It's back Baby!

2 months it’s been since my last posting, a whole 2 months. Time flies when you’re having fun so I must have been having a whole load of fun. My excuses for not posting are as follows:

1: I got lazy

2: I had no internet

3: I got lazy

As you can see, I’m not much of an excuse person unless of course I did badly in a race, in which case I have a small novel of excuses packed away somewhere at the back of my mind. Each one specific to a certain occasion, bad weather, broken spoke, mal positioning etc etc...

2 months of not saying anything leaves you with a lot to talk about, so, without further ado, let’s find out what I’ve been up to.

The herb growing went very well for several weeks and then one pot of plants suddenly died. We weren’t sure why, we think it was possibly down to overgrowth or maybe malnourishment, or more likely a mix of the two. This left us with a lot of quite dead coriander, but fortunately the pot containing the basil, chives and some other none-discernable plant remains quite alive and well, we even put some in the occasional meal. But doing this feels like destroying several weeks work, even though you are supposed to use them for cooking... On the subject of cooking, a long time ago I said I’d put up a cookbook blog, you probably had forgotten about this, your probably didn’t even know about it in the first place, but, I’m pleased to say, I have finally put it up for you to sample.

Here we are: http://cyclistscookbook.blogspot.com/

If you have any more recipe’s send them over and I’ll put them up, after trying them of course.

Now for something completely different.

Last time I wrote I had just finished a busy week with 2 stage races, since then I’ve had 13 days of racing (provided I post this by Friday night, if not I’ll have had 14) including 1 top 5, 5 top 10’s, 2 DNF’s, a crash and loads of primes. I’ve also had a few races where not much has happened, but these have been few and far between as now I always seem to find a way of making a race worth the effort. One of the first highlights of the past 2 months was a race in a place called Villaine-la-Juhel. It came on the back of a race where I had been strong but in far too many attacks. So I was told, unsurprisingly, to hold back. Something I’m not very use to doing as most of the time I am compelled to attack. On this particular occasion though, I managed it. I sat in for pretty much the whole race until the finishing circuit and was feeling pretty sweet. On the finishing circuit I was up front more often than I wasn’t and in the weird position of being in contention for the win. I even managed to sprint over the line first for 2 primes of which I didn’t know the value, this turned out to be very much worth the trouble.

The exciting bit came with just over a lap to go, as someone lay a big dirty brick on a high powered fan. I followed a very hard move up the drag of a hill which made me begin to lose some vision, but I thought it was all part of the fun and pushed on until there were just 10 of us working well towards the finish. I was quite convinced I could win and knew it would all be down to the last corner, which funnily enough, it was. The fast run into it was dangerous to say the least and it was admirable the way some of the guys dive bombed into it risking all to move up. Unfortunately while I was admiring their foolishness, they were still coming round me and this left me in no position to come back on them. Hence my 8^th, rather than 1^st or even 2^nd or 3^rd.

The next highlight came at a race called Les Boucles Sérantaises, this was pretty similar to the other one but with a bigger field and a harder finishing circuit. Once again I tried to put into place my “sit-in” plan of action, but no sooner than had I implemented it, I found myself off the front in a small group. This grew and grew, before Johan Lebon got across to it and it was doomed, I was quite pleased as I could then re-implement operation sit-in. This worked well until the finishing circuits when things got tough, I moved up quite slowly and even made a short foray off the front which turned out to be quite profitable. With 2 laps to go and a small group up the road, I carried my speed and my heavy legs round the bunch and attacked off the front with 3 others. We bridged across to the front group and it was race on.

I say it was the front group, it wasn’t, there were still 4 guys up the road who weren’t to be caught. After the obligatory last ditch attempts, we were still together with a K and a half to go when I followed a small attack but decided it wasn’t worth going through. This meant we were caught with 300 metres to go and found myself nearly leading out the sprint, I probably should have led it out as a about 5 got past me and I finished 10^th, not too shabby.

Highlight number 3 was at a race called Le route des Légendes, a hard hard circuit with 2 steep hills and a very big false flat cross wind section. It was quite apparent that it would split up early on and stay that way, so I followed the early moves and stayed out front. Much to my pleasure I ended up in the move of the day, but the two steep hills were doing some damage to my legs every time and with 2 laps to go the big attacks came. My reaction was about 5 seconds to slow, mainly due to the rather large gradient, and I was left in the 2^nd group. I must have recovered a little though as by the finish, although I was duped into leading out the uphill sprint, I still held on for 2^nd in the group and 8^th overall, not too shabby.

The last and possibly most exciting highlight came just the other week, a criterium race in a suburb of Rennes. Not a massive field, but there are always quality guys there to make it tough and keep you on your toes. Crits in France aren’t like in England, I think I mentioned this last year possibly, but they tend to be at least 90km with a shed load of primes. Something that has come to interest me this year being more capable of winning sprints. But anyway, the race wasn’t massively eventful for the first 28 of the 35 laps, attacks going here and there, nothing really getting away. Then with 7 to go a group of 5 managed to sneak away, sans moi. This was a little annoying as I’d been mostly alert for the race, but it wasn’t over yet, not by a long shot, I’d built myself up for this race and wanted a result. So coming into four laps to go, I attacked into a corner got a gap and the chase was on. I don’t know how far ahead they were, all I know is it was ard, well ard. But after a lap and a bit of chasing, I made contact with the lead group, quite possibly my finest moment in cycling, I was very pleased, but it wasn’t over yet. I made myself look as tired as possible and sat on for as long as I could, but eventually they got annoyed and I tapped through steadily. This carried on nicely until about ¾ of a lap to go when one of them decided to spoil the party and attacked. I wasn’t in a position to follow and no one else did, which left me in a sticky situation. Attack and pull the others across or risk it and wait. The result was something in between, one tried to pull him back half heartedly and I went once he had finished but it was too late. Two dived inside me before the last corner and that’s how it stayed, me in 4^th. Darn, so close, I was disappointed, very.

