very hot, again, and very, very dusty. I'm still sneezing dust out
now...
It was an 8km lap almost entirely on gravel roads and the race lasted
for 7 laps. It was pan flat apart from a couple of very gentle
gradients. There was one exception to this - a motocross style
up/down/up/down/up/down on a very steep bank which was pretty much
unridable due to the loose gravel and the gradient. It was a case of
run up, jump on, skid down with your feet hanging everywhere and then
repeat x 3 per lap.
The start was mental - 80+ riders in a huge bunch until we hit the
up/down bit. This spread the field out quite a lot and we all ended
up riding in different groups. Billy was with the first group, then
the second group, Lee was in the group ahead of me and Luke was in the
group behind me. I spent 4 laps riding with a Spanish and Japanese
rider before I lost them going through the up/down section. I spent
the whole of the next lap chasing the group down and caught them again
just before the up/down bit only to loose them again as I was running
slower than them! Give me some proper hills any day! Sadly, this
event doesn't seem to have any until Thursday. I could see Lee for
most of the race, but just couldn't make it back to the Japanese
rider's group. I rode 3 or 4 laps on my own - killer on this course.
On the last lap, Luke's group of 4 riders caught me on the up/down
section. I had hoped to be able to stay with them and contest the
sprint at the end, but crashed on one of the loose downhill bits and
cramped in my left calf. I howled, partly with pain and partly with
frustration that I'd been ahead of Luke for 6.5 laps and now he'd
overtaken me! I rode the last 1/2 lap with a group of 2 other riders,
who I beat in the final sprint.
Billy finished 31st (again), Lee 36th, Luke 39th and me 42nd, all in
around 1hr 54mins - Lee's average speed on his Garmin was 17mph!
Crazy. We were 10mins behind the winner (or vainqueur in French,
which sounded a lot like something else when he was being called to
the podium...).
Tomorrow we have been warned that the stage is very difficult - both
the commissaire and race organiser, usually very jovial, looked
genuinely worried when the were telling us about it... We shall see.
Now I best get on with stretching out my calf.
GB
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