I raced in the beer league this weekend. There was a higher end race that the team also went to but there was only so many riders they could send. Since Ive been sucking as of late I got to race in the beer league.
Keep in mind, a beer league race in Canada means that some of the riders have beer guts....but in France they are old pros and upcomming strong guys. Since people have a 'relaxed' work schedule in France, everyone has a ton of time to train aswell. Beer league also brings out about 100 guys at least, even with another big race going on.
About 85% of the races that Ive raced in France, the break has always gone within the first 20km or so. Keeping this in mind for this race I had a good warm up and tried to get in everything that moved. I had some great attacks, and managed to be at the front and got in about 3-4 good breaks but they didnt stick and only lasted about 10 minutes or so.
I rode my ass off until the 50km mark and I thought to myself "Well Ryan, maybe it'll come down to a bigger group today." The course was pretty flat so it was probable. After 5 km of sitting in the pack I looked up and saw the pack split. It was one of those breaks where you knew it was the break of the day.
I thought to myself why me...and moved to the front again and attacked to try to bridge up. I was in no mans land for a good 5-8 minutes when a couple other guys bridged up. We worked for about 20km to try to bridge up but we couldnt find the last bit of juice to get up there. Even in France it seems there are guys who want to bridge up and guys who just want to look cool for their friends, and we had a couple of these guys which didnt make life easy. It was in this group that I finished. I rolled in about 35th or something.
This time of year co-incides with allergy season, and today was quite the show. There wasnt a time when my nose felt clear. Most people wouldnt know, but the farmers blow(close one side of your nose with your finger, and blow) is a constant action among all us cyclists. Usually by the end of the race your covered in both your own and other peoples spit and snot. Its not uncommon for someones snot to get carried by the wind into your face. Its funny, because at the time you dont really think about it, as its just something that happens, but if it happened to me on the street I would be pretty disgusted.
I caught myself walking down the street in Flers and had the urge to clear my nose. I had a finger on one side of my nose to blow...when I caught myself and realized that this is something not to do in normal life. hah.
During the ride with Arnault(Bens brother) last week he came around me and I didnt see him as he pased. Just as he passed I spit out a pretty solid piece of spit...and caught him right in the hip..dead on. A big "ahhhhhh' was let out by both of us and I sincerly appologised in my best French as it was an accident. He relaized this and I whipped my loogie off of him with my hand and rubbed it on my shorts...again appologising.
When was the last time you spit on a FDJ rider?
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