The First Stage Race

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.