American Crit Juice

I actually do have some responsibilities out here. One of which is to ride with the Aubenas juniors at 2pm on Wednesday afternoons, or "cadets" as they're called in French. It's a great time: For one, it gives me a chance to completely immerse myself in the French-speaking game. Since the cadets cover a bit of english in school, we have some pretty complementary levels of English and French. Savvy? Yeah. Took the camera out today with hopes of getting some nice shots, but eh? My fleet of personal photographers were unable to attend this group ride, unfortunately. All I have is the busch-league one up there. One junior, Florian, is the most gigantic 16 year old i've ever seen. 187cm (this week), and he seems to get taller each time I see him. And of course, the upper-body of a 9 year old -at best. I bother him incessantly with my poorly constructed (but understandable!) french phrases. Ah, so yes. I enjoy the wednesday group ride. Can't explain it properly right now. Let's hope the rest of this entry doesn't follow suit.

Hmm...let's insert a photo to make it look nice for people who don't read the worthless pulp...

[as if we didn't have enough egg-related fotos on this blog already...]

So. While I'm generally pretty frugal with my food purchases, I allow an occasional splurge on some things (like last week's cheese). This week, we have the 3-euro 6-pack of eggs (versus 1.70 for THIRTY of the budget ones). Fun packaging, bits of feather and dirt (we hope...) stuck to the shells, all that. From a performance standpoint: They cracked rather easily. Conveniently. Taste standpoint: they're no friggin different. Still delicious, but 10 times the price. The food scene is alive and well, despite the blandness of this paragraph.

On to the race scene:

So yesterday, 101k circuit race. They called it a "kermesse". I was anxious, and had a little glimmer of hope (tm) that maybe the course won't have 10,000ft of climbing, and that maybe I could do well? The team president assumed DS duties for this one, so a bit more pressure to flip the switch on. We get to the course really early. Gah. 3 hours early. If you've been reading this blog for a while...you know how I go, and how i've refined the procrastination proceedings. Gahh. A little piece of me dies each time we arrive 66 hours early to a race. But I guess this is how it's supposed to be done. Anyhow. Monsieur Prat asks if I want to do a lap of the course in the team car...of course, man. We have 3 hours to kill. Lets do it. Allez! The course starts off with a sharp drop off. Then it kept going down. down down down. So the morale: down down down. Finally, it leveled off, and yep, what goes down...must go up up up (the course...not the, uh...other thing) for about 1.5 kilometers. Steep, borderline big-ring, likely small ring. Then some rollers which eventually led to a tight off-camber 120 degree right turn into a 400 meter finale. Cool finish too. 200 meters down, then 200 up to the line. 15 times, that hill. That thought stung.

So, as was mentioned, for the first time in my tenure here, I wasn't anxious to start. At all. I was bummed (but not shocked) that the course was as hilly as it was, and further disappointed that Monsieur Prat would be hanging out and watching. And given how fast these things start...I remember discussing feed details with him, and was wondering if i'd even get that far. This "safety net" crap isn't me at all. I'm usually on the "overconfident" side of this fence, but today was an anomaly...

Well...i'm just gonna steer this entry home: it ended up going very well! 15 friggin times up that hill, and each time I thought "cmmon, Schlitz Park. 100k. I got 25th there. Easily. And we went up that, what, 80 times? I can do this." On cue, the rain came, but I was too giddy with the fact that the legs were great, and didn't care. I attacked a couple times, and was off for 1/2 a lap ('till the hill started...) during one excursion. One funny moment...I yelled at one of my breakaway mates (in French) to pull through and was given a blank expression. He didn't speak french! He probably thought I was a native speaker! hehehhh. So 3 to go. More and more riders were exploding. American Crit JUICE! My legs had it. I'd see these guys getting popped and get more motivated. "I did Schlitz...cmmon" was the reoccurring thought in my head. That and tracks from the new "Decemberists" album. And Lebowski quotes (this goes without saying, though). Yeah. 2 to go. 1. Wow. Still here. Hi. We crested the hill. A break of 3 was gone, 45 ticks up the road. Racing for 4th. I had decent position. The mass sprint madness....gahhh i'd missed this game! I planned to make up ground in that gnarly tight turn before the 400 meter gallop. Got there. Legs? What lactic acid? They were fresh. Started the sprint a bit late, as there was an uphill 200 meters, and...and....some lanky french lad starts goin diagonal and I was doing 50 k/h in the gutter. Ahh! Mixed feelings. On one hand, I was upset at a lost opportunity because of this guy (though I shoullllllllld have been further up with legs like that...so i'm partly to blame), but on the other hand...it's good form! And I didn't go down (though it appeared I should have). I sprinted up to the guy afterwards and said "VOIR SIL VOUS PLEA" or "LOOK PLEASE". I didn't know what else to say? hahhah. Good times. I was 20-something. And even got some cheese afterward as consolation! I think actual money was to the top-20. Not sure. Here's the cheese!


We ate the one on the right today. Interesting. The soft-cheese is something to get used to. Don't have much experience in that world. In time. So a short week between races now. The next one is on sunday. I feel good still. Mind and body. I'll keep the training mellow, and hopefully bring the A-game sunday. Not sure about what the course is like. "Expect the worst...hehh." Allright, that's it. Au Revoir!