welcome back...

...and what a welcome it was!

If you've read my previous blog entries you would have seen I have just had a mid season break. Like in any sport a time to reflect and do "normal person" activities. These included, shopping, sightseeing (Lorient and Lanester), a music festival in Hennebont and Lorient, a meal out, a visit to watch a race and a cinema trip! As you can see I was pretty busy..but ultimately felt refreshed and ready to take on 2011, season part 2.

So Monday morning came and I was eager to get back on the bike, after 7 days of laziness. Woke to find rain, lots of it in fact. Still nothing was stopping me today and I caped up, manned up, and headed off for just over 2 hours. Keeping it easy the sun soon came out. Great to be back, if a little stiff in the legs.

Tuesday and to be fair got a bit carried away, another 2 hours but went into  hack mode, for some unknown reason, half way through, probably not a good idea, note to self ease back into the training!

So Wednesday came and the usual race preparation of an hours spin with some sprints in the morning, pick up team car and count down the hours to the evenings race.

Criterium de Lanester 

So 6pm came around and I arrived to pick up Sam Allen for the 20 minute drive to Lanester. Other than my bike nearly falling off the roof rack (scary moment) we arrived an hour before the start ready for the evening's festivities. Sunny skies yet mild rather than hot. Perfect racing weather. 

Arriving and it looked familiar. That's because it was the finish to Tro Div Ster stage race, stages 2 and 3 (see earlier blog entries). Hosted by the same club they had the big hoardings, podium, and finish line. Looking more like a Tour finish rather than an evenings semi nocturne.

Signed on and looking down the list of riders it was a high quality field. A couple of Saur Sojasun under 23s, UC Cholet, BIC2000, VCP Lorient, a load of Hennebont Cyclisme (including the awesome David Chopin) Leuciemie Espoir, UC Nantes and AC Lanester, with Warren Barguil, top under 23 national squad rider, 8th, on the weekend, at amateur nationals and recently signed as a stagiaire for Francais de Jeux professional team.

So in essence it wasn't going to be a gentle reintroduction to racing! 

7:30pm and lined up ready to roll. After struggling to sleep after these races, I decided to experiment and do this race without the help of my usual coffee before. Would soon find out if this was a silly move. There was also much debate before the start just how many laps of the 3 and a bit kilometre circuit there was. One website quoting 21 laps, another 31. A big difference!

So myself and Sam were prepared for 21 laps, as most of the other riders seemed to be as well. Yet lined up 31 laps were on the board...lovely.

Away we went. The lap was a proper kermesse style affair, a drag round the back, a couple of roundabouts to negotiate, a very dodgy railway cross just before a fast left hander and some big open roads with a massive headwind!

First lap and a neutralised one. Second lap and it kicked off in earnest. The 70 plus riders soon were in one line and basically that's pretty much the way it stayed for the next 2 and a bit hours! With such a high quality field the break was sure to go at some point and soon 10 or so riders attacked on the drag. I was not feeling to good and to be fair legs felt like they were suffering from shock, after not having to do such effort for so many days. Still the gap opened and I wasn't ready to let the race go up the road. I put my head down and dug deep. 

Sam was just in front and I was a couple of bike lengths off the break as I took some silly risks into the roundabouts to get on just before the block headwind section. Glancing back and I was last rider across. Race sorted? Nope.

Soon the bunch were back onto us and the attacks followed again. I was suffering from my effort. Mainly the legs seemed just to feel really diesel like. Not good. Soon a break had gone. 

Sam, who was flying, got in it and 7 riders were away. Still not all was lost as race favourites Barguil and Chopin were still in the bunch. Not for long though. Onto the drag and Barguil attacked. No one could go with him. It was immense to watch..and watch is all I could do!

Soon Chopin had bridged across with a handful of riders too. 12 away. The race was gone. 

I was having enough fun and games in the bunch to be to disappointed about not getting in the move. We were flying along. One line. Sprinting out of corners and battling into the headwind. UC Cholet and Saur Sojasun had surprisingly both missed the break yet this clearly showed quite how hard this race was.

6 laps to go and I was suffering. Unfortunately Sam was too and he cramped and was dropped from the break. A real shame considering how strong he was going. A top 5 would have definitely have been on the cards if he didn't cramp.

So there it was last lap and I rolled in in the bunch. Just to put into perspective the difficulty of the race, we caught David Chopin, who had been dropped from the break, on the line.

Warren Barguil won showing his amazing class. Soloing the last 2 laps! Francais de Jeux have a real talent there!

So for me not the best introduction back to racing. No surprise really and a real shock to the system. Still I finished and had a very good workout. Hopefully this has opened me up for Friday's semi nocturne at Arzon.

If last nights race is anything to go by I think I'll be needing that coffee before the start come Friday!