So those are all the highlights between my last blog and now. Fortunately after much decision making and decisive action, we now have internet installed. We needed to set up a French bank account to pay for France telecom to have a line installed before we could then go to service provider SFR to have a box sent over, which we then needed to set-up and wait for the service to start. And we only found out we had to do these things in reverse order, it was a right game.

In other news, why does everything wear out and break so much easier when you have to pay for it? It’s rather annoying. During one race, a front tubular blew out on the way down a nice fast sweeping corner, leaving me to carry straight on into the curb and momentarily later, a wall. Luckily I didn’t do myself too much damage, but later to my dismay found that my pride and joy front zipp had a big old crack in it from the impact. I wasn’t best pleased. I have also broken spokes in 3 others wheels and don’t actually think I own a wheel which is completely true. It’s the same for the other guys Matt and Nathan, we haven’t had a lot of luck in the wheel department.

Matt has now had his cast off and is nearly ready to start racing again, although we had a minor scare last Tuesday when after one of his first rides we were forced back to the hospital after he decided he had broken it again. Fortunately he hadn’t and he’s now easing back into the riding a lot slower, so hopefully he’ll be pinning numbers on soon enough!

Until next time,

King of the mountain

How slack am I? Very is the answer to that question. A whole week and whatever without writing something, I’ve let you down, I’ve let the team down, but most importantly, I’ve let myself down. I do have an excuse though, that is lots of racing. Last week from the Saturday to the following Sunday I raced more days than I didn’t, so I’ll get right onto telling you all about them. The first race was the two day Fleche d’Armor, it included a long road stage on the Saturday, a short Time Trial on the Sunday morning and another decent road stage in the afternoon. The only thing I do need to tell you about first is how we went looking for a different bakery on the Friday afternoon, Matt pointed out that we had all accidentally walked over a 3-drain (3 drains in a row), he told us every time he did this something bad happened the next day. Me and Nathan scoffed at this foolish superstition and enjoyed the below average baguette we bought from the new found bakery.

The first stage was nothing short of a farce. Well not quite until 30km anyway when the big team Cotes d’armor put the hammer down on a very tough cross wind section and split it up, I was dallying around about 5 wheels too far back and ended up chasing this most vital of splits. We were riding along at a good pace and just about had the lead group in sight when, all of a sudden, half the cars went right and we went straight on. No one seemed to know what the hell was going on, some people turned around some went straight on, I followed the majority and somehow we got back on the course behind all the team cars. It was at this point that everyone seemed to decide the organisers didn’t deserve a race and it turned into a very large club run that went on for the next 90km. During all this commotion Matt had put his front wheel into someone’s pedal and ripped 4 spokes out of it just as the hammer went down. After a frantic 30 minute chase he got onto the back of the cars a little before the bunch found their own way there, rendering any effort he did put in a bit pointless. Oh well, stage races are good because they have more than one stage.

Next up was the TT, 7,8km of slightly rolling but mostly flat route. Me and Matt had planned our finishing positions in the bunch the day before so that he could finish and get the disk wheel and deep section front zipp back to me for my start. It was close, very close, I signed on with 10 seconds to go, got on the bike with 5 seconds, clipped in on 3 seconds and had to start in my biggest gear not having had time to change it. Nevertheless, I felt half decent and blistered past my minute man at about 5km and sprinted in to post 10.14. Matt had earlier posted a quick 10.10; these times put me and Matt in 1st and 2nd which is how it would remain until the last 10 riders. The GC contenders put in some pretty good times on their fancy bikes (me and Matt had to stick clip-on TT bars on), but by far and away the most impressive was Johan Le Bon. He won by a massive margin, posting a 9.20 averaging over 51km/h. To put that into perspective, the criterium international TT won by Tony Martin on the same day over a very similar distance was run off at slightly more than a 1km/h less. In fact from 2nd (9.52) place down to 10th (10.15) it was quite close, matt ended up 6th with me coming in 8th. We were quite pleased.

After a quick shower and some food it was time for the afternoon stage. A good 125km along the coast, occasionally heading inland to find a big hill. I had no plan in particular except to try and do something worth remembering (which usually just means finishing!). I followed some wheels early, before after about 15km launching my own attack pulling away a group of 11. We quickly pulled out a good gap getting it up to 2.30 at one point. Another large group of 20 came across to us before it quickly split up again on a hard hill where some big attacks came. I worked to stay in the front group as it kept going up steep hill after steep hill. The front group had now been whittled down to about 12 of us again, but the bunch was coming back fast being driven by Le Bon and his cronies. We reached the finishing circuit with a 20 second gap, only 3 short laps and we were there! Our group started to attack each other with a small group getting away, I tried to keep the speed high so we at least finished ahead, but I had done a lot of work early on and was now paying the price. On the bell lap we still had a small advantage but if you looked behind too long you’d be caught. This must have happened as with 3km remaining I saw Le Bon roll along side with the rest of the jerseys. Darn. I followed what I could and my severely dampened sprint took me into 13th place on the stage. The first stage had wrecked everything and I finished 38th overall, which was a tad annoying, but I soon got over it.

