It’s quite surprising that in my years of racing the weekend of the 13/14 April was my first time racing in France. The race we headed to was Penn ar Bed. Based on a beautiful coast in the North West tip of France in the region of Brittany. The story of the weekend will come in Part 2 of the blog, but first a recap of the month.
Thursday 28th March saw the Lee Valley Junior Team head off to Limburg. I had been there before, last year, and I knew it was going to be a tough UCI race. This year we were staying at Watersley and it was an excellent set up and it also meant that the TT started and finished outside our house!
Friday came and we headed off for the TT, a tough route that started with a short climb and then across an open plateau with a cross wind battering from the right. A sharp 90degrees, then down a quick main road before back onto the county lane and a steep climb back into the Watersley complex, through the finish onto the turbo and into the shower. For my first outing on the TT bike this year I was relatively happy with my effort but knew I still had gains to make.
Saturday was a bit different, a road stage, but unfortunately I hadn’t slept well and started to feel a cold coming on. Heart Rate up overnight and not feeling it. I started the stage but after feeling physically sick I was forced to climb off in the feed and my tour of South Limburg was done. Hugely disappointed, but I could not fight the body, so Team Car duties for me for the next two days.
Home on the Monday night or actually 1 am Tuesday morning for 3 days and then a relaxing trip to Roubaix! Dad, Thomas, Dean and I set off on the Friday for the Hell of the North. The plan was to arrive, recon the Carrefour and sign on for the sportive, then ready ourselves for the next day.
5am Saturday we headed to Busingy and at 7am with Euro-Pop blasting out we left for 170km of hell. All the ‘secteurs’,55km of cobbles in total and an arrival, before the women, in the legendary Velodrome of Roubaix. Luckily we had a following wind and the temperature was 13 degrees. First time since Mallorca in shorts and sleeves. What a joy riding the cobbles, truly I loved it, smashing over the stones, picking people off as I went and then waiting, a bit! for Dad as we left the secteurs. The Trouée d’Arenberg was mad, busy, mad and amazing. Riding the route I had watched on the TV. Exhilarated! We arrived at the Velodrome, tired but elated. Well in time to go track centre and see the women’s race come in and a masterclass from Koppecky. A cracking day all round. Sunday, we managed to zone hop, saw the juniors and then the men come through before getting back to see the imperious Van de Poel on his trusty steed enter the track to a cacophony of sound. Just brilliant.
Then home for another 2 days before heading back to the continent, this time by Ferry not by Train.
Setting off on Thursday we took the ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo. Overnight we bunked up and tried to get some sleep, luckily it was calm crossing and we arrived in a sunny St Malo at 7 am to start the 4 hour drive to Penn ar Bed. Arriving we had time to find our beach front accommodation,. Not as glamourous as it sounds, and head out to recon the TT course and the final of stage 1. The roads looked good, wide and smooth. All seemed well. That was until all of my team mates, bar me, took each other out in the TT recon. Tom suffered bruising and abrasions, Paul broke his seat. Ed messed his chain ring up and Stanley had a small cut on his knee.
Back to the house and we fed well before heading out for Saturdays stage 1. A beautiful stage that skirted the coast before coming back in land for a circuit of a town to finish off. All was good for most of us. Paul had an incident with a Gilet in his cassette and Tom was suffering from the previous day’s crash. Ed, Stanley and I were well positioned in the bunch with 4 km to go when 4 riders ahead crashed. Ed narrowly missed it and Stan and I came down. Quickly back up, dusted off and the chase began but it had ramped up so much we finish just off the back of the peloton, but on to Day 2.
Day 2 started with a Time trial and we were off relatively early. Paul first as the Comms had messed up a bit, he had the joy of a car entering the course as he turned onto the main road and then missed a tractor and trailer by about 20 meters,that had not been cleared off the course, and head down he had no idea it was ahead and slowing to turn right. Incident averted it was my time to go. A decent performance again and an improvement on my Ster TT but I still didn’t feel in the right place. I started to realise it was a mental thing.
The afternoon arrived and we headed off on Stage 3. A lumpy course through the Muur’s of Bretagne. On my winter bike, as I had not got my race bike as this was kindly being replaced by Highway Cycles as it had a cracked frame from Cicle. Unfortunately the rim brakes had taken a battering in the previous day’s crash and I had to replace a wheel just before the start as I had punctured on the ride to sign on. It wasn’t boding well. Distanced on the climb with the bike creaking and screeching the team car did its bit but to no avail the race had gone. I pushed on and before long came across one of the guys from the Munster team. We rode together through the feed, where I was offered a lift but I decided to carry on, me and my new Irish friend, we rode and chatted before arriving somewhere near the finish, at this point we realised we had no idea where the finish was. Both of us had disputing and incorrect routes on our head units and we also had no phones! Problem … we stopped and spoke to a lovely French lady, I used my GCSE French and we managed to borrow a phone. I phoned Dad, who was at the finish, and he was able to give us some idea. The problem was that we had a ferry to catch and the time was ticking. I had school the next day and Dad work! We moved on asking random French guys the location of the Grande Carrefour, before eventually rolling up, snipping the transponder, name plate, numbers and I was bundled into the van and we were off!
Whilst I was not proud of not finishing the race I was proud of being able to develop some life skills and find a way to become unlost in France. I also had a new comrade and friend in Ireland. I will look forward to seeing him again at the Tour of Ireland. It also brought back a memory of doing the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad sportive with Dad when I was 13 and we had watched the race the day before when Ryan Gibbons, riding for Dimension Data, had got spat out of the Peloton just after the Haaghoek. He stopped and spoke to us, had a picture, which was cool, and asked us where Ninove was and how to get there!
We managed to get the ferry and landed back in Portsmouth at 6 am. Back at school for 09:30 and my other life started. Maths and Physics!
So that was April pretty much. I mentioned earlier the mental stuff and I started to realise a quiet stress that was existing around the races. When I stopped and thought about it I realised I had felt the same around my GCSE’s. There is a pressure I put on myself to achieve, and the pressure this time is to get the grades to get to my chosen University. I realised that this was impacting my performance. I wasn’t going into corners the same way, avoiding injury, crashes etc. I was struggling to put the hours in on the bike as revision stacked up and pressure came to bear from teachers on my results. I needed to change something. So for now I am taking a break from racing and prioritising my A Levels, particularly with 4 to do! I am pretty sure it’s the right call. Racing can come later.
Thanks as ever to Dad, LVYCC, Bob and Julie, Thomas, Highway Cycles, Matts Auto Repairs, TLC Live, Pedal Potential, Knight Frank and the Rayner Fund for the unwavering support.
Gilbank Racing 