Jameswilliamsoncycling's Blog

Well I’ve done some tough bike races before but last week was well up there. Hopefully it doesn’t take me too long to recover from all that I left out on the roads of Borneo over the 5days of racing, fair to say that when I crossed the finish line on the last day there wasn’t much of a bike rider left in me.

It wasn’t so much the racing intensity that made the week brutal, every race we have done here has been really intense, but more the distance and time in the sun that ruined me. I have definitely found my limitations in terms of what I am capable of in the extreme heat, and it’s disappointing to say that it’s nowhere near what I can achieve on any other day. Let’s not forget though that the tour was a massive success, we stamped our authority over the race and left our mark. The result on the first day when Torckler won the stage solo and then we controlled the bunch finish to take 2^nd, 3^rd and 9^th was just a demonstration of what we have been capable of this whole time.

We have a great team spirit going with the crew over here and after going basically to hell (Philippines trip) and back together we have come out the other side stronger and better for it as a team. I’m 100% convinced that’s the only reason we won the tour, even though we started off with 5 instead of 6 and then lost Shem to sickness early on, we still stuck together and by far had the strongest ‘team’ going on.

I felt great on the first day, it wasn’t too hot, and I was floating through the bunch all day as the other teams wore themselves out trying to chase down Mike. In the end there was simply no one left in front of us in the bunch so I and Shem set a false tempo and stuck with our pre-ordained plan to fire Roman and Louis through the last corner. Mike continued to do his thing out front and we continued ours behind, on the final corner I gave Roman just enough room to slip through with Louis on his wheel but no one else could follow their line and they were gone, all I had to do was jump on the next guys and cruise to the line in and watch the sight of three team mates taking the top three spots. An exceptional start such as that is always hard to follow up on for the rest of the tour and we didn’t want to lose our momentum. We knew that with a mountain top finish on the fourth stage Mike would be a good bet for the overall as he obviously had phenomenal legs. So we set to the task of giving him the easiest ride possible up until that point. Unfortunately for us to get to the mountain at the end of stage 4 we had some 520km to cover in 3days, and with a field that is notorious for extremely aggressive and random racing patterns we had one option, to ride at a tempo and try and get the distance done as comfortably but quickly as possible.

This was where I left my legs and body out on the road. I would settle into a comfortable tempo on the front early on with one or two of the other boys. Shem had an extremely rough first day on the front and with a bad stomach was forced out of the 3^rd stage, so it was down to me and Louis to do the bulk of the riding. Roman was finding the heat better and would be able to save himself for later on in the stages. However after a couple of hours of riding tempo the heat would be draining all my reserves. It wasn’t a matter of hydration or eating but simply over exposure to the sun. So close to the equator the sun is directly overhead most of the racing day and there is very little protection from it so even though it might be only 35-40degrees in the direct sunlight that temp was exaggerated. Every day without fail there would be a point, usually about 3hrs in where the switch would flick and my body would just shut down in. If I could go through a cooler patch in the shade or rain I would instantly feel better if not then it was game over. I managed to get through stages 2 and 3 ok after the switch flicked, however on stage 4 it flicked after Louis and I had ridden the first 130km on the front the problem being we still had some 85 very hilly km to go. In the heat I really didn’t believe I would make it to the finish that day. But luckily it started to cloud over and as we got more into the mountains it cooled down a little, and I managed to battle through it. With Mike still hammering it, keeping yellow we would need all our defences for the last stage to hold the slender lead over the 6 man team of Genesys from Australia. The profile for the last stage indicated that we simply descended from our mountain top finish the day before then had about 60km of flat to the finish. The organisers though obviously didn’t feel yesterday’s 7hr stage to be a fit challenge so they started the last stage without a neutral section in the middle of a climb, with 5km remaining to the top. The way I was feeling this was the absolute last thing I needed, I might have been good if I could have ridden into the stage but those riders who were fresher after a week in the wheels attacked from the start, immediately putting us on the back foot. Roman and I worked our way back to join Louis on the front on the descent but this was one of those descents that has a casual 1000m of climbing in it….anyway my day came to a grinding halt when a slow punctured dropped me from the pelo whilst we ‘climbed’ our way down this mountain,  I thought I was just still feeling avg so tried to just keep the bunch in sight and get back on in the cars but I went slower and then just when it was too late to get a wheel from the car realised that my tire was actually quite flat. Apparently all the neutral cars were following the front group that day so I literally had to wait for the last riders on the road to come past before I could get a wheel and start riding to the finish. I was privileged enough to enjoy a ride in the Asian grupetto where on the last stage of a tour when they are 10min down they will ride the last 50km single file and in the gutter in what were quite strong winds to the finish, such a pleasant way to end the week.