While getting changed we wondered where Matt was, no one had seen him finish or even come past on the finishing circuit. It was all a bit worrying, he had been seen coming across to us with the Le Bon group but had seemingly disappeared. I saw one of the team helpers walk up with his bike, the forks somewhat bent in the wrong direction, interesting. We found him in an ambulance headed to the nearest hospital; I jumped in for a lift and found his spirits weren’t too dampened. After a quick x-ray we found he hadn’t broken a bone apparently, but a cast was put on anyway for good measure.

The next race was on the Wednesday, the Elite Nationale Grand Prix U. My legs didn’t feel too clever in the first 50km whatsoever and I thought I was in for a long day. Things didn’t get much better as the hammer kept going down to bring back breaks, splitting it up in crosswinds and bringing it back together. I hovered around in no particular position wondering when something good might happen, then we hit this wall of a hill out of nowhere. It went on and everyone was forced into their smallest gears, there were too many people all over the road to move forwards so the guys at the front had it easy. I was pretty close to the back and as we crested the hill it split into groups of which I was in the very last, in fact I was last man altogether. We dallied around until two others decided they’d had enough and attacked across to the peloton, I followed busting several guts to hold the wheel before finally latching onto the back of the big group. I looked round and saw the small group a long way off the back, I wouldn’t see them again this race.

Once I’d recovered I moved up towards the front and learnt that a group with all the favourites was up the road after the hill. I decided I had nothing to lose and put in one effort which was quickly shut down, before going again not long after. This time a got a small gap so carried on going, I looked round to see a group of about 12 riding off from the peloton. I waited for them and then helped them pull away and we were soon flying. It didn’t take us long to get up to the leading group and I was happy as Larry, whoever he is. This is about where it got hard. We went up another wall of a climb which split it up yet again, it came back together again after much pain and then a small group went just before moving onto the finishing circuit. I followed what I could, but by now I was crème caramelled and sprinting out of corners was taking some serious effort, let alone sprinting after attacks. I managed to hang on, but had nothing left for the finale and had to roll in for 25th place which I wasn’t so disappointed with, having been last man about 50km earlier.

The next day Matt decided to take his cast off and try and get out for a ride. We took it very easy, but by the end of it he didn’t seem to have done his arm much good. He spent the rest of the evening bathing it in cold water and we went to bed thinking he might have just sprained it. Then, at approximately 2.30AM, he knocked on my door saying it hurt so much he couldn’t take it anymore. At first, I was sceptical especially in my semi-conscious state, but when I saw him shivering in pain just sat down I started to believe him. I went to action stations creating a makeshift ice bag before ringing one of the club officials who might least mind being rang at crazy o’clock. Luckily he answered at the 2nd attempt and it was off to the hospital again. This time they found he had broke a bone, the scaffoid or something, a very small bone in the wrist that could apparently cause much discomfort, no sh!t. They wrapped a good solid cast that would need to be worn for 6 weeks and we went back to bed. Happy days.

Our next race was the Tour du Pays de Lesneven, similar to the Fleche d’Armor but with a team time trial rather than individual. The first stage went round some nice coast line before heading inland, we went up the first King of the Mountains prime and I decided to have a bash, leading the peloton over. I found out after that a group of 5 had gone up the road without me seeing and I hadn’t actually scored any points. I went for the next one as well, this time 2 had dropped out of the break and leading the peloton again gave me 2 points. After that I followed a few attacks and got away in a group of 9, I thought this would be good until the finish but as we reached the 3rd KOM point and I won outright, we were caught by a split up bunch. It stayed like this until the last KOM point where I moved up into a good position I sprinted for all I was worth to take it. Now the bunch split up yet again and I was caught between the two, eventually deciding I was better off waiting (not really, I just couldn’t catch the front group). It came back together on the finishing circuit just as a group of 11 clipped off, I was more concerned with working out whether or not I might have taken the jersey and really wasn’t enjoying these last few km’s anyway. It turned out that the guy who had taken the two early KOM points was in my team and thought he had won the jersey, only to find out I had won the last two and scored a couple extra points! This meant I had the jersey, I felt bad, well not really, I felt great. I’d never had a jersey before in any race, this was quite an experience and I wasn’t about to lose it, the jersey that is.

The TTT wasn’t much to talk about, I think we did as well as we could have with the team, but they are always fun to do. The afternoon stage was where it was at, I had a jersey to keep. On the start line I was at the back thinking I’d quite like to be at the front and then I remembered, I’m wearing a jersey, move aside boys. So I strode to the front, cool as, and posed for photos with some dignitary of the town. The first KOM was very early on after only 6.7km so the plan was to sit on anything that moved and get it finished quickly. After a small detour and an interesting crash from Nathan, I jumped away, chasing after a small group which suddenly turned into a big group of 15 or so. We pulled away quickly and coming into towards the KOM point I was nicely positioned before opening up a mighty sprint with 200m to go. After a short challenge the others decided they weren’t going to get more points than the person who already had the jersey and slowed up, saving their legs. We continued to work well and pulled out over 3 minutes on the peloton before they started chasing. We had a healthy gap coming into the next KOM points and I took maximum points on all of them, guaranteeing my spot on the podium that afternoon. Why not go for the stage. From there on I worked rather hard, intent on holding the gap on the bunch led by BIC 2000. It felt great, especially being in a jersey. We held it at 1.50 for a while before getting onto the finishing circuit. Here it came down rapidly before we were finally caught, I was in pieces and duely sat-in for the ride. It was only now that I realised how knackered I really was and with about 2.5km to go I dropped off the back and rolled in on my own, a warrior, grrr.

