Since I last wrote I have done quite a few races, another up Alp D'Huez where I gained a huge improvement in time over the previous week, 1:09:05 to 1:03:15 which was a personal best! Although it was my aim to get a personal best on this climb, I didn't actually think it was realistic after so much illness this year. 
The series of three hill climbs went really well, I won the first one up the Col d'Ornon in great style, I felt really strong and ended up sprinting over the finish line ahead of a guy I had been racing all the way up to massive applause from the crowd. This finish meant that the next day I got a round of applause just for turning up to the race, which was nice! The next race was over steeper terrain, longer and to a higher finishing point, I felt fine and was leading to about a third of the way up which was when I blew, after that I just rode to the top trying not to completely blow and coming in second. The next day I rode in thunder and lightening through a massive cloud to win the shorter still steeper climb up to Oulles (a village which has nine inhabitants), stand around listening to the presentation for about 45minutes and then almost freeze to death riding back down.
So, four races in a row and I did pretty well, winning the general classification of the series and two of the individual races. I also got to ride up the Galibier to watch the Tour de France, then ride down and watch it go up Alp D'Huez too! Quite inspiring, so even though there wasn't the usual Thursday race up Alp D'Huez because of the Tour I decided to rent a timing chip and race up anyway, astoundingly after a massive week of riding I rode 1:02:00, and this was including having to walk through a market to get to the finish line at the top (they didn't tell me about that when I hired the chip!).
I'm really happy with how my riding is going, I didn't expect anything when I went out to France because the bronchitis and pleurisy which have been hounding my racing season so far, so the success I have had is even more encouraging!
The series of three hill climbs went really well, I won the first one up the Col d'Ornon in great style, I felt really strong and ended up sprinting over the finish line ahead of a guy I had been racing all the way up to massive applause from the crowd. This finish meant that the next day I got a round of applause just for turning up to the race, which was nice! The next race was over steeper terrain, longer and to a higher finishing point, I felt fine and was leading to about a third of the way up which was when I blew, after that I just rode to the top trying not to completely blow and coming in second. The next day I rode in thunder and lightening through a massive cloud to win the shorter still steeper climb up to Oulles (a village which has nine inhabitants), stand around listening to the presentation for about 45minutes and then almost freeze to death riding back down.
So, four races in a row and I did pretty well, winning the general classification of the series and two of the individual races. I also got to ride up the Galibier to watch the Tour de France, then ride down and watch it go up Alp D'Huez too! Quite inspiring, so even though there wasn't the usual Thursday race up Alp D'Huez because of the Tour I decided to rent a timing chip and race up anyway, astoundingly after a massive week of riding I rode 1:02:00, and this was including having to walk through a market to get to the finish line at the top (they didn't tell me about that when I hired the chip!).
I'm really happy with how my riding is going, I didn't expect anything when I went out to France because the bronchitis and pleurisy which have been hounding my racing season so far, so the success I have had is even more encouraging!
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