Tom Vessey Cycling: Couple Tours and Some Flowers

Getting along pretty nicely over here at the moment. 2 cheeky South African juniors have arrived for a 3 month stink at The Barn. I have yet to take them to the canal or the local uphill pavé section to rip them a new one, still have a few months crush the morale, ha. Bloody good vibes with a pretty much full barn, good yarns and good weather. Times like this I wish I wouldn’t get deported if I hopped the fence and joined the 8 year olds next door in their pool. Bloody PC madness.

Been a fair amount of racing in the past month so it could be a lengthy read but I think its procrastination time of year for the scarfies so I’d be glad to aid you in your B-.

Overijse Kermesse was the first decent piece of meat I had bagged this year, making the break and taking out the 50euro intermediate sprint prime, like the hulking sprinter I am. We were then caught by a few more riders and later in the race, 3 going off the front and me hesitating too much otherwise I could have had a podium there. Pumped in a solid 5^th at the end, coming away with a decent spend up at the Carrefour! 100euro in the pocket, good day out.

Next up was a tour I had targeted from the start of the year, Triptyque Ardennais, a three day tour with a pretty savage last day. Was bloody good having a familiar face with old mate Hayden Mccormick singing the Snoop Dogg Wiggle song to me from across the other side of the pelo. Etape 1 was a bit of a dog fight to be honest with no one in control of the race and no leader. 5 guys got a slight gap at the finish and that ended up being the deciding break of the tour. Unfortunately I was caught behind a crash at 300m to go, so just rolled in with the same time. After crushing some raw spuds and dodgy meatloaf for tea, it was time to tackled the next stage. Etape 2 wasn’t hard enough to split the bunch so the leading team BMC had everything under control and ended up as a bunch kick where I was just outside a top 20 at 22^nd. Tea – Green beans this time. The last etape was a pretty savage day with two decent burgs on the local laps. I threw a bit of spice down over the top of the last climb to step clear with the swiss express, Kung, and some other joker but it was to no avail. After that I only had a short time to muster what I had left in the seasoning draw for a wee gallop for the finish line, where I was just shy of the top 10 at 12^th. The final GC standings a the end of the tour were pretty tight and ended up 10^th U23 and 16^thoverall, only 1 second off 5^th place.

Tour de Gironde was next on the hit list, a 4 day, 5 stage, UCI 2.2 Tour down around the Bordeaux area in France. Real nice place to have a wee pedal.

After our shocking TTT, all GC aspirations went out the window. From then on I was just trying to make it as hard as possible. I spent a lot of time off the front with no triumph at the end but it was good to go toe to toe with the pro feeder teams for Katusha and Euskadi, who were no stronger than I was, which was a good sign for the future! Also who would have thought I would have got a kick arse curry for tea in Bordeaux! Unreal, morale was sky high.

After the tour had finished, I experienced one of the weirdest evenings of my life. Our team, the only one there, went to this random almost -you can't escape- kind of places for an after tour function and tea. Greeted with a future French 4 man Mumford & Sons jazz band, who had not aged well at all, proceeded to try to pick up old French ladies with solo trumpet, sax and banjo performances that we prayed didn't come our way, ha! In the next room I was half expecting dinner but there were other plans, which consisted of a congo type line and grab a few duck legs and spuds on the way past. There was far too much Frenchness in the one place, like a different planet. The French, what are you going to do.

Last weekend I was getting it done at the Linden Kermesse. Snapped up a solid podium only beaten by two BMC devo riders who put me to work chasing one and then the other. One of the harder ways to get beaten ha. Still, pretty chuffed with another decent payout, a trophy to stamp my name in The Barn’s history of riders and some flowers that my big mouth had been promising my host mum, Christel, since last year!

Other than pushing pedals, Eurosport has been pulling its weight on the Cycling and Tennis front: Giro d’Italia, Rolland Garros, Wimbledon, Tour de France, US Open and Vuelta Espana all showing over the summer! Good stuff.

Currently sitting in 31 degrees, UV’s are giving me a hiding. Finally Belg is cranking up the heat! Next up is a series of one day races, 3 within the week. Should be some more stories to be told after that! Tune in.

Cheers

Vess