Hello people who have nothing better to do than read about my suffering to improve their demeanour, I trust you are all well and for those back in Blighty, sorry, but overhere in Brittany it's just not as rubbish the weather so at least of got that on a lot of you. The weekend saw me compete in my first stage race over here called La Fleche de L'Armore, a 1/2/3 event that travelled in a East to West direction along the North coast of Brittany beginning near Dinan and finishing near Morlaix. Saturday's stage was the 'flat' stage where the early break got away after about 20km after the first real big climb of the day, incidentally the day was gorgeous, the sun was out, the surrounding views stunning and with a strong tailwind it promised to be fast especially as the just over a mile of vertical ascension was covered liberally across the whole 130km. Sam Allen managed to infiltrate the break, but alas was swallowed near the end. On the finishing circuit, of which we did 3 laps, it was difficult to move up with narrow roads, technical corners and lots of people fighting for some different reasons. The remains of the break survived a finished 3 seconds ahead of the peloton, I rolled in in the middle, the aim was simply to stay upright and it was very much the position you was in upon entering the circuit was the position you finished the stage in.
We then cycled to our nearby stop for the night that was a boarding school (I think) that had closed for Easter, we then had a massive 5 course dinner in the cafeteria which also came with a couple of bottles of Merlot for each table. The food was pleasent and was made up of the exact nutrients that we needed to recover with and prepare for the following day. The village we were staying in was very small, a good few miles North-West of St.Brieuc, it had 2 bars a couple of shops and a big Gothic church in the middle. Our team decided to go into the smaller one that was more crammed, but more looked more homely than the other in here we saw a few groups of the other teams, but as me and George both noticed not many of the best teams seemed to be out present and correct in either bar. Not to be dettered I was keen to try a bit of local cider or beer knowing that it would only arrive in small 250ml portions, however as me and George are English/British the team asked on our behalf what is the strongest beer and cider that they had? There was much rejoicing within the team when the reply came back to them, 'Guinness' and so our drinks were ordered with me and George getting the black stuff. Postitve xenophobia! We then proceeded to sit down at a recently vacated table trying our best to avoid the black labrador doing laps of the world's smallest pub that belonged to the local drunk who befriended our group. When I say this pub was small the dog filled the remaining space between all four sides of the pub, yet somehow about 30 people had managed to squeeze in.
There was a local paper on the table and after growing despondent at George's awful translation attempts I decided to knock what remained of my Guinness across the table and paper. Pascal, the joker of the team, got a cloth from the landlady and proceeded to wipe the table up then wringing out the cloth in my now empty glass, once this was done I then attempted to drink the glass containing my moped up alcohol, spillage is lickage afterall. Alas I couldn't a the lovely landlady whose husband happened to be British gave me a free new Guinness, Champion! Not wanting another accident to occur and necked it to many looks of shock and awe at my English prowess reaffirming in their eyes at least the stereotype.
The Sunday was the day of the time-trial and hilly stage, the time-trial was a short affair of 7.5km with the first and last 800m downhill and the rest being a gradual uphill. The weather was cold and misreable, but nonetheless we raced and Doug Dewey manged to smash it and win the stage taking the overall jersey that he would eventually win. George managed to beat me by 3 seconds, but most disappointing was the fact that me nor George had t.t. bikes putting us at a huge disadvantage to the rest of the field, costing both of us about a minute on G.C. as well as the stage, an absolutely huge gap on such a short stage race. What was cool though was t.t.-ing on closed roads with a team car escorting me behind and a motorbike escort in front, quite surreal to be honest.
In the afternoon the weather had not really improved and after lunch we had a slightly shorter race of 120km, with all the cotes packed betwen 70 and 100km with three big ones, first a 2km 9% slog, then a 3.5km hill that ranged had many different gradient steps and then a 1km hill with the middle 800m averaging 14%. The race began hard and fast with a break quickly establishing itself and a big lead, but after an hour when the gap got to 2mins a couple of the teams decided that was too much and so they smashed the break back within half an hour. After this there were a few attacks on the climbs, but nothing to serious, but first big hill had the most decisive effect when a group containing Doug and George, numbering about 12 got away over the top of the climb. I was the reamins of the peloton near the front of it and managed to form a second group with Sam Allen and about 6 others, however no one was really willing to work that much and unfortunately I did too much work at the front that cost me on the second climb. Here the peloton made contact and at this point the lead group was only 20 seconds up the road. However, here, many from my second group then applied huge pressure to the remains of the peloton at this point and Sam with about 5 others managed to bridge up to the lead group within a couple of kilometres. Bit gutted to not have the legs to go with that move, but I will learn for next time to be a tad lazier. Anyway the last big climb was a slog and what remained of the peloton by the time we reached the finished circuits must have numbered around 40. It was the same as the day before, 3 short, flat laps around the town. I rolled over in 38th on the stage, 54th overall, of the 140 starters 74 finished. Doug won overall and got 6th on the hilly stage, George got 12th on the stage and 19th overall, Sam got 14th on the stage and sorry Sam I don't know where you came overall. . If me and George take off a minute because of the t.t. loss, I would have got 27th overall and George would have got 7th. Regardless it it is what it is and the performances show how much it still comes down to actually racing and the climbs, best lose some weight then!
