June 12, 2007
Yes it is true, "Berg" does mean hills and Luxemberg (my spelling) does have plenty of these. So I thought I would do a four-day tour of the hills, and just to make it hard race over them flat-out!
Tour de Luxembourg was a very nice tour; Prologue start in the city, with a cobble berg, then the last stage with three finish laps over a couple of bergs.
We stayed in a very nice village called "Vianden," it had an Old Castle on the hill and the river running through the centre of town. Well worth a look if you are in Luxembourg.
Lloyd and Fleeman had a great tour, finishing up the front each stage over the hard bergs. Lloyd is going strong and is looking good for the GB Championships and Tour de Qinghai Lake. Each of the other riders had good days and performed there duties well. Worm, Skruf and Stephen did well getting bottles from the car every day (I think it was due to a female VIP in the front seat). Poor Bjorn (Pipes) had an unlucky start with a fall off the ramp in the Prologue, not good for the self-esteem!
Each stage consisted of climbs and then three to four finish laps with bergs ranging from 17% to 25%! Nasty! For me, I was climbing better, but still pretty bad compared to the rest. On one stage I got over the berg alright but was dropped on the wet descent, (I am absolutely terrible on the down hills). For these poor bike skills I spent the next 10km surfing in the cars to get back on. On the last stage Rocko told me to go on the attack early, this didn't eventuate due to Astana swapping off at the front, 55km/h, I wasn't going that good!!
It was a very nice tour to ride! Thanks to all the DFL staff for there help and our new soigneur, Makia (AKA Warrick Capper, she has the same red shorts!).
I have a couple of days rest then race in Netherlands, Veenendaal-Veenendaal. After this I am going to see my parents who are in Belgium, Brugge. This is a good chance to get out of the team house and give the boys a break from Munge.
"Shake and Bake"
Kane "Munge" Oakley
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