pluie, neige et vent

On the Sunday just gone, this blog was looking pretty thin on the ground for ideas. I was contemplating having to write about how I cut thumb while carving some turkey (more about that later) due to some horrendous weather conditions and race cancellations. Well into the Sunday evening, we got the call that we had a race the next day, luckily we had already prepared...twice. After my two early DNFs last week I decided I needed to make up for all the riding I had missed out on and got out early on the Tuesday morning for three hours and then again in the afternoon for two and a half. It was the best day of the week by far, as the weather slowly degenerated. I managed to get a reasonable 2 hours in the next day with some high quality efforts (basically ride hard for a few minutes) and then an easy hour on the Thursday somehow. On the Friday we set out to do anywhere from an hour to two hours, just to loosen the legs for the next day’s race. After about 10 minutes it started spitting drops of rain, after 15 minutes it was properly raining, after 15 minutes and 30 seconds we decided to turn round. So in the end we only managed a 34 minute leg loosener (it was a headwind on the way back), there wasn’t a period of more than 30 minutes where it wasn’t raining though so we didn’t miss out on anything.

During the week I occasionally tried to improve my French slightly quicker by using the BBC’s Ma France. It’s pretty good as it gives you subtitles in French and English, which as any English person trying to learn French will know makes it easier at first. This is because when a Frenchman starts talking to you at full pelt in his local dialect, it’s pretty hard to tell one word from another, and subtitles let you see each word... If only all French was subtitled. My stretches are still going and I can just about touch my toes although with some major effort. I can get to within an inch of them pretty easily now, but anything further burns the back of my legs no end. Alas, maybe another 2-3 weeks and I’ll have both palms on the ground.

On the Saturday we were due to be doing a race further south about a 3 hour drive away. The forecast was pretty bad, but I had managed to convince myself that I would enjoy riding in such conditions and was looking forward to it. So we cooked our pasta and put it in our plastic Tupperware boxes, got everything else ready and set off early on Saturday morning. After about 20 minutes of driving there were some extreme rain and snow showers that seemed to come out of nowhere and then disappear as fast as they had come. The roads were even dry, and the weather sunny for a short period, it was at this point we ate our pasta, but after this, things got worse. First it was small flurries of snow, but as we went further it became something of a blizzard and the land was covered in a white fluffy layer. About 2 hours into the drive the DS got a phone call and said a few words to the rest of the riders of which the only ones I understood and needed to understand were ‘demi-tour’. We were turning around as the race had been cancelled due to bad weather; suddenly everyone was on their phones making phone calls to parents, friends and our other race vehicle which contained the rest of the team. A couple of the guys were annoyed that they weren’t getting a race and things only got worse when the organiser of the race we had planned to do Monday rang up with the same news, ‘annule’. Our DS promised he’d try and get us a race the next day and would let us know once we got back from our 4 hour drive to nowhere.

On the day instead we got a good 3 hour ride in to try and make up for missing the race, as the weather in our area seemed OK if not a bit chilly. That evening we were told we did have a race the next day and to meet at 11.30 as the race was about 1.5 hours away. So once again we prepared our kit and ate as if we had a race on the next day, got up early in the morning and ate our pasta at 11 O’clock. It’s not my favourite time to eat pasta which is a dish I usually quite like, but needs must. We set off to our meeting point (a journey which we documented with a video below) but before we got there we got the call that the race had been cancelled, great. The rest of the day was spent moping around (as the weather was too bad to ride) and buying plasters for my thumb which I cut while carving up some turkey (told you there’d be more about it). Once again, only later into the evening this time, we got the call that we had a race the next day. We were slightly sceptical as getting ready for another race we wouldn’t do seemed a bit of a joke. Luckily all we needed to do was cook some more pasta for the Tupperware boxes as all our kit was already packed and bikes already in the car.

You can see how I cut my thumb, amongst other things, here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97779&l=ae25e&id=624435000

This time, after another long car journey with some more seriously bad weather (once again documented in a superb video (it’s worth at least two Oscars)) we made it to the race. Here the weather wasn’t so bad, just windy and cold, so I elected to wear just a warm vest and a jersey with some arm warmers. This decision is currently under review as for most of the race it was enough, but for part of it I might as well have been naked. The race had 100 or so riders in and some quality riders at that, with SCO Dijon riding with a past winner of Paris-Troyes and a top 10 finisher at last week’s race. It started fast as always and this time I managed to position myself well, going with a few attacks and pulling ones back with none of us in. I felt good, quickly recovering after several hard efforts and being able to go again. After one of these efforts, a couple of my team managed to get away in the break that decided the race. I would have liked to have been in it, but for the moment I was happy just to be seeing the front and getting of it from time to time. After about 5 of 20 laps I followed 2 riders as they attacked to get across to a small group in front. Unfortunately I started slightly behind them and was working hard to get up to the wheel, the first rider just seemed to fly across without trying, I would later learn that it was Olivier Grammaire, the former winner of Paris-Troyes. I, meanwhile, was suffering with about 10 riders on my wheel who all conveniently waited until I had nothing left to jump across to the group in front. It was at about this time that we went into the hard cross wind section and so the split was formed and I had just missed it.

The next lap me and Tom, who had also missed it, jumped away from our group in a last ditch bid to get across, but we made little impression on the gap they had got on us. So for the next 80km wemade a training ride out of it and dragged round everyone else who had been left behind, occasionally catching lone riders and a small group. Then with about 4 to go, it started to darken as a huge black cloud moved in and suddenly it was snowing. Actually it was more of a hail/sleet that stung your face and legs while still managing to soak your clothes in freezing water, it was at this point that I started to slow down. The sleet then settled into a fluffy snow which was just as cold and soaked your clothes even more. I foolishly carried on for another lap, before pulling out with a lap to go where I saw everyone else who had packed, many from the group in front of us. I couldn’t undo the buckle on my helmet but just about managed to yank off my gloves before running to some warmth and quickly changing into every piece of dry clothing I had left. The team managed 4^th, 5^th and 7^th from the break, some more great results, although not quite the win we all want. Everyone was in a serious state after the race, Tom had carried on to do the last lap and when he finished it took him 15 minutes before he could gain enough use of his limbs to start getting changed. Only 29 finished, with our group sprinting in for 18^th in the end, there were a lot more than 17 riders ahead of us when the decisive split happened.

A few more pictures of my racing can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97782&l=dac25&id=624435000

Although it’s another DNF, I have a lot more positives to take away from the race. I was mixing it at the start and felt good and was able to put the fate of my race in my hands rather than in the persons 30 riders ahead who had decided to give up when it got hard. I’m now at about the point that I raced in England and the only way is up.

Next week we have Troyes-Dijon, another long Elite race but I am looking forward to racing it with more confidence, but not too much exuberance, I want to try and finish.

A la prochaine,

ádios.