erin to race in Beijing, i must let you all know about where i am and what i've been up to. I think that eating too many creme brulee's clogged up up my thought processes so for the past week and a half all i've done is sit on the couch and stare at the TV in the hope that the babble that is the French language will somehow magically enter my head and allow my to speak fluent french.

I can tell you now after my experiment that this was not the case... Back to the books i guess..

I've been in Bourges now for just over a week and have settled back into my corner of the room. I am once again enjoying the luxury of a double bed although it seem that i have an allergy to French pillows as they do not allow my to sleep at night. Unhappy with my messy living quarters Jono and I made the trek down to the local supermarket/department store to purchase a few things. One of them being a new pillow, the other a clothes organiser. Unfortunately, the clothes organiser does not do the organising for you but it does hae three seperate compartments for all of my stylish apparel. As i look at it now i can see that the far left side is dedicated to running and racing gear (running specific socks included), the far right compartment is dedicated to cycling only gear (cycling specific socks included) and the middle compartment is for casual clothing (no socks included). In the rare case of requiring a pair of socks to wear with casual clothes then i am at liberty to choose a pair from either the cycling or running compartments.

Shoes must be aigned on the floor in pairs and any spare luggage or unwanted apparel such as cool weather gear must be stored under the bed.

Mum, before you become too excited i must warn you that this trend is not likely to continue for much longer and the chances of me bringing tis attitude home to Aus with me is remote to say the least. Nonetheless, you may find yourself lucky for a few days. Time will tell.

I am yet to get to the start of my blog from the other day, so i'll cut myself off here and begin fresh from a few days ago. Just pretend like its Monday afternoon and everything that you've just read is yet to happen..........

Jono, Nicko and myself made sure we were up in time this morning to watch the women's triathlon. It was at 4am our time which was a bit of a chore but as i had woken at the same hour to watch Grant Hackett in the 1500m it wasn't too bad. I received an email from Kepa today telling me that he was also up at 4am to watch the race. The remained of the afternoon was spent rolling around on the floor in laughter thinking of Kepa's state of being at 4am given that he thinks 9am is too early to get up to walk the 250m to work in the morning.

It was great to see the two aussie girls get onto the podium and also see Erin finish 22nd. It was definitely worth waking early for to see the two Emma's as they are now known race so well but after the finish it was quickly back to bed to make the most of the remaining hours of darkness. Surprisingly it remained dark until 10:30am.....

Since this time, not alot has been achieved, other than sitting on the bed with the latop in hand, writing emails and blogs. I'm obviously back in bourges with the boys and the weather is fine.

On Saturday we made the five minute journey down into the centre of town to have a looksee at the Cathedral for which Bourges is famous. It was a fantastic experience and i have some great photos from the visit. We went with Shazza's eldest daughter as she was once a tour guide for the Cathedral and she showed us around. We also went on a tour of the crypt belo the cathedral with a woman who was possibly the fastest talker i have ever heard. The fact that she was taking in French did not really matter as even if she were speaking slow i wouldn't have understood. It did not help that Jono could not understand her as he usually acts as our translator and was unable to do so on this occasion. We were given a little panflet in english which explained the parts of the crypt however, so we pretty much just walked around and had a look for ourselves while the woman spoketo the group.

It rained most of Sunday and an hour and a half of this was spent running at a forest that the boys had found nearby. It was nice to run in the rain and it wasn't too cold out. After this, there was not much else to accomplish for the remainder of the day other than wait for the rain to clear so that we could go for a pedal in the afternoon, so Jono and I ventured down to the local Supermarket/Department store to buy some much needed goodies as you have read above. A clothes organiser, a pillow, some drinking glasses and a few little goodies.

Most of the major French supermarket chains are great in that their stores cotain both a supermarket and also a department store. The are all aout the size of Jeff's shed however, so it is important to allocate sufficient time to make your way around the whole store as i is a good time waster. You mastbe careful however not to program too much training after such an outing as the legs can be left feeling a little weary. Not so for the store worker however who get around during their shift on rollerblades. deadly serious!!!

It was funny as were walking along one of the aisles whe Jono brought up the topic af how you could be dropped at the front door of this place with nothing more than a wad full of pineapples, and within an hour or two (dependent of your efficiency) you could be ready to move into your previously unfurnished apartment.

We came to the conclusion that you could buy everything that you would need to live comfortably under the roof of this one store. So we came up with a plan as to how if we were dropped at the front door in nothing more than our undies and a wad of cash we would be able to purchase ayting that we needed to set up in Bourges. We thought it appropriate to be at least wearing our underwear as withou them, one; we probably wouldn;t be allowed to enter the store and two; we wouldn't have anywhere to store our cash...

Obviously the most important thing to accomplish first is to purchase some clothes. Easy done, straight to menswear where you can find everything from the most fashionable attire to the most practical attire such as business shirts and slacks to start our new job. With shoes just next door we are fully covered and ready to continue shopping within a matter of minutes.

Next is the very important task of choosing the right sized television for our new apartment. Of course it needs to fit in with the decor and space available in our apartment..... but as we have never seen the apartment in the flesh the 238cm plasma just looks too good to refuse. It will be nicely complementd by some surround sound speakers, a new laptop, an ipod with dock, some trendy CD's and of course a Nintendo Wii.