Meanwhile Hamish was suffering at the E/1/2 one day race, Boucles Guegonnaise, read all about here: http://hamishgraham18392.blogspot.fr/
Now a few days recovery before three one day races on the bounce on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, all 2/3s so hopefully I can get some good results in them.
On differences I've noticed, or, inded, similarities, the 1/2/3 race this weekend contained many more crashes and incidents than the E/1/2's I have done which havecontained none as far as I could tell and so it shows the difference in bike handling skills between abilities is prevalent everywhere not just in Britain. They also don't do health and safety overhere as much as Britain does, I live near o where some homes are being built and tree surgeon is currently working, no high-viz or hard hats in sight.
I wish everyone the best with their races and as ever I will keep a close eye on results at home.
Monday 25 March 2013
Sunday 17 March 2013
Disappointment
I know that in races previously I have been dropped by the peloton, but everyhting has to be taken in context and considering this race, La Fleche de Locmine, was run on many of the same roads as last week's race and with a similarly quality field as last week, not only me, but many others were expecting a good performance today. There 160 riders today, but still I expected myself to be up there based on last week's performance and my upward rise in form to continue and get a top 30 at least. This was not to be, whilst George grabbed a great 9th place and Hamish finished around 56th, I got shot out the back of the peloton just before the finishing circuits where the pace then easied slightly, I tried getting back on for about 5km with another 3 riders with the peloton only about 150metres away, but we just couldn't bridge across, so after two fnishing circuits, I pulled up and got changed. I felt rubbish all day and climbed like a sloth through treacle, not a pleasent sight.
I am incredibly disappointed with myself, but you have to approach success and failure in the same way more or less and how else am I to learn without the odd bit of failure? You just have to anaylse the why's and how's then you are presented with an honest answer. Upon appraisal I failed into today's race because of my poor sleep over the past couple of days, not through any obvious fault of my own, but still the main issue that caused the poor performance I believe. The best way to recitfy this is to anaylse what I did last week in the build up to Le Circuit du Morbihan to produce a better performance as well as eat and drink. Fortunately I am in a position to do all of this and this is what my life concerns, nor am I embarking into the unknown and it will not cost my life, just for these facts of my existence here I am incredibly grateful, nor shall I waste these blessings. I say this knowing that for so many people even in everyday life the may not have the luxury of having what I have got in abundance as well as individuals in the past, at the moment I am reading Captain Scott's journal that he wrote during his ill-fated attempt on the South Pole. It is quite hard work particularly at the beginning, but I have found it so much easier to read since my arrival in France and it has become quite a source of comfort to me, knowing how he and his crew dealt with disasters and successes, how my own adventure pales into insignificance in comparison, as well as being armed with the knowledge that what I am doing, in the time I am doing it, will probably not result in a loss of life on my part (apologies if that latter is in bad taste and somewhat egotistical and selfish, but it is true and you too would feel the same reading the diary).
The race was 153kms long with 8 laps of an undulating circuit with a short finish climb after 100km from point A to B. I lasted 95km in the peloton, don't know average speed yet, very windy yet again, but the Sun held out for us.
There are many more races where I can turn my attention to and this weekend I am doing my first stage race over here, La Fleche d'Armor, 3 stages, 2 days, where hopefully I can put what I have learned to the test.
On another note, on the subject of noticeables, every town and most villages will have a Renault dealership, every town and most villages will have many over-sized florists, all the churches are either actually Gothic or are built to resemble Gothic architecture. As well I had the team presentation yesterday, which was good fun.