However it was all quickly forgotten when I saw the smiles on the boys faces when I crossed the finish line. They had ridden like a six man team to the finish to keep the break in check and give the team its first tour win of the year. A massive achievement after what we had overcome in the weeks building up.

The celebration is short lived though as already we are gearing up for the next and final tour of our 2012 Asian campaign, the Jelajah Malaysia tour on the 8^th of May. I hope against hope that we get a freak cool and wet week but let’s be honest I’ll be up against it again, it still doesn’t stop us getting results though.

Till then.

Jimmy

Here we go again…tomorrow I will once again be racing my bike on the rough untested roads of SE Asia in a country that is a long way off the beaten track. There are a few things that are certainties, it will be hot, the racing will be fast and chaotic, we will formulate a plan and try put it to place, the hotels and food will be hugely varied and by the end of it we will hopefully have a great sense of accomplishment after getting through another very tough and challenging week.

We managed to fill the last week with a lot of recovery action in Kuala Lumpur which was facilitated by the fact that our hotel was located right downtown in Chinatown. The markets and our wallets took a thrashing but im pretty happy with the purchases I made, though I think my bartering skills are still abit lacking. We did of course get in a fair amount of riding, it was nice to know a few of the roads around the place, once we had figured the way out of town we could be riding the hills out back within 30min. With Langkawi nothing but a distant memory we found our way back to the bottom of the hill and wound our way up the valley to the bottom of the real climb. Strangely there were no takers to knock up the next 15km of 10+% climbing…

Although we have done a lot of travelling and moving around in average accommodation we have bounced back in the last 10days to get to the point where we just want to thrash some riders out on the road!

Borneo was definitely a big unknown coming into this block of racing. It is one of the most unexplored major islands in the world. However after the literal shit fight we were put through in the Philippines, we are confident we can get over any obstacle thrown at us. However so far we can only be happy and positive with how things have gone since we got here, the trip was short, the organisation met us when we arrived and our hotel is very comfortable. In a similar situation to our starting point in the Philippines we are right at the end of the road at the furthest tip of the island. There is only one way out of the town and that’s where we will be racing tomorrow. With a couple of cruisy rides under our belts here and our bikes getting a proper working over by our top Malaysian mechanic we should be running at 100% tomorrow when the whole bike racing circus kicks off.

I know ive recovered well enough after the last tour and have had some good sensations on the bike in the past week which has let me come into this race with a decent level of confidence. The course should provide us with a lot of opportunities to get some decent results. Especially now that we have our hitter climber Mike ‘Tyson’ Torckler back in the lineup.

Stay tuned…

jimmy

Well where do I start…to be honest there were many times in the last week when I really did not think I would be writing this after getting through the tour. It would be pretty easy to say that was one of the more unpleasant weeks racing that I have done. In fact this is probably one of the most unpleasant countries I have been in. It didn’t get off to a good start when we got to the airport in Manila to check in for our connecting domestic flight, you could barely go to the toilet without having to go through a security check, the main terminal had only one atm that worked, and they weighed every single piece of luggage we possessed. It certainly doesn’t make you feel welcome in a country when you are treated like a terrorist/criminal everywhere you go. The amount of security guards around carrying massive shotguns or automatic rifles is very off putting. So it’s hard to take them seriously when the race organisers and local politicians encourage us to return and bring our friends and families. From the airport it just got better when after 30hrs of flying and transit we found out we had a 3hr bus trip to the race hotel. 3hrs turned into 6 when we kept going the wrong way because the drivers didn’t even know the way. Anyway we finally made it to about the remotest place you could go by road and settled in to wait for the race to start.

