Tuesday 24 March 2009

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 5th wheel and opened up the demon sprint for the finish coming in 3rd, apparently 19th 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.



Friday 20 March 2009

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 2nd 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 2nd, which meant I was 20th 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 6th, I finished 19th.


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.

Tuesday 10 March 2009

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

Wednesday 4 March 2009

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.