The podium was good fun, especially with Ms Finistere handing out the flowers, I certainly couldn’t complain. The Master of Ceremonies thankfully asked only simple questions and I gave him some nice simple answers and everyone was happy, especially Ms Finistere at the fact I was on the podium. And now I’ve tasted it, I want some more, I don’t know where, I don’t know how, but I will soon be on the podium again. We’ll see.

F*@king 3-drains,

Until next time,

Walk safe.

Monsieur Top 20

Another week, another blog, so much to tell you about, so little time, so near, yet so far, when in Rome...I only posted my last blog a few days ago and yet lot’s of action has taken place. The first thing to tell you about is how me, Matt and Nathan all took part in the French National Sport...Striking. It was a nice sunny afternoon and we had the door open contemplating what to have for tea, when, all of sudden we were interrupted by some disturbing noises. So because we’re brave and inquisitive, we wanted to find out what was making them, was it a street party? Was it a large gathering of people talking at each other through megaphones? Was it an auction in the middle of the road? No, it was none of these, it was a strike, like I said earlier. We stood there watching from the side of the road wondering what it was all about, no one seemed particularly angry, in fact it was pretty docile. We decided to take up a more comfortable viewing point on a bench as there wasn’t much going on, but soon there was some movement and the long bunch of people started walking past us. We watched, commenting on the differences in commitment, some look embarrassed to be there, whereas others made as much noise as they could. Once they had all walked past we decided to follow them, only to find they were going so slowly, we were soon amongst them. Obviously more observation was necessary, so we stealthily moved into the bunch unnoticed. From here we could really see the action, people chatted happily, I’m not sure about what, possibly the weather or maybe what they were having for dinner. But they definitely weren’t talking about the protest they were taking part in. Fortunately for us they took us down an interesting street we hadn’t been down yet, it was actually quite liberating to walk down the middle of what is usually a busy road, no wonder there are so many of these things over here. After a short walk we stopped outside some official looking building and instantly everyone began to disperse, no demands to be met, no hostages taken, all a bit disappointing really. So we headed home for tea, having had our bit of excitement for the day.

We decided the next step after cooking was to grow our own food, unfortunately the closest thing we have to a patch of soil to grow things in around our apartment is the dirt we’ve washed off our bikes. This put quite a dent in our aspirations of self-sufficiency, so we had to tone down our hopes and instead opted to grow our own herbs to use for cooking. But for this we still needed some soil and we weren’t about to pay for some stuff that covers a third of the Earth. So instead we commenced Operation Dig and Run. Fougeres isn’t a 4 star Ville Fleuri for nothing and the soil the plants grow in is top quality stuff. We filled up enough Tupperware pots to accommodate the amount of seeds Matts mum had kindly sent us and scarpered, they won’t miss the soil and besides, we need it more than them.

Several Recipes have now been written and hopefully will be put up with this blog, I suggest you try all of them...at once. You’ll definitely not regret it. I’ll keep adding them as we keep cooking and you can enjoy the same delights as us this summer! This week also saw the recommencement of my other pastime, painting. Last year I forgot to take my paintings over and canvasses might have been a problem to transport on a plane anyway. But this year, with my parents driving me over, I fitted a few in along with my paints with the intention or literally creating a work of art. And now I have. The composition includes one of the more imposing turrets of the castle standing over one of the more modern buildings during twilight. The sky is quite dramatic and overall I’m pleased, hopefully I can upload a picture of it but I guarantee nothing.

Now to the small matter of racing, and race we did. This time it was a pretty short 110km effort with 135 other guys. It involved 50km of riding round the country side with 13 laps of a particularly horrible finishing circuit that resembled a crit more than anything. All started off ok, I was nicely placed, followed a few moves, nothing to shake a stick at mind. Then suddenly there was a move I wasn’t in, I assumed we had guys in it so looked for counters of which there were few. This move started to ride off so I was a little worried but then a team mate came up and told me we had two guys in it, thank goodness. A few minutes later I saw one of the teammates who was supposed to be in the break...hmmmm...Then another minute or so after that I saw the other guy was supposed to be ahead. The same guy who had told me we had guys in the break then rode up to me and told me we had no one in the break. Darn.

Working was now the order of the day, but not before we tried to launch a few moves to get a group going across to the leaders. After this failed we tried to get in some sort of order at the front doing some through and off, unfortunately we weren’t all of similar strength and soon there were only 3 or so of us doing the pulling. Not ideal when there are 15 guys up the road all doing a bit of work. Luckily another team had missed out on the action and helped out so we kept the break at about a minute. While this was happening we moved onto the finishing circuit, I hadn’t really moved from the front since we started working and after 3 laps of the circuit I was in something of a state. I dropped back and began to realise just how bad I was feeling. I kept moving further backwards until I could see the cars behind, this wasn’t a good day. I tried to move up now and again, but my legs really didn’t want to do it. Meanwhile I could hear through the speakers that the break was being pulled back to around 25 seconds, but I was too far back to see them and my eye’s weren’t in a seeing mood anyway, in fact, most of body didn’t want to do what I was telling it to.

