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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mate you are on another level this year. Bravo, Chappeau - keep doing it! ;-) Rich

zoom gordo said...

Loving the blog, keep it coming! And I'm only on the other side of la manche from you so might even go over and watch you race this summer.