Guilliers - Pass Cyclisme - 24th April 2011

Guilliers – 24^th April 2011 - 17x 3.6km Laps

Due to road works in the heart of our village the route had to be changed from last year. The course still passed by my house, but this time going downhill; a distinct preference of mine. The laps are shorter too, but there are more of them of course; seventeen this year as opposed to eight last time around.

Photo (Left to Right): Old Fart; club professional, Christphe Laborie; LoÏc Guimard, club-mate and main race sponsor, Yves Oger; (photo courtesy of Eric Coue). 


Pre-race: The only other Taupont Cyclisme rider to enter the Pass Cyclisme race was my friend and occasional training partner, LoÏc Guimard. Guilliers was LoÏc’s first race of the season.

LoÏc is a much younger and stronger rider than me, but he has a young family and a real job so cannot spare as much time to train as I can. Nonetheless, as we lined up together at the start I did not expect to see him again until the end of the race.

It was sunny and warm but a stiff headwind on the uphill leg of each lap significantly reduced our average speed and made the race tougher than it could have been.

Sstart: As only nine D3 and D4 riders had pre-booked their entry, the organisers eschewed the two race format and we all set off together at 14:15 sharp; and Ye Gods, the start was fast!

The D1s and D2s went off like frightened hares and I soon found myself hurting just to stay at the tail of the group.

The first 1.5 kms took in a short flat followed by a fast downhill. We passed my house and reached  a speed of over 50 kph before turning left into a quick ‘S’ shaped chicane. Truth be told it, was quite a technical turn and a bit scary that speed when you’re in a group and you are a bit of a novice. The course continued onto the undulating fast middle section. At 2.5 kms we turned left into a stiff northerly wind and continued on uphill before turning right for the 500 meter uphill drag to the finish line. ‘Strewth, it was tough!  

The early laps: To my great surprise I managed to stay in a group of six riders for the early laps. One of the riders was LoÏc!

During the first 6 laps I had to work like stink to stay with the group, especially on the uphill drag. However, the psychological lift I gained from being able to stick with LoÏc gave me the confidence I needed to tough it out through to the end of the race.

There was one scary moment at about lap eight.

My group had been whittled down to five, and including a young woman from the Malestroit Cycling Club. We had been working as a team for the previous couple of laps; taking turns at the front, (well, more-or-less). When we arrived at the chicane, going really fast, the woman changed her line and edged me towards the verge. I had to brake sharply to avoid a spill and quickly lost contact with the back of the group. Merde - (as they say in this neck of the woods).

Normally, I’d have struggled at this point, but I was so angry that I dug deep and sprinted to catch up. I think I actually growled aloud at one stage but it did the trick! Within about 500 metres I managed to reattach to the group. It really hurt and my quads were screaming by the time I regrouped, but I was able to recover during the next climb into the finish.

Middle bit: By lap 10 we were caught by the leaders. This was where LoÏc and I separated for the first time. He managed to jump into the middle of the pack on the fast downhill stage and I though de was away. The leaders began to edge away from my group.  I dug in again and, miraculously managed to catch up; the power of the mind eh?

By the time the leaders had dropped us half a lap later, LoÏc and I were back together again. This time though there were only the two of us left in our little posse; we had dropped the others during our short stint with the ‘big boys’.

Finish: The rest of the race is pretty unremarkable really. LoÏc and I worked together, taking turns at the lead until the final section when LoÏc beat me in a desultory sprint to the line. Truth be told I didn’t have the strength to do anything more than crawl over the finish line, exhausted.

Result: Out of 51 starters, LoÏc finished 33^rd overall. I was 34^th and 38 completed the course.

Positives: I didn’t finish last! I managed to stay with a group; I even managed to reattach when dropped almost like a real cyclist! I call that a success (at least in my pitiful terms).

Wrap-up: All I can say is, “Merci LoÏc! Without you to hang on to I would have really struggled.”

Race Stats:

Total distance: 72 kms 
Time: 02:15 (approx.)
Average speed: 32kph (20mph)

Next race: Penvins en Sarzeau – 1^st May. 

Post Script: A word of thanks to my good friends - the families Cushway and Shaw. They turned up after watching Charlie and Max Cushway race at St Maugan to cheer us on.

I would also like to congratulate Charlie on his 1^st place and Max on his 3^rd place. Both lads are excellent prospects for the future of our wonderful sport. 