The racing itself followed the same style. In a word it was chaotic. The peloton was made up half of Philippine riders, with the other 40% being Asian and about 10% European so all basic etiquette and respect in the peloton was thrown away. After trying to battle against it for the first couple of stages we realised that we simply could not ride in our normal aggressive, positive style. Instead we would have to ride as they did, as negative as possible, looking out for only yourself until the last minute. Not only did we have a totally different style of racing to contend with but there were several other factors that made it a testing week. Firstly the stages started at 830am everyday so it was early rising every day, not a major issue but hard to get used to after such a massive trip to get there. Secondly was the accommodation and provisions from the organisers. We were never once put in a hotel with enough beds for all 5 riders and to have an AC unit that worked was a rarity. The organisers did not put on meals so we were supposed to sort our own. Not very easy when your hotel is in the middle of nowhere and the country barely has proper supermarkets. We had two team vehicles but these came with ‘local’ drivers who were 100% useless, didn’t know anything, the only thing they offered was a fierce resistance for access to our vehicles for use or to get our stuff out. Then there was the heat, soaring into the 40s most days and riding in the direct sunlight all day, it was incredibly hard to stop overheating and staying hydrated during the racing. I was losing 10-20% of my power just because my body was already in overdrive trying to battle the heat.

If we thought the riders in the peloton were inexperienced,  the race provided ‘drivers’ in the team cars proved to be exceptionally unqualified, luckily our team manager Harry put his foot down and refused to not drive our car. It was absolute chaos in the convoy, feeding was a nightmare and a local team car nearly took out Shem and Roman when they were driving the front of the peloton. As the race went on and the stages got harder and harder, the organisers kept up, throwing a few more curve balls our way, on the last stage, there was virtually no traffic control as we had head on traffic on the roads, this was topped off by the last 10km of the stage going through fully open roads, swerving in and out of traffic in the city. Needless to say I think we came off lightly with only a broken wheel and a few punctures the casualties of our trip.

For me the tour was almost good, I know I had good form but was hampered by the heat in the first couple of days then on the last stage the lack of organisation robbed me of a decent result. Anyway i am ready to move on, put all the negativity of last week behind me and keep positive, hoping that the form will remain for the next couple of tours in the coming month. I’m not sure that they can get much worse than that but I’ve been wrong before…

Jimmy

Full on is not even close to describing our undertakings in the last couple of weeks. I could quite easily write a novel about all the stuff we have done, places we have been and things that have happen but I don’t think I could do it justice so I’ll just try to keep to the highlights.

Last update was just before the Tour of Thailand, so I will fill you in with the happenings of that eventful tour. Basically it was a week of expecting the unexpected.  From gravel roads, extreme heat, air pollution, insanely steep climbs, hectic sprints and non-stop attacks all stage long the tour really chucked it all at us but in the end we definitely came out of it on a positive note. For me it was abit of a frustrating week racing wise as I was really hampered by allergies from all the pollution in the air. This of course didn’t make things easier when we were climbing up 25-30% climbs in 40degree heat.  I was still able to get amongst it in most stages but was lacking the top 10% to really make it count and get a result. Still I was happy enough to manage to finish 2^nd in the KOM and 5^th in the last stage. Louis definitely pulled the coup of the tour and had a massive ride to take a well-deserved stage win from a breakaway on a very tough stage. Must say that helped to lift our spirits after we all were destroyed by the ridiculously steep mountains of the day before.  Another thing that characterised the tour for me was our meals. Instead of the organisation providing meals at the race hotel they simply gave us a food allowance of 400bht (approx. $12NZD) a day for us to look after our selves. It was an awesome way for us to explore the culture of the locals more, every evening we would jump on tuk tuks or in the back of our team Ute and head off into the town to find somewhere to eat, weather it was a local restaurant, the night market stalls or a food court we could do whatever and eat whatever we wanted. It was pretty hard to go wrong.