Hope you are well and au revoir
P.S. I urge you to read this article on this amazing young woman http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21703819
I am incredibly disappointed with myself, but you have to approach success and failure in the same way more or less and how else am I to learn without the odd bit of failure? You just have to anaylse the why's and how's then you are presented with an honest answer. Upon appraisal I failed into today's race because of my poor sleep over the past couple of days, not through any obvious fault of my own, but still the main issue that caused the poor performance I believe. The best way to recitfy this is to anaylse what I did last week in the build up to Le Circuit du Morbihan to produce a better performance as well as eat and drink. Fortunately I am in a position to do all of this and this is what my life concerns, nor am I embarking into the unknown and it will not cost my life, just for these facts of my existence here I am incredibly grateful, nor shall I waste these blessings. I say this knowing that for so many people even in everyday life the may not have the luxury of having what I have got in abundance as well as individuals in the past, at the moment I am reading Captain Scott's journal that he wrote during his ill-fated attempt on the South Pole. It is quite hard work particularly at the beginning, but I have found it so much easier to read since my arrival in France and it has become quite a source of comfort to me, knowing how he and his crew dealt with disasters and successes, how my own adventure pales into insignificance in comparison, as well as being armed with the knowledge that what I am doing, in the time I am doing it, will probably not result in a loss of life on my part (apologies if that latter is in bad taste and somewhat egotistical and selfish, but it is true and you too would feel the same reading the diary).
The race was 153kms long with 8 laps of an undulating circuit with a short finish climb after 100km from point A to B. I lasted 95km in the peloton, don't know average speed yet, very windy yet again, but the Sun held out for us.
There are many more races where I can turn my attention to and this weekend I am doing my first stage race over here, La Fleche d'Armor, 3 stages, 2 days, where hopefully I can put what I have learned to the test.
On another note, on the subject of noticeables, every town and most villages will have a Renault dealership, every town and most villages will have many over-sized florists, all the churches are either actually Gothic or are built to resemble Gothic architecture. As well I had the team presentation yesterday, which was good fun.
Hope you are well and au revoir
P.S. I urge you to read this article on this amazing young woman http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21703819
Sunday 10 March 2013
Circuit du Morbihan
Today was yet another E/1/2 race, Le Circuit du Morbihan, with another class field although it was reduced to only 99 competitors with another major race not too far away conflicting with this, also teams were limited to the amount of riders they could each bring so fortunately this week we did not have 12 French Army guys nailing it from the start. It began on a sad note, just as we were about to go down to the start a woman in her 50s/60s was walking across the car park when she then collapsed and began having a seizure, people did assist the race doctor and an ambulance was soon there, but none of us know what state she is in so all our thoughts are with her and her loved ones, very sad.
A light drizzle kicked off preceedings before a lot of sunshine greeted us for the majority of the race. It was held on quite narrow roads actually, covered in mud or poo, but because of the reduced field and lack of wind the race stayed together until eventually a group got away after about the 50km mark despite the narrowness of the roads. The race totalled 150km and for the last 51.2km we had to do 8 laps of a flat 6.4km circuit that was punctuated with lots of corners and was on narrow roads with lots of mud on them too. At la flamme rouge there was a tight left hander into the finishing straight that was uphill to begin with, averaging 3%, but was made harder by the new tarmac that had been laid, it was a really draggy surface, this little climb lasted till 250m which was then a flat run into the finish on smoother tarmac. The break never really got too far, but they just managed to stay away from the peloton. It was a savage last few laps as the heavens decided to open after 4 laps and everyone began to go mental, it was like Belgium, a real dogfight the whole race, but even more so the last 4 laps. Plenty of choice things were said and done during the race and a mad Londoner cursing them in English frightens a lot of the French, producing the desired effect, my forebearers would be proud! Unfortunately for me on the last lap I just didn't have the energy to continually fight for the necessary wheel all the way to the finish though I did have the legs for the sprint at the end. Sprinting at the end of maxing out for the last 5-10mins is a completely different proposition to just sprinting, but I am pleased to have finished 27th. George finished just behind in 30th and Hamish had a real issue, but I don't want to spoil his blog entry so I will leave it to him to describe what happened for the peloton to eventually lap him. The results are below, but be warned I am listed with a typical French name, Jonathan Perrin, why, I don't know, but here's the results list:
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24777-circuit-du-morbihan-classement.html
As you can see only 57 finished out of the 99 who started, this shows again what a hard day it was, 40kph average finishing in 3hrs 42mins. I can't wait to see the photos of us all, will make for some truly epic looking pictures.
