Saturday was a 1,2,3 Category totalling in 130km with a 90km big loop followed by 6x7km finishing circuits.
The morning began with light snow and freezing air temperatures but as the start approached the weather improved and was cold and dry for the rest of the day. 200 riders took the start and the break was established with in the 1st 10km "I wasn't in it". The route was on quite wide open roads snaking up small climbs through woods and little valleys. The pace was pretty good and teams with numbers worked away keeping things in control. On the final climb approaching the finishing circuits I made my way up to the front and went over the top in the first 10. Moves started to go but nothing was sticking and decent down to the Arrivie was pretty quick. Well positioned coming into the finishing circuits I managed to clip of the bunch and work well with a group of maybe 10 riders. We worked well together and bridged across to a group of maybe 15/20 riders. With three loops to go I was getting pretty tired but managed to keep up front and go with most moves. In the final 3 km's of the last lap 5 riders jumped clear and I was unable to go with them, we came in to the finishing straight and 15 of us were going for the sprint for maybe 30th but I'm not certain. I was happy with my race and just glad to get some warm clothes on and some food in me.
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| 2 groups come together on finishing circuits |
Sunday was an Elite National race "Route Bretonne" Teams represented included Sour Saun U23 team and several other continental setups who's names are too complicated for me to remember. This was high level race totalling in 150km. A big loop of 118 km and 6 small finishing loops. The race set of pretty sharpish and my legs took a while to come round but after a few hard efforts in the wind my legs woke up and felt really good. My positioning on the other wasn't so good. My race fell in bits at around the 80 km mark. i was caught out in a split in the bunch over the top of a long draggy climb. The group I was in worked hard for upwards of 16km and managed to fight our way back on to the bunch, a hrad effort that had took its toll. I immediately moved up the bunch to seek recovery and shelter only to be greeted by "a sawley brow type climb" to those of you who know it. I went BANG rider after came by in a long string and eventually the string ended I was unable to keep up and unfortuntly only 10 miles from the finishing circuits had to climb off. Normally I would have ridden to the loops but with no more support out on the road and with the chance of a puncture I was told to climb in the Broom, which Im happy to say wasn't empty.... I was dissapointed as my legs were good but with the huge effort just to rejoin the race done its damage and with little time to recover before a nasty drag I have to put it down to miss fortune and bad positioning.
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| Podium For Route Bretonne |
Hope you can make sense of this ........ Hamish
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