This coming week will be like the last one, full speed ahead and then we’re going of the gas the week after ’cause we have a indoor race in Caen. It’s usually a really good race so I’m looking forward to it. Luckily I managed to get my registration away at the last minute today so I can actually race. Had completely forgotten to register myself for the race…! I guess it can happen when you have full focus on training.

The training is however going well. It’s only mentally tougher because everyone’s less motivated and waste alot energy on the cold weather. But we’re getting the work done! I’m doing some extra upperbody training at the moment. It’s nothing we’ve tested but I’m pretty sure that my lower body is alot stronger. So to get better symmetry I’m doing some extra work and it’s actually quite fun. I’ve never liked it (mainly because I’m no good at it) but now we are a few guys that do it so that makes it easier. Since we’re all about the same level we can really push each other, especially since we all want to do the best. Having fun makes everything easier!

During the week I was in contact with Redline to get the missing bikes from last years sponsorship. They got sent to me on thursday and monday night I picked it up. Both me and Jens are staying on Redlines this year and I’m really happy about it. You can see the bike in the picture. It’s a Flight XXL and on the picture it’s nearly completed, I just put my DXR cranks on there the morning after this picture was taken. I was feeling good on the old bike but right away I was feeling even better on this one thanks to a higher handlebar. It’s just been awesome riding this bike this week.

This week we also went to try a new track. It’s a pretty much brand new track about 30min from Romans where I stay. It needs some fine tuning but it’s got potential. We rode there for about an hour and we had done all that it was to do. But it was still a really fun 1h. The light and weather was way better than the picture shows but it’s the best I got with an iPhone. Hopefully you can see something on the images.

After 2 update in a row it’s time to get going on a new design! I’ll try to keep this up from now on!

So like I said I went home during x-mas to spend some time with my girlfriend and family. I had a really good time and it was great to see everybody again. But to be honest I was really slacking during this time.. It was really hard to motivate myself to train alone when I’m used to having atleast 3-4 people around to push me on and help me get things done. It’s just something I need and that’s why things are going so well down here I think.

When I got back we trained for 1,5 week before it was time to race again. I was really surprised how good I felt mentally and on the bike after coming back. It really did me good to spend some time at home!

So last weekend we went to Belgium for the european rounds in Kortrijk. I knew before going to that race that the track could be bad, because it’s been so pretty much every year they’ve held this indoor event. I was however thinking that since it was a european race they would have gotten their act together and done something good our of it. How wrong I was..! I think this events ranks right up there as one of the worst organized events I’ve ever been to! The track was so soft that you had to sig-sag to miss all the soft spots and literally ride on the white line on the 3rd straight because it wasn’t as soft. The dirt they had brought in wasn’t only refusing to get packed it was full of glass! (which by the way gave me 3 flat tires during the weekend). I could just go on and on but I think you get the point. HOWEVER I’m really glad I went there. I think my trainer said it the best “as long as we leave here knowing why we train as much as we do, it’s a good weekend”. Meaning that as long as we can see that we’re on the right way training wise it’s all good. And all good it was because we where all haling ass this weekend and especially down the first straight eventough we’re in the middle of our preparations. So we could all leave there happy.

For myself the weekend was a real redemption. I took all the bad points for St Etienne and tried to focus on those and guess what it worked! I’m really happy with the way I rode all weekend and I think I’ve never felt this strong and confident mentally. This could’ve gone even better but I’m still happy with my two 1/4 finals. Having a outside gate on this track was really hard and I ended up getting lane 8 both days.
Saturday I brought it on myself. In the 1/8 final I was coming into the first turn as nr. 2 and just put myself in protection after the leader. However that made me go into the softest part of the turn having me lose all my speed. I feel down to 5th but got around to finish 4th. In the 1/4 I was a bit late out of the gate but was still up there. I found my way through the first turn and came out 4th. I was 4th all the way to the last straight. I had to go inside in the last turn to protect myself but it didn’t give me any speed and one of the guys behind me charged that last turn and passed me on the last jump….
Sunday I wanted that inside lane choice from the get go and it started off well with me winning the first moto. In the second one however I was in 2nd in the first turn and a guy tried to take me and the leader but slid out and took 4of us out… I got last and the crash stirred up the points. In the last round it was pretty much the place you got was the place you finished. I was going good but got cut off in the middle of a straight by a guy… I had to stand on the brake and clip out so I lost ground and finished 4th. From there I knew it was going to be tough but I gave it a really good shot. I passed the 1/8 from lane 7 after a photofinish and was actually in 4th in the 1/4 as well going out of the first turn. But then I hit all the soft spots on the second straight and lost alot of speed. After a pretty naiv move on the second turn I lost all my speed and it was over. But like I said I’m really happy with my riding and now I know what to focus on in the coming races.