Bedding is also important, as comfort will be essential in our new apartment and sleep will be at a premium given our hectic schedule. Sheets, Pillows, storage, shoe racks, cloths horse, tablecloths, placemats, all accomplished here.

Pots and pans can be found at the opposite end of the department section, as well as cutlery, crockery and glassware. This will all look really nice on our new dining suite purchased from area 4.

Directly across from area four, it was hard not to notice the sports section. Given that our apartment is positioned at the bottom of the complex and aparently contains a nice little courtyard, we thought it appropriate to grap a Huffy Basketball ring and also a totem tennis pole. This will surely keep us occupied during time from our busy schedule.

As we make our way down to the grocery section to complete our first big shop to fill the cupboards we come across the pet section. Not just your run of the mill Safeway/Woolies pet section either. Other than selling the animals themselves there is just about anything that a pet could ever want. We don't actually have a pet but hey, there's plently of strays walking around france, to be on the safe side we'll take some dog and cat food. And a big fluffy kennel, just incase we pick up a pony or something.

the easier but must time consuming part is of course grabbing the first lot of groceries. But when you've got an aisle dedicated to "products of the world", things are made so much easier. Especially as we hoe down on our third block of Cadbury dairly milk but the time we hit the frozen goods section. Once finished with the groceries it is importnat to get everything back to the aartment, but with Carrefour's fantastic home delivery service we will be living in luxury by this afternoon. And of course, no need to hitch a rde with the delivery truck once we purchase our brand new Petrol Powered Scooters for the unbelievablt price of just 999 euros.

Dessert Heaven

Well i'm sitting here on my bed during what is commonly known as black hour and thought that writing a blog to my most favouritest friends and fans would help to fill in the time. Black hour runs from 6:30 until 7:30, which is the hour before dinnertime here at Les Platanes. During "Black Hour", no food is to be consumed. It's not unlike when you were a child and your mother wouldn't let you eat anything before dinner so that you wouldn't spoil your dinner, but different....

Anyways, back to the point. I've got an hour to kill before dinner and nothing more than a keyboard and two pieces of chewing gum to get me through. So what better way to pass the time than to talk about the one thing that i have black-listed for the next 55 minutes, food..... In particular, desserts.

Here at Les Platanes Hotel & Restaurant dinner is served at promptly 7:30pm every night. We are provided with a buffet meal each night with a variety of combinations dependent on the night of the week. A big favourite for myself and most of the others in Monday night where we are treated to Beef Lasagne and Vegetarian Quiche, easily the two best plates er4ved up all week. Monday is closely followed however by Friday with a spread of vegetarian lasagne and curry chicken. Wednesday is A la Carte night, which is an absolute cracker but cannot be compared to or with any other night of the week. Thursday night's mains are not too great however Thursday is also Crepe night. Crepes are served up after dinner with Nutella and Jam and are a big favourite among the crew.

But on every other night of the week, following dinner we have the choice of dessert from the A la Carte menu. WOW!!!!

It is sometimes so hard to choose between the delectable sweets that are Les Platanes desserts that some nights you just have to go and have a lie down and have a sleep and give dessert a miss all together. But on the nights that you do happen to choose a mouth-watering treat to reward yourself for a hard day's training, you must be careful that your head does not simply explode such is the experience.

Now, you of course have your old favourites on the menu such as your Ice Cream (assorted flavours) of which you can have one, two or three scoops. It must be said however that the Vanilla ice cream in France is absolutely amazing and is made with real vanilla bean, which you can see. A few rungs above the old Peter's original. Other flavours include chocolate, pistachio, strawberry, lemon............ blah, blah, blah.

You then have other oldies but goodies like you Chocolate Mousse (definitely a winner), Tarte de Pomme (apple tart), crepes and a few others. But i have short listed the favourites of the group to give you all an insight into everybody's tastes.

Although not up there with the absolute favourites of the bunch, the Creme Caramel definitely holds it own within the top echelon of after dinner delicacies. Unlike, your packet job from Safeway or Coles the Platanes Creme Caramel is so smooth that it almost slips down your throat without you even getting to taste the amazing flavour that it harnesses. Served upside down on a plate and covered in liquid gold, the Creme Caramel is a sure fire pleaser without being over the top.

Well respected among the group, it has a small group of avid fans which include The bossman Bill Davoren, Tyler B, Johnny P and occasionally the Rhode Train.

There are two Half Colours awards for the short-listed desserts of 2008 and they are:

Served on a base of not crunchy, yet not soggy pastry, and topped with a plethora of lazed pear pieces, the Tarte de Tarne (of which we are not sure of the spelling) is served with a side of Vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream. The mere sight of this dessert has sent some of the female members of the team into hot flushes, and with the right amount of delicate spoonmanship, the Tarte de Tarne can be meticulously dissected until the last enchanting mouthful. With a bevy of followers and a few passionate devotees this dessert is easily one of the most popular and is fully worthy of its half colour status.

Tarte de Tarne enthusiasts include J Hall, Kung Fu, Dan the Man Uden, Neon Leon and occasionally the Rhode Train.

