Race Reports 03

It was set to be a very tough race, with all the top Under 23 riders from all over France competing. We had a look at the finishing circuit the day before and it had a very tough finish, not one that really suited me. There was a short, very steep little climb with 500m to go. I knew if I wanted a good result I had to get away before this. I was feeling good the day before, especially considering I had spent all day in the car.

The race started in sunshine, and it was getting hot so that was going to be another factor. I had to make sure I drank enough during the race. There was 29 teams of 6 competing to get a total of 174 riders. It was a very fast start as normal and within seconds we were flying through the streets of the start town at over 30mph. It was going to be a hard today. Over 100 miles of racing. My focus in the early part of the race was to stay near the front but not do much work and save myself for later. We covered over 30 miles in the first hour, which was fairly flat, but it was not like that for long. We hit a series of steep climbs. I managed to stay with the front group each time, which was down to only maybe 25. Unfortunately, no one really rode hard after the climbs and most of it regrouped.

A small group of 9 got away, they gained a gap but never got over a minute. Shortly after another group of 9 clipped off the front, I should have gone with this group but I was trapped in. After a lot of high speed chasing, the two groups merged. I was in the main bunch chasing hard and going with the attacks and the gap was yo-yoing. With about 30kms to go, I started to get a feeling I didn't want, I was starting to cramp. This worried me as I knew I wouldn't be able to go over the climb so strongly. The gap was holding at about 30secs and I wanted attack but the pace was relentless so it would have been a waste of energy. I had to wait for a slowing in the chase but it never happened. We hit the finishing circuit with 14kms to go, and over the first climb of 3 on the circuit, my legs went to jelly. On each of the 3 climbs, I was dropped but forced my way back on, I even dropped back as far of 5th car in the convoy but still got back. I went straight to the front and made my last do-or-die effort. With the break, now down to 13, in sight I attacked with 3kms to go. It was a die effort, no one would let me go anywhere. I went back to the pack and as we hit the last steep climb with 500m to go, I knew what would happen and it did. At the steepest point on the climb, about 20%, I cramped big time. That was it I had to sit up and ride in. I finished about 40th, which is not a great result, but it is positive in other ways for me. I had been ill only 3 weeks before and had done very little racing or speed training. It is the best I have raced for well over 2 months, so hopefully it is all up from here. In the end the race average 46km/h for 162km. Very fast indeed, in fact the same speed as the World Championships last year and this race had more hills!!!

I had been told how hard this race was and after my efforts of the day before, I was not sure how well I would go. The race was based on a very tough 9km circuit, which climbed for 3kms, descended for 3kms, and had 3kms along the bottom into a headwind back to the climb. I sat back in the early part of the event as I knew it would be a long hard race. Two of my team-mates got in the early break so I didn't need to chase. For the first 6 laps of the race I did not feel very strong on the climb, I just tried to hold my place. The break was holding steady at about 1 minute. As we got further into the race I started to feel stronger and stronger on the climb and the bunch was slowly decreasing in size. With 3 laps to go, I got away in the counter-attack of 6-7 riders. The break up front had split in half and by 2 to go we had caught the second half leaving only 5 riders out in front at 1 minute. The penultimate time up the climb there was a number of attacks, one guy managed to jump across to the break, but our group kept working steady. With 1 lap to go we caught the remaining break leaving one rider out in front with a 30 second lead.

As we hit the climb for the last time, I left it in the big ring and attacked. I wanted to soften up the group, seeing who was strong. As the group got back to me, I attacked again. This time only half of the group got back to me, another rider attacked and got away. I did not react to him, preferring to play my own game. I attacked for a 3rd time, this time only 3 riders managed to get back to me. As they caught me, one of the guys attacked and I jumped straight on his wheel, leaving the others behind. As we reached the top of the climb I could see he was weakening, so as we turned the corner for the decent I attacked him and set off in my 52X12 in pursuit of the two leaders who had about 20 seconds leader on me. I was closing fast and as we reached the bottom I latched onto the back of them. One of the guys had seen me coming and attacked straight away. I jumped straight on his wheel and as soon as he pulled over to try to get me to work I attacked for the final time. Neither of the pair could react and I was away for the final 3kms to ride home for a brilliant solo victory. 2nd win in 2 days, to cap a great weekend for me.