The morning after the tour we jumped on a bus and headed off for the slightly nice, more developed and more touristy city of Chiang Mai, where we would have a few days of r&r before we would embark on our next escapade. Although our accommodation was a solid 10km from the city it was definitely the ideal place for us to spend a few days playing tourist. The next day a jungle adventure was on the cards, we were picked up and driven along an epic road up into the mountains where the zip lining through the trees would take place. The next couple of hours were spent flying through the trees getting a bird’s eye view of the jungle before a sweet feed and short walk up to a waterfall.

A few cruisy rides were interrupted by a solid 15km nice flowing climb up to the temple overlooking the town, otherwise recovery was the main aim of the week. We took to the markets many times, making the most of the opportunity to get the ‘traditional’ Thai goods…i.e. cheap clothes, shoes, watches, dvds, oh and some baller tailor made suits and shirts.  A major highlight of the trip so far was renting scooters for about $6 a day and exploring the city. It was an amazing experience having the freedom to just cruise around anywhere and everywhere, getting to know the city properly. It gave us the opportunity to see both the touristy side and the local side to the city. Finding the best places to hang out and eat that the city had to offer.  I definitely don’t think I could say I had one bad or even average meal the whole time I was in Thailand, it was a culinary delight.

The good times came to an end though and soon enough we were packing up all our belongings into bike bags and suitcases again and heading to the airport. Ahead of us was a long, arduous and tedious 40 hours of travel. Looking at the map you would think it would be a just a jump hop and skip to get over to Philippines from Thailand but turns out it would take us almost two days. It went from bad to worse with a 9am flight into Singapore; a 2am depart to Manila, then a 5hr wait until our domestic connection to the city of Tegugaru. And just when we thought we were there we were crammed onto a bus for a bumpy, swerving hot and uncomfortable 5hr bus trip to what is quite literally the furthest you can go on the road. We are right up at the very top of the Philippines and the tour simply follows the one road back down south. The first few days are flat in the valleys before we start heading up the side of the valley and then on the last day it is just 150km of going up and down massive mountains. So let’s get ready to expect the unexpected again and just race hard!

The struggles of the past two days were forgotten pretty quickly though when we found this little bit of paradise just down the road…

Amazingly we have internet here, in probably one of the most remote areas of the world I have ever been to, however I’m not expecting the luxury to last the whole week so the updates will flow when possible. There will be some stories to come out of this one that’s for sure….

tomorrow we start the UCI2.2 Tour of Thailand in the northern province of Chaing Rai. It will be my second international race as the New Zealand national champion and i am hoping to be able to show the jersey off as much as possible in the racing and on the podium. With some good form after Langkawi and a solid 3week training camp in the hot conditions of Malaysia im hoping that i will be able to get alot out of this race.

We have spent a couple of days getting settled in to the race accommodation here in Chaing Rai and have done abit of exploring out on the roads. By the looks of it there are some serious hills around which im sure we will get a closer look at later on this week. Thailand has been great so far though, in the couple of days we have been here we have already seen so much. From packed street markets in Bangkok to tiny villages tucked away in the mountains. The food as usual in this part of Asia is pretty outstanding, so much so that instead of the race hotel providing lunch and dinner they simply give the team a daily allowance and you go hit up the markets!

Also it has been a very pleasant suprise that we have been able to find real coffee shops all over the place here. One that we have stopped at a couple of times already on our rides would rival a flat white in NZ!!

After finally arriving here im getting pretty excited about racing again although we don’t really know much at all about the racing to come, the only info we have provides race times and distances but no profiles! The tour kicks off tomorrow with a short 2.8km prologue on road bikes, which we expect to be flat and fast. After having not raced since getting sick towards the end of Langkawi its hard to judge exactly where i am at, but am feeling fresh, relaxed and confident for the tour ahead.

The mobile internet coverage here in Thailand also seems to be way better than that in Malaysia so i should be able to keep in touch with the outside world and post our progress regularly. Hopefully have some good news to report once we get underway.

Thats all for now, will wait till the racing gets underway…

Jimmy

I don’t know if its gone fast or slow but our time in Malaysia is coming to an end for now. One thing for sure is that it has been a once in a life time experience. We have been places and seen things that you would definitely not come across on everyday travels. I guess that is one of the benefits of travelling as a cyclist, when you stay somewhere you actually have to deal with the day to day things that a local person would. Its been a pretty easy going lifestyle here and we have managed to get in some great training on some pleasantly epic roads.

