So this weekend me and Pierre (A french guy on the team) Headed to Megève, a small town in the alps. We were doing a 'cyclo sportif' race which is basically open for any one to race, from your weekend warriors to professionals. I would compare it to something like round Taupo back home except a million times harder with a total of 3500meters climbing elevation in 130km over 3 mountain passes. The main reason we were doing this race was for preparation for the Tour des Pays de Savoie next week as the race went over some of the same mountains I will ride over in the race next week.
We stayed in the house of an ex-rider of Team Vulco who now rides for a pro team Saur Sojasun. He had a really nice place with amazing views of the surrounding mountains, and also a great view of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the alps at 4810m. So our race started on Sunday at 8.30am which was a massive change as I usually race around 2pm..also due to some poor organisation and probably my average french speaking skills, nobody had organised me any race wheels and all I had was my frame (usually we turn up to a race with just our bike frame and the team provides all our race wheels) so I ended up having to race with some shitty 2kg training wheels and a 23tooth cassette (I'm used to a 25 or 27 tooth) which was less than ideal for the hilliest race iv ever done.
All excuses aside I tried not to think about it to much. The start of the race was flat for the first 15km and with the large amount of un-skilled riders it was one of the dodgiest 15km iv ever done, so was gald when we reached the first mountain and the front bunched thinned down to 20odd riders and about 10 pro guys from FDJ, AG2R, Saur Sojasun and Bretagne-Schuller. But the pace really picked up for the 2nd mountain and a group of 6 split of the front and I wasn't able to stay with them on the steep sections as my 23 wasn't cutting it so I had to slip back to the 2nd group. It seemed everyone in the 2nd group was stuffed by the 3rd mountain there was only me and an AG2R guy by midway up and then the group up the road. It basically didn't change much from there and I came in 9th which I was fairly pleased with, all things considered. And all seems to be on track for the biggie next week at the Tour des Pays de Savoie!
Megève, France ^^
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