The 2007 team presentation in Holland
Photo ©: Malcolm Putman

Hitting the big time: The Team DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed diary 2007

With a bolstered squad including the acquisition of 2005 Gent Wevelgem winner Nico Mattan plus an upgrade to Professional Continental status, look out for the DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed boys pounding the pavé of the Belgian Classics and other high profile European races this season.

Follow all the adventures of Cameron Jennings and the gang as they battle against snow, cobbles and the lure of Belgian beer in their quest to reach the top tier of Continental road racing.

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.

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Racing and resting

Hi all,

Well Denmark went okay, and I was not feeling too bad after China. I left on Monday to go up to Bremen and then completed the trip on Tuesday with another five hour drive up to our second stop in Logstor, a little windy town by the sea.

During the first two days I was feeling good early during the stages, but was winding up tired come the day's end. I then started to feel better and had a good third stage with extremely tough finish laps and held my own during the fourth day. Munge had a good ride during the road stage on the fourth day and was away in a good break that got caught three kilometres from home. In the afternoon the Time Trial reared its ugly head, I was feeling good during the pre-ride around the course and my warm up, so I gave it a good solid go. I never do too many TTs during the year, so I was interested in seeing how I would go. I ended the day 1.20 minutes down on overall and averaged 47km/h.

The last day was a right off unfortunately, with a break going in the first five metres of the race. I was up the front in the second row in the middle of the bunch. The break flew up the road on the left and immediately had 1.30 minutes after two kilometres. The bunch just did not react and I was left being a bunch bunny for the rest of the day. Munge had a funny day after feeling a vibration in his pocket and realising he still had his mobile in his back pocket. After taking a few photos in the bunch and then calling Eric on the phone so he could come and pick it up we settled back into the race and got ready for a ensuing bunch sprint. It was pretty hectic, but I stayed out of trouble. I was up the front looking for a late break but the field was strung out and nothing was going to leave the bunch. After a quick shower, drive and then a boat ride over the pond to Germany, we drove to Bremen once again for another stop over as no one was keen on arriving home at 4:30am in the morning.

So I have had a bit of a break this week. I kept training for three days after the race just to ride the tour out of the legs and then took some time off to do a bit of traveling. I spent days in Gent and Maastricht and have been checking out the annual music festival, Maart Rock, here in Leuven. With artists like Kanye West on the bill it was a good couple of days.

Munge had the same idea and headed off to Germany to watch a mate of his in the Kayak World Championships while all the other guys have had their respective break periods during the year and have been busy training. I will be getting back to the busy training this week and a full end of year awaits. The next race for me will be GP Zottegem on August 21.

Til next time we meet.
Cam