Thursday we traveled to
Gap, a beautiful town positioned at the base of the snow covered peaks
of the southern French Alps. As you would imagine the terrain was not
something you would see to much of in Australia, a lot of mountains and
no flat.
As we had never
ventured into this part of the country most of the teams were strange to
us. We didn't know the outlay of the course at all apart from there were
3 major climbs somewhere in between the start and the finish of the
110km stage. The race begun in soaring heat so with our teams jersey's
that have a whole of 5cm of zipper, it was fairly uncomfortable. There
were attacks straight away which has become so predictable in French
racing and the local team had 20 riders in the field which made them
super aggressive. As our team mate failed to appear at the start of the
race and the rest of the team had there regional TTT champs so our team
was down to two riders in Shaun and myself. We begun the race following
wheels, trying our best to get in the right move. We were successful in
getting away in a small group together but it was short lived due to the
pace of the peleton.
Approaching the first
climb, which was oblivious to us I escaped with a solid group of 15
riders and only 4 of us were working. Soon it became obvious why and we
started the first real ascent of the day. It wasn't anything too
difficult but really hurt me bad.
I suffered over the top
and realising my bad form decided against my usual aggressive manner and
was content with sitting in the peleton. A group of 4 riders fled
clear of the peleton as we approached the second climb 50km into the
race. On the ascent my legs had found a bit of the good form I had been
experiencing over the past few weeks and I was able to keep a good
rhythm and stay with the bunch comfortably.
Shaun attacked taking
with him one other and begun to bridge to the front group. Shortly after
the pace in the peleton increased and it was all brought back together
to make the front of the race 50 riders strong.
Now as the hills and
mountains settled into undulations, rampid attacks came out of the pack.
A promising group of riders shot clear and then another group, and
another. Soon the front bunch had 20 riders and was 2 minutes up the
road. I was hoping it would come down to a bunch kick but as reality
struck and the group was increasing its lead I decided to try and bridge
the gap. As a cloud covered the race and rain begun to fall I hit out
taking another rider with me and on the way across picked up a couple of
others who also failed to make the front of the race. The two of us
worked extremely hard to make contact with the group asap as there was
still one climb to go. It took 15km but we finally made it across
completing a group of 25 in the front of the race.
As the kilometres
counted down the attacks came again. No one was able to escape the group
and with 10km to go it was a tight working bunch. I rolled through a
tight corner and found myself of the front. I didn't know what to make
of it so I decided to up the pace and I quickly opened up 100mtrs on the
group. I drove it through a small town and begun the final climb. I was
hoping the climb was only a couple of k's long but ended up being 6 and
a few riders left of what was the group before the climb passed me. I
tacked on for as long as possible and rode over the climb about 20
seconds down.
On the descent I caught
one rider and for the last few kilometres he sat on me because he had a
team mate in front. He finally came around me with 500mtrs to go and I
passed him in the kick for 8th Position. Shaun came home soon after
ahead of the Peleton which he rode away from on the final climb.
I was pleased with my
ride considering the level of the field and not feeling on top of my
form on the premier climb.