Relatively new to the Triathlon Australia table having just been discovered within the last week or so the Tarte aux Nois has skyrocketed to Half Colour status, and for good reason. The assortment of nuts encased in a butter caramel goo on a bed of crunchy biscuit base is so mouth-watering that the tiny slither often served has caused many a customer being left so utterly satisfied, yet wanting more.

It is not an uncommon sight to see many a good athlete fall from grace and have to be escorted from the dinner table in tears after 3 or 4 servings of what is now recognised as possibly the most popular dessert. And if not the most popular, defintely "flavour of the month".

It took a brave soul to ask the extremely unilingual waiter what other tarts were available on the menu one night last week, and had it not happened then we would all be none the wiser to this entrancing after dinner sensation. Upon the response of the clumsy waiter known simply as "Lurch", nobody really knew what it was, but J Hall was the man to take up the challenge, as his Tarte de Tarne was seemingly not satisfying enough. With Kung Fu soon to follow suit an impartial judgement could be made, not that J Hall is seen as an unworthy judge (as he has most certainly proved himself in the art of after-dinner destruction since arriving to Les Platanes), but rather that having already consumed a Tarte de Tarne it was thought that it would be more decipher the subtle flavours hidden within the unknown tart.

But as was to be expected, the new found dessert came up trumps. And within the ensuing days, like seagulls we all flocked to the "nutty tart" as it developed arguably the biggest following seen on the TA table. As word spread, everybody wanted their piece of the "Nutty Tart".

Obsessive and besotted have become words associated with the Tarte aux Nois disciples. The hall of shame reads as follows:

J Hall, Buttons Densham, The Fu, Sticksy, Tyler B, Luigi, Johnny P, Dan the Man, Matty the psych. And occasionally the Rhode Train.

With Full Colours being the highest award handed out for the short-listed desserts of 2008 it makes sense that as the author of this blog i have the final say. For this reason i have chosen my favourite dessert on the menu, the Creme Brulee.

Having arrived to Les Platanes never tasting such a dessert in my life i was quickly assured that the Creme Brulee was easily the best tasting dessert on the menu, but also the best Creme Brulee in the whole world. A big call i know!

Despite the ranting and raving, i was slow on the uptake and it took me a few nights of settling in before i built up the courage to order the CB. I was like a kid in a candy store waiting for my plate to arrive. The anxiety had filled my body and it all became a little too much when i had to leave the table for a nervous wee. No unlike those prior to a big race. This may have been the best ting to happen to my though, as when i arrive back to my chair..... there it was in all of it's splendour.

My roomate Brendan had developed a close connection to this particular dessert and during long meaningful chats in our bedroom he had described to me the first mouthful to be almost orgasmic. Wary of his comments and not wanting to embarrass i took t the first spoonful very carefully.... slowly letting the flavour release itself into my tastebuds.

It was nothing short of amazing, and i was almost ready to stop there such was my satisfaction. that was until Brendan assured me that the Creme Brulee was sooooo good that you are actually surprised again and again, mouthful after mouthful. From the first to the last. AMAZING!!! The onslaught of flavour never ends until the very last mouthful is finished.

He also believes that it is important to leave sufficient time between each mouthful to fully appreciate the wonder that is taking place between the contents of your spoon and your tastebuds.

In spite of this, diners are advised that the Creme Brulee must be used sparingly as its mystical power is so great that too many will make you very fat.

It must be noted that the CB is only for the most committed of dessert diners. The following people are uncompromising in their pursuit of pleasure and should be commended for their dedication to the cause.

Grug (AKA Luigi), Johnny P, Sticksy, Kung Fu, Tyler B, Neon Leon and more than occasionally the Rhode Train...

Alpe d'Huez Triathlon

Well, yesterday was the day of the iconic Alpe d'Huez Triathlon and as i had mentioned earlier on a previous blog i was entered and looking forward to the big race. Now that it is finished it is safe to say that i am glad that it is all over.

My performance yesterday was not quite what i had planned, however neither was the weather. It was a fantastic experience and a very long day which saw Jono, myself and physio Leon leaving Aix les Bains at 8am to travel the two or so hours to the top of Ad'H. The drive was quite easy and uneventful and when we got to the bottom of the climb we dropped Leon off so that he could ride up the hill and meet us at the top. It was handy to drivethe course first as there was fat chance that i was going to ride it before the race.

The nature of the race meant that there would be two transition areas, one at the swim exit which was held in a lake about 17km from the bottom of the climb. The lake itself was used to create hydro-electricity and was only open to swimming for the Triathlon week. Every other day of he year it is forbidden to swim in the lake whic is a shame as it was quite a spectacular scene. However, the knowledge of the area and skill of the local adolecents jumping off the breakwall into the water seemed to disprove this statement.

Jono and i got to the top of the climb where transition 2 was and also the finsh and registration areas. I registered and got my race pack which included a brand new XL bike rag and my race numbers. After this we realised that we had quite a deal of time to kill, so we found a nice little patisserie with some nice deck chairs and oder some nice little baguettes and cans of diet coke which came with a nice little price tag. Jono had warned me that Alpe d'Huez was expensive but i found 25 bucks for two ham and cheese rolls and two cans of coke a little steep, not unlike the gradient of the hill i was to climb only a few hours later.

