Since I last posted I have been in an amazing head space and consistently had good legs, week in and week out, which is one thing I have always struggled with.
After the success of Weekend Bernais I headed down to the Castellon region of Spain for the 4 day Vuelta Castellon. The first stage was run off at a hot pace, never mind it being hilly, it was just full gas to try and get a move away. We finally got a move away with 2 of our team in it, after that I just hung out and looked after myself until the break started to split and I went solo with 30km to go catching the 2nd part of the break then winning the sprint for 7th.
The next day finished with a 20km climb. I backed myself as it wasn't real steep but steep enough to make the time gaps minutes. I got dropped early in the climb by around 40sec but slowly rode myself back across after all the accelerations had settled down. I finished 12th on the stage in the group sprinting for 3rd.
The 3rd day was nuts, starting at 1400m in altitude, the sky was clear and crisp until about 20min before the start, when it got cold, started snowing and we all froze. The race was neutralized 50km and we would race the last 100km. It got warmer as we got to the coast until it started raining and we all froze again. I made one mistake when the successful break went right in front of me with 10km to go and I didn't follow. I could have, easily, but I was expecting it to be brought back for a mass sprint. I stayed with the main group until the finish.
Day 4, probably the hardest day, climb from km zero until 90km and reaching 800m in altitude before dropping down a bit to start the last 30km climb to the finish at 1400m altitude. I had good legs but for whatever reason I couldn't pedal a small gear and got dropped from the chase group with 5km to go, the yellow jersey was already up the road solo showing us why he won 3 out of 4 stages..
So overall I was happy with how it turned out although it was disappointing to drop a few places in the last stage.
The next weekend I think was the Coupe de France or in english, the french cup. It consisted of 180km on day 1, with a 40km team time trial and a 100km road stage on the 2nd day.. We started out on the first road stage and the first thing I noticed was how much closer the racing was compared to the elite national races I had been doing. No one would give you an inch.. We had points marked out where we needed to be in the front as there was a lot of wind and the bunch was sure to split.. I knew 15km ahead was a 90 degree left hand turn, so I went back and got a bottle and ate some food. As I was making my way up the bunch I noticed the lead cars had just turned left and straight away I knew I was in trouble. Sure enough it split and I ended up in the 4th group, we slowly got back to the 2nd group but wouldn't see the leaders again.. I got away with a small group with 20km to go and we were nearly across to a group of 12 who had been dropped from the front bunch but the other guys I was with were running out of legs, so I had to leave them and cross the last 15sec alone. I made it there, went straight past taking 2 guys with me, we didn't catch the front but we were close.
The team time trial wasn't real flash, I was bought to the french cup purely to help the team time trial.. In the french cups, you can only have 2 riders out of 6 over 26 yrs old, but because I'm under 26 and foreign means I take one of the 2 spots reserved for over 26 yr old riders.. I wasn't feeling flash but I ended up riding a lot more in the front than I would have liked! We ended up 8th out of 24 teams and even picked off some of the bigger budget Division 1 teams.
Arriving at the finish of the Team Time Trial
The afternoon stage wasn't much fun either.. 50km of hills then 50km flat to the finish.. I thought once I got through 50km I would be safe.. Wrong. We lost 3 team mates in the first 50km and then the wind was blowing.. I crashed coming into an important section and although we got back on 15km later my legs were toast and 2km into the next cross wind section I was down with 20km to go. I got through to the finish to see about 1/3rd of the field had pulled out. It was a hard race and I was shattered for days after.. The race was run at an average speed of 47km/h for a total of 320km.
The next Sunday was Classic Sauvaterre. The local team had stacked the race with riders. I think they lined up with 15 guys, which made it hard.. They put 3 up the road with a few other guys.. We came to the finish with 20km to go and I went as hard as I could to try and go across. I joined up with 5 (2 from the local team, who off coarse wouldn't help pull) guys and we steadily caught some of the guys who had been dropped from the break, with 5km to go the gap was around 1 min to 3 guys in front, we pulled them back but narrowly missed catching them, I was still really good in the final 500m uphill push to the line. I ran 4th but feel like its the one that got away.
The finish of Classic Sauvaterre.
The following Thursday I headed off to Tour of Gironde, which was a UCI2.2 ranked 3 day race. The first stage went well for me, I was attentive, made the break and once we were pulled back I stayed near the front to contest the sprint but after some argy bargy and very close calls I backed off to just behind the fast men. As it turned out, the bunch split a lot in the last 5km into 4 or 5 groups.
The next day was hard, 13 categorized climbs along with a hand full of others. I was rubbish, I felt good before the start but as soon as I had to ride hard I had nothing, I didn't get any worse though. Just stayed the same all day, we hit the finish climb with 3km to and I reckon I could have just got over it but there was a crash myself and a couple of team mates were caught behind which we never came back from so I lost a little time there.
The final day was the total opposite to the 2nd.. I was woken at 6am for doping control and felt like rubbish, I didn't even want to start but once we got going, I was on and had amazing legs. The stage was flat with a couple of climbs. I tried to go in a couple of breaks and some would go for 5 or 6km then come back and in the end we set up our fast man for the finish. I ended up in the bunch but happy to have the tour done.
So there you are. All updated, I don't think i've missed anything out but you never know ;)
I had a weekend off following Gironde as all the regional champs were run. I go to Pons this weekend for another 2 day, 3 stage tour including another team time trial. The team are using this race to prepare for the french champs next weekend which means another weekend off for me but I have a few mid week criteriums lined up.
Mum and Dad get here in just over 3 weeks. Dad will be ready to ride his stage of the Tour de France between Pau and Lourdes, the only thing standing between him and Lourdes is the Col d´Aubisque. He will love every minute of it I'm sure! So it will be wicked to have them around for a week before the head onto some other exotic places.
I will give you another update as soon as I can along with some pictures in the next few days. I am now looking forward to this weekend and trying to get another result in the books.
I hope you are all well.
Ryan
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