Merde.

I wasn’t expecting to do well in my first Elite race, but I wasn’t expecting quite the pasteing I received from the pros. The week leading up to the weekend wasn’t the best, with us only managing one longer ride of 3 hours. The rest of the week was filled with rain and very high winds which had you riding at a 45 degree angle when it came across you and at 9mph when it was a head wind going full on. We are now starting to get settled down in the apartment and learning the routes you have to take to the toilet at night when you can’t see the roof beams (A lesson learned the hard way by me). I have also begun a regime of intense stretching, press-ups and sit-ups. This is to tackle my inability to touch my toes that I have had for as long as I can remember, I also want to be able to do more than 10 press-ups without needing a 10 minute rest between the first 5 and between each one after that. Also I want a stomach like Bruce Lee and even though I was pretty close before I still think I have a little way to go. I am already getting close to my toes and I think another week and I’ll make it.

The weekend quickly came around and it was time to race again. I was put in the strange situation of being told we were allowed to drop out of the race if we missed the move and felt we wouldn’t do anything in the race. This is not a situation I want to be put in again, it made me completely negative about the race after the first couple of laps when I couldn’t do anything. It wasn’t just this that made me negative, once again, the Germans and the Suisse had arrived in force and this time it was a 200 rider field with the race oversubscribed by 20. I struggled greatly with my positioning with such a big field and couldn’t put myself in the right place, not only when it was necessary, but at all. So after not seeing the front, I dropped out after 5 laps (about 60km) thinking I might save myself for the following day. Unfortunately Tom started to come down with a cold on Thursday which was in full swing come the weekend and so had to drop out after 2 laps. No one else from the team dropped out and I felt stupid. One of the team, Kevin got away and managed a great result with 5^th. Afterwards I wish I had gone on to finish even if I had come in 30^th it would have been something to take away from the weekend because as I was to realise in about 20 hours, I wouldn’t be finishing in the top 30 the next day, or the bottom 30.

After resting up and eating well on the Saturday evening I was ready to go early Sunday morning with a 6 O’clock start for Paris-Troyes. Toms cold hadn’t got any better so he decided to try and get better and stayed at the apartment. So I drove the team van we are borrowing for the time being to the meeting place. When I first drove it, it was a little dangerous, not because I’m a bad driver, (at least I don’t think I am) but because it is a van and it is left hand drive. Pulling away was easy enough, but when I went to change gear I nearly opened the door. I managed to get the hang of it after nearly opening the door a few times, but then I forgot I was driving a vehicle much wider than the car I’d driven before. This scared the hell out of Tom who sat on the right hand side and had a great view of all the gutters and wing mirrors I was hitting. After a bit I realised I was now a wide load, but opened the door when I went to put the hand break on.

The drive to the race was a long one, about 4 hours to Provins. It was passed with snoozing and slowly eating (and chewing properly) pasta and we were soon there (after 4 hours). When we arrived the weather was pretty abysmal and it wasn’t going to change in a hurry. We got changed and had all our bikes ready when we got back, we certainly looked the part. Signing on was great as we had to walk up some steps and be presented anyone that was watching, which was no one. The team before us had a couple of people taking photos as they lined up to be presented, so we did the same...no one took any photos. We lined up on the start line in the rain and cold where we waited for 10 minutes shivering and wet while the formalities were run out by the officials and then we were whistled away for the start fictive. After 100 metres there was already shuffling about and there was a great slip and several loud scrapes as the first crash of the race happened, unfortunately, I wasn’t in it. We rode around the town a few times before finally arriving at the start proper, where we stopped, again. This time I took a natural break as did a lot of the peloton and slyly made my way to the front via the grass verge at the side of the road, it would be the last and only time I would see the head of the race.

We were waved away and immediately the speed was high, I managed a very brief chat with Dan Fleeman who was doing the race but I doubt he knew who I was, it would be the last I saw of him as well. For the first 30 minutes, the speed seemed to be fast or faster and yet manageable but I was slowly moving backwards. If I couldn’t hold my position against the average peloton, I wasn’t going to be able to do it against people who get paid to do it. Then the road started to go up and down a bit, nothing serious but you could feel it and I started to worry. Then things got a whole lot worse, a whole whole lot worse. The road straightened out and suddenly became very exposed and the wind hit. A dirty great cross wind that signalled the pros to get to the front and drive it and drive it they did. The front of the peloton immediately echeloned out, with a second one soon forming close behind. Then another one appeared as riders struggled to hold the wheels in the gutter and gave up with the riders behind killing themselves to get round. Two more echelons formed with most of my teams mates in the one in front, with me in between them both, not a place you want to be. I couldn’t ride across to it on my own, it was ridiculous, but I tried, very hard. But once several riders, including me, gave up the chase we were passed by what must have been the 6^th echelon. Because of the previous effort this was just as hard to get on and by this time cars were passing us which were duly used to aid our chase (don’t worry I highly doubt it affected the overall result at all).

After passing several crashes caused by riding in strong cross winds, my echelon finally decided to call it a day once we hit the first climb and slowed up. We carried on for several kilometres in the horrible rain and wind before getting onto the 40km finishing circuit. Here, crazily, we were passed by the leaders so we obviously lost a hell of a lot of time. Once this happened I decided enough was enough a got into our team van which was luckily just passing. I wasn’t the only one, as at various points in the race each of the team had given up and none of us finished along with 110 other riders. The race was won by a Bretagne Armor-Lux rider, a team which has a very good chance of riding the Tour this year through invite.

It was an eye-opener to say the least and it was plain to see I had no experience in such situations. But I must learn to hold a good position even in the smaller races; otherwise it’s going to be a long hard season.

I plan to start this action next week during our 2 races where I plan to at least get in a move. Hopefully I’ll start to put myself about it.

Until then,

Arrivederci