After some time, we found the mental strength to peel ourselves off the deck chairs and make the drive back down to th race start at the lake in Vaujany. It was starting to get hot and i tried to stay out of the water as much as possible. After a short bike warm-up i made my way down to the transition area where i got to stand in a line for the better part of half an hour. although this did give me time to do all of those important things that i had neglected previously, such as putting on my race numbers and taping my TORQ nutrition to the top tube of my bike. It also gave e a good opportunity to sweat out half of the fluid in my body. I think by the time i got to rack my bike i was down to about 52kg. They had announced over the PA that we were not allowed to do a swim warm-up prior to race start as the electricity company had not turned off the hydro and they were affraid that we might get sucked into the turbines. This statement was also soon disproved as i joined the other 100 or so athletes who had already entered the water and begun their swim warm-ups. It was refreshing to eventually get into the water as the outside air temp must have been nudging the high 30's. The water was a chilly 16 degrees although there were definitely areas in the lake that were less then this and sitting tagnet on the start line for what seemed like about 20 minutes as the Frenchies tried to get everybody behind the start line i got quite cod. Eventually after the race officials had already handed out a few yellow cards to competitors for not staying behind the imaginary start line, some intelligent individual realised that the chances of everyone starting behind the imaginary line were next to nil and started the race. The fact that there were half a dozen or so aussies pushing the imaginary line closer and closer to the first turning buoy did not help much, but the Franch race officials are always completely over the top and set in their ways. However it seems the athletes won on this day.

I can only assume that the starting gun or horn or whistle or whatever had gone as just about everybody to the left of me began to swim. This was my cue to go and i was off. I had a great start and had gapped everybody in my vicinity by about 50 metres and was swimming fast. But not as fast as the guy on my right who i saw when i glanced over at about the 200m mark. I quickly moved over to try to cove rhe five metre gap that he had on me but he was really moving and by the first turning bouy i was yet to brisge the gap. It was here to i decided i would really smash the next 50 metres to close the gap and eventually i reached his feet by the second turning bouy. On the way in to the swim exit i tried to sit in his wash and conserve energy as there was little chance that i would have been able to swim any faster than he was going and a few times he caught me napping and gapped me. I would put in soem more and by the time we reached the exit of the swim i was back on his feet. I took a quick glance when getting out of the water to see that we had a pretty big gap on the rest of the field. By the time i left transition after passing the swim leader i could not see anybody else enter from the water.

I felt really good for the first part of the bike and by 2km where Jono and Leon were standing i had put almost 30 seconds into the other bloke. I rode really well to the bottom of the climb, and although myheart rate was already quite high me legs felt pretty good. I could not see anybody behind me, but that may have had sething to do with the ambulance which was following me the whole way.

But at the bottom of the hill that all changed. As the gradient increased, so did my heart rate. I'm was't sure why i had been so high in the early part of the race ut attributed it to the heat. By now it was seriously hot and . At the beginning of the climb i was passed by a guy who was absolutely flying. He came past me that quickly that i was adament that he could not sustain his pace. Soon after he slowed and i as able to keep a gap of about fifty metres. My HR was nudging 180 by this stage and i was really feeling the heat and wondering whether i would make it around the 21 switch-back corners to the summit. At times the cars would come past and sit in front of you until they could move off and at one point when five or so cars came past and sat in front of me the heat was immense and i went into a real state. It was terribly uncomfortable and the tipping of the boiled water from my drink bottle did not help much either. I soon realised that i was going to struggle, given that i am not all that great in hot conditions and just tried to keep a steady state without going over the top. A couple more guys obviously found the going a litle easier than myself and passed me on the way to the summit. they caught the guy in front and made a group of three which is when i lost most of my time to them. They were obviously working well together, but i just did not have the legs to go with them on this day.

I came off the bike in 5th with the hope of still running well. The hope faded after about 100m metres though and it was a tough, tough run. I was in a state where i was teetering on going into the red zone and really had to try and relax and stay composed. this is hard when racing and going uphill for the first two kilometres. I got slower as the run went onand was happy to finally make it to the finish, where i drank about 5 litres of luke warm fluid in the recovery area. I was so at this stage and was wishing that i was back down at the 16 degree lake where i had been about 2 hours earlier. On the way home i had a look at my bike computer to see that the average temperature on the bike was 39 degrees with a maximum of 43. I'm not sure how accurate this is but if even a few degrees out it gives you an idea of how hot it was.

I was pretty disappointed with the result as i was really looking forward to doing well inthis race, but thats that way things go i guess. The conditions were not really great for me, but i was still happy with my effort and thought i was going well until i began to overheat. I was really happy with my swim and also the beginning of the bike and feel that if it had been a normal race with a normal bike course i probably would have done OK, but it was not........ as i found out.

Living in aix Les Bains

I've been given the remainder of the day off training as i have the big Alpe d'Huez race on Thursday so i thought i'd sitdown on the bed and catch you all up on what's been going on here in France.

