Tour VTT stage 4

Today's race took place in the Medieval town of Sainte-Suzanne. The
weather forecast was dreadful. We awoke in our chalets to the sound
of heavy rain, so began changing tyres once again. With the Rocket
Rons fitted, we went for a practice nice and early, 2hrs before the
race. The course started by going through the town, through the
courtyard of the old castle, down some steps (quelle surprise) and
then down a nice off camber grassy slope with some added rock slabs
for good measure. After the drop onto the road at the bottom, the
course wound its way up the other side of the valley. The climb was
in 3 stages and was 2km in total. Stage 1 was on steep, rocky, loose
ground - it seemed like an old sunken cobbled road - and was very hard
to ride as the rocks were slippery. As the race went on, this section
became easier to ride as a line appeared in the bushes to the left.
Section 2 was big ring and very ridable, a nice double track (kind of)
up through the woods. Section 3 was up a narrow, steep, muddy and
rocky chute and was a mix of running and cycling - although again by
the end of the race only 10-20m wasn't ridable. From the top, you got
an amazing view of the chateau before descending down a very steep,
rocky, wet and rooty downhill. The bottom section was very technical
and steep. The final drop onto the cobbled road you began the climb
on was unrideable due to the steep, twisty steps that had been built
on it - it appeared the race went down what was usually a footpath.
After negotiating this section, the course climbed once again for a
short while before dropping back down to the river and running
alongside it for a while. The final climb back up to the chateau was
very steep and only the middle section was ridable. The lower section
was on loose rocks and traction was largely impossible, the top
section was so steep it was a struggle to push up it. At the top, the
course went through an old door in the Medieval wall of the castle,
then through the village streets and back to the start.

The race started with a short 1km start loop before heading out onto
the course. An enormous bottleneck formed at the first set of
downhill steps, with riders barging their way through. After this,
the field was very dispersed and it was a case of head down and get on
with it. Thankfully, the rain had gone and the course was drying up.
Lines started to appear and the laps turned out to be quite fun. I
rode with Luke for the first 2 laps, then dropped him on the long hill
and set off on my own. I passed a few other riders and, apart from
one little bike-ditching moment at the bottom of the technical
downhill, was happy with the way the race went, especially as I had a
really gungy cough beforehand. I turned out to be the last rider
through not to get lapped and finished 18 mins behind the leader in
40th. Being soaked by a thunderstorm was my penance for being so far
behind. Lee had a fantastic race once again and finshed only 9
minutes behind the winner in 23rd place, our team's best result so far
and much more indicative of Lee's true ability. Billy finished in
33rd, 8 mins behind Lee and 10 mins ahead of me. Luke was 47th, one
lap down.

The continuous racing is starting to take its toll on bodies and bikes
- today's race was very hilly and the mud certainly helped to destroy
our small selection of brake pads. Usually when racing, you will pick
up a knock of some description but then have a week to recover from
it. I now have blisters from all the running, a sore left calf and a
bashed right shoulder. It all adds up... Tonight's accommodation in
the Hotel du Stade is a bit interesting. It feels like they've just
kicked the prostitutes out for the night...

Tomorrow's race is less hilly than today in terms of altitude, but
seems to make a lot of use of the same hill. The course zig-zags
through the same woods 6 times. Wonderful.

GB