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Email 24 May 2004
Email 22 May 2004 (kindly forwarded by Kevin Young)
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TOUR DE
BEAUJOLAIS
22/05/2004 AND 23/05/2004
Another two day tour and this time it saw us traveling 2 hours north of
Lyon to the Beaujolias region which is known for its superb wine. The tour
would see us doing a 90 km road race Saturday and Sunday morning a 5.6km
Individual time trial and the afternoon a 90km road race. The races length
depends on the vertical atrocities that they set you so usually a short race
means many vertical challenges await you and this tour was certainly one to
follow the pattern.
Saturday would see us ride over 4 climbs and 2 of these climbs would be on
the finishing circuit with a 2km hill top finish. 5km Neutral would see us
get the racing underway and the pace was on from the gun with the bunch
strung out single file 120 riders long for the first 10km on a gradual
decent. Many small breaks went down the road but never gained more than a
15 second advantage before the Peleton would quickly close on them and shut
them down. Most of the breaks we always had a rider in them with Joel once
again riding strongly and going with several of them. At around the half way
mark we went over the first of them climbs and the Bunch would slightly
tighten to around 80 riders with 4 of our 5 teams members in this group.
Shortly after the decent on a fast section of smooth road a small group of
around 10 riders got clear with Joel right up amongst the action, this group
would maintain its lead until we hit the climb. On the finishing circuit
with 1 lap to go the pace was put on and a small group of around 15 of us
got clear and caught the leading bunch. Joel was unable to hold on over the
top of the climb as he had put a lot of effort into the break however Seb,
Vincent and Myself managed to make front group and we chased as there were
two away up the road. The group then sat up watching each other n conceded
the race and since Seb was riding the strongest myself and Vincent rode for
him helping him bridge gaps and so on. The bunch pretty much stayed in tact
until we hit the final climb and Seb crossed the line in 5th I came in just
behind in 10th and Vincent 19th with Joel just behind. We managed to get
1st team and Joel had the green Jersey so it was looking good for the team.
Seb was sitting 2nd in the young rider classification with myself in 3rd .
Sunday morning and the 5.6km Time trial which would c us ride downhill for
the first kilometres then uphill for the finally 4.5km finishing the final
500 metres on around 12%. It was important for us to ride good times in
this as we had to defend the Team lead and hopefully more up on GC but with
no time trial bikes or equipment we had the odds against us but that's half
the challenge. We all rode respectable times with the gihest place
finishing 8th in Seb and the rest of us all rode top 50. We were now
sitting second in teams GC overall by 5 seconds and were determined for a
big effort in the arvo to re gather our title.
Sunday afternoon rolled around and the whole team new what had to be done at
we were determined not to go home empty handed. The race was only 90km long
but with 5km till the finish we would ascend a 2km 15% berg were the race
was going to be decided. The wind was blowing from the start and a
dangerous group of around 10 got clear and sat 1 minute clear of the Peleton.
The Yellow jersey's team sensed the danger and quickly got on the front and
maintained the gap chasing them down allowing our team to sit in and
conserve ourselves for the final climb. The race winded through mainy
beautiful vineyards riding head winds to tail winds to cross winds. On one
of the climbs we caught the lead group and another small group of 3 got
clear and would end up staying away winning the race. The Peleton was
constantly tightening with every ascent or cross wind until we hit the final
climb. Seb attacked at split the bunch into pieces everywhere leaving a
string or riders strung out down the road everywhere. Joel and I crossed
the top together just behind a small group of 10. We quickly decended the
finally decent into the finish and Joel won the bunch kick home for 11th
with myself just trailing the group home. After the race we found out of
other team mates Seb had finished 6th and Vincent 9th and the Teams
Classification was ours. It turned out to be a good tour with Seb finishing
5th overall myself 13th and Vincent 14th and Joel 25th. We were all
understandably exhausted and tired and looking forward to our next big week
of racing
Cheers Shaun
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