New Caledonia Update

Bonjour,

Hi guys this is what I have been doing over in New Calednoia so far.

Day 1 (saturday)

We arrived in New Caledonia today. Our first race was 50km and travellved from Park fayard and finished tontouta. There was two hill sprints, each hill was arround 2.5km, they were alot steeper then back in Australia. In the first 10km Chad got pushed over his handelbars, he got cut in front of. He got onto his bike and recovered. Overall the first stage was fairly easy but only because of a slow pace. It had views of mountains much bigger then I have ever seen in my life. Results were myself in 3rd place, Chad 4th and 6th. We are staying at a house for the ahole time, it is huuge. It is 2mins from the beach with great views. Tomorrow we have a rest day so we can see Noumea and other places. I will update on tomorrow, tomoroow.

Day 2 (sunday)

This moring we started off with a training ride around Noumea. We saw some great sites of the ocean, as we rode on the shore line road. The ride went for around 1 hour, we even got our own (follow) car just for a training ride. Once we got back we all went to cheak out the local shops. It was very expensive, gatorade was 250 dollars. In the afternoon we went to the beach for a swim. There are very little, if any, waves. The water was very clear and warm.

Day 3 (monday)

6am wake up..... Today we got to go fishing in the reef. We met Miguel at the warfs with his boat, it was about 12m long. It took about 1hour to get from Noumea to the reef by boat. About 3km from Amidea the water changed to a aqua blue and you could see right down to the bottom. The island had a huge lighthouse, 100m high, with 280 steps to get to the top. We walked to the top of the lighthouse, and you could see out for ages. ON the warf you could see hundreds of tropical fish in the water. Because the island was protected we could not fish there. So we went further out to fish, on the way we saw huge salmons and sword fish. When we were at our destination we could see the coral reef right underneath us. Everyone geared up with flippers and snorkles, and we went snorkling through the reef. THere were so many different types of fish, fluro, colourful.We used harpoons to catch fish, Frank caught a huge salmon. We got back to the boat and had lunch. THen we fished with hand reels. I caught 6 Rouget (reef) fish and all together we caught 25 fish, very nice for dinner.

Day 4 (tuesday)

Today was race stage number 2. The race had no hills, so it was a very fast pace. It started in Boulouparis and 52km later finished in La Foa. The average speed was 35km/h. The results showed me into 5th place, Chad 6th, Trent 7th and Micaela in 3rd (in womens). Tonight we stayed in the Notre Dame catholic school, in La Foa, with every one who is racing. We also met olympian Louis Garne (dad the brand of your helmet is this guy), he stayed with us.

Day 5 (wednesday)

This morning we had breakfast and set out for a training ride with the whole group. About 20 mins into the ride Chad hit a rock and went over the handlebars taking down one other rider. He scraped his leg and his arm, but was very hurt and could not ride anymore. I rode back to the school with him. In the afternoon we went for a drive to the beach, Chad, Trent and myself got to go in Louis Garnes car. The road was a wide fire road so Louis was drifting down the road, around corners. Once we got to the beqch we just swum and played games at the beach. Tonight we stayed at the school again.

Day 6 (thursday)

Today we woke up at 630 to pack our bags and get ready for the race. This stage is the hardest of them all with a 5km hill climb to the finish. It started in La Foa and finished on the Sanatorium of La Pirogue. We began at an easy pace of around 33km for the first 20km. This is where Chad crashed, again, in a massive pile up caused by Daron, 5 people went down at 46km/h. Chad front flipped staight over the top and went head first onto the ground. At this point 4 people attacked and broke away from, the main pack. As I was caught up in the main pack I could not get into the break away. The peleton then averaged 39km/h for the next 40km. We never caught the break away but 1 rider dropped off of it. As we got to the final hill the peleton was down to 7 riders. About 2km into the hill Trent and my self broke away. AFter another 500 metres I pulled away from Trent and opned up around 150m on him. Eventually I got to the finish line in 4th place, Trent got 5th and Miceala got 4th. Tonight we get to stay back home in Noumea.

I stand 4th outright at the moment. I will keep this updated as the results come in.

Au revoir