On a positive note I have to say what a performance by a lady who raced all us men today, absolutely phenomenal though she is an Olympian, but still fairplay tekkers. Similarly all the bikes here are tekkers, the French love their bikes, I had never felt so poor with Shimano Ultegra on a 2010 Dogma, the amount of DI2 or Super Record is ridiculous as is their obsession with Prologo saddles and bar tape as well as Looks and Mavic gear. Can't wait to get the Aprire bike and my new Giro gear when they comes this week so I don't look or feel quite so poor.
Now to recover and prepare for the next race with Monday now being the officially designated hangover day for me, no longer is my Thursday a write off! Try and get Marie to wait on me hand and foot by pulling my puppy-eyed face, usually it fails to deliver, but it might work here in France.
Well done to Aprire lot for where they came today in Lamberhurst and kudos to my mate Elliot for winning in a tad colder conditions on that circuit.
I wish everyone well, Happy Mother's Day and Courage!!!
A light drizzle kicked off preceedings before a lot of sunshine greeted us for the majority of the race. It was held on quite narrow roads actually, covered in mud or poo, but because of the reduced field and lack of wind the race stayed together until eventually a group got away after about the 50km mark despite the narrowness of the roads. The race totalled 150km and for the last 51.2km we had to do 8 laps of a flat 6.4km circuit that was punctuated with lots of corners and was on narrow roads with lots of mud on them too. At la flamme rouge there was a tight left hander into the finishing straight that was uphill to begin with, averaging 3%, but was made harder by the new tarmac that had been laid, it was a really draggy surface, this little climb lasted till 250m which was then a flat run into the finish on smoother tarmac. The break never really got too far, but they just managed to stay away from the peloton. It was a savage last few laps as the heavens decided to open after 4 laps and everyone began to go mental, it was like Belgium, a real dogfight the whole race, but even more so the last 4 laps. Plenty of choice things were said and done during the race and a mad Londoner cursing them in English frightens a lot of the French, producing the desired effect, my forebearers would be proud! Unfortunately for me on the last lap I just didn't have the energy to continually fight for the necessary wheel all the way to the finish though I did have the legs for the sprint at the end. Sprinting at the end of maxing out for the last 5-10mins is a completely different proposition to just sprinting, but I am pleased to have finished 27th. George finished just behind in 30th and Hamish had a real issue, but I don't want to spoil his blog entry so I will leave it to him to describe what happened for the peloton to eventually lap him. The results are below, but be warned I am listed with a typical French name, Jonathan Perrin, why, I don't know, but here's the results list:
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24777-circuit-du-morbihan-classement.html
As you can see only 57 finished out of the 99 who started, this shows again what a hard day it was, 40kph average finishing in 3hrs 42mins. I can't wait to see the photos of us all, will make for some truly epic looking pictures.
On a positive note I have to say what a performance by a lady who raced all us men today, absolutely phenomenal though she is an Olympian, but still fairplay tekkers. Similarly all the bikes here are tekkers, the French love their bikes, I had never felt so poor with Shimano Ultegra on a 2010 Dogma, the amount of DI2 or Super Record is ridiculous as is their obsession with Prologo saddles and bar tape as well as Looks and Mavic gear. Can't wait to get the Aprire bike and my new Giro gear when they comes this week so I don't look or feel quite so poor.
Now to recover and prepare for the next race with Monday now being the officially designated hangover day for me, no longer is my Thursday a write off! Try and get Marie to wait on me hand and foot by pulling my puppy-eyed face, usually it fails to deliver, but it might work here in France.
Well done to Aprire lot for where they came today in Lamberhurst and kudos to my mate Elliot for winning in a tad colder conditions on that circuit.
I wish everyone well, Happy Mother's Day and Courage!!!
Thursday 7 March 2013
Points of Interest
I didn't mention any of this stuff in the last blog because I wanted nothing to take away from the untimely death of Junior Heffernan nor bore you with a Goblet of Fire length book, so here is the sequel to the last post plus a few garnishes.
One of these garnishes is what many believe is the cause of Junior's death, a lack of a rolling road closure meaning in races closing the road off for the peloton to race through, requiring cars to wait at junctions for a couple of minutes tops for at the moment we road racers compete on open roads where we can only stick to the left hand-side of the road and where motorbikes technically do not have the power to stop vechicles, particularly if they are oncoming. It has been proven that a rolling road closure is the safest and most efficient form to allow for road racing so why don't we adopt it? We are the only country in the world that doesn't, o.k. it does not meant the majority is always right nessercarily, but in this case, it does. Please sign the petiton to help us make this a bit more of a reality and make roads safer for all: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46709
Talking of politics, I have really got into Jon Stewart recently as well as Bill O'Reilly (not satire, but still an interesting figure and debater) and South Park and it just makes me wish that other then Have I Got News For You there would be more political satire on British T.V. as well as more harder hitting interviews. A recent survey that was revealed on the One Show a couple of weeks ago shows that whilst Americans will talk about sports and politics intially when meeting in a group of more than 3, Brits talk about the weather. With this mindset is it any wonder we just have countless, pointless shows that discuss and display nothing?