Bignan - 17th April 2011

Bignan – 17^th April 2011 - 9x 7km Laps

Bignan is a small town about 30 minutes south of us. The race start line is half-way up a ruddy steep hill but the rest of the course is fairly flat with four sharp right-had turns. The road surface is pretty good but there is a short stretch at about 5 kms that is a little lumpy and badly patched.

(Picture courtesy of Eric Coué, Club Taupont Cyclisme)

Power to the people: There was a slight kerfuffle at the start; and a good indication of the "French Way". The organisers originally intended to start us all off together but an angry French voice at the rear of the awaiting pack (it wasn’t me, I swear), shouted out that the race had been advertised as a dual start. It was supposed to be the same setup as the Brandivy race (see earlier blog).  The race announcer gave the archetypical Gallic shoulder-shrug and said (something like), “If you want two races, that’s no problem!” 

I love the French; pragmatists to a man.

The reformatted race started bang on 14:30 with the D1/2 group away first. I went off a couple of minutes later with the rest of the D3/4s; including the powerful Englishman Bob Jones who had finished third at Brandivy.

The early laps: After the big climb at the start there was a wonderful non-technical downhill stretch through the town where we reached speeds in excess of 60 kph. The middle third of the course was gently undulating, a little uneven, and into a moderate headwind. At about 6 kms the route turned back towards Bignan and a sharp right turn pointed us to the foot of the horrible climb up to the finish.

I stayed with the group and managed to keep to the front of the pack when we reached the foot of the big climb as per the grand plan. Interestingly, the pack took it easy on the climb and I found no difficulty keeping with the group.

I managed to stay with them, but I was finding it a bit of a struggle at about the half way point after we turned sharply right and hit a long uphill stretch into the wind. It was at this place on lap three that the elastic snapped and I just lost contact. I tried damned hard and I dug deep but I could not stay in touch. I could feel the presence of some riders behind me and waited for them to overtake so I could use them to help pull me back to the fast-disappearing group. 

The trouble was they did not pass! They just hung on to my back wheel and let me do all the work until we were well and truly dropped. It turned out that there were just two of them sucking my wheel. 

Before the next monster climb one guy, whose name I later learned was Eric, pulled alongside and suggested we took it easy up the hill and then work together for the rest of the race. I quickly agreed to this. To be absolutely honest I was happy to have some company for the next 6 laps, as you know, I'm normally alone by this stage. 

Dropped: The three of us worked together as a team. Each taking short turns on front until we reached the bottom of the hill again. Even though we took it steady on the climb, Eric and I soon dropped the other guy. By the time we had crested the hill the other fellow was gone. Imagine that, I’d actually broken someone during a hill climb! Will wonders never cease?

Lapped: Eric and I continued to work together until lap 6 when we were overtaken by the leaders of the D1/2 race. We were then swallowed up by the main group of that race shortly afterwards and I found it quite easy to stay with them until the penultimate lap. They dropped Eric and me at the same stage as I’d been dropped by my race group. Damnit!

The next time we passed the line the race-timer rang a bell; we had started the final lap. I was on the final lap, and what's more, I had company!

Eric and I finished the lap working together. Towards the end Eric said he wouldn’t work on the finish climb; he'd give me the honour as thanks for my having done so much of the work. I accepted the offer, but still drove hard for the line,  in case he tried to beat me in – he didn’t.

Finished: I felt great; I had managed to stay away from my group and I had not finished last! 

Then the other shoe dropped.

A group came in at the gallop and finished with a big sprint to the line. Realisation dawned. It turned out that Eric was a category D2. He had caught me up after starting with the first race. I still had another lap to do! B*gger it!

Off again: I completed the second ‘final’ lap and won a sympathetic round of applause at the finish line. Evidently Eric had told some of his mates about my cock-up and some of the crown seemed to admired my honesty, if not my actual ability!

I really must learn to count my laps while I race. 

Positives: I wasn’t lapped by my group and I take some comfort in that fact. In fact I've just realised Goal 2 has already been reached. I managed to work hard with the help of Eric and the course was tougher than the one at Brandivy. I also met up with Bob Jones after the race and had a beer and a pleasant post-race chat. Bob managed a very impressive third place.