This weekend held two races for me. Saturday was the Nations Trophy, and open race to all 17+ riders. I signed up to get some (read a lot) of extra time on the track before the “normal” race on sunday. I was sure that I wasn’t going to qualify on saturday so I was really relaxed and actually surprised myself with how well I rode. I was relaxed, had a really good gate and was closer to the guys in front of me than I would have thought. I finished 6-6-7 in a race with 8 guys and I was please with the way I rode. In the last race I was in 6th but aired it out and just had fun on the last 2 straights so a guy passed me. But I was really please with how the weekend went.

Sunday was a completely different story however. During the first few laps of training I was riding really good and have nearly perfect gates. But then the my race nerves and pressure from myself started to rise and things just went downhill from there… I was supposed to have no expectations this weekend but as usual with me it didn’t work out that way. I messed everything up and didn’t even qualify out of the motos… After the race yesterday I wrote on twitter “Todays race was me against me. And I lost, again… ” and that’s just the way it was. I was holding myself back once more. I cracked and got shut down out of the gate every race because I was really late. And my gates where spot on earlier that morning. I need to race and race and race to get out of this bad circle and get comfortable with racing. Luckily I have at least 1 race every month from now on so that should help me.

From here I just need to keep working hard and be determined. I’ve only spent about a month here and I still have 6months remaining so there’s plenty of time for improvements!

We finished up the last preparations for St Etienne today and this year it was way better then what I got here last year. Here’s a video of what it was like 1 year ago when I came for a camp before this very race…

No expectations for this weekend (is what I’m trying to tell myself!) just go out there and gain some experience and data for the races to come. It’s going to be a huge race weekend. It’s 1 of 3 races this year where the french riders gain points towards european and world championship qualification. So everybody will be on the top of their game so it’s going to be interesting to see where I’m at.

More to come on this after during weekend!

St Etienne is coming up next week and it’s a race that I’ve done the last 4 years now. I’ve never done good at it and don’t expect to this year either. I’m not a good indoor rider, I’m not technical enough. The bumpy flats sets me off and the take offs are usually walls that scare the hell out of me because you can never really control it, atleast I have huge problems with that… This year will probably be no different and my goal for the weekend is to jump everything on the track. If I do that I can leave the race feeling, atleast abit, satisfied. Then what happens after that we’ll just have to wait and see.

We might go to Montelimar to ride before the St Etienne weekend but nothing’s decided there yet. It’s a track I haven’t been to in a couple of years so it would be fun to go back there again.

In other news we redid the 3rd straight here on tuesday. You can see it on the picture I attached to this post. What we’ve done is added two rollers and made the last jump 1m longer. It’s already rideable and doable but in a few weeks time when it’s more round it’s going to be awesome with a whole lot of variations to it.

Yesterday was a monster day with 2 training session directly after each other. First a 2h road ride. It was the last road ride for the season so it got decided that we would end with a bang, a 11km long really steep climb… I had heavy legs getting into today so that didn’t help. The 20km to get to that hill wasn’t the easiest ever either with a constant small climb all the way there… Arriving at the bottom of the hill I was already really tired and the hill didn’t help. We didn’t have the time to climb the entire hill so we got 30min to get as far as we could before turning around and go back. Looking at the info from my watch (which has speed, cadence and GPS info) I made it about 5km up that thing before turning around. But the rest going down that hill did me good and that’s when the fun started. Since we had climbed all the way there meant going down hill all the way back. We rode at 40-45km/h by just turning our legs. THEN the really fun part started. In a roundabout we got behind a scooter so we tucked in behind her to get less drag. But she went too slow (55km/h) We could easily follow her so finally we passed her doing over 60km/h (63,3km/h was my highest recorded speed) and left her behind! It was a really cool feeling and the best thing was that it wasn’t that tiring. The last 10km we blasted ahead and 3 of us pulled away from the pack and rode like crazy all the way back. I was so tired when we got back but at the same time I felt really good completing a session like this and especially end it like that.

But the day wasn’t over, directly after that it was time for a gym session. You’re not really motivated after doing a roadride to hit the gym and having to wait 45min-1h outside the gym for the key doesn’t help either.. But when you push through and finish there’s no better feeling!

That’s why yesterday was a rollercoaster, one moment you’re feeling like crap and the next you’re feeling like a champ. But I guess that’s the life of an athlete. I love training but I don’t like the suffering during the session, but I LOVE the feeling you get after finishing. It’s one of the best feelings in the world! And I think that’s how most people feel.