Haut Anjou Wrap-Up and story time

Here is a quick recap of the stages:

Stage 1: 180km the longest I have ever raced before
Rabobank put the hammer down early and my tired jet-lagged legs just hung on. I got shelled on one of the many rollers, just simply didnt have the legs. But throughout the day I felt like my bike was coming unglued which it actually was as my headset was completly loose for most of the race and I didnt really have enough oxygen in the brain to realize what happened until I got spit out the back I just rode into the finishing circuits and stopped at the finish line and told them I could not ride as my headset was messed up so they just gave me a big time penalty like 30mins. Oh and I was with a group coming in and they started sprinting me (after dragging their asses for a good 20km) b/c they did not want to finish last to start 1st in the TT. I managed to pass one before the finish.

Stage 2: 14km TT
Unlike most standard American TTs with an out and back on rolling/flat/straight road. Europeans believe in cornering is a must in TTs. It had 5 turns in less than 2km. The first 5km where turny and slightly downhill until you go through a town and turn into a cobbled median then make your way back to the start/finish town on cross-wind, bumpy, cowshit covered roads. I wanted to really try to put in a good time and not get slaughtered and show that I still have some fight despite only being in Europe for less than 3 days. I flew through the first half and went through every turn balls out those Specialized tubelers really do grip! I caught my minute man (and the only rider starting in front of me for that matter) in 5km. I was freaking flying and was still holding back some for the finish which the last 5km are slightly uphill with a cross-head. But as I rounded a turn that forces your line to go through a cobbled median unless you want to brake and lose all speed, so that knocked my saddle completly loose and i had to either stand or put my bottom on the very back of my saddle which worked the hips out a bit. After that I was kinda demotivated and just got it over with. Not like I was gonna win but wish I could have done a bit better. The French guy in the follow vehicle came up to me after the TT and told me I was going faster then the Rabobank guys through the turns which is pretty cool so once I get my power and some weight I should be good to go!

Stage 3: 100km same day as TT
Freaking was fast. We were done before I knew that it was over with. I was feeling better and entered the finishing circuits 3x9km. The finish was off a flying descent followed by a hard left hander over a bridge then a right with 500m to go and slowly kicked uphill then take a sweeping right and get hit in the face with a 200m wall. I found myself sitting 15th right behind the rabobank and beveren 2000 - quickstep teams. But coming into the 3km where it gets dicey they got swarmed and I got pushed back and just couldnt get back up there so I finished in the pack.

Stage 4: 145km
Hardest hour of my life. I have never done 50-60kph up a slight incline into a head crosswind for a solid 5mins. Rabobank was trying to control it but the teams just kept attacking. Found myself in a couple of early moves but nothing sticked as the big teams either had too many riders or not enough to keep the break rolling. I got shelled close to the circuits and just pulled out with half the field.


Overall: It was a good experience. Wish I could have finished and had a better results personally, but honestly did not have the legs. Now I will get my bike fit straightened out and actually have a couple days of rest before Tryptique Ardennes. Espoir racing is totally different then junior racing in Europe. Everybody is a better bike handler but one thing remains the same they cant corner. Pack positioning in U23 races is ridiculous, you work your way up the front and the next thing you know your at the back. I think a good tool to gauge how much you move up through the field is by:
Once you feel satisfied where you are in the pack, move up more!
This happened to me loads of times the last couple of days. I would move up into a good position and would be like great but I was at the back before I knew it. So constantly move up!


Now with every bike race I have a story:
The TT finish was only 10km from the school where we stayed at so Montelone and I decided to ride there. We asked our staff how to get there they said straight through all the roundabouts and you will run into it. Okay so we set out only thinking this will be like a 20min ride. 40 mins later we are riding around Chateau Gontier (the town that is next to where we stayed) looking for the roundabout that headed toward Aze which is the road that our school was on. I gave up and Montelone was getting mad so we see two Frenchmen working at the side of the road. They are typical French: fat and big mustaches (sry) and we are typical Americans minus the fat part. We are decked out in USA stuff and I suggest to Montelone that we should ask them where the McDonald's was for one reason only (not to eat!!) and that was the McDonald's was on the roundabout next to the school. So here we are in the middle of some French road asking two stereotypical Frenchmen where the McDonald's was by two stereotypical Americans. One of them chuckled then just started speaking. "A droite, a guache" was all I got. We just nodded our heads and decided to take a left at the next roundabout we could see as it would put us in the direction toward Aze. As we left we could hear the Frenchmen laughing one of them said, "McDonald's" and both of them howled even more. Finally we made it back after a total ride time of one hour.

Now the last day finished in Chateau Gontier and I just grabbed my backpack and headed back to the school. Still couldnt find it (all of France looks the same to me after being in oxygen debt for the last 3.5hrs) so I decided to head back into town and regather my bearings when I looked up and saw a Golden Arch on the billboard. It said the McDonalds was in the direction to Laval. So I followed the arrows to Laval until I came to the roundabout where the school was.

Twice I was saved by McDonald's and who says McDonald's is bad for you?

Sorry for all the spelling errors!
David