LA PONT D'ARC

Ciclo spotive

Sunday the 16th and Finally after being here for about two and a half months France has finally turned on the weather. Today's race was not exactly the biggest race we would contest during the year, It was a 135km mountain race that climbed 2010mtrs in its duration. The major two climbs were a 4kms at 12% and 15km at 6% along with several other difficulties making up a course with barely a centemetre of flat road.

The race begun under pretty much controlled conditions and no breaks went until about the 55km mark, 5km before the 12%climb. It quickly gained a minute as there was no chase.

On the climb, Toinet one of the favourite teams for the race put the pressure on instantly. The feild blew to pieces and I found myself with 3 Toinet, 1 super U and 1 of my team mates off the front. We rode over the top of the berg and a Toinet rider attacked us straight away, myself or my team mate were in no condition to make the chase straight away. The attacker bridged the 200mtr gap the the escapee's and they begun to open the gap again as our group of five struggled to get oganised. Now as Toinet had a rider in the front of the race it was left to three of us to do all the work and bring the break back. The Super U rider gave us about 3 turnes in 30kms but my team mate and myself finally closed the gap and made a ten strong front group.

Now it was who could attack the hardest and try and break the trio of Toinet. Over a semi hard 3km climb the Super U rider put in a strong attack and 2 toinet and my team mate and I went with it.

Coming into the 15km and final climb the race would be decided out of the 5 of us. One of the toinet riders put down a strong attack and Anthony, my team mate lost contact. Over the top there were four of us and the Super U rider and myself agree'd to chase one Toinet rider each.

The Final 500mtrs was flat with a left hand turn around a round-a-bout with 100mtrs to go. My plan was to attack into to the corner and be first wheel through. I was not fast enough and the super U rider beat me to the attack, so now I was 3rd wheel but still with a good chance. I took the corner really well and a bit tighter than my opponents and pulled along side them out of the round about and thought it was going to be another good weekend until a rider from a lower grade who was finishing there race realised we were coming and try'd to move out of our race line but instead of going right moved left and stoped the three of us in the gutter. The Toinet rider that gave the lead out came through the round about 5mtrs behind and said merci beaucoup (thank you very much) and took the win. From the stop start in a huge gear I was able to pass one rider but the Super U rider was too strong and I settled for 3rd.

When I arrived home I was pretty mad so I went out for another 50k to write it off as a good day's training. haha.

JP.

CHRIS YOUNG's REPORT

A Summers Day In Southern France!

A beautiful summers day in Le Cheylard, France and I was racing. What more could you want? The week went well with a couple of big rides and then finding out I could race on the weekend. Originally, I was advised that I would not be racing this weekend, however, the under 23 team had a change of plans where they were racing, to an open race event which meant I could also race, but in a different event. The race was over a 100km course, which featured seven climbs, with a total of 1700m of climbing. The race was open to riders of all age groups from U19’s to Masters. As we normally do, we arrived at the start an hour before the race was to commence allowing enough time to sign on and a good warm up with my team mates. Off to the start line to be given final instructions by the team manager and then we were underway. The first 15km was flat and attacks were constantly going off the front but were quickly chased down by the peleton. As we approached the first climb, a strong rider attacked and got a gap of about 15 seconds we hit. We hit the climb at full speed, (3km climb at 12%). Half a kilometre into the climb the attacks started and the bunch was in tatters. Fortunately I was in the front group of about 25 riders with a lone rider still up the road. The attacks continued. I was hurting quite a bit at this stage. With a kilometre still to go on this first climb the group split into a couple of groups with a front bunch of nine getting away from me. With 200m to go I attacked to try
and get across to break, but was caught in no-mans land by myself.  I kept going and eventually caught a rider from the lead group and another rider caught us from the group behind. We were working well but now faced a second (2km climb at 10%). We continued to work well together up the climb, but my legs felt like they were about to snap off. Over the top we went and as we ached the bottom of the decent we were reeled in by a group of 13 chasers. The bunch worked well together for the next 30km, chasing hard to catch the front group of 9 riders, but as we came to the fifth climb the bunch again started attacking each other. Our bunch pretty much stayed together; a couple of riders managed to get clear. Over the climb and down a steep decent of about 3km, followed by a 15klm climb that was really going to hurt. As we started the climb our bunch split into four groups, a group of four in front of me, a group of four that I was in with the others chasing.

My group kept attacking me, which wasn’t good as I was in an immense amount of pain, and still 10km to go up this monstrosity of a climb. All I wanted was to ride the climb as a group at a steady pace but it was clear the others wanted to get rid of me. I decided the best form of defence was to attack and show them that I was still riding strongly. It was a bluff tactic! So off I attacked. They caught me after about 300m but the tactic had worked, as they were all content to sit on me allowing me to ride my own painful tempo. Once
we were over the top I recovered down the climb. Thought to myself only one more climb to go and with a bit of undulation to the finish. The group worked together until the bottom of the final climb when a rider attacked. I went with him, suffering like hell, but it was the last climb and I really wanted to go well in this race. Over the top and we sprinted down the last decent. As hit the 1kilometer to go, a rider caught us and sat on waiting to sprint. Around the last corner and we had 100 meters to go. I wasn’t waiting around as I gave it everything kicking out of the last corner gapping the two riders to win the sprint home. I was elated with my result finishing 13^th in a time of 2 hours and 46 minutes at a average speed of 35km/h, a pretty good time considering the difficulty of the course. I was also the first Junior rider home which was an added bonus.

It was a great day for me finishing with a great result. Next weekend I have a two day tour in my home town of Le Cheylard with the under 23's which I am really looking forward too.

Chris