Plouay (56) – Cyclo Sportive - 26th August 2011 - (117kms)

06:30:  - A great start; I arrived at the pickup point at Taupont on time (unlike last year) – hooray!

It was an ominously dark and overcast morning. The weather forecast was not promising and I was really not looking forward to my second Cyclosportive of the year. Despite all the races I’ve done so far, I felt decidedly underprepared for the event. I nearly pulled out, but I’d already paid the entry fee and I am mean. So, there I was in the back seat of the car together with club-mates Ian, Daniel and Vincent, in the false-dawn light on the way to Plouay.

We arrived in plenty of time for start-time of 08:45, but when we signed in we were told that the start of our race was 08:15! A mad dash back to the car followed to don race kit, no time to check tyre pressures; then a mad sprint back to the start line in time to join on the back of the 300-odd starters. A couple of minutes waiting and we were off.

We were so far back that it took us an age to finally move past the start line. It was a bit like the beginning of the London Marathon, but I guess it was our fault for taking our time to get to the start.

0-80 kms: We hit a long hill almost immediately and Ian pulled away from me and was soon lost from sight. I managed to join with a large group of my peers and we motored through the Brittany countryside at a relatively brisk pace (around 33kph) for the next 80kms. 

We got lucky with the weather apart from the heavy mist that cloaked us for the first hour. Visibility became so bad at one stage that I had to remove my sunglasses; they had become opaque with beads of moisture.

The 61kms riders split off from us at about the 40kms mark and our group carried on without incident. I struggled a little on the climbs, but moved to the front on the descents and stayed at the front on the flats. Hill after hill passed by and I managed to stay with the group (of about 40) will little alarm. I felt stronger, and more confident as the race progressed.

I can’t remember when the 90kms riders split off, but my group was still going strong. We had about 40kms to go and were clipping along at around 32.5kph when we were joined by a slip of a woman who attached herself to us. 

Much to my surprise, it was the Jersey lass (Carole Knight), who I’d crossed the finishing line with in 2010. Wow, she must have had a great winter’s training. I felt that I was flying along and we’d only just caught her at about 75kms. We chatted pleasantly for a couple of kilometres until we came to a fast descent and I dropped her quite quickly before she caught me again on the next climb. She is a tiny woman and can’t have pushed the scales much beyond 50kgs, great for climbing, but not for descents. We carried on like this for a few more kilometres before my minor disaster struck!

80-117kms: We were about half-way up a minor climb and I had my head down concentrating on the wheel in front when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a yellow-jacketed marshal pointing right. So I turned right. It was only during the turn that I noticed the 161kms bifurcation sign - I had turned onto the route of the long course – Damn!

I made an emergency stop and u-turn but by the time I returned to the 117kms route I’d lost my group. I could see them cresting the top of the rise about 100 metres away – my heart sank. Just then I heard the unmistakeable sound of cyclists crashing to the deck. I reflexively looked back in time to see a couple of riders regaining their seats and off I went in an angry, but steady chase for my fast disappearing group.

I was soon joined by the two crashed riders, one of them a woman (Valerie Sapena), and we began working together in a steady, but ultimately hopeless for the group ahead. We soon swept up a group of riders in yellow and hoped they’d help us with the chase but they just sucked our wheels for the next 10kms or so much to my disgust. It was only later that I noticed the guys in yellow were all over sixty; their venerability meant that they were due a bit of respect and a rest at my expense.

I began feeling more and more leg-weary by this stage because, in all honesty, I’d done most of the work during our forlorn chase.

With 10kms to go we’d just about given up the cause when we were caught by a large group of guys who whipped past us at pace. With relief Valerie and I took our turn to grab a free ride. Breathing hard, I managed to say “Rescue” to her. She nodded and smiled at me before digging in as the next climb hit us. I managed to stay attached but was dropped on the next long hill; my legs were cooked after all the work I’d done on the chase.

Gutted, I more or less limped the final 5kms to the finish and could only manage a half-hearted sprint across the line which took me past a few riders, most of whom were probably in the other, shorter races.

I was bitterly disappointed to note that my average speed was actually slower than last year – my first real failure of the year. What do I have to do to improve? No, don’t bother to answer that one, I know.

The group we were chasing finished about 5 minutes ahead and contained Carole from Jersey, who finished as 3^rd female rider – and bloody good for her too.

Race distance – 117 kms		Total number of competitors – 288
Name	Time/Average Speed	Race Position	Percentile	Comments
Ian	3:33:04 32.95 kph (20.6 mph)	142nd	49%	No cramp this year, but like me, he started at the back of the group so lost a couple of minutes on the leaders. Came 59th in is age group (67%)
Me	3:49:12 30.6 kph (19.1 mph)	198st	69%	I finished 34 in my age group out of 49 (69%). Not as good as last year, but then again, I didn’t take the wrong turn last year did I?
Daniel	-	-	-	His name does not appear on the results list, must be a cock-up on the time recording front.
Vincent	-	-	-	He completed the 90kms race on his heavyweight ‘tank’ of a bike – no results are available.

