Le dernier fois

not mine by the way but similar


I write to you from a train heading towards Birmingham New Street after a flight into London Stansted. Sadly, my stay in France has come to unfortunate end. My collar bone decided to take a lot longer to fix than first thought, not helped by my own antics at times, forcing me to rethink my priorities. After what I thought would be my last visit to the French hospital, I was told that I needed to wear my splint for another two weeks and not ride for another month. Not the best news for a cyclist. This meant I wouldn’t be able to race until the end of September leaving me 2 or 3 races at the most. I came to the conclusion that this wouldn’t be worth it, as even if I got to do 3 or more races I wouldn’t have anywhere near the required form to compete due to the forced lay-off. So I set about making plans to return home.

Not being able to do anything was too much for me; I walked into town for something to do and started to regularly finish games of Spider Solitaire on expert level. You know you’re bored when this starts happening. Not being able to ride meant I was no longer enjoying it, if I’m not enjoying it then is it worth it? I decided I’d rather be at home than moping around in France. Fortunately before I returned home, my sister came to visit for a few days and we had a whale of a time. The highlight was visiting the Baden-Baden thermal spa which is absolutely amazing. I would recommend including it in your itinerary for a day if you ever visit the area, I’d even say it was worth going out of your way to visit it such were the niceties of pools of water at different temperatures.

After my sister returned home, the club had their annual Elite National race on so I was to help out in some way. I was a little sad as this was supposed to be my comeback race and by this time I had already booked my flight home. I accompanied the lead car driver and duly made him go in the wrong direction when it came to the first turning. Fortunately this was my only mistake and the race went smoothly otherwise. The organisation was superb for a place to place race; all the team involved in the organisation had meals ready for them before the race. The convoy was planned meticulously and it was a great idea having a car dealership as a sponsor allowing their cars to be used as official vehicles. One day I’d like to organise a race and so it was good to see how it is from the other side, rather than just turning up, wearing Lycra and pedalling until my legs hurt. I would have rather been riding though.

Thankfully the team did well although just missing out on the win, in the 8 man break we had 3 and against 2 from the other local big guns CC Etupes. We knew if it came to a sprint they would win, so with 30 km to go, 2 of our guys started putting constant attacks in to try and wear them down. It was great to watch from what I could see. Then with 5km to go our guy who had been saving himself put in an effort and took an Etupes rider with him. They ended up sprinting it out for the win, but Nicolas Boisson was too strong and so we took 2nd 4th and 6th. A pity, but a great result none the less in the clubs organised race.

After the race, My Manager took me out for a meal at the local restaurant with some of the other race officials. He said he wanted to give me a good impression of the French people before I left, it certainly worked! I had a nice time eating the local delicacy Tarte Flambee, which fittingly, had been what I had eaten when I first arrived at the Team Sponsors house all those months ago. After cleaning out the apartment and packing all my stuff I said goodbye to Alsace for the time being and headed home.

This year has been a great experience for me I think and has brought me on 200% as a rider, so it’s a shame it had to come to such a foolish end...playing Frisbee. I have to thank the team for taking me on and supporting me so much with everything, I would have been pretty stuffed without them. Also, thanks to everyone else that’s helped me out while I’ve been over here offering support and advice. I can guarantee it’s all been gladly received and utilised. And finally thanks to you guys (if anyone does in fact read this) for giving me something to do and look forward to after I had done my races. Next season I hope to be over there again, in France that is, whether or not with the same team I don’t know, so maybe they’ll be a part 2 yet...

Until the next time,

Good bye, au revoir et a la prochaine.


PS, CHANCE OF A LIFETIME
The team are looking for another rider next year to take on, if you are interested send your CV and palmares (preferably in French and English) etc to me at: alijcarr@hotmail.com
I can tell you this is a great opportunity not to be missed if you want to take your riding to the next level. The team has a great calendar and offers a huge amount of support, if you want to know exactly what they offer you can e-mail me for details aswell.

PSS Many thanks to Dave Legrys for putting me up for the night after my flight and everyone else who offered to.