Things are going much better than last weekend. The upside to having your life center around cycling is that when races are going good, everything is right in the world. On sunday morning we did a category 2-3 race. It started out with eight flat 6km laps, followed by three 17km laps with a decent hill and a somewhat sketchy descent. I made it into two breakaways, both of which established a decent gap and I thought would stick. However, some teams were either not satisfied with the composition of the break or wanted to set up a field sprint. On the longer circuits I bridged to what looked like a dangerously strong breakaway of three riders , but we were brought back before the KOM. On the final lap it was "gruppo compacto" down the last descent with everyone taking crazy risks to get to the front. Just before the last corner, someone ran into a building. That seemed to mellow some people out a lot. Our French teammate, Eric Beauné, took the sprint for the win.
This was the first morning race we have done this trip, so it was strange having the rest of the day to kill, but kill we did, napping and stretching for Sunday's race.
On sunday we had a 11 laps of a rolling circuit for a total of 93km. Erik, myself, and a french teammate all made it into the breakaway of the day. One medium sized hill took its toll on the field, with the break shedding riders each lap. With three laps to go, I followed a Japanese rider's attack up the hill, and we quickly built a gap. Almost a full lap later, we caught two riders who had been leading for a while. I put in a hard dig as we passed them, shedding the Japanese rider, but one guy from the earlier break got on my wheel. We worked for a lap, until one of his teammates bridged to us with half a lap to go.
Two on one, you get the idea. The attacked me most of the descent into town. I led through the final corner, break-checking them then sprinting in hopes of getting a gap, but no such luck. Not surprisingly, they shelled me in the sprint.
Later, at the podium ceremony, we found out that one of them was a multi-time french national champion, so at least I was beaten in good company.
The podium ceremony itself warrants an entire post but I'll try and condense it for you. Basically there was a prize for every meter of every lap between overall results, junior results, espoir results, master results, KOM results, sprint results...you get the idea. Our car was packed full of trophies, prizes and flowers on the way home. Not a bad day at all.
Our final races are Saturday and Sunday and they will have faster competition and lots of hills.
Au Revoir