I arrived here after my last Spanish race in San Sebastian. The race was OK for me however i think that i had reached the end of my tether and exploded on the run to eventually finish third. It was encouraging however to know that although i exploded beyond all comprehension i was still able to pump out a mid 36 minute run. I was afraid that i would fall into the 40 minute run bracket, or even worse "the dreaded 39's'. I was a little dizzy at the finish and was glad that the race was finally over. The training on my own, every session, everyday seemed to have taken a little more out of me than i had anticipated. But third was still a good result on the day with a strong field and i was still able to walkk away with a decent handful of Euros.

After the race Kepa and Ana and little Mikel's family all took me to a local Cidery for a fantastic lunch. I tried some pretty cool stuff which included snails and we also drunk cider straight from the barrels. It was a nice finish to my time in the asque Country with all of the friends that i had made. Needless to say that afer 2 and a half months without a drop of alcohol, after a few ciders i as well on my way. Luckily Kepa and Ana were on had to drive the Beamer back to Europcar. From here we went over the French border into Biarritz, where i would catch my flight the following morning to Lyon airport. It was an early flight and i was up early to get to the airport on time. The airport was only about 2km away so there was little chance, even for me of missing my flight. The flight to Lyon was easy and i was soon onto the bus to Aix les Bains. It was direct from Lyon which was very handy as i was pretty tired from the previous long day in the sun and of course a cider or two...

Before i knew it i was in aix and read to go again. Well, not really as i had another race on that weekend. This was the third of my Grand Prix races in Beauvais so the boss had given me the remainder of the week as easy training to prepare and recover for the race. The grand Prix was super fast again and i was definitely feeling the previous 6 weeks of racing. I was there until the run but just did not have the spark in the legs required to match it with those guys.

I was once again happy to get back to Aix on the Monday after spending the night with Jono and Nicko back in Bourges after travelling home with the team. It was easier to go back with the team on Sunday and ten just catch the train or two or three on Monday to get back to Aix. And also a lot cheaper.

Once back in Aix, i was happy to hear the boss tell me that i had an easy week in store to recover from al of my racing. This was meant mainly sleeping and eating with of course a little bit of training. This left me in good stead for another solid block of training as i was not scheduled to do any races for a few weeks. Alp d'Huez will be my first since arriving back from Beauvais.

Training has been great since as the surroundings here are absolutely amazing. Aix le Bains sits on a large lake in the middle of two mountains. The water is crystal clear most of the time and looks blue, really blue. There are also no carp swimming in this lake, only mermaids and naked old women.

The riding is quite special really and caters to all types of workloads. Given that i am racing up AdH on Thursday i have been doing quite a few solid climbs to prepare. Last Saturday i climber the Col du Grand Colombiere at 1501m. It was about 15km of cimbing with some really tough steep sections. It took me just over an hour. Then on Saturday just gone myself and Physio Leon went up the Mont du Chat which pretty much sits opposite to Aix on the other side of the lake. It was a much steeper climb and although shorter in time and distance, much much more difficult than Colombiere. It sits at about 1340m and considering that Aix is at about 200m it goes up rather quickly. My 23 cog wasn't really ideal and i will definitely be seeking out a 25 for the race.

We mainly run down at the local Hippodrome (horse racing track). It has a nice track which runs around the outside and also around the Golf Course which sits next to it. You can also run on the track itself and to top it off there is a 330m grass running track there too. Not bad at all.

You can also run straight from the Hotel as just about everywhere there are tracks of some description.There is also a place at the top of the lake where we go running for our long runs. Its about a 20m drive.

Swimming is done in a 50m outdoor and also 25m indoor pool atthe local aquatic centre. The view from the pool is quite spectacular with Mountain situated on either side. The indoor pool is quite an experience as most of the time when we swim there it is either a weekend or really busy as it is school holidays here. Firstly we have to put the lane ropes in and then kick out all of the kids swimming in the way. there just happy to be there so swimming in our way doesn't really bother them. Thatis until you grab them by the head and dunk their heads under the water. They soon work out that it is not such a great idea to try and swim underneath the lane.

The other when we were putting in the laneropes, somebody knocked my kickboard and pool buoy into the pool and within seconds they were snaffled up by a pair of young frogs. It didn''t occur to them that the equipment belonged to anyone in particular, but rather that it was thrown into the pool purely for their enjoyment. A quick head dunk and a knock on the scone and my gear was back in my posession ready to start the swim session.

Well, that jsut about covers all of the training that goes on in Aix, but i'll be sure to get some photos up of the area so you can all see. Hope all is well back home in aus, despite the cold weather. I hear that its almost as cold as Summer in Vancouver. Grrrrr!!

My computer arrives

After thinking that the computer that Paul sent to me some two weeks ago had taken the reverse route of Gary's itinerary, it finally arrived yesterday. I had been waiting somewhat patiently, and a whole lot impatiently for it to arrive since Monday and as my roomate Brendan will attest to, by Friday morning i almost felt like lying down on the ground, kicking and punching and having a big cry.

That was until Friday afternoon when i was resigned to the fact that the computer would not arrive today and then i would be waiting for another long weekend the beloved computer that i was yet to see. Upon returning from a trip to the local shops i was in utter disbelief to see a package sitting on the table with my name on it. Within seconds i had scaled the 37 stairs to the second level and entered my room. Feeling like a fat 10 year old kid on Easter Sunday i ripped at the packaging to reveal more packaging, and then more packaging and then more packaging. Shit! By this time i was so exciting and anxious that i had to take a time out and go and have a wee.

