back to racing,even if it is considered holiday racing...after suffering badly in last years roc i wanted to realy prepare well for the event this year.unfortunately after world champs i just didnt have the time i needed.about a week ago i started doing some good rides and decided to focus on the event anyway.sometimes fresh legs go suprisingly well!

i got into nice on wednesday,met claire and lene and we were off to frejus.the town of frejus is alittle harbor town just about twenty km from st tropez.now ive lived on the coast my whole life and even so the beaches here are awesome.the weather unfortunately only played along for a few days before heavy winds came in and spoiled our party.

i did a few hard rides on the course to prepare and get used to my 29er again.the course was similar to last year,very rocky!i alos opted out of the marathon to save all my energy for the xc which is the main event on sunday.suz represented and got 2nd in a sprint.

it felt quite strange be nervous again on sunday morning.a serious field had turned up for the event and so did the spectators.the course was lined at the start and along most of the route aswell.speaking of starts,this course has my least favourite one of the year.we start on a 50m wide grass field for the first km and its absolute pain!!!the big wheels did make it somewhat easier over the bumpy tuffts tho

after just 10km we were a group of around 8 riders at the front and i managed to go with all the samll moves after that.it definitely wasnt a repeat of the suffer fest that was roc 2009.at around halfway we split into a group of five with marathon world champ alban lakata just howevering on and of the rear of the group.as we hit the beach florian vogel and i got a small gap on a chasing alban which wasnt long lived as the guy has imense power on the flat.it came down to a long power sprint in which alban got me by about half a wheel.with very little training over the last month i was stoked!!!

this week ill be back home and doing some road racing at the amashova crit and road race this weekend.

cheers

burry