Another solid performance

Today was the last in La Trophee Job Morvan (a former local pro) a series of 4 races for 2/3/Juniors where I have previously DNSed in the first race, DNFed in the second and DNSed in the third, so it was safe to say for this round at Plumelin I might not be the most closely watched. It was very active from the off and began to light drizzle soon after we started. After lots of attacks and the peloton repeatedly splitting a group of 8 finely got away on a pretty innocuous section after about 40mins, within 10km this gap had grown to about 25seconds. Fortunately there was not pressure on my squad to chase as one of our team-members was in the break, however he also happened to be one of our weakest riders. I did panic thinking the break would stay away, but fortunately we came to a section of the road that I know exceedingly well from training and racing. The peloton went fast up the main climb in the Camors Interclub that I raced as my first French race and then continued down a fast technical descent once over the top, but by the top a further split occurred. Fortunately only a little one of about 10 seconds and here I jumped across with the series leader on the descent to this little group that had clipped off. The rest of the peloton made the juncture to us by the bottom, but here we immediately hit another, sharp climb, where I nailed it up and over. I then preceded to hammer this nail down the otherside of the hill and up the next one too eventually closing the 25 second gap in about 3km which wasn't too bad. Unit!

Within the next 5km some others managed to join us as at this point we were riding on the hilliest section of the race and it had began to rain cats and dgos, but once we numbered about 20 we had a 50 second to a minute gap over the peloton, goodnight Paris. The break consisted of a few good individual riders, with no team-mates and decent riders with one other team-mate also present for them, so very finely balanced. We worked well until the finishing circuits where all hell broke loose. Unfortunately for me, my team-mate was actually more of hindrance than anything as he was at the back doing sod all, because of the fact that there was 2 of us in the break and me being considered one of the better riders in the move, anytime someone attacked they expected one of us to do something. However my team-mate Stephane was in no fit state to do anything.

We had to ride 10x4.2km laps of a rolling, open circuit, ideal for me really, but this did not quite prove to be the case. 2 got away after 2 laps and about a lap later the eventual winner went, no one was really keen to help catch them due to concerns over others as well as the fact that they never got more than 15 seconds until the last few laps, we were all trying to be a bit too clever. People were being dropped from the group all the time, Stephane went with 3 laps still go and with 2 laps to go everyone from the break just started to attack each other, I missed the next move that decided 3rd-6th as one of the original break of 2 riders who went at the beginning of finishing circuits went kaputt. 2 then clipped off to get 7th and 8th whilst I was just pipped for 9th. End result 10th when really I could or should have got a top 5, finishing only 30 seconds down on the winner so I know how close I came. Saying that on the finish picture from Sunday's race you can see me dying at 75m to go mark when the winner was crossing the line so I actually came closer in some ways to winning on Sunday.

Me being pipped to 9th

I'm just chuffed with how I rode, the great sensations on the new bike and minimal pain and stiffness in my knee. Hopefully I can get a podium next time and my knee keeps on improving, but I must apologise to Sebastien, my team president, for failing to win today even though he said I could and should do yesterday. Hamish came in a credible 21st.

After the race we had the prize-giving presentations where I'm pleased to say we won the overall team classification. As a result we got lots of beer, posh glasses, trophies and t-shirts to be shared amongst. I got given one of the glasses and a top, yes Nan; another one, it's nice to have and a proper t-shirt that you are supposed to wear out, not a top with the race sprawled across it with all the sponsors etc... It seems to celebrate Breton pride (I think) and the company was established in 1996 according to the graphics on the t-shirt, a year that still brings many highs and lows for me as in an instance I'm transported to Euro 96 and this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr__-KqnfQM

Pretty apt to be honest as today I wore my England football shirt in recognition of the fact that today was Armistice Day in France, celebrating the liberation of France by the Allied Forces.

Congratulations must go to Sam Allen for his 8th in La Essor Breton E/1/2 Stage Race in the overall and get better soon George Moore.

My next race will be Sunday, but I don't know anything other than it's this Sunday until then I will be enjoying the day-to-day delights of the Giro d'Italia!

The second greatest manager in the English game has finally departed, I admire his achievements and how nice he was to me at the Valley, but I will never forgive him or Man Utd for beating Charlton in 1999 in the last minute of the game, a Dwight Yorke far post header in case your wondering. I say the second best because Paisley would be my choice.

Very brave from Jason Collins to come out as gay, I have a huge amount of respect for him as it can not be easy.

For those who want to keep up-to-date on what I'm doing more and see what racing over-here is really like follow me on Strava or Twitter or add me on Facebook, where I will be publishing Garmin information on these formats for all to see.

Stay safe everyone