They say that
things come in threes, so there we go. I started my racing season for the
Bricquebec Contentin In the Circuit des Plages Vendéennes. We rode four out of the six races in the
series. The first race was Chantonnay, the hilliest of the series and one that
I was aiming to do a good ride in. The race started flat out up a climb and
having got a bad position on the start line it was all about fighting for
position, which was not easy on the narrow roads, climbs and technical corners.
After an hour and a half I was starting to feel my legs coming round when
another rider switched across my front wheel taking me out. I did a bit of
sliding along the floor and my team also admitted to me that he rode over
my head, which would explain why that hurt a bit. The injuries were mainly to my
shoulder, which had a very deep bruise, and tissue damage, it is still a yellow
color, also some deep cuts on my hip and knee. Forced to quit the race, I was
taken back to the team bus in the ambulance. My nice new bike was scrapped up and the
shifter had snapped as well.
The next day I was strapped up by a masseur that
was staying in the same accommodation as we were. Both shoulders were totally
wrapped up and the top half of me resembled an Egyptian Mummy. Luckily we had a
steady ride that day, as there was no racing to be done.
Our second race was La Chapelle Hermier, at the start the wind and rain
was terrible and from the gun my legs just wouldn’t get going. Not to mention
that the hip and shoulder were giving me all sorts of pain. I soon found myself
in a small group who were having the same difficulties and we rode through and
off for 4hrs to get some training km’s in.
Following the
second race we had another 1hr30 spin on the bikes as a team. I then made the most of the afternoon to catch
up on some Internet time in a bowling café. I also had another check over by
the masseur. Our last two races would be over the weekend one after the other.
Before the start
of Challans the commissure came up to our team manager and said that if I
finished the race today I would be awarded the combativity prize, for
continuing to race the series after having such a heavy crash. With a bit of
added motivation we headed out at warp speed again though narrow streets and
allot of roundabouts. The race had a small climb in it and Davide our Italian
rider managed to win both KOM sprints and the KOM competition for the race,
which was really good. I managed to follow a few moves and eventually finished in the main bunch. The shoulder and hip was still giving me a lot of pain, clearly
the mix of high intensity racing and being away from home was not the ideal
place to recover after a crash.
In the last race
Saint Jean de Monts my body was in pieces and the race exploded within 20mins
in the cross winds. I called it a day after an hour of chasing in the cars;
clearly it was not my day. I needed to get back and recover.
The day after
getting back I woke up with a bad cold and headache, sore throat, the whole
works. My immune system had been working hard to get my damaged body better
whilst racing and had forgotten to look after my upper respiratory tract that
was now infected. I’ve spent the last few days getting in allot of vitamin c and
resting up, and hopefully I’ll be able to shake it off within a few days before
the next races at the weekend.
