More on us...

What do we hope to achieve out of the training stint in France?
For this training stint in France, we hope to get as much race experience as possible and also if possible, get some good results. Apart from that, we would like to get valuable insights on how the french cyclists train and improve ourselves. We will be training with the French cycling club CAM de Bordeaux, and hope to also learn more of the french culture, and to speak their language.

On training, for the first week in France, we didn't have our bicycles as they were delayed. So we spend some time getting orientated. We went to the velodrome for the first time to do a short session to get the legs spinning again. It was a really good experience as the velodrome was a world class one with 45 deg banks, and the bikes we rented were fixed gear, so it took some getting use to. On the next day, our bikes arrived, so we did long tempo rides during the week to get the body and legs going again.

The training/competition here is definitely different from that in Singapore and SEA. The competition level here is definitely higher, especially with more different conditions and terrains, such as longer and steeper climbs. The riders here are also very strong and motivated.

Who are the people you have met?
So far, the people we've only come into contact with a few people who have really been selfless and helped us alot. Sylvain - co president of CAM de Bordeaux, Vincent - his dad, Damian - our mentor,he looks after us here, almost like our guardian, and also our apparel sponsor F2P, some guys from the cycling club who we don;t really know yet. We find it abit difficult to communicate with them sometimes because we could barely speak french and they don't really speak English except for Damien who speaks perfect English and Sylvain.

How living there is different and probably the cycling culture?
Food, climate, cycling paths everywhere, more cycling friendly city, and more people here commute on bikes than in Singapore. We were especially surprised to see so many female commuters on bikes, and some were even wearing high heels!

There will be a Criterium next weekend. Basically there'll be races on most weekends and we'll keep everyone posted!

Au Revoir.