Haha to Manchester United
Now is the time of year where road cycling really begins and we have been blessed already with some great racing recently, the Strade Bianche lived up to expectations, luckily for Verity Ockenden it finished in Siena getting some cracking photos, as well as Roma Maxima proving to be a great race with a surprise winner. Now we have Paris-Nice, which is poised perfectly for the next few days and Tirreno-Adriacato where some heavyweight names line-up to do battle. What was really interesting was how slow the Strade Bianche was raced on Saturday, in comparison to La Manche-Atlantique that I raced on Sunday, Moser finished 1.5kph slower than the winner of my race even though the race was only 33km more. Admittedly they had to race over the sterrata of Tuscany, but they are professionals competiting on a nicer day than we did with a lot less wind. I would most compare the races around here mostly to Amstel Gold (even though I have never raced it lol), but with more wind, a still day here is when it is still blowing 15mph+.
The French really do love their guard dogs, especially Boxers and all the dogs constantly bark and will go for anything, couple this with the fact that like I have said previously, though don't really have hedges or fences, this is obviously a recipe for disaster. Yesterday I went for my first club ride, which was great, but I really just how far I have to go if I want to get anywhere near decent in the language, anyway we got set upon by dogs again. On most rides, certainly when you go off the D roads, not matter how short a distance, you will have to face dogs.
Learning French as got my considering the roots of English a bit more I have stumbled upon the fact that when using the greatest invention recently, Google Translate, any, what I would call, posh words in English such as famished or fatigued, they are French words, maybe spelt slightly differently, but pronounced quite a bit differently. However more commonly used words for these two such as hungry and tired are similar or same words in, usually, Dutch or Norwegian, but if this is not the case try German, Swedish or Danish and then you will have a match. Very interesting and I have wasted so much time doing exactly the above, unfortunately I doubt it really does that much to help me improve my French.
My next race is Le Circuit du Morbihan this Sunday and another E/1/2 French Elite race, hopefully I will complete it this time, now that I've got a new saddle for my Pinarello and some other new bits I will be pleased for a top 50 or 40 even, fingers crossed. It's tough mentally getting bent over on such a regular basis, but none of us have hit top form yet and we are still learning how to race here that is pointedly true for me considering my lack of road racing experience.
More news to report is that I will be doing the South East Stage Race and Verity is coming back that weekend from Italy also, all fantastic news.
Stay safe everyone and I wish you all the best.
One of these garnishes is what many believe is the cause of Junior's death, a lack of a rolling road closure meaning in races closing the road off for the peloton to race through, requiring cars to wait at junctions for a couple of minutes tops for at the moment we road racers compete on open roads where we can only stick to the left hand-side of the road and where motorbikes technically do not have the power to stop vechicles, particularly if they are oncoming. It has been proven that a rolling road closure is the safest and most efficient form to allow for road racing so why don't we adopt it? We are the only country in the world that doesn't, o.k. it does not meant the majority is always right nessercarily, but in this case, it does. Please sign the petiton to help us make this a bit more of a reality and make roads safer for all: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46709
Talking of politics, I have really got into Jon Stewart recently as well as Bill O'Reilly (not satire, but still an interesting figure and debater) and South Park and it just makes me wish that other then Have I Got News For You there would be more political satire on British T.V. as well as more harder hitting interviews. A recent survey that was revealed on the One Show a couple of weeks ago shows that whilst Americans will talk about sports and politics intially when meeting in a group of more than 3, Brits talk about the weather. With this mindset is it any wonder we just have countless, pointless shows that discuss and display nothing?