Wrap-up:

This was a longer course than Brandivy, so I had a much better chance of staying away from the pack. Despite everything I think I did quite well considering my perpetual handicap, (me).

Next week it’s my home race at Guilliers. Due to road works in the village, the organisers have had to shorten the route, which means 15 or 16 times up the long hill outside my house as opposed to the 8 times I climbed it last year! Oooo errr!

Race Stats:

Total distance: 65.5 kms (41 miles)

Time: 02:00:05

Average Speed: 32.99 kph (20.5 mph).

Next race: Guilliers 24th April. 

Brandivy - Post Script.....

Post-script to Brandivy: Following an in-depth discussion with my coaching team (Ian and Emma Cushway and Jan), on the Tuesday after the Brandivy race, I have changed my race plans. 

I have decided to enter a load more Pass Cyclisme races this year than originally planned. The aim is to use them as intensive training rides and see where that takes me. I have also reset my goals for the year: 

Goal 1: Stay with and finish with a group – any group.

Goal 2: Avoid being lapped during a race. 

Let's see what happens. 

During our meeting Emma mentioned something about, “The Law of averages....”, but I’ll gloss over that bit.....

First Race of 2011

Brandivy – 10^th April 2011 - 16 x 4.36km Laps

Brandivy is a tiny village about half an hour south-west of us. The course is fast but not too technical.

15:30 hrs - two races:

Pass’Cyclisme is divided into four groups D1 to D4 (D1 being strongest and D4 weakest). At Brandivy Groups D1 & D2 were sent off first to complete 17 laps. Groups D3 & D4 set off with its own race car a couple of minutes later and was slated to complete 16 laps of the same course. Ian and I, being beginners, are in Group D4.

D3 & D4 - the early laps:

A little over twenty of us gathered at the start.

The first kilometre is a fast downhill and we soon gathered speeds in excess of 40 kph. A sharp left-hander took us along a narrow, bumpy, undulating and twisty 2 kms stretch before the final kilometre up a moderately steep hill. After that came a short gentle uphill stretch to the Finish. My wife, Jan and the Cushways cheered us on from half-way up the final hill.

The first lap was at a rather modest pace and I felt pretty good but I know my limitations when it comes to hill climbing so I pushed to the front of the group as we arrived at the foot of the final climb of the lap. I was following the recommendation of my coach/mentor/mechanic/mate, Andy Shaw. He said that I should get to the front of the group before the hills. He argued that if I were overtaken I’d at least have a chance to remain in touch by the time I reached the top.

Well, it worked, at first.

I passed Jan and the Cushways in second position and could hear them cheering us along. Ian was right behind me and I was feeling really strong at that point. By the time we crested the top of the hill and rounded the corner to the Finish line I had dropped a few places but was still in the middle of the group.

The next two laps continued the much the same vein but I did find it slightly harder getting to the front before that final climb. My quads began to burn a little during each uphill section but I was able to relax during the downhill stretches and the flat bits so I could recover a little.

Then, at the end of the third lap something went wrong.

As we turned the sharp left-hander towards the finish line my breath caught in my chest. I can’t say exactly what happened, but it was like bile had risen in my throat. I might have missed a gear change or something but my quads started to burn and I found myself a couple of bike lengths adrift of the group as we passed the Finish line. It happened in a flash, a second of inattention and by the time I reached the downhill part of the course the group had pulled inexorably away from me.

Anybody who’s not been in a bike race cannot comprehend how hard it is to reattach to a group once you’ve been dropped. Even a small group of riders can generate 20-30% more speed than a singleton; it’s a physics thing to do with wind resistance, and a psychological thing to do with mood affect. That is why in professional road races the peloton almost always catches the breakaways.

I struggled gamely on, my speed dropping all the time. I was back to riding in my own individual Time-Trial and feeling bloody pissed off with it!

Pre-race plan:

Before the race, I had decided to ride as hard as I could and then call it a day if and when I was lapped. Yeah, I know all of you positive thinkers out there are saying I was setting myself up to fail. However, I am a realist. I know that being pretty much a couch potato between 1997 and 2008 had left me fat and unfit. The sedentary lifestyle had done its damage.

True, I have improved significantly in a year, but I still have a long way to go and I am now pushing 54, an old man by many standards. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to a competitive level, but I am going to bloody well keep trying - at least for a while.

