For my readers outside France - General notes and thoughts

A rare shot of me leading a group on a climb - photo courtesy Eric Coue 

If you fancy coming over here to race I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

Racing here is a real blast! Whether you are a budding professional, a keen amateur or even one of those lunatic Triathletes, you’ll love racing over here. The French have been organising local and regional cycling events forever and have it down to a fine art. Races are always well organised, laid-back, and professional. Town rides take place on closed circuits for security, and Open races (Sportives etc.) are always well marshalled with support vehicles (cars and motorbikes) escorting all of the big groups to make sure other road users are well aware of the oncoming cyclists. This is a real bonus for those of you who face the ‘gauntlet’ of cycling on the crowed UK road system.

So, if you fancy joining us, here is some information that might help:

Those with British cycle race licences:

·         You will be able to enter any Cyclo Sportive or Randonées (less serious ‘fun’ events)

·         Depending on the type of licence you have (you might be a serious Category rider for example) you will be able to enter the Pass’Cyclisme, Category races, Criterions, etc.

Those without licences:

·         You can enter Sportives and Randonées, but you will have to produce an up-to-date medical certificate

·         Be warned though, my son has just paid his GP £25 for a medical certificate so he can enter the Quiberon Olympic Triathlon in September (yes, like his dad he is one of those nut-jobs who enjoy the pain of multi-discipline events), so it isn’t cheap!

Things you need to know:

·         If you want to make a holiday of your trip over here I can put you in touch with gite owners (holiday homes) who’d be happy to help

·         I could also recommend a couple of reasonably priced local hotels and B&Bs if you fancy shorter stays  

·         I know it’s a little late for this year (I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier), but take a look at this site for Sportives in France and fill in you race calendar for the rest of the year: http://www.velo-cyclosport.com/agenda/cyclosportives2011.html (Tip: you’ll need to turn on your Google translation programmes if you don’t read French).

·         Do you need to sharpen up your race performance? I can highly recommend the Flamme Rouge website: http://www.flammerouge.je/content/0_home/home.htm. This is run by my mate Tony Williams who is based in Jersey. On this site you’ll find some very useful training drills to help you up your game. Go on, give it a go and see your race times improve.

Finally, you can drop me a line at: Kerry.donovan@sfr.fr if you have any questions or comments. Better still, add a comment to the bottom of the blog and we can have one of those new-fangled on-line discussion thingies.

Keep cycling, and have fun.

Tra for now, K