Getting towards the end I started to see some of our guys moving backwards after doing their work, I wish I could have been up there with them, but I really had very little there. With 3 to go one of our strongest guys who was also on a bad day but was working anyway told me to do try and do whatever I could to help Matt (forgot to mention we were doing all this work to give Matt a shot at winning). This was all the inspiration I needed and so I shot to the front hoping I’d get some kind of second wind. I didn’t stop moving up and hit the front on probably the hardest bit of the circuit, going all out in an attempt to split up for a counter attack to go clear. It didn’t work the first time so I dropped back for about 30 seconds and went again this time using up my afterburners to make it hard. This time it split, not much, but enough. Matt put in a strong counter, 3 others went with him and that was it, my job done. Or so I thought.

I stayed near the front, deciding I’d seen enough of the back for one day and followed a few little digs, but it was pretty much altogether coming into the dead left hander before the uphill sprint to the finish. I was about 5^th wheel and opened up the demon sprint for the finish coming in 3^rd, apparently 19^th overall. A far too good result for the way I felt, which is always a bonus. Next week I plan on feeling much better and winning by several minutes

Also, well done to Mark Cavendish who won Milan- San Remo for what should hopefully be the first of many times, that is until I start to do it.

Until next time,

Stay sweet.

Sitting in McDonalds thieving the internet...still.

This blog is in much need of some TLC. I can’t remember the last time I gave you a picture to look at, let alone a video. Unfortunately it takes time and more importantly, internet time and although I have plenty of the former, I have precious little of the latter. So for now you’ll have to imagine what the bike races look like, just think of loads of blokes dressed in different shades of Lycra, a few bikes, the occasional hill and you’re pretty much there. Anyway, In Britanny, because it’s such a cycling popular area, as well as loads of other sports, they put the results of every race in the regional paper, Ouest France. So after every race we’ve done ok in or if there’s an article on us, we buy the paper, cut out the important bit and stick it on what we have now christened as the ‘Media Wall’. So far we have a nice little collection and I imagine by the end of the season we may well have several Media Walls, you’d hope so anyway. One day, when we have internet, I’ll take a photo and you can see it too! How exciting.

We have had some introduction of other entertainment; we have been kindly lent a television to use by one of the clubs officials, as well as a Playstation well stocked with games not from the official but from Rob Orr, our occasional team mate. This has kept the kids busy while I keep house and do other important things like writing this, it hasn’t stopped our games of rummy though. The cooking continues, so much so that we have decided to start a cyclist’s recipe book. Every time we make something new, we take a picture and write down how to make it. When I get round to it I’ll post each one on a separate cooking blog so if anyone who’s reading this fancies a go at making it, which I doubt, they can just go ahead and do that now.

Which leads me nicely onto the weather, it has been nothing short of splendid this past week with cloudless skies and temperatures reaching into the 20’s. Apparently it’s set to continue into next week as well, so for the moment, it’s happy days. I even donned the shorts once for a training ride! Crazy I know, especially for mid March, but it was crying out for me to do it. The uber tan-lines shall soon be returning. The weather was also good for our races.

Which leads me nicely onto the races. We had two at the weekend, the first one a 162km Elite Nationale, the Souvenir Louison Bobet and the 2^nd a smaller 135km 1/2/3 race, both with a nice bit of ‘en ligne’ with finishing circuits. Unfortunately Matt had been ill all week and decided to sit them both out, so it was just me and Nathan with a few of the French guys. The first race was fairly interesting, the two pro teams in the area, Bretagne-Schuller and Besson Chaussures both had teams as well as all the big teams in Britanny, very similar to last week really. The race took just over 4 hours and I’d struggle to tell you all about it and most of it was boring anyway, so here it goes. It was pretty hard early on and then a break went and then it got easier for 100km, then we got onto the finishing circuit with 30km to go. Right that brings it up to the interesting bit. I was casually riding round the finishing circuit wondering if I could scrounge any kind of result from the race when all of a sudden a small break went up the road. It started to get bigger and bigger and I thought maybe I should be in it, so I got in it. Then with less than to lap to go I thought I should attack, so I attacked. I got away with two others and we worked really really hard, then I messed up the sprint a bit and finished 2^nd, which meant I was 20^th overall...sweet.

Which leads me nicely onto my next race. It was slightly different I was still buzzing a little bit from what I’d done the day before and thought I was superman, but I wasn’t. I went with a lot of moves at the start, attacked loads, generally foolish behaviour. Then the actual move went, was I in it? Of course I wasn’t, that would be asking far too much of superman. So the next 80km were pretty boring, and then we moved onto the finishing circuit. I was casually riding round the finishing circuit wondering if I could scrounge any kind of result from the race when all of a sudden a small break went up the road. It stayed quite small and I thought maybe I should be in it, so I got in it. We worked really really hard and caught the second half of the break with 600metres to go, but my legs hurt like Thor himself had smashed his mighty hammer upon them over and over with every pedal stroke on the deathly steep finishing hill, so instead of possibly finishing 6^th, I finished 19^th.

Which leads me nicely onto my conclusion of both races. I was pleased with Saturday and but not so much Sunday.

Which leads me nicely onto other news. Unfortunately we didn’t receive a cake this week, but we have our fingers crossed for next week, or possibly the week after, we best get a cake... Our next race is in Normandy as apparently they can’t find a race in Britanny to do, which somehow I find hard to believe but I’ll turn up and ride my ass off wherever I’m taken, so it barely matters. Now I have a plate of sausage and mash to attend to, don’t worry the recipe will be available soon, in all good book stores and some rubbish ones.

Until next time,

Ciao for now.

Back in the gutter.

