So that in mind my 41st could have been just any other race. Well it wasn't.
After my easy week, a couple of weeks ago I headed back into training this week. With August and September both jam packed with racing and big races like Plouay and Perthes, I was keen to get some quality miles and training in the legs.
So Monday, a recovery ride to Port Louis, Tuesday a day of sprints round the coast and back inland for the final hour or so. Wednesday, a steady 3hrs. All I hasten to add in beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures. Summer weather at last!
So tan lines worked on and feeling good I had Thursday as a day off. I wish I hadn't! What a day, poured with rain all morning, so was stuck in doors with the cat. Thankfully brightened up in afternoon so headed into town for a coffee. Still what a long day and with my landlady out all day till 9pm I was feeling very bored and pretty down by the end of it.
Still Friday at least looked a lot more interesting. Awoke to rain again, yet I had no time to wait till it passed. Kitted up I headed off for my usual hour spin and to pick up the team car. Car picked up and surprisingly no rain for entire ride!
Back and normal pre race rituals. Wipe bike down, bottles, eat. By this point in the season I think I could do this with my eyes shut! Still all sorted and ready for evenings race.
The sun had finally come out as well, just in time for me to leave at 6pm for Lorient.
Off I headed and with The Lorient Interceltic music Festival on (a week long massive all things Celtic affair!) I left with plenty of time. Too much it would seem. I arrived an hour and a half early! Port de Peche. Basically Lorient's massive fishing port and tonight's race.
So 20 min drive was all it took and arriving I realised this was a biggun. Massive crowds, lots of hoardings, big podium and a festival atmosphere.
The race was an Elite National. This basically is, other than professional, the biggest category of racing. Due to being on a smallish team I don't get to do to many of these (Route Bretonne, Manche Atlantique etc fall into same category) So this was the perfect opportunity to see how I figured against the top riders.
Elite National 's also have more red tape, as for the first time in months I had to show my licence when signing on. Lots more numbers to pin on as well! The biggest difference between these top races and others is the prize money. There was tonnes of it on offer. Primes ranging from 100 euros to 250!
Everyone was there for this one, including some pros from Bretagne Schuller. These riders were actually not taking part in our race but acting as celebrities for the preceding support race.
So all signed on and kitted up. I saw Sam and we headed off for a warm up. A 2.9km circuit. pan flat, very windy, wide open roads, not much in the way of corners and only a couple of roundabouts..and a strange pave section to negotiate.
Warm up done and lined up ready for the 7:45pm depart. 32 laps. On the line were only just over 40 riders. Yet don't let this fool you. This was not gonna be an easy race and on a circuit like this the fewer riders the harder it was to be. The riders were of some quality with Leceumie Espoir, AC Lanester, UC Nantes, Cotes d'Armor, VC Lyon, Aix en Provence, VCP Lorient and BIC2000 (with Bretagne Champion Vignes) to name just a few. More worryingly just myself for UCL Hennebont!
So away we went and straight away the pace was on! Through the roundabouts and attacks going from kilometre zero.I was half way down the bunch and was ok. With such a windy circuit and a lot of quality riders the plan was to sit in and save as much as I could for the final few laps.
Not the best of ideas. Soon things began splitting and I was too far back. Two groups up the road with myself and a dozen others in the final segment. Riders were already being dropped at an alarming rate due to the frantic pace. Soon the groups were away. Yet my group, with some big hitters in it, weren't happy to call it a night and after a few laps of full gas riding we were all back together.
I was starting to struggle though. Legs were ok, head was not. Sport is definitely both physical and mental. For me mentally its often my downfall. Yet mechanically I also seemed to be having problems as over the rough pave my front wheel decided to develop a serious buckle. Probably should have stopped and taken a lap out to sort it, but for some reason didnt. This meant for the next few laps I was constantly fixated on my dodgy wheel, not really what I should have been concentrating on as we hacked round at 27/28mph for the first hour!
Another few laps later and I was having fun and games on the pave. The bunch was down to 25 or so and the light was fading fast. Next problem. Sunglasses, I just couldn't see after a while! Sunglasses off and I felt disorientated. As you can see a pattern is beginning to emerge here. I just wasn't switched on for the race as silly other things were taking my attention.
10 laps to go and not many left in bunch. Break off 2 had a mere 15 seconds and the catch was imminent. This also meant to pace was electric. 7 laps to go and I was way to far back. Keen to keep as much back for the last few laps I followed wheels. I shouldn't have, as riders were starting to crack. Soon gaps opened and on wrong wheels I just didn't react in time. At that speed and with that quality of field this was fatal. Myself and a few others were soon distanced and that was it...race over.
5 riders ended up getting off the front in last few laps. With the win going to Pierre Bourlet of VC Lyon, followed by Hennebont rider and Vignes rounding off the podium. Sam did a great racing, only cramping in final metres to finish 19th of the 26 finishers.
My legs although not amazing weren't that bad, which made it even more frustrating, that with better positioning, concentration and being less passive, I would probably have still have been in the bunch and one of those 26 finishers.
So that was it, doesn't happen very often but my race was over, 25 laps of 32 done. I was really pissed off and in no mood to watch the finish. Numbers back and a short drive home at least.
In reflection I was never going to get that great a result, I am not going well enough and it was definitely a sprinters circuit, yet complacency and stupidity made what could have been a good race, a complete waste of time for me.
All I can do now is put it behind me and move onto the next one, tomorrow at Cleugerec.
Gonna make sure I'm switched on for this one. Not making last nights mistakes again!
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