Morning. As per usual a ridiculous lack of sleep after the race at St Thurien. I awoke at silly o'clock and headed out for a 30 min spin and to pick the team car up from the garage. All done I returned home for a bite to eat and then headed off to Locoal Mendon.
Locoal Mendon, a town around 25 mins away, near the coast and like a lot of French towns, a pretty sleepy one!
Arriving with just over an hour to go before my race. 3pm the start today. The earliest start I think I've started in months! Much happier racing earlier as means you can eat at a sensible time afterwards and (attempt) to get to sleep early as well!
So parked up and Sam rolled up. Due to him having lots of stage races coming up and not racing the Saturday, he had ridden there so was nicely warmed up. I headed to sign on and glanced down at the list of riders.
Was basically a whos, who of the best amateurs in Brittany! Saur Sojasun under 23 had 5 riders, there was BIC2000, UC Nantes, UC Cholet, VCP Lorient, Hennebont Cyclisme, AC Lanester and Lecemie Espoir, to name just a few! UCL Hennebont had myself, Rene, Laurent, Gurvan and Phil. So it was a very high quality field and what looked to be a real hard race of just over 80 riders.
A lap and a bit warm up. 6km a lap. A couple of climbs, lots of windy drags and that was basically it. 3pm and away we went. I had said a very quick hello to my parents, who were watching, just before the start and knew it was their first experience of a French race...better make it a good one!
First lap and sitting 20 or so riders back. The roads were narrow and soon attacks were off. Like the day before I wanted to bide my time, follow the wheels and get in the right move. This was not how today was to pan out. Soon riders were clipping off in quite some numbers. My legs were feeling ok but I was feeling in a daze.
This probably due to a hard race the day before and around 5hrs sleep! So soon a very big break, including Sojasun, Lanester and Nantes and lots more, had gone and that was the last we saw of them. 6km in and the race of 20 riders was gone, up the road.
Yet all didn't seem completely lost. In the bunch, of 60 or so riders, was still a lot of big hitters. David Chopin, probably one of the best amateurs in Brittany was still there as was Simon Gouedard, another class rider. A couple of laps done and a move went. Sam was in it and so was Rene. It looked good with around 6 or so riders. I tried to react when it went but was struggling on the climb and couldn't get on. No worries though as looking round I saw Chopin, alone, hacking across to me!
Onto his wheel...hold on for dear life. I lasted about 2km! To the next drag where he dropped me! I kept plugging away though and alone glanced back to see Gouedard coming across alone. 3rd time lucky!?
Again the same scenario. Hang on for dear life. I was able to pull a couple of turns and after a couple of kilometres we had bridged to the chase group. The bunch were out of sight. Looked promising as the break was a minute up the road and I was now in a good group with lots of race favourites.
Yet it wasn't to be. No one seemed committed and soon the bunch caught us again. Race over. The break pulled out to 5mins and a lot of riders called it a day and got off. I though wanted to at least finish and rolled round the next 30km to get some miles in the legs.
So that was Locoal Mendon. Won by a BIC rider, who's stagiairing for Bretagne Schuller at the end of the year! Not a good race for me but neither for a lot of riders. I didn't really feel all there to be honest!
You need to be switched on in these races and with the arrival of my parents, lack of sleep and a hard race the day before I just don't think I was really psyched up enough for this one.
A shame but it did highlight some problems:
1. my climbing! Absolutely shocking at moment. Not quite sure why, maybe too many flattish crits
2. Endurance, with all races so short and lots of them I am literally racing and recovering. So short rides all round. Not good as I always go well off so 3hr plus training rides, which I haven't seemed to do for weeks!
So what's next? Well today I headed out for 3 and a bit hours alone. Wind, lots of hills, sun, big gear work, working on endurance and power.
Probably same tomorrow, easy on Wednesday and race at Mauron on Thursday. Of course will also be catching up with parents and showing them all the delights Brittany has to offer as well!
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