Sunday, April 18, 2010

prix de la ville d' Ornans



We were told before the start of this race that it was supposed to be really hilly and hard with 4 or 5 5km climbs, it semms that the director like to exagerate things as it was wasnt quite that bad but still really hilly and finished up a steep 2km climb.
I had really good legs before the start of this race and had a good weeks training so I was in it for the win. the race was 120km and had about 150 starters. it started in a small village and was neutral up a 5km climb and the race started at the top, so right at the start a break of about 15 got away and we had no team mates up there so a couple of guys from the team were doing a bit of chasing, then about 20km in a guy that looked real strong attacked up a small rise and I followed him, this guy motored almost all the way to the break which had about 30 seconds on the peleton and I kicked past him and got on the back of the break.
The break worked pretty well together and at about 50km a group of 20 caught on to us which just at the base of a 5km climb, about 2km from the top I went with an attack and got away with 4 other guys, and 3 of them being in the same team ACB I think it was called. so we lapped it out pretty hard and got a big gap and then I had the team car come up to me and the director started yelling at me not to roll through and got all angry, he said I shouldnt roll through the front because there were three from the same team, so I then just sat on for a bit and did the occasional lap and I had the other guys goin mental at me yelling stuff at me in french lucky I couldnt understand them. We got to another big climb about 5km again and the bunch was getting pretty close again so I started to lap and put in a couple of accelerations and dropped two of the ACB guys but they ended catching us on the downhill by this point the gap was out to 2 minutes or so and I had the director start yelling at me from the car again, it was like he wanted the bunch to catch us or something. So didnt want to upset him anymore and sat on again.
at the 20km mark the attacks started coming from the ACB guys, it seemed it was only me chasing them down aswell, at 15km we came 2 a 3km climb and I attacked them at the bottom and only one ACB guy and the other guy could follow so I kept the pace on and dropped the ACB rider. So I rolled over the top of the climb with just me and another rider and we lapping together pretty well. but with 6km to go we were caught by a group of 5 and then everyone started attacking each other and I started to feel shit I was cramping up pretty bad so I just followed the best I could.
We got to the bottom of the climb all together and one rider attacked and got a good gap I tried to follow but could barely stand up although I seemed to be in better shape than everyone else as they all dropped their anchors, then my legs started to come right but I stil couldnt pull the last guy in and came in 2nd place about 15 seconds down.
All in all I had a good race and rode really strong just a shame I didnt have that last kick at the end.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Sam, sorry long time not read your blog. We bought a house in the Netherlands so were away for a couple of days. It sounds to me like the director needs to give you all more clear info on what your supposed to do. Does he not want the team to win? What kind of 'games' do you have to play to stay in or out or are allowed to make a break, or anything like that. I am no expert, far off, but this sounds all a bit confusing. Hang in there, sounds like you are able to tackle the 'hills' pretty well. How are the evenings in the flat? Karin

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