My Tour de France

[ft_critical]

Ribble has transformed from shi**er winter hack to Cat1 crit velo

Amazing what giving it a wash can do

Good luck tomorrow, look forward to the race report.

[toolonglegs]

Ha ha I took it to the jet wash this morning and it came up all sparkly!.
Anyway race report, I turned up to where I thought the race was... Only to realise that they changed the course from two years ago when I was last there. It used to be flat but now it has a wall!. Haha for me!.
Anyway the season opener at Venniseux was not too hard in the end.
35 lined up in first category... I would have been more worried but there was a lot of wind which I hoped would make everything easier.
Anyway 72 km on a 2 km loop... Only 36 times up the hill... End up with 800 meters climbing.
Break of eight got away in the middle of the race and team tactics allowed them to stay away for the rest of the race with a 45 second to 1 minute to gap.
So basically I sat in and tried to survive for the race... I did poke my head out a couple of times at the front but not for too long as the wind was too strong in many directions.
So I sprinted from ninth place and would've had it as well if some of the riders from the race before weren't blocking the circuit.
Anyway 11th place or so will have to do... Just happy to be back riding and not finding it too difficult!.
Average was pretty slow, about 38 km/h with the wind. So back to training to next weekend.

[mikesbytes]

36 times up the hill

LOL

[foo on patrol]

A good start for you there mate!

Foo

[toolonglegs]

Not too bad a start ... Next weekend is a hard race with a bigger field and longer climbs. If I can stay in the peloton I won't be asking for a regrade .

[ft_critical]

...I won't be asking for a regrade .

I don't know, some might say that the Burgler of Bourg-en-Bresse, is a catchy nickname, non?

[toolonglegs]

If I drop down I would be working for the other in my club... It would be very much frowned upon to drop down and then contest a sprint ( which I think I could win ).

[snedden9485]

TLL, il be in France in July for 3.5 weeks! 10 night Alpe De Huez, 7 nights provence, 7 night pyrnees! Cant wait....

[toolonglegs]

Are the 7 nights in Provence to keep the missus happy .
Good stuff!... If I have some time off while you are in alpe d'huez region we can maybe meet for a ride.
I was in Grenoble on Tuesday and if I hadn't been coughing all the previous evening I would have chucked the
bike in the boot and hit the Alpe.
The chap I was riding with yesterday up my local 15 km climb said there were guys starting to hit alpe d'huez again after the big freeze .
And now with strava you will really know where you stand in the world ( and so will everyone else!!!)
Yesterday was the first really warm day... Still a fair bit of snow up top at 1000 m but not cold in much reduced clothing... I think spring maybe here!.
My legs are feeling it though but not too bad considering how hard I pushed it yesterday .
You are going to love it!.

[snedden9485]

No mrs coming mate. I'm going over with a bunch of guys from central coast cycling. Should be really good. We should definately catch up for a spin and coffee. I believe we will be doing about 100km a day with a climb or too. I will come home with little speed, but I should be strong!

[toolonglegs]

Sounds fantastic... You going to catch some of the tour?.
I am hoping to be guiding again so will be around.

[snedden9485]

Yeah I believe we are catching at least a few stages. Can't wait

[toolonglegs]

You don't see these often in France...

Totally flat prolouges ... looks like a techie start then full gas .Motivated for these 5 k's or what!.
The other 3 stages don't quite look the same ... but also not as bad as they could of been!.

[toolonglegs]

Cat 2 ... should be happy, apparently they debated it a fair bit!...they being reps from all the clubs in the area. Come on I had a year off FFS!.
So... I am not aloud many objectives any more... I can win / place in stages of stage races but not in the GC. Championships. TT's.
So all in all I have 2 objectives... prologue's in two stage races I am doing before July and Championships departmental (because it is pretty flat!).
Sucks!.

[mikesbytes]

that's good mate

How do you think you will go in the prolog?

[philip]

So... I am not aloud many objectives any more... I can win / place in stages of stage races but not in the GC. Championships. TT's.

Should've stayed cat 1! How will you get yourself back into cat 1 if you can't win stuff? Can you just put yourself back up when you want or do you still need to accumulate points?

[toolonglegs]

Mike... I am aiming to win the prologue outright ( cat 1 & 2 ! )... That's the aim anyway ... 5 km's dead flat and technical suits me!.
Philip... I have two options... Stay in cat 2 for the season and work for others. Staying in cat 2 will for the moment allow me to train much harder as it won't take so long to recover and I won't need to rest so much before races. But yes it will be hard to stay motivated.
The other option is stay in cat 2 till I get my weight back down and find the races too easy and then just put myself back up... Nothing stopping me riding a higher grade.
Time will tell .

[toolonglegs]

Been a while since I put anything here!... from yesterdays race.



On the attack...

[mikesbytes]

Breakaway

[toolonglegs]

Dropping kilos mate... big ring all the way (mid cassette too ) ... bodes well for next week!.

[mikesbytes]

Your looking leaner

[toolonglegs]

2012 Route de Saone et Loire

Pig of a prologue!

Chateau's

and vineyards everywhere

Popping out the back on stage 3 ... 45.7kmph av for the stage

[foo on patrol]

That's a nasty little pinch in the first pic and you should be still, sitting down.

You have some seriously nice scenery to ride in over there and some tempting places to stop for a drink. (recovery of course)

Foo

[mikesbytes]

Awesome place to race mate

[toolonglegs]

Yeah in hindsight I stuffed up that prologue climbing... Didn't want to change in to little ring at bottom for fear of dropping a chain... But half way up my cadence was way too low... Comparing strava times to the only other guy who logged it ( only 2 strava users from 300 riders! )... I lost 11 secs in 200m in that climb, actually i was equal with for the first 75m so i lost 11 secs in 125m ...ok he was on the Belgium team and finished in the top 5 over all but still sucks how much I stuffed it up!