Haha to Manchester United
Now is the time of year where road cycling really begins and we have been blessed already with some great racing recently, the Strade Bianche lived up to expectations, luckily for Verity Ockenden it finished in Siena getting some cracking photos, as well as Roma Maxima proving to be a great race with a surprise winner. Now we have Paris-Nice, which is poised perfectly for the next few days and Tirreno-Adriacato where some heavyweight names line-up to do battle. What was really interesting was how slow the Strade Bianche was raced on Saturday, in comparison to La Manche-Atlantique that I raced on Sunday, Moser finished 1.5kph slower than the winner of my race even though the race was only 33km more. Admittedly they had to race over the sterrata of Tuscany, but they are professionals competiting on a nicer day than we did with a lot less wind. I would most compare the races around here mostly to Amstel Gold (even though I have never raced it lol), but with more wind, a still day here is when it is still blowing 15mph+.
The French really do love their guard dogs, especially Boxers and all the dogs constantly bark and will go for anything, couple this with the fact that like I have said previously, though don't really have hedges or fences, this is obviously a recipe for disaster. Yesterday I went for my first club ride, which was great, but I really just how far I have to go if I want to get anywhere near decent in the language, anyway we got set upon by dogs again. On most rides, certainly when you go off the D roads, not matter how short a distance, you will have to face dogs.
Learning French as got my considering the roots of English a bit more I have stumbled upon the fact that when using the greatest invention recently, Google Translate, any, what I would call, posh words in English such as famished or fatigued, they are French words, maybe spelt slightly differently, but pronounced quite a bit differently. However more commonly used words for these two such as hungry and tired are similar or same words in, usually, Dutch or Norwegian, but if this is not the case try German, Swedish or Danish and then you will have a match. Very interesting and I have wasted so much time doing exactly the above, unfortunately I doubt it really does that much to help me improve my French.
My next race is Le Circuit du Morbihan this Sunday and another E/1/2 French Elite race, hopefully I will complete it this time, now that I've got a new saddle for my Pinarello and some other new bits I will be pleased for a top 50 or 40 even, fingers crossed. It's tough mentally getting bent over on such a regular basis, but none of us have hit top form yet and we are still learning how to race here that is pointedly true for me considering my lack of road racing experience.
More news to report is that I will be doing the South East Stage Race and Verity is coming back that weekend from Italy also, all fantastic news.
Stay safe everyone and I wish you all the best.
Sunday 3 March 2013
Junior Heffernan
I thought I dedicate this post to the late Junior Heffernan who needlessly died yesterday during the Severn Bridge Road Race, Tim Butt knew Junior better than me, but having raced in triathlon and then cycling against him for the past 10 years it's strange to know that that boy who I said 'Hi' to at races and raced as recently as September against him is gone forever. Condolences obviously go to all his family and friends and from I've heard about him, everyone said he was a funny and quite lovely young man, here's the brief statement from British Cycling about the incident:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/bc20130303-Statement--Rider-dies-at-Severn-Bridge-Road-Race-0
This incident just highlights the appaling state road racing in Britian is in and I for one well be very interested to read the report into the accident because you have so many athletes fighting over just the lefthand-side of the road, invariably on country roads where the race is away from traffic and therefore the peloton rarely gets three people wide and to overtake you are forced to go on the otherside of the road anyway, usually. What makes me laugh is that it would be easier to just do a rolling road closure of the whole road and anyway you have to close half the road regardless for the race, all you are doing is merely extending the current system to make it even safer. It's hardly like the peloton hangs around and it is amazing to see on the international cycling websites and forums the reaction from across the globe about this tragic incident. We are the only country, to my knowledge, which does not have a rolling road closure for any road cycling events other than for the proper professional races, we are laughed at and considered backward for not, as it is proven, again though; through what I have been told, that closing the roads produce less incidents than if they are left open to traffic.
Fortunately I now race in a country that is far safer, admittedly there have been two crashes, in the same race, but in Britain there will be a couple of crashes every road race, I have never been in a road race where there has not been at least two crashes. This is because closed roads allow for the riders to take great angles through the corners, carry speed through, but greatly reducing the risks. This results in the corners just been taking normally with great consideration to your fellow riders as the corners are not risky and nor does cornering really help in splitting the bunch. However, in Britain, the peloton, though half or the third of the size of peloton's in other countries, is already quite strung out, but no-one can go through to keep the pace high or attack really because there are people blocking in front and traffic on the otherside of the road. One of the only places to make up positions, get away etc.. is through the corners. This does encourage better handling skills, but puts unnecessary stress and risk on the competitors as well as some competitors will try and actually make others crash through the corners to whittle down the field, though this is obviously very rare and hard to prove.
Hopefully the report finds this and out of Junior's death this (un)health-and-(not)safety law can change for the better for the simple matter of it is, if there was a rolling road closure, he wouldn't of died, if he was racing anywhere else in the world in the same race he wouldn't of died, but because he raced in Britain, he did. R.I.P. Junior.