The days start early, usually getting up at dawn (sounds crazy but its actually only like 7am) then out the door before the heat starts to crank. Riding on rolling to rather hilly roads through villages and towns for up to 5 odd hours can cover a distance of some 160km pretty easily with the mint surfaces. Chuck in a couple of refreshment stops at a servo or roadside stall to keep the fluids up and it makes for a rather solid day out. The heat of the day comes around 2pm onwards so usually we are back by then but even so you are riding in 35degree temps. Unfortunately we have had to manage without air conditioning in our training base which means the afternoons are spent down at the local western restaurant with coffee, internet and AC keeping us going.

Dinner is always a highlight and something to look forward to, especially on market day (Sunday) when all the food stalls come to town with plentiful options of amazing local food creations, you cant really go wrong! On any other night we will roll in to one of the many many restaurants in town serving, Malaysian, Chinese and Indian cusine. Oh and you would struggle to spend $10NZD a night on a massive feed.

It’s a simple way of life but has offered us an insight into a culture and country that is not really a mainstream tourist destination so for that we can be thankful. There have been some testing moments where we have been left in the dark about are movements and plans especially when its being organised for you by the locals. In those instances we have learned to just go with it and try and fit in with their somewhat carefree approach.

The training has been good, I think I have at least managed to maintain the form from Langkawi and built on some aspects. A couple of days now to recover and taper and things should be all on for Tour of Thailand starting on this Sunday the 1^st of April!

Not sure how well we will be able to connect to the outside world from there but I will try to keep the updates rolling!

Jimmy

Instead of trying to describe everything to you, here’s a bunch of photos of all the stuff we’ve been doing in Malaysia so far, from food to training, people and places. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing worse than getting sick in the final days of a tour is getting sick at the start so I guess in that respect I was lucky however, any ambitions of doing anything in the last two days went out the window for me.  It was a pretty disappointing end to what has been a rather anti climatic tour for me personally. I came to the tour well prepared, had some good opportunities and made some good moves but actually achieving a top result was kept out of reach by a number of contributing factors. I’m definitely happy with how I performed up until the final days though, in a tour with very little terrain suited to my style of riding I still managed to get up amongst it most days. Also as a team we were able to walk away with the knowledge that we had pushed above our weight day in and day out and come out on top of a lot of bigger teams. The performance is probably amplified by the fact that we are running as a virtually new setup. Some of us were teammates last year but we often didn’t all race together and with new member Joe Cooper stepping in as well as Sam Bewley it was almost a brand new group of riders for me. We definitely had a great time though. Malaysia is an amazing country and the Tour organisation certainly looks after the riders well. Even though we were racing through it most of the time we still experienced some pretty epic places.

I think the memory of riding up the wall of a road up Genting highlands and looking up to see it still disappearing in the clouds above is one that will never leave me. It is a special climb and there is a good reason why it is so revered in the cycling world. Although going in a break that day might not have been the most successful tactic it was pretty special to be making the race on that day. Although it did also allow me to secure 5^th place on the KOM competition behind three Colombians whose names are two long to fit in one blog post but are rather diminutive super climbers!

At the start of a 10day tour it’s hard to get your head around just how much riding is ahead of you and then all of a sudden it’s all over and you wonder where all the stages went. The days seem to blend into one another and it is very hard to distinguish all the hotels, starts, courses, and finishes you have done. Your body and mind just gets into such a routine that it kind of blocks everything else out. When you finish the stage all you want to do is get to the hotel and shower, then all you can think about is lunch, after that you patiently wait in turn for a massage before the next event of the evening that is dinner and then a team meeting. After that your time is yours but in my case there wasn’t much left before I was in bed asleep, already thinking about breakfast in the morning. And then it starts all over again, breakfast, bag packing, transfer to the start, sign on, fuel up, race (eat and drink constantly) try and get amongst it at the finish, recovery drink, hotel, and so on. It’s definitely a strange way of life, when you are feeling good, racing strongly and recovering well it is the only place you want to be but when it turns and you are sick, constantly tired, uncomfortable and losing freshness by the minute than it can be a real battle. I got to experience both these situations over the week and definitely know which I prefer! However at the end of the day it’s all k’s in the bank strength gained.

