Les Boucles du Val d’Oust et de Lanvaux - 21st May 2006

Been a rough few days on the meteorological front in Brittany. Tuesday & Wednesday were alright, got some good training in, Thursday spent five hours getting wet, cold, and blown inside out. Friday was a write-off, there was a semi-nocturne on Friday too (criterium that finishes in the dark) where my teammate came sixth, but he reckons only because the other 62 riders all fell off at least once. Saturday night it really packed in and on waking up this morning I was pretty sure the race would be cancelled. Wasn’t sure until we got there, even when we arrived the town was deserted …

Turned out it was all go. Back in October Brendan and I were laughing at the poor sods doing the Auckland Champs on a horrible spring day. Comments like that always come back to haunt you one day … and today was that day, sitting on the start-line shivering with six layers on.

Still struggling with le Francais, but James tells me the announcer said something like this … “we told the team managers to tell you all to be careful and not risk another huge crash at the start like at Serant two weeks ago, but they have doubtless told you all to be at the front. There are 180 of you and its pouring rain, the road heading out of town is quite dangerous and covered in fertilizer which will give you a nasty rash, so have a nice day!!”

0km … the flag drops and predictably, everybody wants to attack first and get some clear road … this just means nobody can get away and it’s really fast

10km … cold, wet, windy and kinda painful

30km … and I’m thinking I’ll be glad just to get to the finish circuits (after 90km) and stop today, I’m sure there were a lot of people thinking the same

65km … race goes through a very exposed section and there’s some serious gutter action … have spent most of the day going backwards and forwards in the bunch, without glasses it’s not much fun being blind!!

75km … start feeling alright for the first time all day, probably because we get out of the wind and the pace slows a bit, get enthusiastic and start following a few moves, figuring that there’s no point in just riding around on a day like this, might as well have a go … there’s a break well up the road though

85km … notice James for the first time all day and have a yarn, interrupt yarn by following another attack and getting away a bit, spend a few minutes right on the limit … think hitting the finish circuit off the front is probably a good idea as far as the boss is concerned …

88km … figure not such a good idea as we hit the climb back up to the finish circuit and the legs are seriously gone … reverse lights on … hit circuit mid-bunch, anonymous and doubtless making all sorts of horrible facial expressions!!

100km … get off along with a lot of other people on the finish circuit, smashed to bits, the usual 40 finishers.

Really hoping some nice weather shows its face soon, least of all so Mum & Dad don’t spend four days parked in an expensive beach-side hotel room when they pass through next week!! The Bretagne tan is coming along well, that is, when you have a layer of ingrained dirt/shit making your legs brown rather than a suntan …