Neant-sur-Ivel (56) - Pass’Cyclisme 21st August 2011 - (D3-4) – (3.7kmsx15laps – 56kms)

Alliteratively speaking the Neant race was hot, hilly and horrible.

In a nutshell, I was dropped early on, and chugged away for about 12 laps all on my lonesome, slowly melting in the 30+degree heat. The whole thing was a blur of grinding hills, and being passed y the D1/2 racers three times and the D3/3 riders once or twice (my memory os playing up on me these days).

My overall average could not break 30kph, which shows just how tough the course was; I’ve been averaging up to 36 kph in races recently.

There were only a couple of other things worth mentioning.

Firstly, Taupont Cyclisme secretary, Eric Coué, was there with his camera to record my hard work, and eventual exhausted crawl over the finish line. I also owe him thanks for replenishing my water-bottle towards the end of the race. Secondly, my mate Bob Jones stayed towards the head of the race, finishing in the top fifteen.

Result: Average speed: 29.1kph. Marks out of ten for my performance: -5.

I seem to be getting worse as the training miles reduce – funny that, eh?  Work commitments have been high lately and I have not been able to get out for long training rides recently. Such is life.

Next race: Plouay Sportive – 117kms. 

Vay (44) - Pass’Cyclisme 15th August 2011 - (D3-4) – (4.1kmsx14laps – 57.4kms)

I drove down to Vay (44) again with mate Bob Jones, in an effort to push myself hard and it worked. The course was flat and fast, the was weather calm and sunny, but not too warm. Perfect for me to shine, but I didn’t!

Start: Narrow roads  and a couple of sharp corners forced a sedate pace early on and the 70-odd riders soon stretched out over a couple of hundred metres. I struggled gamely for 5 laps before somehow losing concentration on a corner and dropping off the pace for no real reason. I’ve done this before and I really can’t explain why it happens; early fatigue perhaps? However, before I knew where I was, I’d lost the back of the pack and was on my own again.

Dropped: I know this is getting a bit repetitive. The last three races have more-or-less followed the same formula, but I’ve promised to tell the truth as I see it warts an’ all, so I can’t tell it any other way.

I worked really hard at my standard time-trial pace and managed to stave off being overtaken until about lap ten. I did catch and pass a few riders along the way. I even managed to convince one of them to latch on and we worked together for a few laps. Doing this we passed more riders. I tried to get these guys to work with us and form our own little pack but they weren’t interested. They all dropped out of the race before the finish.

So much for my plans to launch D5 and D6 categories to Pass’Cyclisme events.  I figured that if I slowly added categories, by the time we got to D15, I might be in with a chance. Ho hum!

Alone again: A lap or two later my companion finally dropped out as we slowly passed the car-park. This came as little surprise to me as by that time I was doing nearly all of the work at the front. To be honest I was getting pretty fed up with giving him tow. 

I was alone again and went on to finish a lap behind the race and very fed up. On a positive note however, my average time was rather good, for me.

As for Bob, he finished in the middle of the main bunch saying that he'd had no intention of risking life and limb trying to work through a tight pack on such narrow roads. To be honest, I wish I’d had that option.

Result: Race Time – 1:37:30, Average Speed – 35.3kph (22.2mph). Marks out of 10: 3.5.

I simply must train harder and get stronger, or next year I’ll be concentrating on Sportives again.

Next race a tough local i at Neant-sur-Yvel (56) next Sunday. 

Sarzeau (56) - Pass’Cyclisme 5th August 2011 - (D1 – 4) – (2.4kmsx25laps)

Sarseau is basically an anti-clockwise circuit, twisty but predominantly flat, it runs through the centre of town. The technical difficulties lie in the plethora of street furniture that we had to negotiate, (roundabouts, bollards, crossings and other treacherous lumpy bits).

Lined up with us at the start of the race was a solitary woman which was a bit of a relief for me; at least I wouldn’t finish last this time, surely.

Start - 20:00hrs: The sixty-odd starters lined up in the centre of town and a neutralised (speed-restricted) half lap took us to around the podium before the race started with a bang. The inevitable crash happened on the first tight turn as two riders fought for the same piece of road and came together on more-or-less the first tight corner. Bravely, I managed to avoid the trouble by falling straight to the back of the pack and being dropped soon after; something of a habit that, eh?

On the plus side, being on my own ensured that I avoided any trouble; I again decided to treat the race as an intensive time-trial and pushed on to the end regardless.

Company again: A guy caught me on the fifth lap and I managed to attach to his wheel; it seems like this is also getting to be a habit.