To clear up the racing situation over here in France, I am a French 2nd cat. rider meaning I'm eleigible to compete in any races that allow cat.2's in them, last weekend, Le Melrandaisse was a 1/2/3 and Le Route Bretonne was an E/1/2. This weekend was the Queen of the Breton Classsics, La Manche-Atlantique, an E/1/2. As the name implies we had to cycle from the North of Brittany, on the Channel (La Manche actually means 'the sleeve' in French and not 'the channel', pretty weird) to the south on Brittany to near the Atlantic. This promised to be a hard race with 190 competitors a North to South route with a strong Easterly wind, the horrendousness of Le Route Bretonne was bound to be repeated with 6 laps of Plumelec to be completed at the end giving us riders a grand total of 156km. The finishing circuits were centered on Plumelec Hill, where Valverde won the first stage of Le Tour de France 2008.
It was a battle from the word go, as some of you may know I have been under the weather a bit this week as well as the fact that in races this time of year you don't know what to wear, unfortunately I wore too much and was drenched in sweat by the end. Having felt sluggish from the start I started to hit my stride a bit more after an hour. Not too long after this Hamish was shown the back-door by the peloton as no one would let a break go due to the importance of this race. Shortly afterwards George was shown the back-door too, what makes racing so hard here is the fact you have these 2/3km long climbs that average about 4 or 5% and then when you reach the top, they are completely exposed as the farmers round here do not readily employ big fences or bushes. This has to do with, I believe, with the fact that you can come within 30metres of any property in France and not be trespassing, I also think the farmers do this on purpose to make the races harder, the vindictive swine.
Here you are then battered by crosswinds and having already been on the rivet it's torture, all form goes out the window and you start what I like to call 'crabbing', where you basically end up looking like a crab trying to ride a bike, not pretty. Anyway, after 1hr20mins when George got dropped roughly, the peloton split, fortunately after a furious 10min chase we got back on, but this group and me included was just yo-yo-ing back and forth off the main bunch with people getting shot out the back all the time. Unfortunately I lasted until the last big hill before the finishing circuit in Plumelec, approximately 8kms away and after 2hrs 15mins fo racing. This hill had a prime and when some attacked for it and dragged the peloton with them I shouted 'Gruppetto!', only two blokes listened and so I bade the peloton 'Au revoir' and told the peloton that I would see them at the circuit shortly. We then did through and off the three of us, till we dropped one guy, leaving just me and another rider, where we soon caught another guy up who had a blown then I proceeded to drop these two as we got to the finishing circuit. I managed to do 1 lap before I got lapped and then had to climb off my bike after 2hrs 40mins of cycling.
Savage day and the average speed of the winner was, well you can see here the results, time etc...: http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24657-manche-atlantique-classement.html
As I managed only 1 lap I was not included on the results however I reckon I can safely assume that I probably got, if you're knit-picking, 99th, or I like to think so anyway. The peloton just split completely on the cirsuit into very small bunches of no more than 10-15 riders, a great experience to ride on such a famous hill, on such famous roads and the finishing hill must of had about 1,000 people on it. Amazing atmosphere.
Congratulations must also go to Doug Dewey who rides for Hennebont Cyclisme and who won on Saturday, an 1/2/3. Great win and one for the Brits on tour, here's the link to the results:
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24623-etoile-de-tressignaux-classement.html
A very melancholy day, hopefully justice is served for Junior and his family, until next time, stay safe.
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/bc20130303-Statement--Rider-dies-at-Severn-Bridge-Road-Race-0
This incident just highlights the appaling state road racing in Britian is in and I for one well be very interested to read the report into the accident because you have so many athletes fighting over just the lefthand-side of the road, invariably on country roads where the race is away from traffic and therefore the peloton rarely gets three people wide and to overtake you are forced to go on the otherside of the road anyway, usually. What makes me laugh is that it would be easier to just do a rolling road closure of the whole road and anyway you have to close half the road regardless for the race, all you are doing is merely extending the current system to make it even safer. It's hardly like the peloton hangs around and it is amazing to see on the international cycling websites and forums the reaction from across the globe about this tragic incident. We are the only country, to my knowledge, which does not have a rolling road closure for any road cycling events other than for the proper professional races, we are laughed at and considered backward for not, as it is proven, again though; through what I have been told, that closing the roads produce less incidents than if they are left open to traffic.
