I've been operating without much internet for the last couple weeks, oh the horror. Luckily I should have it plenty now. I'm settling in nicely to wales and the team and things are going pretty well. My first two 1.1 races have gone ok. Nothing spectacular but at least I haven't embarassed myself too much.

First up was Route Adelie Vitre in France. In the field were all the French Protour teams and Conti Pro teams along with a few continental teams like ours. The course was a hard, lumpy circuit with some small roads and wind. FdJeux team attacked up a hill leading to a crosswind section and blew it apart. I actually made the 2nd group of maybe 5 and then road back into the front, and made it through the hard bit by the skin of my teeth. Unfortunately I had a bit of a stomach problem that put me out of the race after the pace had slowed a bit. That was dissapointing, but I was happy that I'd lasted through the ridiculous lap Fdjeux put down that dropped half the field, including plenty of Protour riders.

Yesterday was Grand Prix Pino Cerami in Belgium. Aside from the mountainous races near Liege, racing in Belgium ain't my strong point. I road ok though, and was able to help a few of the guys on the team who are going really well. I spent the first 40ks going all out to make the early break, which ended up never going. After that I was suffering a bit. Then we hit a hilly bit of the course and I felt great and was riding well. Unfortunately after that things got a bit too belgian for me, meaning we hit a cobbled climb and some crosswind sections. I could tell I was bad in the crosswinds and I don't yet have the endurance for 200k races, so I tried to position the guys at the front and shield them from the wind whenever I could, then finally cracked after about 150k. If i'd made it another 10 or 15k in the front I could have been close enough to the finish to ride in, which would have been nice. Only about a third of the field finished and again, we were racing with the biggest teams of the sport like Quickstep, Lotto, Cervel TestTeam, etc.

Next up is Tour of Finistere, another 1.1 on terrain that looks like it might suit me. That is the 17th so I have some time to do some good training and find my form. I think I have the fitness to race these 1.1s I just need to get used to the longer distance and different style. And, after this, the races with smaller pro teams are going to seem easy!