Back in France

David Smith | Sunday 12th August, 2007

When I got back to France in mid-July after the disappointment of the nationals being cancelled I was thrown straight back in the deep end. Having not raced in three weeks Chambord-Vailly, the fifth round of the French Cup was always going to be a bit of a struggle. Fully aware of this, I offered to do domestique duties for my team-mates and this was a fairly important job as the mercury climbed to a blistering 35degrees. The pace was fierce from the gun, the first 100km being flat were covered in a little over two and a quarter hours. Three times I went back to the car to bring bottles back up and a two hundred man field and the speed ensured a serious workout! Once we hit the finish circuits which were fairly hilly there was little I could do as I was really beginning to suffer and climbed off first time over the line. Unfortunately it turned out to be a day to forget for the team as everyone was on the limit, only Seb Houreau managed to finish but didn’t make the top 30 and so for the first time this year we scored no points in a round of the Cup.

 The following two weekends I lined up first at Cours la Ville and then the GP du Bouvesse. Cours is a hard circuit and again I was in real difficulty after about 100km and called it a day. I had thought I’d be capable of a least finishing and so it was a bit of a moral-blow. My team-mate Remi put in an incredible ride being off the front virtually the entire race to eventually take the win from recent Tour d’Alsace winner Benoit Luminet..no mean feat!

Bouvesse went a little better and I finished in the bunch sprinting for fourth place although I hadn’t the legs to contest it.

 I had previously been told I was riding Tour d’Alsace and had been really looking forward to it but two days before I was due to go I was told my team-mate Florent Barle was taking my place. I felt pretty disillusioned at this not least because Florent had been injured, taken a week off the bike just ten days before and had been if anything going worse than me at Bouvesse. After initially feeling pretty angry I decided the best way to show the management they were wrong was to try and get some results in the three races I’d be doing instead, GP du Fleurie, GP du Longes and Criterium du Briennon. All three were fairly local races and 1/2/3 category (don’t ask me to explain the category system as it’s ludicrously over-complicated!, suffice to say the difference between elite/national and 1/2/3 is that 3^rd category riders can do 1/2/3’s but not elite/national.) Both Fleurie and Longes were very hard circuits and at Fleurie I wasn’t feeling great having done a heavy week in training. I finished 19^th but a long way down on the winner. Longes went better and I came in 11^th but this time only 2minutes behind first place. At Briennon, a race organised by CR4C Roanne we were heavily out-numbered as they had basically the entire team on the start line, 17 riders no less! I won the sprint from a counter attack to get 8^th place, my best result of the three days, bizarrely when I was feeling the most tired! 

There has been no let up in the training load since as on Thursday we headed to Briançon in the Alps for a three day training camp to prepare for some upcoming mountainous stage races. When we arrived the weather forcast was for snow above 2000m and we were not to be disappointed. Thursday afternoon’s ride wasn’t very long, just 75km but included the Col du Lautaret and Col du Galibier. It was absolutely freezing with temperatures dipping to -2 on the summit of the Galibier.

Friday dawned sunny and mild, this was fortunate as Michel had a particularly grippy route planned. Heading out of Briançon we climbed towards Italy up the Montgenvre, crossing the boarder just after the summit. This was a 8.5km col just to get things warmed up as it paled into insignificance compared with what was to come. The Mont Cenis to be exact. A 27km monster that climbs back out of Italy into the Vallee de la Maurienne. And we had a headwind. An hour and fourty five minutes later of 39*23 and we plunged back down the valley direction St. Michel-de-Maurienne, the foot of the Col du Telegraph. Those of you familiar with classic Alpine routes will know that the 12km of the Telegraph are straight the way followed by the Col du Galibier. From the Valloire side it is considerably harder than from the side we had done the previous day and it was made all the more so as we’d already 6hours in the legs as we began the grind up to the 2650m summit. By the time we got back to Briançon, 210km and 7hours and 40minutes later everyone was feeling fairly beat to say the least. The ride had included 4600m of altitude gain at a brisk 27.5km/h! The final day was another medium length ride, 85km but with the Col d’Izoard which tops out at 2300m.

It was an awesome three days, we had a good laugh and put in some serious work. I hadn’t ridden at altitude much before but once you go over 2000m it really begins to tell. You start feeling weak and light headed and I could see on my powertap I was putting out about 100watts less at threshold! Michel and Regis also took advantage of the get together to put together the race program for the end of the season. I am definitely doing Tour du Val d’Aoste  which is a big objective and Mark Young has been managing my training with this in view so thanks again buddy! Other big rendez-vous’ will be the Poly Lyonnais and Tour du Gevaudan.

 Val d’Aoste website:  http://www.girovalledaosta.it/default.asp?x=0&lang=IT

À bientôt.