Sam Allens Blog: Part 2

After the Nation Cyclo-Cross it was time to get ready for the journey to France. The week after the national I felt terrible so decided to have a few days off the bike and try and recovery in time for my first race not to put any more stress upon my body. We left the UK on Wednesday the 17th of February getting the Dover/ Calais crossing. We had a long drive down to Brittany. I went over with my dad, brother and sister.

We got to where I would be staying on Thursday evening in a place called Baud.  I am staying with former pro Tony Mills in a mobile home in the garden which is very nice. So Thursday evening we met Tony’s family who are all very nice and is very decent of them to put me up till I get settled in.

On Friday after 4 days off the bike I managed to get out which was a relief and felt recovered which was a good sign, I think I needed the rest. Tony’s sons took me out to get to know the area a bit better. I also met Tony’s neighbour, Claude, who has been helping to find me a team over here and sorting out my French licence. I also found out that my first race was on Sunday which was an inter-club race with all the local teams competing but having not ridden my bike for few days I was nervous to know how I was going to go. It was a 100km race, around roughly a 7km circuit.

On the Saturday I went out with one of the local clubs. It’s strange it doesn’t matter who you go out with in whatever county you always have the same characters within the group, which is nice. After getting up at 7 to meet up by 8:30am we headed out for an easy 4hr ride towards Pontivy, I ended up leaving them halfway as they were staying away for the night so had to find my own way back.
    

Come Sunday I was looking forward to the race, although I could still feel yesterdays ride in my legs, I was optimistic about how I was going to go. We got to the race with plenty of time to find the sports director of my new club to sort out my new kit. Luckily the race was just down the road in a place called Camors after a long time trying to find him and with the race fast approaching I was told to get ready and race in my UK team, Aw cycles.co.uk.

The course was dry but looked as though it was going to start raining at any point. The race started fast with many attacks but I decided to sit in the first few laps to get to know the course and the style of racing. The course was mostly on small county lanes with tight corners and one large hill, but felt comfortable throughout the race.

Once I had got in to the swing of the race I started attacking on the hill but   there was a large presence of one club each attack was being brought back as they had three riders in a break of 7. The race slit up considerably due to the strong winds and rough road conditions but I stayed towards the front the whole time and feeling good was helping in bring the break back it to the chasing group. It was on the 13th lap of the race, with just 3 laps to go, I was looking forward to the final sprint but just as we crossed the start finish line I got a puncture. Disappointed with the puncture but pleased with how I was feeling. I was looking forward to my next race.
    

During the week I found out I had two races over the following weekend so after another fairly easy week as not to overdo it, the first race on the Saturday was a 1,2,3 cat, 75 miles with most of the races  here you have one large circuit and then  smaller circuits in the finishing town. Again this race was just down the road in a place called Melrand. With close to a 200 rider field and the amount of team back up and the atmosphere of these races, I can only compare it with doing the national road race every weekend.

The race again started fairly fast with eventually a group of around 8 riders getting away in the first hour. As this was my first proper road race, I decided to sit in the first hour or so to see how it was going to pan out, but staying towards the front. I knew there was a large hill just before going in to the town to compete the 6 lap circuit. I got to the front and went with any attacks that went on the hill but nothing stuck. With not much team presence in the race I was again racing for myself which was not a bad thing.

Coming into the finishing circuit the break had a considerable gap but there were many attacks from the peloton and many gaps starting to appear due to the strong crosswinds. With half an hour to go it started to rain which made the circuit very slippery in places. Not keeping count of how many laps was to go and expecting a bell for the last lap I rolled across the finishing line not realising it was the sprint for the line and later finding out that I got a top 30 place if I had known I could of got a higher placing but none the less looking forward to the race on Sunday.

This race was national elite event with many pro teams competing such as Bretagne-Schuller, cotes d’armor and Sojasun espoir ACNC team all had strong line ups. It was 95 miles on rolling terrain with a very hard finishing circuit in the town of vennes. I knew this was going to be a tough race but was confident in how I was feeling having recovered well from the previous day.

It started with a small loop of the town and then went out on to the open fields with again strong cross winds, as well as the fast pace being set was soon noticeable. Small gaps were starting to appear and eventually the peloton being split into two, but being in the wrong place at the wrong time ended up in the chasing group, with many of the big teams being court out. I was desperate to get back up to the leading group and after many attacks a group of 10 of us managed to get away.

We went full gas, in time trial mode for a good half an hour as well as battling through torrential rain we finally got up to the front group just as the sun come out, but it took a lot out of me and would later suffer from in a 4 hour race. The peloton stayed together with the big teams controlling it with a small group up the road but eventually being brought back before the finish circuit.

The main differences with racing over here are the speeds averaging 26+ in every race and after over 3hr racing and just before starting the finishing circuit the speed really picked up. I started getting cramp and losing the wheel ending up riding into town trying to get back but to no avail. I was not going to give up and eventually rode round the rest of the course with a few riders I picked up along the way. I crossed the line chattered but managed to finish the race in the top 40. The race was a great experience and was confident that I could compete at this level of racing and also having been my longest race I had ever done.  

Cheers
Sam