Bienvenue Internet

Bonjour Mon Amis,

We have internet at the house now. Terrific. It's really opened up alot of doors for us. The Australians can get their share of Cricket World Cup (it's a big deal in the other hemisphere), and I've gotten in touch with Los Angeles again. And doing more all the time with it. Next mission is to get a wireless router so that we won't trip on the myriad of cords and cables all around the kitchen.

Pre Race in Roannes

Two races to report on. I have a pre-race interview/video from saturday's race that i'm trying to upload, but Google's being weird. Also, my google is in french. Trying to figure out how to make it english, but no dice yet. Alllllright.

Race one. I've lagged in reporting this one, but it's been a short week between races. Had one on Easter Monday ("Paques" as it's called here), and then another one on Saturday the 14th. Both were in the central region of France. One in the town of Roanne and the other in Charolles. Most races are never in huge towns, but that means great roads, great scenery, and lots of enthusiastic people watching.

Roanne: "Grand Prix Du Vogy". 166 kilometers. 140 or so starters. 12 laps around a 13k circuit. Easy enough. The race was basically uphill for half of it, then a slight downhill for the second half. The first lap was the most difficult. Gah. Hurts just to remember it. The uphill segment was easily faster than the downhill -it wasn't steep, but the speed made it hard, and closing the ensuing gaps definitely woke the legs up. "Hi legs. This is French racing.". Oh, the weather was good...no crying about poor weather today. First lap's speed was in excess of 45k/h. NRC crit status almost! hehe. I hung on. Studied the course. Saw where to recover, where to go, and thought i'd found a good algorithm for the course by the time the 3rd and 4th lap rolled around. Untill.....the fifth lap came. We came through the start finish, and turned left instead of the usual right we'd done the first 4 laps, and went down a steep hill...I was bummed, cause I liked the old loop...and then....oh man. I really should have taken a picture, but i'll try my best with words. We went down that steep hill, made a sharp right turn, and there it was. 6 feet wide? 15% gradient? Moss and broken pavement on the inside, and parallel 10" wide strips that were rideable. Oh, and millions of people on both sides all saing the same thing -"ALLEZ". I didn't cringe. I just laughed. What else can you do? So the remaining laps would go over this climb. It wasn't long. Maybe 300 meters? But steep. And straight. Yeah...you could see all the asphalt that awaited you straight up at the top. But here's the thing...the first few times up this climb, it wasn't hard at all. It was, yeah, but it was nearly impossible to advance your position, or get dropped. Because if 200 guys are going on such a narrow road at once, then it's like an escalator with lots and lots of people. You just wait and go at the escalators speed. So yep. That was intense. The peleton was still huge at this point (to my dismay), so the next few trips were pretty much the same. 5-6 to go, gaps started to open. Breaks went up the road, and I was too conservative. I actually had some juice left, but didn't go with the breaks, and ended up in a worthless group of 20 or so riders who either had nothing left, or no reason to work/chase. And yeah, that was pretty much game over. I finished, but likely in the 40th-50th range.

If someone can figure out how you're supposed to drop a #2 in this place, let me know.
Bike races in France don't have toilets. This one did, but what to do? And if it's just for pissing, it's pointless, as the French are much more liberal with regards to relieving yourself if you've got a cycling kit on. Hmmm....

Charolles. For this one, I contracted a bit of the never-ending cold my teammate has, but I'm certain that it wasn't my limiting factor on this day. The field for this race was huge, bigger than the previous week, and from the looks of the team cars, a higher quality field. Gerolstiener's U25 team was out there. AG2Rs, and the heavy duty UC Aubenas, fielding 3 riders. Our remaining riders were racing VTT (mountain bike) French Cup. It'll be nice to have them back. Anyhow. Race started, and it was a really cool course. One giant 100k loop, and 4 10k loops in Charolles' Centre Ville. The first 100k...rolling. and rolling...and rolling. I remember about 60k in, energy levels shot, grinded my way to the tops of the first 4 climbs -or so I thought, when my teammate Herve, says "allright Aram, get ready, the first climb is coming up". The firsT?!? What about all that shite we just went over??? My legs filled with lactic acid as soon as he told me those words. Gah. But! The climb was okay. I didn't bury myself. Got dropped, and used the caravan to catch back on with little worry -a first. The field must have halfed at this point, and I looked back a couple times to see that I was last wheel. Pas Bien! So it was a constant battle of moving forward bell-lap-crit-style when the road was flat or downhill, and pseud-sag climb when it went up. Unfortunately, with the diminishing size of the peleton, there was little room to hide my double-digit BF% body, and I was popped. Again, rode the final 40k with the groupetto (I think...we had 20 guys...there may have been other groups). I finished. Good training! hehe. A good time, except it was a bit cramped on the 300k drive back to Aubenas. I'm learning more with each race...but knowledge is one thing, power is another. It'll come.

Addio...

Side Note to the Cyclists: Do you ever do some training rides that feel REALLY epic and adventurous and amazing, but then come home and realize, "eh. it wasn't that big a deal." I have those all the time. Thursday was one. It ended up being just a 4.5 hour ride in a light rain. Nothing epic or noteworthy about it. I think when you're at the near-bonk zone, every pedal stroke becomes an accomplishment -until you get some calories back.

and from that ride:

Can't Wait To Descend This In The Dry

Jaujac

One of Many Sprawling Metropolises

At 1600 meters