After composing myself on the loo for a short while i was bale to finish the unpacking on the remaining four layers of packaging and get down to the good stuff. A big thanku for George for proving some much needed additional padding in the form of a few blocks of Cadbury. Its hard to see how the laptop would've made it all the way to France in one piece if not for the careful placement of the 84 and a half glasses of full cream dairy milk. Thanks Mum.

A big thanku to Paul as well for loading on all of the software for me to be able to start playing as soon as the computer was unwrapped. Thanks Dad.

There are some cool nifty gadgets on the new beast, including a finger swiper to unlock the computer. This way no one can get into my files and steal my ripper material. It also has a built in camera so i can talk on Skype and show everyone my awesome dirty porn moustache. Oh yeah, i have a dirty porno moustache at the moment. I started growing it the day i left and now it is almost visible to the naked eye. Maybe by November i will be ready to take on The Watson....

Anyways, i just wanted to touch base and tell you all about my wicked new toy. I can now write my blogs without having to steal other peoples computers and update my website (which i have no idea of how to do) which is a great bonus at the moment as between training and eating and sleeping and F&F, there is not a lot to do. That was until now............

Please Note: any comments posted referring to my perusing of Pornographic material on my new laptop will be removed immediately. That is unless you know any quality sites... cheers

Gary's Gone

Well, i've been in Aix les Bains for nearly two weeks now and a few days we all experienced a little bit of sadness whn it was time for Gary to go home.

Gary's ongoing injury problems proved a little too much and the decision was made that it would be better for gary and his recovery that he travel back to Australia and begin his rehab there. As many of you would know, Gary and I both returned home from aix early last year with our arms wrapped in plaster so for this to happen is very disappointing for him. It is also very disappointing for the rest of us here as he is a great mate to us all and we all wish him the best of luck with his recovery.

Upon deciding to send Gary back to Aus it was up to Loges to organise some flights so that Gar could return home as soon as possible to make the most of the beautiful sunny Canberra winter. There was abitof a problem however, in that Australia is the host of World youth week. After much researxh into available flights Gar was informed of his route home to Australia. It seemed that the influx of young people into the country for youth week as well as the arrival of the Pope mean that there were very few available seats. For this reason Gary's return route back to Australia commenced on Sunday morning and Paul and George can expect to see him at Tullamarine in about Mid August. Probably best for Paul and George however, as they can prepare 25 Hove for Gary's arrival.

Note to Paul and George: Jamie's room will remain as Jamie's room. Jamie believes that Gary will be well suited to rooming in the study as he may have trouble sleeping next to the pool filter.

If Paul and George area little worried about Gary's whereabouts during his extended travels, you needn't be as i have outlined his travel arrangement's in the itinerary below.

Mode of Travel: Horse driven Cart (be aware of excess luggage charges with additional bike bag)

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Arrive Olten-Zofingen regional airport

Own Travel arrangements to Winterthur International Airport

Arrive Minsk Airport

Compulsory quarantine period

Minsk International airport

Own arrangements to Moscow Trans Siberian Railway station

Note: Passengers are advised to leave extra travel time to account for any of the following:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fend for oneself until daybreak, own arrangements to Commercial Port of Vladivostok (camel charters run 24hrs out of Vladivostok City Centre and can be payed for in most international currencies)

Arrive in Kangnung Regional fishing port, South Korea

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Board Royal Flying doctor’s flight from Darwin to Perth, via Gibb River, Turkey Creek, Nicholson, Halls Creek, Fitxroy Crossing, Broome, Port Headland, Paraburdoo, Newman, Carnarvon, Geraldton, Dongara and Eneabba.

Own arrangements to Sydney International Airport

Lekeitio Race Report

This is one of the ones that i had already written but i'll go through it all again for both the satisfaction of all of you and also for my own.

It was a bloody hot day in the basque country, as it had been all week as the throngs of Euskadi's headed to the local beaches to make the most beautiful weather and summer solstice. Sitting quietly in his room in downtown Mundaka was a young man awaiting his time in the sunshine later that afternoon. Although late race starts were not custom in his homelad, the young chap had become rather used to the 4:00pm time slot, and the benefits that came with that particular race commencement, such as rising out of bed after 10am.

This had become a regular time of uprising for the young lad during his extended stay with his very accomodating hosts and as he rose out of a deep deep slumber and made his way to the breakfast table, thoughts were running through his head of the day that lay ahead. It was important with such a late start that the young man do at least some exercise prior to travelling the 45 minutes or so to the local coastal town of Lekeitio, so he put on his Sunday best riding gear and made his way out for an easy spin to Gernika.

Although still early he could feel the heat in the sun on his arms and legs as he rode the undulating route to his destination. n the way he could see the crowds building along coast and finding their own special spot on the golden sand. Upon returning from his ride the gentleman settled down into his routine of "F&F" (food and F$#% all) for the next few hours or so. He had become very good at F&F over the past 4 weeks and was confident that should he ever be met with a spare couple of hours at any time during the day that he would be more than capable of filling in the time.