For us to come out of this strongly as a team bodes well for the rest of the season, it was a big test of all aspects, from riders to management and logistics. John ‘Harry’ Harris our brand new manager/DS was thrown in the deep end to take on a race like this for his first outing but was on top of it and made our week much more manageable and successful. We were also extremely lucky with our support from the SMSbikeplus Avanti store in Kuala Lumpur who hooked us up with the best mechanics and souigner Malaysia can offer. Also can’t forget to mention Avanti in New Zealand who shipped through a few vital last minute supplies to make sure we were running smoothly. Also to Peak Fuel who have supplied us with enough product for us to eat three meals a day for the next three months, and a new one on board F2P clothing out of Singapore who provided our sweet new kits.

Now we will hopefully get to have a relaxing week, we are back to Kuala Lumpur for a couple of days to meet up with the boys who raced the OCBC criterium in Singapore on Friday before heading up the country to our training camp base for a couple of weeks. Next adventure on the cards after that is Tour of Thailand. One things for sure, there will be some interesting stories to emerge in the coming months.

Well after a few rather cruisy days rolling along in the bunch on the flat the tour changed gears on stage 5 and got really intense all of a sudden!
In the end it was a pretty disappointing day for me personally but on the whole not a bad day for the team. I finally made the break after over 80km of trying (we did the first 50km in 1hr and it was all uphill) there was four of in the move, two euros and and Aussie. The euros weren’t too keen on riding hard and the bunch didn’t give us much leeway so we never got a massive gap, I had good legs and made the most of it by taking the first cat2 climb, unfortunately the pace was on in the bunch and we got caught just 5 k from the top of the next one, if we had just made the top I would’ve had the kom jersey for the day. It went from bad to worse when I punctured twice in 5k lose the lead group of 40riders just 30k to go. Joe, mike and Roman were riding well still in the front group and Joe managed to finish with the main chase group at the end to move up to 5th on gc. Tomorrow’s day is going to massive but we are still in a good position do do something. We all know that the next stage is the one that will shape the tour, at the moment we are still in a good position to do something!

That was a crazy brutal climb today. There’s not many climbs that you have to ride up at about 10kph for the last 10km. I managed to slip into the break again this morning and won the first kom to add a few more points to my tally, unfortunately there aren’t many climbs left and its pretty much a given that whoever wins up genting wins overall and kom. In the break we managed to hold on off the front untill the real climbing began when we hit the 15% gradients with 15k to go, from then it was just a matter of getting to the finish for me. Unfortunately hints didn’t go quite so well for the boys back in the bunch, while trying to set Joe up for the climb they got caught up in a couple of crashes in the panic. From now we will look to make the most of all opportunities in the next few days, there are still four stages left that suit us so we will look to do something for sure!

           Road to the sky/Genting

Stay tuned for more updates!
Jimmy

Quick update on the racing so far here in langkawi. Most of the time we have just been rolling along in the peloton trying to conserve energy for when it really counts. Due to the flat courses and lack of wind its hard for a break to stay away and also easy for everyone just to cruise along in the bunch which is allgood except for it creates seriously choatic finishes!

I think one of our best achievements so far has been avoiding anything nasty. Roman and I have been trying to wing our way through the sprints but without a committed and experienced leadout team we really need to get to the finish of a much more challenging stage. I have been feeling really good whenever it has been hard so hopefully will get the chance to test my form one day. The genting stage looms above us at the moment. We all know that’s where the race will be one, unfortunately for me its one extreme to the other as the climb is extremely hard and there are plenty of specialists here waiting to take off up there.
Tomorrow is an unknown which looks like it could have some rather decent climbs included in the 190km, anyway it looks like it could mix things up abit so we will be looking to make the most of any opportunities available!
Either way there should be plenty of action to report on in the coming days.
Will keep you posted!
Jimmy