Archive for February, 2012

Well, a very quick update for a very quick race.  The season opener for our part of France was yesterday with the classic Tour du Vallee du Bedat.  I have nightmares of last year’s edition with it’s rain/snow/hail/wind/general misery, but this year the weather was in fact a mild 8 degrees with sun and only moderate winds.  The course is a 20km loop with one solid wall of a climb, rounded out by mainly long false flats with a few sections exposed to the wind.  There are a few tricky town crossings and generally poor road conditions which make for a fairly nervous race.  At this time of year, nervous translates into dangerous as riders are still unaccustomed to winding through small towns with elbows, hips, and handlebars brushing against the 150 other riders who are jockeying for position.  In any case, that’s the race in a nutshell and if you asked me last week I would have told you how incredibly motivated I was for it.  I think it’s a race that suits me and I feel I’m in pretty good form right now, but unfortunately a steak that I ate on Friday night had plans that didn’t involve a successful race.

Yes, Friday I was hit with a nasty case of food poisoning which had me up all night on Friday and Saturday going through the generally agonizing routine of food poisoning.  For the sake of decency I won’t go into details on the subject.  Waking up Sunday morning a good few kilos lighter than I should be, I managed to keep some oatmeal down long enough to at least take the start.  For the first 30kms I had to give everything I could just to stay in contact with the field…it felt like I was mistakenly in a motorcycle race yet I was still on my bike.  My body just had no idea what it was going through, and since I was not even strong enough to race at the front of the group, I had to deal with the inevitable crashes that happen behind.  In front of me I hear the frightening signs of brakes squealing, carbon shattering, riders yelling, etc.  On go my brakes and I manage to stop before going tumbling into the carnage, but behind me another rider comes and rams into my bike, breaking the derailleur.  As I call for the team car to bring a spare bike, I wonder if this day could get much worse.

I hop on the spare bike and chase for all I’m worth, but on this day that isn’t exactly a whole lot.  After what seems like an eternity chasing I get a sudden urgent need to find a toilet for the umpteenth time in the last 48hrs, and so that’s how my day gloriously comes to an end.  There are few things I dislike more than pulling out of races, it truly disgusts me to do even under circumstances like this, especially as you watch the finish and see the winner cross the line and you think you should be there fighting it out.  However, it is what it is.  This morning I think everything is finally gone from my system, the stomach cramps are gone, and I feel alive again.  I’ll turn the disappointment from this weekend into motivation for the next race, and certainly won’t be touching any steaks in the next little while!

Last week was our first training camp for the 2012 season in Argeles Sur Mer, which is on the French-Spanish border.  The camp started with a weekend of racing, which involved some extremely cold temperatures and incredible winds.  I have never worn as much clothes during a race as I did on Sunday, and I think it might be the most wind I’ve ever ridden in as well.

Following the first races we held team rides every day in order to put in some great training time, get to know one another, and also enjoy the constantly improving temps as Europe’s  ice age came to an end.  I truly enjoyed the camp and it also provided everyone the chance to test their legs.  As riders, we train for countless hours during the winter months, but for a long time we really don’t get to compare ourselves to our teammates and competitors.  With the rides often turning into races to town signs or mountain summits, there was ample opportunity to see if my hard work had paid off.

To finish up the camp, we had another weekend of racing that has just finished up.  Despite a big week of training I was pleased to find that I had recovered quite well, and we managed to take home the team classification in Saturdays GP d`Aix against other teams who were coming in nice and fresh.

So, a great week has now come to an end and leaves me with confidence and motivation for the season to come.  I put together a small video which shows just some of the beautiful scenery we were treated to, and also introduces the riders and staff for 2012.  I hope you enjoy!

Last weekend was the official team presentation for CR4C Roanne where we unveil the new kits, bikes, and riders to the public. The weekend also serves as our first “mini camp” to jumpstart everyone’s training before a longer camp in the south. Saturday morning everyone met at the team’s service course, caught up with those who we hadn’t seen in a while and received our new team equipment. Then it was time to put a lot of that new clothes on just to stay warm for a rather frigid 5 hour ride to recon a stage of the Tour du Pays Roannais…a race to come at the beginning of July.

For some, this was the first long and hard training ride of the season, while others have been logging big hours on the bike to prepare for the earlier races. Naturally, when you get 16 elite athletes together for the first time, there will be some healthy competition as each rider tries to gauge his fitness and impress the others. The result of this was a fine training ride that bordered on race like intensity from time to time, leaving us all tired and hungry for the rest of the day.

After such a ride I would usually stuff my face with food for a while before taking a nice afternoon nap, but here we needed to spend the remaining hours of the day taking photos, listening to and giving speeches, watching spectacles and generally socializing with the public and team sponsors. Not easy to do when you’re thoroughly exhausted, but a necessary part of our job. Here are a few videos of the night:

After we all collapsed into our beds in preparation for a repeat of the day’s training that would come in only a few short hours. However, upon waking the next morning it was much to our disappointment (or not for those with especially tired legs) to find that mother nature was not cooperating, at least by French standards. Snow was blowing around in the sky and certainly making things relatively miserable, and safety was an issue to ride in such a large group. With that, the ride was cancelled and we spent the morning going through some meetings about new team policies, tactics, etc. I was truly excited about another long training ride though, so when the meetings were done I decided I would kit up and get in a solid ride on my own. It certainly brought memories of home as the snow numbed my face, but I was quite pleased to have finished up a great weekend.

So that put an end to the annual team presentation. I was left with some added motivation from seeing the other riders and the reality that 2012 is upon us. Very much looking forward to our training camp in southern France where we will be pinning numbers for the first races of the year. It will be all the sweeter since the light snow from Sunday has in fact accumulated and stayed, along with an incredible cold front which seems to have hit most of Europe. I have been on the trainer all week and am starting to go a little stir crazy…some long rides in the sun will do me wonders!