Never seen so much Di2

On Saturday 16th March we had our Team/club Presentation. Basically this consisted of a lot of blokes getting changed into lycra in a more than uncomfortably small sized room and having some snaps taken out in the freezing cold. Not my idea of fun, but what was, was what followed, the team is sponsored by a cake and biscuit factory, this was where the presentation was held and so afterwards we were taken for drinks and cake, a lot of cake!!!  Everybody loves a bit of cake.....

Ok, so last Sunday and this Sunday just gone I had 2 Elite National races. The first of which was "la Fleche de Locmine". The race was a 100km big loop arriving back in the same town as we started, followed by 8 tough finishing circuits taking the overall race up to 160km, or for you oldies, 100 miles. The race was pretty nippy averaging around 43kph over fairly tough rolling terrain with a few tasty longish drags. The race pretty much stayed together all the way into the 4th finishing circuit and began to split on the finishing hill. My team mate George Moore got in this move and went onto to claim a very respectable 9th and 1st "2nd cat rider".

Now you maybe wondering why the blog name, well with a starting field of 160-170 riders and 102 finishers  you can imagine it was pretty brutal on the finishing circuits. Not many riders were dropped on the big loop but when it came to the windy rolling finishing circuit riders were going backwards like no tomorrow. After the finish line the road opened out and was very windy. I can say my head was almost in my spokes at times and staring at the chaps rear mech infront was a regular sight lap after lap. However towards the end I found something, and managed to move up to get 56th from 102 and around 5th in my category. Overall I was happy with my race and just saw it has a good 160km in the legs.


And so on to this Sunday just gone. I had been assured that my race this weekend would be a hard one with over 150 1st category riders taking to the start out of 200. The race was les Boucles Guegonnaise, it was mainly on big open roads with a lot of wind, very stop start and to be honest my race wasn't good at all. I felt to have good legs but my head let them down, poor positioning in the bunch when it really mattered left me in the back half of a split peleton which then blew to bits and left me fighting for a number of kms to regain contact with others. I did manage to get back on but this was short lived and on the next fast open windy down hill stretch I just couldn't keep up, really I needed a bigger gear!!! I fought desperately with others but there was no chance.  I don't know how far this was into the race at a guess I said maybe 80kms, I rode to finish and still felt strong, but it was my head that had done the damage. But it's a learning experience and it's not even the end of March so I'm not going to beet myself up about it. Next weekend I have 2 races to look forward to so a good week of training and I'll be as keen again as usual.

That's all for now. Hamish

So I didn't update the blog last week. Reason been I was pretty down about my race and didn't really have anything to say other than it was a complete balls up. The race was an Elite National "la Manche-Atlantique", reputed to be one of if not the hardest races of the season that we will be entered into. The course was an A-B 80+km and then a number of finishing circuits. The start was extremely fast with rolling hills and draggy sections on wide open windy roads. To be honest i felt shite and could hardly make it up the hills without loosing a number of places in the bunch, consequently after every hill having to put in big efforts to move back up, coupled with going the wrong way round several roundabouts this just made my race even more difficult than need be and soon enough i was right at the back and out the back. I managed to cling onto the cavalcade for a good few kilometers but there just wasnt enough vehicles for me to recover and move up. BANG back I went until bout 15km down the road i was greeted by the broom wagon. Race over. Not Happy, Back to Drawing Board. 

So onto my weeks training. Monday I didn't really do much at all. Tuesday I had a good 4 hours hilly ride with George and believe me when I say hilly. Wednesday is our designated team club run meeting at 2 pm everyweek, this is a 2 1/2-3 hrs ride with a short amount of through and off thrown in. Thursday I did another 2 1/2 hrs with a good number of lengthy climbs. Friday I took the day off and Saturday I did a few hours really easy with both George and Josh and then put my feet up to relax and watch one of my favourite race's "Paris-Nice". 

And so onto This weeks race. Another Elite National " Circuit du morbihan". After last weeks terrible race I was a little more nervous than usual going into this weeks race. I knew the race was going to be rolling with a few gritty climbs through out the big loop. The race started pretty nippy up a longish but really well surfaced gradual climb from km Zero I could tell I was going to have a good race. The kms flew by no dramas no trouble holding wheels no nothing. About 50km in I punctured on a climb again there was no panic I stopped got the wheel out waited for the car got back up to pace and was brought back up to the peleton, no issues. It was all going terribly well, if anything the added pace from chasing back on opened up my legs and from then I felt completely at ease. Moving up to the front on the long drags so's not to get distanced over top was no issue i felt great. and then..... Story of my life... 3 km from the finishing loops 90km in I found myself doing cyclocross. It all happened very fast but my only explanation of what happened was I was in the right hand gutter in the line and maybe through lack of concentration I veered off into some gravel and into a field. Quickly I dismounted hopped over a ditch and got back on I was chasing for maybe 3 km, almost regaining contact with the bunch, I felt positive I was going to get back, the team car came along side "happy days I thought get on the bumper and towed up to the group" NO!! instead the car kept its speed with the rest of the cavalcade and left me behind. Still I ploughed on with the hope of regaining contact. Anyway I didn't I  did 6/8 of the finishing circuits and then was told to stop. All I can assume is that the team car thought I'd been dropped and therefore didn't think I was able to regain contact, unlike Belgium where I'm sure Teams take great pleasure in seeing an exhausted lad eat his bar tape to get back on, but here it seems not. At the end I was too fucked to even try and explain to the guys what had happened. But at least I know it wasn’t the form, but the most disappointing thing is I don't have anything to show for it except a muddy bike....