Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Mont Ventoux Photo ©: Sirotti |
 |
Driving it home: The Team DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed diary, 2006
Cameron Jennings and some of the 2005 Team Cyclingnews riders made the move to the new DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed Continental team. Based in Belgium, they'll teach us about Belgian weather, beer and bike racing in 2006.
Check out the adventures of Cam and the crew - a group of Aussies, Brits (English, Welsh, Scottish), the odd New Zealander and remarkably, even a Belgian - as they tackle a hectic race schedule on three continents this year.
For further reading about the team, visit the DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed official site. To check out Team Cyclingnews during 2005 and earlier, visit the 2005 site.
Belgium, May 3, 2006
Nursing wounds
Hi all,
|
Well, I was going to write to you all concerning the stages and how things turned out during our Tour of Chongming Island, but it appears Kane has beaten me to the punch with a very informative read. So I will not bore you with my account of the tour (collective sigh of relief) but will give you a little update on how things are nonetheless.
As Kane pointed out, I hit the deck pretty hard 5km out from the last stage of the tour. The bunch was lined out on a wide concrete road and a little Chinese guy turned left in front of me and with no time to react I came down. I was sitting in the top 20, so as you can guess a few guys had no room to move and used my back to good effect to slow themselves down.
Apparently it looked pretty bad and Gil and Raoul assumed the worst, but it wasn't that bad. A little time on the deck and I was up and in the car to finish of the stage. Back at the hotel, Raoul did a good job and scrubbed and patched me up, and I really began to think about and dread the flight home. Nevertheless, I am here now and wounds are healing nicely - albeit my back and ribs are still giving me some grief. New bike is on the way as mine got beaten up pretty bad, so a special thanks goes to Wim, who is currently building it up and burning the candle at both ends acting as mechanic for the team.
|
To say I was disappointed to have crashed is an understatement. After my illness slowed me down for a few weeks I was looking forward to the tour and by the end of it I could tell I was travelling ok, form was coming back and had taken steps in the right direction. So hopefully the crash doesn't set me back again. At least I can say my current form in the crash department is right up there.
So we have returned to Booischot and gave it a good clean. No sooner had we returned that half the guys have headed to Tour of Bretagne in Brittany and myself and five others will be heading to Denmark for GP SATS and CSC Classic. Happy to say as well, contrary to Kane's report, the DVDs we all bought in China do work. Someone just hadn't plugged the sound into the the TV. So after a bit of rant and and anxious moments, everything has returned to normal.
Till next time we meet.
Cameron
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Cam Jennings
- Some things never change…
- Chongming Island
- The port at Chongming Island
- Tank' (Leigh Palmer) and 'Munge' (Kane Oakley) training in China
- Is there a bike race in town?
- A dropped group during stage 3
- Cameron Jennings looking forward to the flight home
- Cam's bike post-crash
- Bernard Sulzberger made the podium along with Rob McLachlan and winner Nolan Hoffman
