Grenade

Last weekend I raced in Grenade, France about 2 1/2 hours from Bordeaux. This race meet was part of the French National Qualification. Racing was held around a 400 meter road circuit with tight corners and very long straights.

On Saturday the rain just wouldn't go away. It would rain then stop and just before the track was dry it would rain again, so most of the racing was held in wet or partly wet conditions. The first round of the 500 meters was held in the wet and three from each heat went through to the next round. For the semifinals the track was half dry and half wet and because there were two foreigners eight skaters qualified for the final. For the final all the skaters stepped up to the line and just before the gun went the officials called off the race. The track was deemed too wet to race on and then it started to pour down with rain again. The 500 meter final was held on Sunday morning with not a rain cloud in sight. I won, 2nd was Sara Bak and 3rd Pauline Jegouic.

The 10km points race was held Saturday night in wet conditions and a cool 6 degrees. I won a few early points and then broke away and Laetitia Lebihan came with me. We both ended up lapping the pack and I went on to win the race, Laetitia 2nd and Lucie Peruzzetto 3rd.


The 200 meter time trial was on Sunday morning before the 500 meter final. To be in contention for the overall title you had to start all the races. I stepped onto the start line even though I wasn't highly motivated, the 200 meter time trial is an event I'm not fond of. I ended up coming 4th, 1st was Sophie Beaujot, 2nd Ophelie Carrerr and 3rd Aude Sohier.

The last race was the 10km Elimination which was held at around 3pm on Sunday. It came down to a sprint finish at the end with all 5 skaters still together and I went on to win, Laetitia 2nd and Justine Halbout came in for 3rd.

I won the overall title, 2nd was Lucie Peruzzetto and 3rd Pauline Jegouic.

I've Finally Made it to Bordeaux

Last night I arrived in Paris after a 12 hour flight from Hong Kong. I stayed the night in Paris and caught a train this morning to Bordeaux. The train journey was supposed to take around 3 1/2 hours but ended up turning into a long 6 hour journey. All was fine until about 30 minutes out from Bordeaux when the train suddenly came to a stop in the middle of nowhere due to an electrical malfunction. All the announcements where being made in French and no one seemed to be able to speak enough English to tell me what was going on. An hour and a half later everyone started moving towards the front of the train so I just followed along like a sheep. We then all had to walk about 1km along the track to the next little railway station. It's ok having a 30 kg bag when you can drag it along behind you on wheels but that doesn't work going over loose stones. About 30 minutes later a train came to pick up all the stranded passengers and I finally made it to Bordeaux.

I am staying at Le Creps Aquitaine in Bordeaux which is the Ministry of Youth and Sports Institution. There are great sporting facilities at this complex including a road circuit, indoor 100 meter flat track and gym facilities. There is also a bank track about 20 to 30 minutes away. Quiet a few of the French National Team skaters are based here and I will be training with them for the next month.

Tomorrow morning I am going with the group of skaters from Bordeaux to a race meet in France. I'm not sure where it is but it's about 3 hours away. I'm rather tired from the travel, lugging my bags around, lack of sleep and delays but hopefully after a good nights sleep I will feel more energized tomorrow when I step on the start line.

I Have Landed

On Saturday night I left New Zealand and flew out to Hong Kong. After a 10 hour flight I arrived in Hong Kong at around 6am. That afternoon I had a training clinic with the local skating club Checker Sports with around 40 skaters attending. Straight after the clinic Cheryl and I headed to the airport and took a short flight across to Kaohsiung, Taipei the city where the World Games are being held in July of this year. I skated early this morning with the Kaohsiung City Team and will train again with them tonight. Tomorrow morning I will get another training session in before flying back out to Hong Kong at midday. I leave Hong Kong on the 26th and fly to France where I will be training for the next month.

WIC Cartagena

The first World Inline Cup race for 2009 took place in Cartagena, Colombia a couple of days ago. Alexandra Vivas, Tamara Llorens and new team member Kelly Martinez where there representing the Bont Wheels Team.

From what I can understand the marathon took place under hot conditions exceeding 32 degrees. Kelly Martinez was the highest place finisher for the team coming in 5th, Tamara Llorens 7th and Alexandra Vivas 8th after making a couple of breakaway attempts.

How cool is this?

Last week Cheryl and Bill were in Singapore for the first Asian Inline Cup Race and they came across a very cool McDonald's restaurant.

I am sure you are all aware of McDonald's and the drive thru area that usually goes with it. Well at East Coast (Singapore) where there is 20km of skate and cycle paths there is a McDonald's that has a Skate-Thru area as well. Here are the pictures to prove it.

NZ Bank Track National Results

The full results form the New Zealand Bank Track National Championships can be downloaded from the Skate NZ website. They can be found under the menu Speed-Results-National.

I won all of the Senior Ladies and Open Ladies titles, so that is 6 national titles in total. I didn't break any National records but only one or two where broken all weekend. It was great to see the strength and up and coming talent in the female grades. The Juvenile and Junior Girls grades are really strong at the moment with large numbers.


More pictures from the weekend can be found on the South Canterbury Club's blog.