Lizio – 8th May 2011 – 9 x 7km Laps
Lizio is a beautiful little place half an hour away from my home. Perched on top of a hill, it has old stone buildings, a magnificent church and a well-maintained cobblestone road wound through it.
Start: My race started at 10:02; I don’t like early starts. I sat on my bike, shivering in the early morning chill, waiting for the race to begin. Then we were off in a mad dash for the first corner!
The course was quite technical with narrow roads, tight turns and sharp little climbs. To make things worse, early on the roads were damp after the overnight rain and I was a little tentative on the sharper turns. However, the sun soon broke through a blanket of light cloud and the roads dried out enough for me to relax a little after the tricky start.
With three or four tough little uphill climbs, most of which were into a moderate headwind, the Lizio course was a hell of a lot tougher than last week’s event in Penvins.
For the first two laps I found it easy to stay with the main group, which included club-mates, Eric Coué and LoÏc Gouimard. Then there was the inevitable split. It happened on the hill through the village at the start of lap three and it was entirely my own fault. A burst of speed from the pack took me by surprise. I lost the tail for a split-second and the gap formed.
Accident: The gap continued to grow for half a lap but I did catch up with LoÏc and before long a group of about fifteen had formed around me. After a lap of modest work, our speed began to ratchet up. Each time the road opened up we could see the leaders in the distance not too far away and I genuinely thought we had a chance of catching them. By this time we had even caught a couple of the D1/D2 riders including another club-mate, Jean Bernard Leblay. It looked to me like our group was large enough to reel in the leaders if we worked as a team. Then disaster struck!
Four riders, one of them the luckless LoÏc, collided and took each other down in a mêlée of arms, legs and bike parts. We were travelling fast at the time, but there was no real reason for the accident. It was a relatively flat and open part of the course and the road surface was now dry.
How I managed to avoid the fall is beyond me. I jammed on the brakes, darted to the right, luckily there was a large enough gap, and ended up on the grass verge. I managed to stay upright though, and soon found myself in the clear alongside Jean Bernard.
I wondered about the fate of my friend and eventually managed to signal to our motorcycle escort who alerted the medical support, so I knew he and the other fallers were being looked after. I had had a lucky escape and was shaken by the experience; narrowly avoiding crashes in successive races can affect you like that.
By the time the group reformed we had no chance of catching the leaders so we settled down to our work. For me, the race had now become a tough training ride.
Finish: By the time we reached the finish my group had been whittled down to three. Along the way, we had even managed to pass a few riders, which lifted my spirits at the time. I eventually finished 20th out of 31 starters; an adequate result but no more. Eric Coué finished in the main group in a very creditable 13th place. My English friend Bob Jones finished 9th, an indication of how tough the race had been; he normally manages a podium spot, but the presence of an aggressive Tandem team caused him some discomfort.
Wrap-up: I caught up with LoÏc after the race and although he was battered and bruised and not at all a happy bunny, no bones were broken and for that he must be thankful.
Race Stats: Distance: 63 kms; Average Speed: 33.5kph (20.9mph); Race Time: 01:53:00 (approx).
No comments:
Post a Comment