Tour VTT Stage 6 - Argenteuil

After the dullfest of stage 5, I had high hopes for a return to the
form of the previous 2 days for stage 6. Knowing it was the final XC
stage of the Tour, it was a case of all or nothing for Team
Whyte/Salsa as we looked to consolidate our 9th position in the team
standings as well as our individual positions. Things looked bleak on
the drive to Paris the day before stage 6, with the motorways signs
displaying warning messages about violent thunderstorms that evening.
Sure enough, I was awoken in the early hours by torrential rain,
thunder and lightening. On arrival at the course, which was set on a
hill in a northern suburb of Paris (the only stage not be be set in a
town centre), the damage done by the rain was self evident. We were
warned by the marshalls not to try to reach the car park in our van
due to the mud. We set out walking the course and found it be be in
fair condition given the rain and drying out quickly in the heat and
sunshine. Within a few hours, the track was dry and Schmidt gunned
the van up the muddy hill, arriving somewhat sideways in the arena
area. It's ok though - we're in a van.

Now the track was drying out - the mud was like SITS/Mayhem -
miserable to dry in a short time when it gets sunny - we went for a
practice and found yet another cyclocross style track, with wide
grassy sections, fast descents, some steep downs and steeper ups -
although only one was unridable due to a huge kerbstone at the bottom.
With laps taking around 17 minutes, we knew it was going to be more
fast group racing. From the gun, the pace was very fast. Lee
actually made it to the front of the field temporarily, before the
leaders flew round him as the course reached to top of the start hill.
I was in a group of 4 or 5 riders, including Luke, in 31-35th or so.
Billy was between us and Lee at this stage. On lap 3, we passes Billy
mending a flat but knew he'd be making every effort to catch our group
again later on. On lap 4, my cold took its toll due to the pace of
the race and, unable to really breath properly, I was forced out the
back of our group and suffered massively on the final 3 laps - I was
lapped by the leaders on lap 7 so missed out on completing all 8 laps.
I was devastated about this as, had I managed to stay with Luke (i.e.
had I not been ill!) I would have completed the distance. Luke
avoided being lapped by 20 or 30 seconds - it really was that close.
I rolled over the line in 40th, 7mins down on Luke in 31st (who
managed to outsprint the tearful "Slicks" in the final 100m to the
finish line). Billy was forced to retire on lap 6 due to yet another
puncture and a snapped chain was unable to fix. Lee was having an
awesome ride and crossed the line in 22nd - his best result of the
Tour so far.

After the final XC race of the Tour, Lee was in 25th, me 36th, Luke
37th 2 mins down and Billy, due to his DNF today, was not classified.
During the evening I met up with Nicky who had come over to watch the
last 2 days racing. It was fantastic to have her there and to get
away from the circus atmosphere for a short while, have a beer and a
double cheese, bacon and onion burger in Hippopotamus - rather
honestly named after what you look like after too many visits.

Tomorrow's stage in Montmartre is what all the teams have been looking
forward to for the entire tour - with the promise of 500 steps of
descent and 500 of climbing, not to mention thousands of spectators,
it is certain to be an awesome race.

GB