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!!!
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