Cooked

Whoo, it was difficult weekend pour moi dans le velo. I knew going into this weekend that I was racing twice. No big deal I thought, espeically when the first race was only 80km. I thought that 80km was odd, but thats what I was told. Saturday rolls around and I find out the morning of, that the race isnt 80km, but 170km.

Franck who told me about the race but he ment he was only going to stay in the race for 80km. So I find out in the morning that the race is a DN1/2/Pro race. This means its just below ProTour here in France. With a couple of French Pro teams thrown in there too, I knew I was getting into the real deal.

Well talk about a hard race. Holy Crow. I only lasted about 80km, and rolled into town for an even 100km on the day but the race was insane. It was probably up there with the hardest races Ive ever done. You are always working and fighting for pack position. Whether your going up or down or on the flats your usually working. Pack position is crucial and you have to fight for it. It had 3 laps of a 50km long course, which was really cool followed by a small crit. We raced though a lot of small towns which threw a lot of road furniture at you, and road dividers just popped out of no where.

I was pretty much terrified for most of the race. To be in a pack of 200ish guys going like 80km/h with people elbowing you fighting for position....the only way to destribe it was controlled sketchy-ness.

There was a huge crash mid-race while we were going about 65km/h. I didnt look back as I knew I would see death for sure. The race was Neutrelized and we re-grouped to get things under control again.

Finally at the 80km mark there was a KOM and with a bunch of attacks from the pack I just blew...knowing I had to race tomorrow, I was ok with that. Its good to see the level of where you have to get to though! I doubt there is a harder race in Canada....maybe Nationals some years or Beauce.

The next day we had a interclub/DN2 race. It was only a 100km but my legs were fried. We still had a good 150 riders but the race was very un-eventful for me. The break went away first km. I made it into the 2nd break a couple times but nothing came of it. My legs were cooked, so I sat in and finished 50th or something like that.

My team mate Ben won the friggin' race. What a guy! And young Stuart proved to surpriese everyone and took 3rd. Holy Crow.

Turns out I won 10 euro in a Sprint during the race that I have no idea I won. Problem is that I forgot to give my number back(standard piece of paper with a number on it you pin on your jersey) which turns out is a big deal in Europe. In Canada or the US it wouldnt matter at all but apparently I HAVE to give it back. So to get my 10 euro prize I have to ride to this town 35km away and find some bike shop to give the number back. Its bizzare, but thats how it goes I guess.

I made the paper in the town where my team is based out of. I think mostly because its an oddity that there is a Canadian in their midst and for no other reason.

Im feeling pretty tired after the past couple weeks. Ive been doing a lot of intensity and that DN1 race being my 2nd real race of the year took it out of me. I think Im going to slip into some LSD and minimalize the intensity before running off to Ireland for a couple days. We'll see how that goes.