After completing his F&F routine for the better part of 2 hours it was time for the young lad to complete the important pre-race rituals hich included the cleaning of the bike, the arranging of the race equipment, the packing of the race equipment and the last and most important riual; making a deposit or two or three.

As he was out in the sun for another period of time, making sure the bike was clean, he coul once again feel the intense heat beating down on his naked body. tan lines seemed to have gotten the better of him with his busy training schedule and this seemed the most appropriate to remove such an unsightly scene.

Before long, it was time to travel to trael to the race and as he glidedgracefully into the Beamer he could feel the sun of all things beating down on his naked body. Correction, at this stage he was infact clothed... Anyways, the drive to the venue was uneventful. The route taken on this particular day was a little longer than usual at the advice of his co-driver and most accomodating of hosts. In his estimation, there would be a great deal of people heading to Lekeitio on this day, both for the race and also to bask in the blistering heat eminating from the sun. The same sun from before.

His esteemed co-driver was of course correct in his guesstimation of the increase in population on the small coastal town which was literally bursting at the seams. Car parks were at a premium and after a short discussion it was agreed upon by all to park in fron of the semi-trailer a little out of town. The fact that the beamer was now standing in the way of the semi-trailer's only exit path was of no concern to the co-driver whatsoever, so it was agreed upon that beamer would stay and hopefully the truck would too.

Race prepartion was no different for the youngster once he had arrived at the race site and as he had previously raced at the site and was aware of the course ahead of him. After ferociously staring down his competitors he made his way down to the swim start in his Taiwanese rubber suit. To his amazement, the sun was very hot on this day and his artificial outer coating was making for an uncomfortable walk down to he shore. Kind of like when you follow through a little bit when you're running and it all goes a bit squishy...

The women were first to make tracks so the lad made good use of the twenty minutes before his race start by toeing the start line in his rubber suit and thus reducing his body weight by a good five kilograms as he was standing in the direct sunlight and the sun was extremely hot. He was a little nervous and contemplated doing a little pre-race wee in the rubber suit but intelligently opted against the idea as a previous incident had once left him with a bit of a rash. The heat of the sun would also cause some discomfort.

The gun went and the young lad was off in pursuit of the fnish tape and with it another Txapela. His start was executed well and although he was still closely followed by a pair of competitors after the intial 200m, he continued to hold a strong pace and was able to pull away from his pursuiants. At the conclusion of the swim leg the yougster had put a gap between himself and the next nearest competitor of around 25 seconds.

After talking to the boss during the week about the plan of attack during the race, he was adviced by the honorable leader that the outward leg of the bike portion was the most important and that he should give it all to this point in an attempt to extend his lead. He did as was instructed and at the turnaround he had increased his lead to 1:15 on a group of five chasers with a further 45 seconds back to the man they call "Mikel".

Th return leg of the cycle was a little differen however as the young man was feeling the effects of his effort on theway out and the 4km climb on the way back into town filled his legs with a little thing that athletes like to call "pain". But he was aware that he was putting some serious time into the chase group and even if he dropped his pace a little he would at least be able to hold the gap at around the same time. Upon returning into town and dsmountng his vehicle he quickly slipped into his runners and was off onto the run leg. He had increased his lead to somewhere in the vicinity of 1:30.

The run was a litle uncomfortable with the outward 2.5km mainy uphill, and as tere were some serious runners chasing from behind he kept the pace up to the top of the hill. After turning and begnning the run back to the finish he counted his lead to be around 45 cat and dogs and was confident that ths would be enough to see him to the finish line in first place, especialy given the downhill aspect of the return journey. Coming in towards the finish, the excited young chap made the most of the large crowd and soaked up the adoration of the fans crossing the line sporting a mighty big grin under the intense heat of the sun.

After finishing, it seemed that he had taken maybe a little too much time with the crowd as to his surprise the second place competitor came in a close 8 seconds behind. Oops.

Nonetheless, the young fella had finished what he set out to acheive and was happy that all of the hard work in training had paid off again.

Disaster!!!

It's nothing like last year and i will be staying here in France, but a few days ago my computer died a sudden death and i have lost a few blogs which i was yet to put up. I apologise to everyone, and foremost to my Dad and he was a little anxious about the lack of information i was feeding to you all so i will be spending the next couple of days recalling all of the things that happened in the last few weeks and writing them all agan. This is disappointing as we all know that it's just not as good the second time around.

Good news however, is that i will be getting a new laptop sent over and i can get back into the groove. Hopefully that will all happen soon and then i will be able to post regularly. Paul Lock has also updated my website as you all will have seen by now i am guessing and now i am able to make changes to the site myself, from any cmputer in the world. WOW!!! Now all i have to do is work out how to do it.....

I have moved on from Spain now and am currently in Aix les Bains with the other Tri Australia guys training for various World Cups and also for the Olympics. There was some sad news today in that Gary is not OK and will be heading home in a couple of days. He has a sore hip and requires an immediate amputation of his left leg. His right leg and also his middle leg will be left as is.

Gary will be sorely missed in Aix and we wish him a speedy recovery. For the record, he has aggrivated a previous injury and needs some time off running. He will be heading home to stay Paul and George for a few months to recover on the Ninch.

