Le petit fleur

Well I have just had my baptism of fire with my first French race being a small Interclub, local race between nearby teams in the lovely town of Camors and to say I loved it is an understatement! I've had a brilliant time over this past week getting to know the area and George and Hamish that bit more, the race today was the icing on the cake. We arrived at the start and signed on with the other 150+ competitors on a really sunny, but obviously mild, day, there was music pumping from the speakers, a big crowd and a stage lorry parked right next to the finish line with a large 'Arivee' banner above. After meeting a few of our new team-mates and our D.S. with a few photos or two we were called to the start line for a mental 13laps totalling 67 miles. The course from the Start/Finish line was thus, two sharp successive right handers followed by a long descent to the bottom of a short 5% of about 800m that led out onto exposed farmland with some proper rough stuff that lasted for about 3/4 of a mile, then fast flat section on good tarmac with two 90 degree right handers on leading to the finish avenue that stretched for about a 1km in a U-shape, so on the avenue you come down the hill and back up to the finish. This was not at the top of the hill, but it was an uphill kick meaning any sprint had to be timed perfectly.

Anyway, the race. It all kicked off straight away with a sizeable group of around 8 getting off the front in the first lap, but the bunch never let it get too far away, numerous other groups formed and rejoined the bunch  with me deciding to attack the bunch after about 4 laps, however the move didn't stick and so a lot of wasted energy. After about 7 laps it went mental and there must have been about 10 echelons on the road during the middle lap, however the bunch all came back into one. A couple of laps later I decided to have another dig, but again the move didn't pay off and soon after, the lead group were hovering only around 40 seconds from the main bunch, this was because with 3 laps to go a team from nearby Lanester decided to get all their men on the front and drill it as they had missed the break and had the men and will to try and bring it back, but on the second to last time up the hill most completely blew from their efforts, it was at this point that George and Hamish decided to go and jump across to the lead group. George did so succesfully, however Hamish didn't due to hesistation, costing him dearly. I could have jumped to, but was not willing to as that would have meant jeopardising both Hamish's and George's chances of making the lead group as well as th fact that I was not entirely confident the peloton would let three riders from the same team simply ride away to join the front group. So I stayed put near the front of the peloton meanwhile about a mile after his attack we caught Hamish. On the last lap it was a bit nervy, but George managed to make the front echelon that formed on the last climb on the last lap, eventually finishing a brilliant 5th. I however put a bit of an effort in on the latter half of climb, the last time up, but I was feeling it and had no desire to drag the rest of the field with so I let several guys come past me and dropped behind them, but at the top I looked around and saw that the 5 of us must of had well over 10 seconds on the peloton in a matter of moments and with no hesitation from any of us we all began to pull trying to catch-up to the second group, those that had been dropped by the front group the last time up the climb. However I was clearly the strongest, a few guys missed turns etc... and the goup just ahead saw we were coming and had got their act together. Regardless, I won the sprint from our group fro 17th, not too bad with a lot of positives to take.

There must have been only a minute 10secs spread between the winner the peloton arriving so it was all very close, so I know in different circumstances, I might be able to go for the win at some point. Also I was pleased with my own fitness and form though I do feel a little bit too heavy for the slight climb we had on the circuit, having said this I mashed the sprint, executing it perfectly as well as feeling strong and good on the rough stuff.

The race is comparable to Belgian races, though more civilised as befits those that have given this planet the spirit level and the discovery of oxygen, but this race was the fastest one I have yet done, an average speed of just over 29mph really does laugh in the face of the races in Britain, George, who did some Premier Calender races in 2012 said that today's race was faster than most of them. It was also good to race in front of a crowd numbering around 200-300 rather than just the organiser, his wife their adopted son David and their labrador whose blind in both eyes.

Alas I didn't win though and so came away empty-handed and was unable to give the flowers to Marie that she asked for from her 'petit fleur'. Yes that's right, my team principal's mother-in-law and my landlady nows refers to me as her little flower. Hopefully Seb don't tell all and sundry otherwise that might be my nickname throughout the rest of my time in Brittany.

Big race coming up this Sunday so hopefully I can report more good tidings then. Here's the results from the Breton website
http://www.sportbreizh.com/Resultats-Camors-_-Cordon-et-Jeannes-au-top-_-1315-21734-0-1.html

Photos of me sprinting to 17th and me with Hamish and George before the race