First Races

Sorry for not posting in a while, we haven't had internet for a few days. A lot has happened since my last post. Erik's bloody nose has finally stopped, but his room has been taken over by ants. After watching the world cup final last night we searched the house for the most toxic substance we could find as we did not have any ant killer. We ended up dumping bleach and lighter fluid on them but we will have to find a more permanent (and less flammable) solution soon.
Marcel and I had our first race on Saturday. To fully understand French racing, Imagine if USA Cycling burned their rule book and replaced it with the instructions for "Mario Kart." Tiny, bumpy roads, speed bumps, roundabouts, and questionable organization. Our first race was 20 laps of a 5km loop through two towns with lots of cobbled gutters and a small kicker before the finish line. Our race was delayed by ten minutes to let people who showed up late pin their numbers. Then, there were cars parked on the course, so the organization decided that we should do a neutral lap of the circuit so we could see where they were before the started racing. Finally the racing did get under way. Marcel and I were able to cover most of the moves, but I flatted halfway through the race when what would be the winning group rolled off the front. The neutral support car gave me a quick wheel change and I hopped on the bumper for a ride back to the pack, a move that would be deemed "cheating" in America but is standard in Europe. Once the driver was sure I was in the draft he upped the speed to close to 50mph. I didn't look at the wheel I was given, but after the race it looked like the tire had been baking in the sun on the roof of the care for at least a few years. As we were flying through the town on the backside of the course the wheel lost traction on almost every corner. After a few too many high speed powerslides for my liking I pulled the plug and watched the rest of the race from the sidelines. Not how I wanted to start the trip.
After the race we heard that one of the racers had been dropping tacks on the course as he rode. Dangerous? Yes. Stupid? yes. Cheating? Yes. French? Very much so.
Yesterday went much better. A short, 90km, race. 9 times 10km circuit with a 14% hill each lap. Corey told me to "die a thousand deaths on the first three laps," and so I did. We shed riders each time up the climb until the front group was down to 7. On the descent a bee flew in my jersey and in my flailing he stung me four times and I managed to shake most of my race food onto the road. The next few laps were like watching myself bonk in slow motion. I knew it was happening but could do nothing about it. The front group disintegrated on the last lap and I rolled in with a nice frenchman who gifted me fifth place. Our next race is wednesday, hopefully something with a hill. In non-racing news, Corey believes that a gypsy we saw last week has put a curse on us. More on this curse and other things tomorrow