Tour de l'Ardèche

This was a cool tour just south of Lyon and there was some great weather, it was the first time I have ridden in just shorts and a short sleeved shirt since I got here! and to top it off we had a really strong team and we ended up winning the tour!

1st stage was a short 100km but was pretty hilly. Like usual it was on from the start and there were basically my team and another team that were the strongest in the race so there was always someone from my team up the road. At about 40km there was a 4km steep climb that split the race up and there were 20ish left at the front and I had my whole team there and basically from there each of us would attack until eventually one got, so a bit of luck was needed to get away. In the end Jeremy from my team got in the winning break and ended up coming 3rd on the stage. I finished in the bunch behind.

Next stage was a 6km time trial, 3km flat then 3km uphill at 7 percent average gradient. This made it a bit tricky for deciding whether to use a tt bike or just the roady... I ended up using the road bike and I was 6th, with same time as 4th and 5th just split seconds separating us. Im not sure but I might have been faster with a tt bike because everyone in front of me were on one but all good I was still happy with my time. Jeremy ended up with the yellow jersey after the stage.

doing some work on the front

Last stage was another 100km hilly again but this time we had Jeremy in yellow so it was up to us to control the race. We pretty much rode the stage perfectly, from the start we were on the front just setting a good tempo and making sure we had someone covering any dangerous attacks. There was only one point in the race that we almost lost it, when we over one of the harder climbs there was only me and Jeremy from the team in the front so I had cover everything for 10km before some more team mates got back up to us, but all good. Basically for the rest of the stage I was on the front with 2 other team mates till the final climb to the finish and I was smashed so I went backwards. But Jeremy ended up 5th on the stage and won the overall so happy all round!!