Villemur is a 450 metre track only 5 miles away from where I live so I rode down for my warm-up. First event was the Elimination Race, which is a bunch race where the last rider over the line each time is eliminated. This was mainly a warm-up event for the main Points Race of the afternoon. Ben and myself set a high pace early on so we kept it strung out eliminating people each lap. As we got down to the last few riders, I was left with two riders from the same team, doing a 1-2 attack on me. I lost out and finished 3rd.

The main event of the meeting was the 40-Lap Points Race. This was my race. As the whistle blew, I was the first to attack to set a hot pace for everyone to follow. Just as the group was back together, their was an attack for the first sprint, I sat back as my team-mate, Ben Hallam was in the attack and got 2nd in the sprint. Come the second sprint, I was away in a small group and took 2nd in that sprint. As the race developed a group of 5, including Ben got away. I had to sit back as I couldn't chase my team-mate just yet. I let the group get a good gap then attack myself, one guy got away with me but before long I attacked him and I was on my own in pursuit of the group. Just before half distance, the group of 5 gained their lap on the bunch. I was still 150 metres off gaining my lap, but technically I was in front on the track as I was ahead of the bunch. This meant while I was chasing to catch the group of 5, I was picking up points by winning the sprints. To win the race I still had to catch the bunch which included the group of 5 (to be on level laps with the group and one lap ahead of the bunch). This was a hard struggle as the bunch picked up the pace. I was battling away on my own, only managing in latch onto the break with 4 laps to go. I was now the official leader of the race. Not satisfied with this, I went straight through to the front and won the final sprint easy (as can be seen in photo below), to gain my first win of the season. A big surprise after a very heavy week of training.

After picking up a cold mid-week I was not sure whether I would be racing or not at this race. But Sunday came and I decided that I was fit enough to ride. The race was 20 laps of 5km flat, open circuit. It was a fast start but I decide to sit back and settle in for the first few laps to let my chest warm-up. There was a sprinter's prize through the race consisting of 4 sprints, one every 4 laps. As we approach the first one with 16 laps to go, I decided to have a go and lead out a long sprint for the line. One rider managed to just get me at the line, so when it came round to the second one with 12 to go I got Ben to lead me out. This time I won the sprint comfortably. This put me into the lead of the competition. The bunch was still together as we approached the 3rd sprint with 8 to go, but half a lap before a group jumped away. Ben and myself were together so we reacted by jumped across to the group. I comfortably took the 3rd sprint. The break of 8, contenting Ben & myself, had a good gap of 20 seconds, so we set about working. The group was working well, maintaining the gap as we passed through the 4th and final sprint with 4 to go. I won this final sprint to consolidate my victory as best sprinter. With 2 to go, the bunch started to closed in fast on us so I decided to was time to make my move and attacked. I got a gap on my own, but as I came through the line with 1 lap to go, after 5kms break on my own, a hard chasing bunch pulled me back. I made my effort but the bunch was just too strong. With only 5kms to go it was lining up to be a big bunch sprint. This is an area where Ben is strong, so I committed myself to lead him out, as the bunch massed with 300m to go, I went to make my final kick, to lead Ben into the sprint, unfortunately everyone else had the same idea. There was a big squeeze at the front, behind me, Ben had no room to move. Touching wheels, he hit the deck hard, followed by a number of riders behind, many flying over the top of his head. 30/35 riders came down in total. I stayed upright but after my solo efforts earlier I had nothing for the sprint and rounded in about 20th. I was pleased that I had won the sprinters prize because after my illness I was only feeling 60%. Ben was not seriously hurt, sustaining cuts and bruises. He'll live to fight another day.

As my efforts the day before in the Circuit du Bocage, I was not really ready for another race of that speed. I was feeling tired as my training is not yet geared to racing two days in a row. I started the event but never really found my rhythm. I was moving up and down the bunch quite well but never really in the race. After about 50km, my leader called me to the front as we were going to chase down the break but then he decided against it. For that instant I found my rhythm but once I lost my focus again I found myself at the back. This is where I stayed until it split on a long flat section and I decided to call it a day. I stopped after about 60 or 70 kms. I had not expected anything from this race as I had ridden hard the day before and got the result I wanted. My teammates did well though eventually finished 4th and 5th.

