25th March 2012 - Guegon Sportive – 83kms

The ride started at 08:30hrs on a cold, grey morning the day the clocks went forward. Not only had we lost an hour’s sleep, but an hour’s morning daylight; I felt decidedly under prepared. That being said, I managed to stay with the lead group, which contained a number of the good riders from the Saturday training sessions, Andy Shaw amongst them, for the first 20 kms.

OK, I was dropped on the first serious climb but no surprises there, eh?

I found myself in the second group working hard to try and regain the leaders. I was heavily involved in the chase and took regular turns on the front, driving the group forwards, for the next 30 kms or so. I was dropped on another long hill, but, with the aid of a couple of other riders, managed to reattach to the second group just as we arrived at the picturesque town of Josselin.

Now, this turned out to be a real punch in the guts. I had worked like stink to reattach to the group and was hoping to take it easy and recover at the back for a few kms, but it was not to be. Josselin is at the bottom of a valley and there is no way out of the town but up, and as soon as I had regained the group, I was dropped again on another long climb. This time, I didn’t manage to recover and spent the remainder of the ride on my own in ‘No Man’s Land’.

I eventually finished with an average speed of around the 30kpm mark, (5kph slower than the leaders). Not bad, but no cigars. Andy, going well this year already, finished in the first three. My other English mate and veteran, Bob Jones, also finished with the leaders.