So far I’m still being reduced to either sitting in the dark outside closed cafes to which I have the password for their wifi connection or going round to one of the officials of the clubs houses in order to post these instalments. We are in the process of deciding whether or not to get an internet connection installed in the apartment, but I fear that by the time we decide to get it done, it will be time to go home. In the mean time we have been having some cracking games of rummy to pass the time and regularly play into the night over a warm drink...we are having such fun. We have also learnt over the past couple of weeks that French radio stations tend to play the same songs many many times over the period of a day and that Skyrock FM are particularly partial to a large amount of Akon (R’n’B artist extraordinaire), much to my distress, but Matt’s apparent joy.

If you are going to live in France and in particular, rent an apartment where the owner lives next door, try to make sure he is a friendly baker. By some amount of good fortune we have managed to do just this and so far it’s paying off quite nicely. After last week’s free cake, this week he popped in while we were cleaning the bikes and gave us a choice of several fantastic looking treats. I chose last, but apparently chose most wisely, as the toffee cream filling in my massive profiterole was much envied by the others who decided on much more average cakes.

Our cooking adventures have continued, even with some occasional repeat performances. Our latest dishes include amongst others, chocolate orange rice pudding (this has to be tasted to be believed), Lasagne (a speciality of mine...) and creamy sweet chilli pasta. We have also mixed French and English traditional foods, adding to the famous Bretonne savoury Galette...wait for it...cheese and baked beans. The outcome was incredible to say the least; I can see it being used several times over the coming months.

After a good week of training, the weekend crept up again and we were preparing for the biggest classic in Britanny, the Manche-Atlantique. 160km from one side of Britanny to the other, 2 pro teams and every other big team in the region, happy days. The order of the day was cross winds and plenty of them which meant we would be riding in the gutter for large periods of the race. It had been a while since I last experienced this, the last good memory of it being at a similar point last year when I struggled to hold wheels whenever the pace was lifted. I’ve blacked out most of the times since then as they became all too frequent. But now things are different, or at least I like to think they are.

The race started very strangely. It was all a bit...well...a bit easy really. This wasn’t anything to do with me feeling massively superior to anyone, just the fact that we were rolling along nice and steadily and even with the wind it was easy to sit in. It even slowed down to a jog at times, making it very sketchy in the 200 rider bunch. But soon the pace heated up, quite a bit, I’m not entirely sure why as I either wasn’t near enough the front to see or was trying too hard to take any notice (or see). But I imagine there were attacks going, or a team driving it at the front, something like that at least. I was holding the wheels, but others weren’t quite as fortunate and the constant high speed coupled with having to steer your bike away from the constantly nearing gutting started to get to some of the riders in front of me. This meant putting in massive amounts of effort to come round them, destroying yourself to get across the smallest of gaps. Just when you make it onto the wheel in front you think “well, they’ll ease up now surely”, then the person in front of you looses the wheel and so begins the painful cycle that is riding in the gutter.

There is only one way to avoid this. Its name is the echelon. Getting in it can save you a whole lot of trouble, unfortunately only the front 15 riders of a 200 rider bunch have the sense to get in one when the going gets tough and as a result 90% of the field spend their time in the gutter. I wasn’t in the front 15 for quite a lot of this time, but worked hard to hold on. It got very very hard for about 15 minutes and split up massively, but then everyone sat up and had a good chat and some food. Then they went really really hard again for another 15 minutes, then they sat up again and had another chat and some food. It was like interval training, but in a race. I had managed to hang on to the main bunch during the first two efforts, but just before the last one I wasn’t well placed and some bad luck and a crash put me much further back than where I should have been. The next split was decisive and I wasn’t in the right place. I moved up as quickly as possible but saw the horrible sight of the front of the front of the bunch riding away from my group. I got in our echelon as soon as I could and started to help work to pull it back. We held them for a while and kept them in sight but at the same time weren’t making any inroads on their gap.

After just about giving back hope, we moved onto the finishing circuit and the bunch slowed up massively before the first ascent of the finishing circuit hill. We latched onto the back but by now I was in a bit of state. The hill was pretty impressive, about 1.5km long, lined by masses of spectators. The same hill Valverde sprinted to victory on during last year’s Tour de France, only we didn’t go up it once, we went up it 7 times. I could tell I was in trouble on the lower bits and knew I was in trouble as we got to the top, the gaps were opening up in front of me and unlike in the cross winds I could no longer close them. My legs were dead. I chased for a lap with a small group but once we got to the hill again it was obvious it was all over. We road round just to finish in the end, it wasn’t much fun as it started to rain, but I wanted the miles in my legs. It’s a shame my legs didn’t want the miles in them.

Oh well, it shows how a small mistake can make a big difference to how your race goes. Not that I would have won anyway....or would I?...No. Next week a similar level race on the Saturday and a smaller one on the Sunday, I hope to win at least both of them.

Until next time,

In a bizzle

The podium translator

Wow, I’ve been here 3 weeks and it seems like and age. Well, you know what they say, time flies when you’re having fun...But seriously, I’m enjoying it out here, more than last year anyway, so far! It’s more relaxed, less pressure, much friendlier and more sociable, in my opinion a much better environment to try and score some results. This week has been great, in terms of lots of things. The first thing I must mention is the food we have eaten. We have eaten like kings, kings with a small kitchen and little money, but king’s none-the-less. Matt managed to keep the fact that he is a trained chef quiet until we got over here, which I have to say was something of a bonus. Add to that my willingness to learn some new dishes (as well as my washing up abilities), Nathans cook book and you’ve got yourself quite a combination. Some examples of what we have cooked so far include Apple crumble, banana bread, leek and potato soup and some amazing stir fry with egg fried rice. Doesn’t sound like much, but we did cook everything from scratch, which I feel is quite an achievement. How long we can keep coming up with new dishes is another thing.