This was my first Elite 2 race of the year and it was a 1.12.1 ranked race. 1.12.1 is the highest rating for a French National Amateur race! The race included some of the top Elite team's from around France. I was only told the day before that I was racing, so it came as a bit of a shock. The start was like most elite event, flat out from the gun. I intended just to sit in and get warmed up and into the rhythm of the race although it was extremely fast start, we covered 50kms in the first hour (32 miles) and the second hour was only slightly slower. After about 60kms, a break of about 18 riders got a gap. A number of riders tried to jump across, so I decided I'd have a go. I attacked flat out and got a gap on my own. I went flat out and got within 10 metres off the back of the group but as we hit a small rise, I exploded and went back to the peloton. I sat back for a while as I needed to recover a little. The break had about 1 minute, but split after about 100kms to leave 7 left up front. I was just sitting in the bunch waited for the finish. With about 40kms to go my team leader asked us to start working, so I got straight to the front and started riding hard until none of my team-mates were able to work with me, I carried on for a bit longer until my leader told me to stop. Then with 20kms to go (2 laps) on the climb through the finish, we forced a split and 20 of us made the counter-attack. We rode hard but the break still had 1min. Then on the last lap with about 6kms to go, after a number of attacks from a few riders including myself, we split the counter-attack. 7 of us got away, then in the final kilometres I tried attacking a number of times as the uphill sprint did not suit me. We had the break within sight in the last km but we were not quite going to catch them. I tried one final time to get away, but everyone jumped on my wheel, so I was first into the last corner and led out the sprint for 8th place. The sprint was uphill, and I had gonoe to early so my legs gave up. My group managed to sprint past me but I still finished 15th place. A fantastic result for me so early in the season, and I was also 2nd Under 23 rider. I was so strong all day and I feel that, although this was not a win, this was my best performance in France so far, as it was a top-rated elite event with a number of top French riders and ex-professional in the field. In the end the average speed for the 100 miles was over 28mph! A bit fast.

Ben and myself rode this event as it was a good event to practice our technique and get the track legs back after the troubles we had in November in South Africa.

But when it came to the Madison, I felt fine, my head was in the right direction and I felt very strong. The problem was that we were a little nervous early on in the race and did not hold our position very well but when I attacked I had no problem getting the gap and pulling away. Unfortunately a team got a lap before Ben and myself had settled in. At about half distance I put in a big attack and we got away. The team that already had a lap came with us. When we got half a lap up, the other team stopped working. Ben and me carried on working alone but we were getting a little tired. We were near to getting a lap when I got the other team to starting working again. Unfortunately while I was rest up the banking I slipped off and crash, so we missed one change and then when I was getting up a man held onto me to long and we missed another change. Ben was knackered and was dropped from the break due to the extra long effort. It all came back together. I kept attacking for the rest of the race but we could not hold the gaps as everyone was always chasing us down. Found out afterwards why the other team stopped working with us. Their team-mates were lying in second. C'est la Vie!

This was my first race of the season with my new club, US Montauban. It was E3/National race over a hilly loop of 102km. Due to starting my training late after a long 2002 season, I was not really ready for racing, but after being asked to ride by my manager, I did a short period of intense training to get into some kind of shape. I was asked to ride it as this was the first in a series of races that make up the Trophy Midi-Pyrenees Espoir, an important Under 23 series in the South of France. After a good warm-up, I got stuck in straight away, going with the first attack. I was feeling surprisingly good and had strong legs. The strength is there but the fitness is not, as every time I attacked I died quite quickly. Although this is no worry as it is early season. I went with a number of attacks, then after 50kms a break got away without any Montauban riders in it. I could see that my team were trying to get a chase organised, so I moved up to the front bringing my Polish team-mate. We rode hard on the front and after about 5kms we pulled the break back. I attacked straight away and got away with 3 other riders, but 2kms up the road we hit a short sharp climbs and my legs went bang. We were caught and went back into the bunch to have a rest and recover until near the end. With about 20kms to go at the top of a hill I put it in a big gear and road off the front of the bunch. There was a break away so I stuck my head-down and rode. I got about halfway across on my own but then the bunch caught me and the break then opened the gap again. After this I knew there was no chance of catching them. So the 16 man break would stay away so with a km to go I decided to have a do or die effort. I got to the front and hit the last corner on the front with 200m to go. Unfortunately, I didn't have the power out of the corner and a few riders got passed me. I finished about 22nd. Overall this was a good debut for the season as my coach and myself were not expecting much after the high intensity/volume of training I have been doing lately.