Anyway, this was jsut a quickie to let you know that although i currently have no computer i will be doing my best in the next couple of days to get some bloggage coming your way. And i will also try and do some cool things to my website. This will most probably result in my ruining everything already on there, but i will still try.

Donosti Race Report

Although the result was the same with a win this morning in Donosti, the way in which it came was vastly different. I had spent a hard week training on my own and I knew that come the weekend that I would probably be pretty tired. Still, to come away with a victory I was really pleased with myself and showed that although I was fatigued I was still able to get across the line first, which is the important thing.

Due to the early start (10:00am), Kepa being the morning person that he is decided than rather get up at the ridiculously early time of 6:30, we would get a room in Donosti and get up at more reasonable hour (but still too early) of 7:30 and this would give us plenty of time to drive the 5 minutes down to the race.

The previous day was spent doing a little bit of training in the morning and then going to watch the local long-distance race in Zarautz. The race was 2.5/80/20 and many of the guys who I raced last weekend were racing as well as Hektor’s brother Eneko who finished second to Macca at Wilflower. It was a great race to watch and the scenery was quite spectacular. Although the standing up on the concrete was probably not the best for the legs the day before the race.

Race morning rolled around and after fitting in spurts of sleep between Kepa’s snoring spells I was ready to go…..

Breakfast came in and was also probably not the best before the race. A lovely selection of pastries and some coffee. But there was nothing else there so I stomached a few sweet bakery goods and was ready to go……

The sky was overcast and the roads were covered in water as it had rained a bit during the night. I didn’t hear any of it so I must have slept not too badly after all. I had done this race last year so I was familiar with the course and transition and where I could grab a free shower afterwards should I need one. The local sports club for the healthy and wealthy was a great place for Schussy and I last year as we helped ourselves to the changerooms and a nice warm shower.

I set up in transition after registration and there were a few drops of rain. It was nothing new to me given that I have been in the Basque country for a few weeks now and actually remembered what rain is like. But it soon stopped for the race start and we were off.

If I were to rank my start on a scale of one to ten, it would probably be found in the lower half (that’s below five keaysy) as I dived into the water and my goggles came off. Also somehow (and I have no idea how) my wetsuit leg found itself up around my knee and was catching water for the whole swim leg. Not to worry. As I put my goggles on I was surrounded by guys and it took me a while to work my way to the front. When I eventually did there were a couple of guys who stayed with me and we came to shore as a threesome (I can see Guilley giggling already……..threesome, haha). Last year I came out with a few guys nipping at my heels and was able to get away with a quick transition, but this year was not the same. We went out onto the bike together as a threesome (haha) and it was at the beginning that I tried to break away.

Unable to do so as the legs were feeling “not so willing” I decided that I would stay with these guys for the ride and see what happens on the run. About 14km into the bike one of them tried to attack up the hill and I was left to chase as the other lagged behind. I was able to close the gap which was lucky and then left the guy who attacked out in front for a while for being a dick. Upon entering T2 I was left on the front by the others which was OK as the legs were beginning to come good, or so I thought. I had a pretty good transition and was out in first.

I got out onto the run and the legs were obviously fatigued. There was no spring in the step like there was last week and I knew that it would be a bit of a battle today. I didn’t want to go out too hard and settled into a comfortable rhythm. Behind I could hear the other two guys breathing a fair bit heavier than I which is always a good sign so I kept the pace where I felt comfortable. For the whole 2.5km out to the turnaround I could hear two set of footsteps behind and it was not until the turn that I could see who was sitting where. To my surprise, the guy who I thought would be behind me was actually in third and looked to be struggling.

After the turnaround I upped the pace a little bit at a time and soon the third guy had begun to drop. It was at about the 3.5km mark that the guy in second made a move up to my shoulder. I increased the pace as I wanted to stay in front but he had another go and gapped me by a few metres. He was obviously putting in so I closed the gap and sat in behind for a while. There were runners coming the other way as the course was out and back and as I was attempting to sit on the shoulder he chopped me about 4 or 5 times as he swerved from side to side. On one side towards the oncoming athletes, and on the other towards the curb. I dropped back about a metre to avoid tripping, at which point he made another move. At this stage there was probably about 900m metres to go. He put in a surge and was off. His lead got to about 5 metres before I held it and then slowly began to reel him in again. It was not very fun. The next part of the course was a slight downhill section of about 100m and as we were going down I was able to catch right back up to him. He wasn’t running too well on the down part so this is where I attacked, with probably 500m to go. I just went as hard as I could to gap him as quickly as possible, and it hurt…… a lot. By the time I had looked back, with about 300m to go I had a lead of approximately 20m. From here I kept the pace as high as I could as my body was filled with the burn.

Luckily I was able to hang on to the finish and take the tape again, with second only a few seconds behind.

It was a hard race and I found it much harder than last weekend. But hopefully after an easier week in training I will be back up to my best for next weekends two races. It should make for an interesting blog anyway. Till then

Oh yeah, well done to Gary for winning the European Cup in

Hungary

on Saturday. A top effort Gary!!!

PARTHENAY RACE ADVENTURE: Part 3