After the plainly shocking display at the semi nocturne on Friday I was in the mood to make amends.
12:30pm and Nick and Tony arrived at the house to drive me, the hour or so, to Pleucadeuc, a town the other side of Auray. Another pretty hot day in store.
Arriving and the wind was howling, as usual for Brittany! Signed on and ready to roll. I had a half an hour warm up with some sprints to open the legs up.
After Friday's shocking race I took Saturday relatively easy with just a light spin on the bike and a much needed massage. Although my legs weren't feeling great, warming up, they were a great deal better than Fridays.
So 2:30pm and we were lined up on the start ready to go. This was a pretty impressive field of just over 100 riders including Sojasun, BIC 2000, Cotes d'armor, Hennebont Cyclisme, UC Nantes, Cholet, VCP Lorient and AC Lanester to name just a few. Representing UCL Hennebont was the experienced Rene, and the not quite so experienced...me!
Off we went. 90km en ligne then a 5km finishing circuit to be done 8 times. So 130km. You wouldnt have thought it was 130km though the speed we set off! With the bit between my teeth I battled to the front and after a mere 1km saw one of the race favourites (Vincent Ragot, Lanester) go on the attack. Keen to get away and make the break I jumped across. Yet the bunch were in a fierce mood and soon it was all back together.
This pattern of events followed for around an hour! As attacks went and were brought back. Soon with a strong head/crosswind the bunch were in tatters as the pace, 44km/h average for the first hour, and the rolling parcours took their toll.
Soon a break went. I was in a good place sitting top 15 in the bunch but to be honest just didnt have the strength to react. Luckily Rene could and soon had got away with a dozen others.
The bunch were not happy to let this go though and hitting a climb attacks were going left right and centre. Legs were feeling pretty average still but head was good and I was keen to bridge to the break. Soon with the climb and the sheer pace I got away in a chase group of 15 or so riders.
With BIC 2000, Cholet and Saur Sojasun in the chase group I was in good company. The break was insight we had Rene in it meaning I could get a free ride across...everything was looking positive.
Then it started going wrong. I missed the bottle at the feed. On such a warm day this was key. Still I had a few more opportunities to get a bottle. Next issue was the chase group or to put it bluntly the lack of chase! As riders ducked and dived we were a mere few hundred metres at times behind the break. Yet no one was committed. Annoying to say the least before long the peleton came back upto us.
By now the bunch was significantly smaller and sensing the race was going up the road, riders were chipping off the front in pursuit. Soon we hit the finishing circuit, 5km, about a kilometres shallow climb, a short descent and a relatively flat remainder.
We had 8 laps and after missing the bottle I was starting to feel dehydrated on such a warm day. I did though find myself in a group of around 10 riders and soon we were working well to close in, now what was the second group, on the road.
Lap after lap we were a couple of hundred metres behind the second group on the road but as we were going flat out, so were they! So basically lap after lap deadlock. We were closing the gap on the climb only to lose it on the flat.
So 4 laps to go and onto the climb again. Climbing ok, legs were pretty average as they had been all race. We were coming upto 20km to go and were now in touching distance of the group up ahead.
That is until the AC Lanester rider behind me decided to ride into my rear wheel. What happened next was very abrupt and very final! His front wheel hit my rear mech and pushed it into my wheel, thus snapping the hanger and in turn ripping the mech and spokes in my wheel..oh and the chain as well!
To put this into persepective I came to such an abrupt stop I took an inch of rubber off my tyre. Hacked off to put it politely. My race was over.
Can only be thankful I didnt crash, mainly due to the fact this happened on the drag. I wouldnt like to think what would have happened if this was on the descent.
Also this occured on the finishing circuit, again better here than on the 90km en ligne. Still as you can tell it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
Still feeling pretty annoyed and a bit down in the dumps about it. A trip to the bikeshop today where I spent a small fortune yet was unable to get a rear mech hanger.
Ordered one now on the internet, hopefully will arrive soon and I can get back into the swing of things for the weekend.
Decided to do just Sunday's race this weekend as need a confidence boost and think better to concentrate on one race rather than two. I am learning a lot, but to be fair taking a hammering.
Yes, its May and the seasons long but then again I need to start getting to the sharper end of these races...if anyone has any ideas how please let me know!
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