On one bright note, I did manage to pass a couple of riders during the middle laps, one of them was from the D1/D2 race so I suppose I could argue that I wasn’t exactly the worst rider on show that day. The other victim was a young woman from my race. According to Jan, loads of riders had packed in before the finish; I could try to take comfort from that.

Lapped:

The D1/D2 racers caught me at the end of the 9^th lap. I knew it would happen, but it was still a punch in the gut. The irony was that I managed to latch on to the group and didn’t have to work too hard to stay with them for a lap and a half until I was dropped again on the same damned hill. By that time though, my heart really wasn’t in it anymore; working alone certainly takes it out of your legs - and you mindset.

Half a lap later I was overtaken by our race car. Seconds later, two cyclists, the race leaders, sped past me. One of them was the 60 year-old Englishman, Bob Jones, who eventually came second. But then again, Bob’s a former elite-level cyclist and has kept cycling more-or-less continuously – rather underlines my earlier point about the benefits of maintaining exercise levels throughout life.

I waited for the inevitable and, sure enough, a few hundred yards later the pack reached and then overtook me. Again, I slid onto the wheel of the last man. Ian, still with the group, dropped back to say hello. I think I just nodded or grunted at him, I can’t really remember.

I actually found it quite easily to stay with them; the drafting effects of riding in a group were really obvious. But as we passed the place where our families watched, I pulled to a stop.

I stood there straddling the bike totally spent. My head rested on the back of my hands and my forearms rested on the handlebars. When I eventually looked up, the expression on Jan’s face hit me like a second blow to the guts; a cross between disappointment and resignation.

She fired questions me: “If you’d stayed with them you’d only have been one lap behind so why did you stop? The Guilliers race is only a fortnight away, what are you going do then? What’s the point of all that training and the money wasted on the new bike.......?”

She didn’t really ask the last question, but I think you get the message.

Ian’s wife, Emma, Bless her, was much more supportive and actually told Jan off! “He can treat this race like a good training ride,” she said, “he’ll be better prepared next time,” she added.

Jan’s response was much more realistic and cutting, “Two weeks more training won’t make that much of a difference.”

Needless to say, my mood at this stage was not exactly positive. I don’t know how long I stopped for, but a few seconds, maybe a couple of minutes passed before a brace of cyclist went by, struggling up the hill behind me. I looked around to discover that they were the ones I had overtaken a few laps earlier.

I got really angry with myself then, bloody mad. I’d passed those two earlier on and they hadn’t given up. In a flash of stupidity and bravado, I clipped my feet back into the pedals and I ground off up the hill again.

Battling back:

Now, if this was a Hollywood movie I would have summoned the ‘Energy of the Gods’ and heroic music would have thundered around me. I would have flown past the two back markers, caught up my race group, sprinted by them and made up the whole lap I’d lost to win a fast sprint and cross the winning line in a blaze of glory (probably filmed in slow-motion).

Of course, this is real life and it didn’t happen that way.

I eventually managed to pass the two back markers and I did complete the race, but that’s about the sum of it really. No heroics, just a limp-flagged finish after everyone else had pretty much packed up and gone home.

Positives (and there are some):

My new bike performed really well - if not the rider. I actually managed to overtake some fellow competitors. I managed to stay with the pack for three laps and I am at least 10% faster than last year – a modest improvement but a move in the right direction.

Wrap-up:

Despite the improvement, I still need to progress by at least as much again! Is that possible? I don’t know really, but I am going to keep on training and working as hard as I can. We’ll see what happens.

Race Stats:

Total race distance 68.8 kms (43 miles)

Race Time: 02:10:00

Average Speed: 31.9 kph (19.9 mph).

Next race: Bignan 17^th April – Gulp, that’s next Sunday!

Epilogue:

Jan and I arrived in Brandivy at midday to cheer on Ian Cushway’s lads: Charlie (9) and Max (6). They were competing in their separate Ecoles du Velo - children’s training races.

Charlie finished a very creditable fourth, despite being baulked at the start and dropping back thirty meters or so (much to his mother’s chagrin – she can be a real vixen when it comes to protecting her family). Charlie has real potential and could do well in the future if he continues this season’s progress.

Max finished sixth, again hugely impressive. Max has been going really well this year but he is so young it is too early to tell just how good he could be. We’ll see.

The Cushway lads are really very good prospects – a triumph of genetics I’d say.