The week also saw the arrival of our 3rd and final permanent Brit, Nathan. Unfortunately one of his legs has been injured; this meant he couldn’t race at the weekend. But I am now pleased to report that he feels it is back to normal and will be racing this coming weekend.

The week has also seen some good weather; Wednesday was especially good, with the temperature reaching a relative tropical 16 degrees, we had a great ride over to Le Mont St-Michel and back with a cafe stop in between, shorts might have even been possible...actually, what am I saying. We also had a very nice day Saturday where Matt’s Polar heart rate monitor told us it reached a maximum of 21 degrees, I’m still sceptical. Saying that, there has also been quite a bit of average to poor weather, with most of the day’s temperatures’ being more around the 7 degree mark, with particularly dull skies. But (and it’s a very big but) it hasn’t rained much, which is always a massive bonus and even though I’m sure we will get rained on plenty in the coming weeks, I’m counting any days without rain as a bonus.

Carrying on the kindness theme from last week, while getting ready for a ride in our rooms, we were greeted in the kitchen by a very fancy cake that had apparently appeared out of nowhere. We later found it had been given to us by the owner of the apartments who also works at a local bakery; needless to say, we decided to leave the door open more often. We expect to have a few things stolen, but at least we’ll occasionally get a free gateau.

Race time! The weekend saw us take part in the 135km Plaintel-Plaintel, 105km around the roads with 30km worth or circuit at the end. I didn’t have much of an idea about the parcours, but I was told there was a good hill after 40km and it was pretty undulating as well as this. But I was looking forward to it; I felt fit and had some well earned confidence. 160 riders were on the start sheet with a few big guns, but one in particular needed looking out for, Johan Le Bon, current Junior World and European champion on the road. Unfortunately no one told me he was riding and so I was none the wiser to his presence, this would prove to be something of a mistake.

The race got under way nice and quickly and I was soon moving up the massive bunch that I had got so used to last year. No sooner had I got to the front than I started to follow the moves, but not initiating my own...that would be just plain foolish...not for a few minutes at least. But then, all of a sudden, my senses deserted me, the speed was high after a few big attacks had gone and there was slight lull. I carried my speed around the outside and sprinted through the thinning gap on the left of the road as the bunch swept across the road trying to force others to the front. I got a gap pretty quickly and flicked it down a few gears, praying that someone would come across to me; otherwise it was going to be a long day or another short lived attack, more likely the latter. Fortunately a few other guys had seen the chance and, after the obligatory initial foolishness of riders unsure about wanting to commit themselves, we got organised and started to pull away. There were 12 of us altogether, with about 8 strong guys and a few clingers on who either struggled to pull their weight or didn’t bother trying.

After a while we settled down and started to put some good time into the bunch, I was feeling great and hoped that something would come of this move. We hit the climb I had been told about at 40km and it went on for a while, but wasn’t anything ridiculous. There was a photographer’s car that kept driving just ahead of us and a cameraman on the back of a motorbike, so I tried to make it look as easy while retaining as much style as possible, I imagined I looked good anyway, time will tell. I saw MG 1km at the side of the road and decided I’d have a pop at it, I’d never been in a position in any race before to win king of the mountains and felt my legs were in good enough shape to give it a good go at least. I positioned myself to move out when I needed to as the road swung round a sharp left with about 300 metres to go and the road steepened notably. I led through the corner and sprinted for all I was worth as the two Côtes d’Armor riders tried to work me over. There was quite a crowd at the top and this gave me a little extra adrenaline to pump up the climb, it must have given the little Côtes d’Armor rider more though as he just edged me going over the line. A little disappointed, but all was not lost, I refuelled with some of the tasty banana bread Nathan baked the day before, it was delicious...he should open a bakery.

We had lost the hangers on with the hard effort over the top and the break was now down to 8 and working well. The biggest gap we had was three and a half minutes as we went over the 2nd MG point and I was once again 2nd after being marked by the rider that won the last one. The gap started to come down and one of the riders sat on complaining he had riders coming across. Most of us were still working but the bunch must have been motoring as the gap continued to come down. It lingered at 30 seconds before I finally turned round and saw the horrible sight of the bunch full of riders as fresh as a daisy, but I wasn’t done yet.

To cut a long story short, the next bit was pretty hard. It split and came back together constantly as we moved onto the finishing circuit. Legs were starting to protest but I decided they could work harder than they wanted to and followed all the splits. Now I’m about to use what I feel is a poor excuse, but in this case there was nothing I could do about it. Coming into the last lap I had just attacked and latched onto the back of the lead group as we rounded a corner. Getting out of the saddle the back of my right leg decided it wasn’t going to move any further and promptly tightened up like two very small people pulling a rope taught in my leg. I couldn’t pedal and had to watch in desperation as the lead group road away. After frantically massaging my leg and attempting to stretch it out, it let me pedal again, the chase was on.

All the cars had come past including our own, so I set about chasing them down first. It took me a while, but I was on a mission and with 1km to go and caught a small group that had been dropped on the final hill before the finish. I thought it wasn’t best to stop there and carried on to win the sprint from this group and put me 11th. Matt had had another great race and won the sprint for his group to put him in 3rd. Two riders were away at the finish, Johan Le Bon took the honours...

Once again I did some podium translation for Matt which I enjoyed, although I would have much rather been collecting the trophy. Maybe I’ll be able to next week, Manche-Atlantique, the biggest amateur classic in Britanny...maybe not (But who knows!).

Until next time,

Carr Out.