This fellow, (Christophe, aged 41), and I worked together for the rest of the race and our speed consequently remained fairly high. We were joined a few laps later by another rider, and the before long the three of us were working really well as a team. When one of us needed to recover from a spell in front the others took turns in the lead to make sure the our little group stayed together. 

We were passed by the leaders on about lap nine, but we also overtook some slower riders as the race progressed. I felt quite strong most of the time, but like the others, there were spells when I needed to recover.

Larger group: We gathered a few companions during the second half of the race and at one stage our group swelled to nine. However, the others soon began haemorrhaging off and abandoning the race while we continued doggedly on. Back to our original group of three, we were overtaken by the main pack again on the penultimate lap; but I’m used to that now so I wasn’t so much of a kick in the nuts. 

Lap of dishonour: As we passed the podium for the penultimate time the rest of the riders had either finished or abandoned but my two new mates and I decided to complete our race. We had to call out warnings all the way round our final lap as the spectators and other traffic, assuming the race was over, started filtering back onto the course.  

As we had helped each other during the race, we agreed not to contest the finish and actually crossed the line three abreast. We received either a sympathetic, or ironic, round of applause, depending on the correct translation of an announcement (in French of course), from the podium. The commentator either said, “Well done, good effort lads,” or “Get out of the bloody way, we’re trying to get on with the award ceremony!”  I really must improve my French!

What about that lone female competitor I hear you ask? Well, it turns out that she is a current French national champion who finished well up with the leaders. So much for my male chauvinist piggery!

Result: Again no classification for me as I was lapped a couple of times but I finished at an average speed of 35.1 kph. It was one of my best rides of the season. Marks out of ten: 3. Well, I did get lapped twice!

Good job I didn't take any longer as it was getting dark by the time we finished!

Newsflash (7^th August): I’ve just returned from a Sunday training ride where I cycled over to St Péran (35), to watch my little mate Charlie Cushway and his brother Max, compete in a children’s race.

Charlie won a supremely well-judged uphill sprint finish, beating the current Morbihan Champion into second place, (incidentally it was the first time this year that the French lad had been beaten). This was Charlie’s seventh victory of the season – great work from a very promising young cyclist.

Little Max won silver in another great sprint finish. 

Lieuron (35) - Pass’Cyclisme 31st July 2011 - (D1 – 4) – (2.1kmsx25laps)

Lieuron was tough, very tough and bloody hot! I met my English mate Bob Jones at the race. He had already scouted the route and was not at all optimistic about our chances. The course started off with a stiff climb that seemed to drag on longer as each of the laps ticked by.  After the climb there were two right-hand turns, one of them very tight, which was followed by another longish drag into the wind. Then another sharp right-hander turned into a fast downhill stretch to the podium.

Start 13:30 hrs: About one hundred of us started and the first couple of laps were relatively sedate before the hammer went down and I was dropped rather too quickly. I continued for a couple of laps on my own and considered packing it in (the temperature was already climbing into my ‘Red Zone’), when a chap caught me and I managed to hold his wheel. By this stage the temperature must have been in the 30s; I was already overheating.

I managed to stay with my new mate and take reasonable turns at the front; he was a good climber and I managed to help him out on the flats and descents. He must have been a local because every couple of laps he’d throw away an empty water-bottle (bidon) and collect a full one from a spectator. I had to eke out my single bottle for the whole race; this would tell on me in the end.

Lapped: We were passed on lap 8 by the leaders, but we also managed to overtake a few stragglers who had flown off too fast. After a few more laps we even managed to lap an old-timer. This was the first time I’d lapped anybody since the first race of the season at Brandivy (see the earlier blog). My spirits were lifted further as we overtook more cyclists who were obviously struggling in the heat. At one stage we overtook a group of about ten who had all but stopped; the heat was taking its toll.

Water issues: With three laps to go, I finally ran out of water and was cooked. I continued gamely for one more lap but had to work harder and harder to stick with my companion. By the big climb at the start of the penultimate lap I was buried. I had to stop and beg some water from a spectator. By the time I set off again, one of the chaps I’d overtaken a lap earlier caught me and I had to hang on to his wheel until the finish.

Abandonments: To be completely honest, I was absolutely fried on the final lap. I actually emptied the bottle again by the time I stop. I even had to let my new partner go. He finished about 200 metres ahead of me, but I had the satisfaction of knowing that I was actually a lap ahead of him – small mercies.

At the end I discovered that Bob had abandoned about half way; he’s a big strong man but is obviously seriously affected by extreme heat. It turns out that something like 40 riders abandoned - I was climbing up the leader-board even though almost going backwards. You never know, if the race had lasted another couple of weeks I might have won! Yeah!

Results: I didn’t get a classification (again), but I averaged around 32kph – I said it was tough didn’t I?