Hey, this is a loooong one!!!
Man I dont know why it cuts off my letters on the right! Sorry trying to figure it out
Right, so I have discovered I really like smoked salmon!! I think I have possibly become slightly addicted to it actually!! Pretty much after every ride I have a moment to myself and make some rice crackers with little bit of pesto and some smoke salmon!! Yummm….
Anyway It all pretty much started with Kaytee and I going for a 4.5 hr ride a few weeks back , I was feeling like shit right from the start but was determined to finish the ride. A massive loop that I have done once before, but not the way she took me!! She was like right, left, straight, right, oh oops left ….. “oh I’m sure it was this way”…. straight, left….etc. eventually we did the “spiritual ride” but backwards, not sure how but we managed to find the main road about 4 hrs into the ride and decided the best idea was to head home… 5 hrs later we were still 14km from home completely blown and out of water in what ended up being the hottest day in that region so far this year… anyway so since pretty much everything shuts down between 12-3pm we were stoked to find a supermarket open. So Kaytee shoots in to grab something to get us home, and what most normal people would have done is grabbed a coke, powerade, moro bar lollies or anything that would get you home asap… but NO, little miss nutritionist needed “proootein”!!! hahahah… she walks out with a meter long bagette “French bread stick” , a packet of smoked salmon and possibly something else but I missed that bit as I was cracking up laughing and couldn’t see much through the tears at that point!! Man I thought it was so funny… like 39 degree heat and your training partner comes out with massive bread stick….
Anyhow, we managed to get home, and did something like 5.5hrs… a bit of an achievement!!
Right, so the rest of the time in Limoux was pretty darn cool!! Getting to know the kiwi girls a little better, and venturing out to the swimming hole a couple of times. My training had been going good, and I was actually looking forward to my first race in 4 weeks!! Tour of Limousan, here in France.. I’ve been doing some pretty hard training and 3 weeks were really good, but last week I was feeling a little flat so I’m thinking this will be one of those tour where you ride yourself into it!!
Racing in these tours can be pretty interesting, right now we are staying at a boarding school, somewhere in Limouges. We have 2-3 riders per room, This year Tones and I are joining the Japanese team as the original team we were to ride for had some bad luck and could not make it. The rooming situation on the first night was a mare, long story short 11pm we had to change rooms, and to make it even more fun, had to go up another flight of stairs so now we have 81steps to climb at least 4 times per day….eeeekkk .. The rooms are pretty nice actually, there is no TV, or a phone near by and lets not mention no internet, (an essential part of a bike riders survival)…. The meals are provided by the race organisation, so brekkie, pre race meals and dinner, you just get a meal ticket and line up in the dining area…
So anyway when we met the Japanese team director to introduce ourselves and get the jerseys we were racing in, he looked a little worried and the first thing he said was like “uhhh…. da jerseys… its …aaaaa… shmall…. “ and off he went and got one for each of us, so we tried them on and no problemo they fitted fine thank you very much, just a little tight around the guns… but that’s all good… Later on that night we rode up and met the rest of the team they all had massive grins on their face and were about 3foot shorter then us, and were kinda pointing and saying something in Japanese…. So we were like, hey what’s happening… what you saying.. And they were like “ohhhh …. you sho shtrooong “ still pointing… at us, basically saying we were rather big built!! Hmmmm… cheers mate!! Hehehe Anyway they turned out to be really nice, their English is waaay better then my Japanese so its better then nothing!!
So here we are….Last night was the prologue 5 km , we kinda got there a little late, I pretty much did 2 laps warm up and away we go!! So nothing to brag about here, I felt like I was towing a fridge actually, a little bogged down you could say…. But a couple seconds here and there wont make a difference right now.
Day 2 = 121km pretty undulating the whole way really, nothing mayor happened til about 27 km from the finish we turned a sharp left, right then left and straight up!! wasn’t quite ready for that one, about mid field, one girl had a mechanical which cause a chain reaction through the bunch.. By the top we were about 150 m off the main group and just couldn’t shut it down… so a small group formed and we rode in to finish… I felt slightly better although the pace was pretty cruisy most of the way I was happier with my riding…. Legs still feel like they’ll cramp any minute tho L looking forward to my massage….
Couple of the kiwi girls had some bad luck! It started raining in the last 20km or so, there was a bit of nasty descend, Laura crashed out, but no mayor damage, Yvette on the other hand trying to avoid Laure apparently had a nasty fall, she had a soft-ish landing into a ditch but must have hit it pretty hard as they thought to start with a broken ankle, but apparently no mayor damage, she was kept overnight though so we’ll see her later on tonight…
Day 3 = 123km stage, rolling as, literally no flats …. My favourite.. NOT. So away we went 3 loops.. Loop one went pretty well about 25km long, I think I got a little too excited having no clue that the rest of the course was gonna almost kill me!! So to stir thing sup I had a few go’s but they weren’t letting anything go, then we hit a slightly bigger climb and that was me. The second loop was a blur and the third, well……….. I didn’t quite get that far it was lights our for me!! Boof gone… the end.
Maybe I wasn’t quite riding myself into this tour after all, a bit too much climbing for my liking L
Laura had another go at perfecting her crashing/acrobatic skills, but this time did a bit of damage to her hip so it sucks will have to wait and see what happens there… and Yvette’s out of hospital with a badly sprained ankle, so will have to have at least 3 weeks off… poor thing. There were actually quite a few bad crashes this tour, I know of a broken hip, ripped shoulder, Yvette’s ankle, Laura’s hip!! And a fair few bandages round the dining hall!!
Righto, Tones and I made our way back to our base in Belgium today, 210 euro’s later.. Far out that’s insane, grrrrr… anyway I shall keep you posted on how things go…
Have fun!!
Marina