Not a bad start

It’s been a pretty good start, both living wise and cycling wise, more about the cycling wise later but now to tell you about our accommodation. They say it’s always about location, location, location, well this year we have THE location, for what we need anyway. About 60 metres away from 4 whole cafes, 2 mini supermarkets, 200 metres from the clubs meeting point for rides and races and plenty of other stuff we haven’t even found yet. So we’re already doing better than last year, where we were situated 3km from the local supermarket and about 5km from anything else. The accommodation itself is pretty cool, the kitchen was a bit sparse at first but slowly we’ve bought little bits and have been given others. The washing machine arrived today, along with our swanky new microwave. This adds to our fridge/freezer, gas cooker, mini-oven and sink, we’re practically rolling in commodities. The rooms are quite nice too, the apartment has only recently been finished and we are the first people living in it so everything smells like new house...well... that was until we melted the plastic handle on one of our cheap pots and so filled the place with toxic fumes. The only real problem is that one of the rooms is not attached to the actual apartment, you have to go up the drive, up some stairs and into the room to get there, which will mean going to the toilet at night will be a small problem. On the upside, it’s got a double bed; it’s the only room with a nice view (or any view for that matter) and an electric operated blind... sweet.

Everyone from the team has been very caring for us as well, at the last team I’m not sure anyone actually knew they had English riders riding for them, but here everyone wants a piece of les Anglais. They’ve fitted us out with more cutlery than we could ever use, plenty of cups and glasses, loads of plates and nice range of pots and pans. Add to that the massive amounts of food our parents have brought over and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent set-up. Everyone I’ve seen has told me to call them if we need anything or want any help, but at the moment we seem to be doing alright! The owner of the apartments even gave us some eggs from his brothers’ farm and told us if we ever wanted any more he’d fill up the box for us!

Now time for some cycling, what we came here to do! I got a few rides in before the weekend, but nothing spectacular as my family were still over and I had trouble finding my way around looking at my map at every junction. Matt arrived on the Saturday morning and we got in a short ride in the morning where we were caught by another local club who were out training for the race the next day. We tagged on the back and they said we looked strong after they did a full on effort and we just rode onto the back of them...If only they knew about the cans of whoop-ass that were going to be opened all over them the following day.

Our first race would be the Prix d’ouverture, a very local 85km interclub race organised by our club. It was supposed to be more of a training race, but when we arrived everything was set-up on a fantastic scale. Barriers at the finish to hold back the crowd that was actually there, a massive podium (more on that later), and signs for the finish from 400metres to go as well as the obligatory closed roads. To try and emphasise the fact it was a training race, we did 2 laps neutralised before starting the actual distance. All they really did was make people more eager to start killing themselves...especially me. After the jostling for position in these first two laps the flag went down and we were off, off being the correct word. I was near the front and my team mate shouted me to follow his move, I duly did and we led into the first corner after about 800 metres of racing. It had been spitting rain all afternoon and the corners were getting slippy. This was found out by the 5 or so riders following us as we heard the crunching metal behind us. During the commotion another of our riders attacked to get across to us and there were 3 of us up the road with a gap. It was go time and the next 20 minutes were pretty painful. The wind was very strong which made it hard for only 3 riders doing short turns, but being from the same team there was no shirking and we held the small gap we had. In the end we started to pull away as the rest of the guys blocked anything that tried to get across to us. When we finally couldn’t see the bunch behind us I started to wonder what the hell was going on, how had 3 of us from the same team got away, it was the kind of thing you heard about but never actually happened to you. Well here it was, happening, to me. The lead cars pulled out to follow us and it was show time. We kept working, slowly pulling away then dropping back and then pulling away again as the bunch tried to react. With 4 laps to go we were told it was 42 seconds back to one person chasing and the bunch was nowhere. ‘On va gagner’ the more optimistic team mate said to me.

Then, with 3 laps to go, the gap started to come down, 32 seconds, 20 seconds...what was happening? This wasn’t in the script, the three of us had been out front since kilometre 0 and the legs were starting to fade, especially into the strong headwind round the back of the course. We put the pace up as much as we could, but the bunch was still coming back at us fast. We held it until just before the bell, when we were caught by the peloton that had now been diminished to about 15 riders. I was highly annoyed, all that work for nothing, or so I thought. The counter-attacks came instantly; I sat in following the wheels having lost my winning thoughts as soon as we were caught. The group split all over the place but never really with much conviction and came back together as easily as it had come apart. We then hit the windy section round the back and a few of our guys went up the road including Matt, I left it and covered everything else with one of the guys who had been in the break with me. My legs were hurting by now and cramp was setting in from somewhere, but I soldiered on and started to think about the sprint. I’d worked out we would be coming in for about 5^th place and thought this was definitely worth a pop, so with 200 metres to go I jumped on the right to try and get a few lengths on everyone. It worked...for about 100 metres, then everyone started to come back on me. 1 put a length and a half into me and then other just made it round which put me in 7^th.

There was better news though. Matt had attacked round the back part of the course and managed to stay away until the finish, winning his first race in France. The team had also taken 2^nd and 3^rd in an impressive display, even if it was only an opening season race. I had to go on the podium as translator, even though I hadn’t actually won anything but enjoyed it all the same. It’s all good for the moral anyway, even in the knowledge that next week will be much harder...and longer...and hillier. I should be ready for it, hopefully anyway, maybe this time I’ll win, who knows, although I don’t mind being podium translator, so as long as matt doesn’t learn French I’m ok.

Until next time,

A plus.