Compression tights on again and a recovery drink taken I put my feet up ready for lunch. Down for lunch and more pasta, bread and cheese. After a hard race I often find it hard to eat and thus avoided the cheese and the rice pudding to finish. I did though try and get some pasta and meat down me in in preparation for the afternoon's final stage.
Stage 3:
Kitted up and signed on for the third and final time. Another warm up done as well. With all the stages the start and the finish has been the same. This therefore favoured the sprinters, as it was relatively flat, yet also meant there were no nasty surprises coming into the finish. So 2:30pm and 122 starters. What lay ahead was the finishing circuit, from the 1st stage, to be done 13 times, 5.6km with a kilometre climb every lap, a few farm tracks, lots of wind and lots of tired legs...a kermesse in essence.
So again a pretty short stage. Usually the longer the better for me but there you go. So away we went and with the wind and rain starting just as the flag was dropped it was a nervous bunch. With humid conditions the roads, now wet, were lethal as people were sliding left right and centre. Luckily after a few laps the sun came out and rain stopped.
I'm not sure why but my body really doesnt seem to get going very well in afternoon races. This is a huge problem as 90% of racing here is in the afternoon! ( need to find a solution!?) Therefore although feeling strong I felt very lethargic. Legs were there, head not so. Half way and a break of 7 had clipped off the front of the fast moving bunch. Riders were already starting to be dropped and the race was now on!
3 laps to go and I started to wake up! Onto the climb and nearing the top I attacked taking 3 or so riders with me. Flying along the back of the course the bunch were in no mood to let anything else go and we were swept up.
Last lap and Stephane had unfortunately been dropped, leaving myself, Rene, Pascal and Philippe in the bunch. The breakaway had a mere 25 seconds and the bunch were in one line. I made sure I was sitting in the top 20 and with 5km to go hung on for my life! Last kilometre and it was flat out as The Chamberry team (now holding the GC lead) were hunting down the break. Last few hundred metres and I'd slipped back to 30th or so in the bunch. 200 metres to go..a touch of wheels and a rider came down at about 55km/h, avoiding it I gave it everything in the sprint and basically just held my position across the line!
The break held off the chase by 22 seconds with the win going to UC Orlean. So race done and today had gone a lot better. Felt good morning and not to bad in afternoon once I woke up! Shame about Saturday's stage as with a good ride there it may have been a different story. Still I thoroughly enjoyed the race, steadily moved up on the GC, top 20 (possibly top 15) in under 23 classification, Pascal had finished in top 20 on GC and we were 9th out of 20 teams, some of which were much bigger than ourselves. So a respectable if not amazing weekends racing.
Team manager seemed happy. All there is to do now is make sure I'm prepared as well as can be for next weekend's stage race The Tro Div Ster. Meant to be harder, on local roads and a 20km team timetrial as well! If it's anything like as cool and enjoyable as Mauges I cant wait. Just gotta work on getting in those winning moves and starting stages awake!
Stage 3 result: 72.8km
1st Romain Gioux UC Orleans 1:44:47
19th Pascal Hue UCL Hennebont @22 sec
37th Daniel Kogan UCL Hennebont @22 sec
55th Rene Taillandier UCL Hennebont @22 sec
64th Philippe Nedellec UCL Hennebont @45 sec
FINAL GC: 263km
1st Clement Chevrier Chambery 6:26:50
18th Pascal Hue UCL Hennebont @42 sec
35th Daniel Kogan UCL Hennebont @3:27
38th Rene Taillandier UCL Hennebont @3:46
78th Philippe Nedellec UCL Hennebont @15:35
136 starters and 93 finishers
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/11963-tour-des-mauges-classements.html
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