Things are going pretty well here. France is fine, the team is good and the riding is going bloody brilliant. Yesterday I won my first race!! Unreal, it was awesome and I am still buzzing. Last year I did ok, however never won a race out right. So, this year one of the major goals I set myself was to win a race before leaving France. I never thought it would have happened this early in the season, nor so easily.

The race was the Boucle du Pays Vaurais. The race was only 91km, but what it lacked in distance it made up for with climbing and strong wind. Being short it was obviously going to be pretty quick right from the start. It sure was, but somehow after only 4km of racing I was in a twelve man break, which turned into the winning move. As the race went by and each climb passed the bunch shrunk down to only five of us at the finish. It was a really weird race for me. Ive had this feeling that I have never really had before while racing in France. It was a piece of piss, I hardly touched the pedals all day and just knew it was my turn to win. Out on the course I won every k.o.m without too much effort so the fact that the finish was on a very steep climb helped. The finish was on a hill that was only 400m long but the average gradient was 15%. Thats like twice as steep as the Rimutakas. The thing that made it a really cool finish though, were the spectators at the top. It was a deafening tunnel of noise. Very choice. So there you go, thats that. I have one under my belt now and obviously the intension now is to win another.

So hows thing in general? Pretty good. The team seems to be a lot better this year. Culturally we have got a very mixed bag with an Italian, German, Kiwi, Polish, British, French and a guy from Finland. We all seem to get on well and should have a good year together, hopefully. The accommodation is far better than last year also. Instead of having a shoe box we have a two story house. We even have a washing machine and television. What else would you want aye? Just need to get some internet going and we are sorted.

Coming up I have a one day race this Sunday and because of my result yesterday I am pretty much guaranteed a ride in the Tour of Mallorca, 29th-2nd April, yahoo. Then April will be pretty full on with racing including the second round of the French Cup. So heres hoping, Im just starting to get fit.