Fortunately I now race in a country that is far safer, admittedly there have been two crashes, in the same race, but in Britain there will be a couple of crashes every road race, I have never been in a road race where there has not been at least two crashes. This is because closed roads allow for the riders to take great angles through the corners, carry speed through, but greatly reducing the risks. This results in the corners just been taking normally with great consideration to your fellow riders as the corners are not risky and nor does cornering really help in splitting the bunch. However, in Britain, the peloton, though half or the third of the size of peloton's in other countries, is already quite strung out, but no-one can go through to keep the pace high or attack really because there are people blocking in front and traffic on the otherside of the road. One of the only places to make up positions, get away etc.. is through the corners. This does encourage better handling skills, but puts unnecessary stress and risk on the competitors as well as some competitors will try and actually make others crash through the corners to whittle down the field, though this is obviously very rare and hard to prove.
Hopefully the report finds this and out of Junior's death this (un)health-and-(not)safety law can change for the better for the simple matter of it is, if there was a rolling road closure, he wouldn't of died, if he was racing anywhere else in the world in the same race he wouldn't of died, but because he raced in Britain, he did. R.I.P. Junior.
To clear up the racing situation over here in France, I am a French 2nd cat. rider meaning I'm eleigible to compete in any races that allow cat.2's in them, last weekend, Le Melrandaisse was a 1/2/3 and Le Route Bretonne was an E/1/2. This weekend was the Queen of the Breton Classsics, La Manche-Atlantique, an E/1/2. As the name implies we had to cycle from the North of Brittany, on the Channel (La Manche actually means 'the sleeve' in French and not 'the channel', pretty weird) to the south on Brittany to near the Atlantic. This promised to be a hard race with 190 competitors a North to South route with a strong Easterly wind, the horrendousness of Le Route Bretonne was bound to be repeated with 6 laps of Plumelec to be completed at the end giving us riders a grand total of 156km. The finishing circuits were centered on Plumelec Hill, where Valverde won the first stage of Le Tour de France 2008.
It was a battle from the word go, as some of you may know I have been under the weather a bit this week as well as the fact that in races this time of year you don't know what to wear, unfortunately I wore too much and was drenched in sweat by the end. Having felt sluggish from the start I started to hit my stride a bit more after an hour. Not too long after this Hamish was shown the back-door by the peloton as no one would let a break go due to the importance of this race. Shortly afterwards George was shown the back-door too, what makes racing so hard here is the fact you have these 2/3km long climbs that average about 4 or 5% and then when you reach the top, they are completely exposed as the farmers round here do not readily employ big fences or bushes. This has to do with, I believe, with the fact that you can come within 30metres of any property in France and not be trespassing, I also think the farmers do this on purpose to make the races harder, the vindictive swine.
Here you are then battered by crosswinds and having already been on the rivet it's torture, all form goes out the window and you start what I like to call 'crabbing', where you basically end up looking like a crab trying to ride a bike, not pretty. Anyway, after 1hr20mins when George got dropped roughly, the peloton split, fortunately after a furious 10min chase we got back on, but this group and me included was just yo-yo-ing back and forth off the main bunch with people getting shot out the back all the time. Unfortunately I lasted until the last big hill before the finishing circuit in Plumelec, approximately 8kms away and after 2hrs 15mins fo racing. This hill had a prime and when some attacked for it and dragged the peloton with them I shouted 'Gruppetto!', only two blokes listened and so I bade the peloton 'Au revoir' and told the peloton that I would see them at the circuit shortly. We then did through and off the three of us, till we dropped one guy, leaving just me and another rider, where we soon caught another guy up who had a blown then I proceeded to drop these two as we got to the finishing circuit. I managed to do 1 lap before I got lapped and then had to climb off my bike after 2hrs 40mins of cycling.
Savage day and the average speed of the winner was, well you can see here the results, time etc...: http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24657-manche-atlantique-classement.html
As I managed only 1 lap I was not included on the results however I reckon I can safely assume that I probably got, if you're knit-picking, 99th, or I like to think so anyway. The peloton just split completely on the cirsuit into very small bunches of no more than 10-15 riders, a great experience to ride on such a famous hill, on such famous roads and the finishing hill must of had about 1,000 people on it. Amazing atmosphere.
Congratulations must also go to Doug Dewey who rides for Hennebont Cyclisme and who won on Saturday, an 1/2/3. Great win and one for the Brits on tour, here's the link to the results:
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24623-etoile-de-tressignaux-classement.html
A very melancholy day, hopefully justice is served for Junior and his family, until next time, stay safe.
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