Well not much luck today!
...but definately the right choice to change wheels!.
From the beginning...
"Priz de Laiz"... Race number 3 in France.
Laiz is a really small village about 35km from my little chateau.
Arrived in plenty of time on what had probably been the nicest day this year...16-18C...perfect,I don't like it too warm...and 25 is getting too warm for me.
Rolled up...only two from my club signing on...the club I joined has been decimated this year with politics...which is a real shame because it was the third strongest club in the region.I knew one guy would not hack the pace...but the young guy might hold in there.At least one thing in France is cheap...4 Euro's for a race is great!.
Anyway we rolled out for a warm up lap...
I was a bit shocked...goat track!...4 nasty pinch climbs and very narrow roads...this will be fun.Anyway I finished the 7km lap thinking this could be a good race for attacking...so either do it yourself or beware.Anyway finished my doping...coffee and asthma meds
and rolled off for a bit more warm up.Turned around to go to the start and realised I had left it a bit late...there were people everywhere...the race numbers started at 1 and I saw numbers in the high 70's!.
So off we go,the start finish is half way up one of the pinches....and we go a bloc tout suite!...heart rate goes thru the roof within seconds and we are strung out like...well you can imagine.Now I am really talking rough roads here....1 lane,rough edged roads which are mainly seeing use by tractors...thank goodness I took of my cracked DuraAce wheel and swapped it out for my rock solid trainer!...We hit the 2nd pinch and bunch up for a moment,someone is off the front but not too far away...from then on it is two abreast flat out....No chance of moving up whats so ever,I know I am in the last 4 or 5 riders and I KNOW at this pace the cracks will appear,I also know there are some really nasty gravel covered corners and the rubber band will be nasty.But luckily the surging slows down after about 3 or 4 km...I manage to move up 3 or 4 spots before we hit the nasty stuff,my cornering is pretty good but some of those around me don't understand "hold your line' shouted in Anglais very well
....anyway after 4km we hit a nasty right hander then straight into a pinch up to a little village on a more (cough) main road...hey at least it has two lanes.I manage to sneak up a couple more spots but there are still at least 50 riders ahead of me...taking up both lanes...when bang...round a corner we come head on with a tractor....the smell of burning brake pads and rubber is strong!...but we manage to sneak thru unscathed,actually this happens a lot during the race,the car drivers must get a shock to see 80 riders hitting 60kmph taking up the whole road heading straight towards them...but most of them don't seem to mind and pull off to the side...we do have a lead car warning them after all!.Coming to the end of the first lap I get a rough idea how knarly the finish will be....hard into a right hander coming of a wind assisted straight at 60kmph....dirt and gravel everywhere..then 400 metres of rough road into another even tighter right hander then a 300m uphill sprint to the finish...I think to myself if I can hit that final corner in 2nd or 3rd I can have this...all the while not knowing how I am going to move up to 50th let alone 3rd!!!.Anyway halfway thru the 2nd lap my young club mate comes up beside me....and I have a look behind...sh*t...I am last wheel for f's sake...in that first lap we shelled 20 riders...and that's how it goes for the next 40kms or so,I keep moving up,but I still manage to stay in the last 3 or 4 riders....talk about making it hard for oneself!...well the pace stays at about 38-40kmph....but finally a break pulled out and somehow I manage to get round 20 or so riders riding in the wind and I go off in pursuit...about 4 of us get it going but we blow ourselves to bits on the finish pinch and suddenly I am 20 back again....I look at my speedo trying to work out how many more laps but can't get my brain to function....but then the next lap we get the bell...geez..this is going to be a FUN 7km...by now we are down to about 30-35...this is div 3 for g's sake!...but it is feeling like an open B grade to me.Anyway I manage to hold on...but my head is just not in race mode today...my 99kilos is making it very hard today on the mini Tour of Flanders,the pinches are killing me...but I give it everything to stay in with a chance...everybody knows how things can look up at the last moment!!!!
....about 3 k's to go I am sitting in the wind trying to move up but no gaps are opening and I am suffering....push myself into a gap and breath deep for a few hundered meters,then you hear that horrible sound that I never get used to...luckily it was a little way behind me and I don't risk a look back to view the carnage...the 2nd to last corner is coming up but I am just too far back...by my reckoning I am 11-12th wheel....but you need to be in the first 4 or 5 to be in with a chance so I keep the pace up but forget about the glory for today....a couple around me hammer into the last corner but I am not risking it all for 8th or 9th so I sit up and roll in...12th or 13th...seems that only about 15 of us finish but then another bunch of 5 roll in..they must of avoided the crash and my club mate is with them...phew.
So all in all a really good work out...also a good race but not great,not sure where I went wrong this week but the fire just wasn't burning...looking at the HRM I spent 23minutes above 175bpm but my av heart rate was only 153 and my max was only 182.Last Sunday I was on fire but not understanding French blew that for me!...so back to the old drawing board
....I think some more 20's are needed in training and less head cleaners in the mountains...C'est la vie
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