Racing in France
The Journey:
After 4 weeks in Belgium, on the 27th of August,
I boarded the train to France for a few days of racing and training with the
reserve team of AVC Aix-en-Provence. Somewhere in the 4th hour of
the 5.5 hour journey, I got really excited when I realized I was chasing my
dream of racing and cheese tasting in France. The very next moment I felt deeply
grateful and lucky for the support I’d received from countless friends and
family members to do so. Damn, there are onion-cutting ninjas in my room.
On arriving at the Aix-en-Provence TGV station, I made my
way to the bus stand. My Inspector Clouseau mode was ON, after hearing the
horror stories of pickpockets being a-plenty in France as I took the bus to the
city.
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| Not this mode, but I did blend in as much as possible |
The GPS app displayed that the youth hostel where I was
staying to be 1.5kms from the bus station in the city and I decided to walk
there thinking “How hard can it be?”. Turns
out lugging a bike box for 45mins can be more taxing on one’s arms than
expected and it was not made easier by the small 200 metres rise towards the
end which felt tougher than a HC climb.
I arrived at the youth hostel and started setting up my bike
only to realize in horror a few minutes later that I had forgotten my pedals back
in Belgium. After a brief anxiety-attack and a glass of cold water, I messaged
my team manager and was comforted when informed that the team had spare pedals
but I’d have to wait for a couple of days till I could get my hands on them. *sighs sadly*
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| Here's Robbie displaying accurately how I felt during those 2 days |
2 very long days later, I met my team manager and visited
the team service course to meet the rest of the staff who were all extremely
welcoming. I got the pedals I was in much need of and was also given a tour of
the team’s facility and 90+ years of history. But then disappointed to learn
that there were only 2 more races left in the season there. The same day, I
moved to a studio apartment and was delighted to have my own kitchenette, plus
the swimming pool in the facility was a much welcomed bonus!
In the first ride there, I was awed by the beautiful scenery
of Provence and felt so so good to finally hit some climbs after 3 weeks of
riding in Flatland of Belgium. My first race was in 5 days’ time, so I decided to
hit as many climbs as possible and when my teammates asked me if I was
interested to join them on a ride up the Mt. Ventoux, I tagged along without
hesitation.
Ventoux Day:
Riding up the Ventoux has been one of the most painful yet
exhilarating experience so far. The 22kms climbs starts of easy, with everyone
first-timer thinking “Oh, this isn’t too bad. This feels similar to the cat 3
climb I do back home, only longer”. But when the gradient clicks up as we enter
the forest, one is always found gritting his/her teeth and grinding the granny
gear for the next 9kms which average 9.5%. At the Chalet-Raynaert check point,
the gradient “eases” back to 6% till the final 500m when it goes up to 11%.
The summit is at 1900m and is freezing cold. Surprisingly
though, the 1.5hrs spent grinding up, went by like 15mins! With the head
feeling not so taxed, I decided to ride the 90km journey back home. Passing
through quaint French towns, riding in bike paths in the beautiful Provence
forests, passing through the beautiful lavender fields and nearly passing out
on the final cat 3 ascent back to my hotel room (With. The..Last kilometre…Never….Seeming…..to……end)
made this day the second most memorable I’ve had on the bike.
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| Life's a climb, but the summit makes for a good photo-op! |
The Racing:
“Yellow weather warning – Strong winds
in the afternoon” was what accuweather.com reported the next day as
I headed out to check out the course of my first race a couple of days later. “Well,
at least it’s not red” - I said to myself and headed out to check out the two
cat2 climbs in the course.
As I exited city limits, the wind gained speed and was
rocking trees violently due to the force of the fiery winds. And the deeper I
rode into the countryside, the harder the conditions were getting. As I exited
the tree line, my bike was rocking violently.
I can't wait till I have grandchildren, “When I was
youngster, training & racing in France, I rode up 7% climbs while facing
headwinds of 50kmph! Headwinds, ya little brat! Did ya hear me, of 50kmph!”. Of
course, I’m not gonna tell them I was doing so at 9kmph.
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| Came across this signboard while recceeing the course! |
A quick recovery day which involved me nearly blacking out
while skypeing my folks due to the tiredness later, I lined up for my first race
at GP Puyloubier. When the Garmin displayed the temperature as 43 degrees at
the start line, I knew I was in for a tough ride. The race was 5 laps of the
15.5 kms course with the headwind-cat-2 climb right at the beginning.
The heat plus the fatigue of the last few days resulted in
me having one of the worst days on the bike and I got dropped before the start
of the second lap. I returned my BIB numbers and was feeling less bad on seeing
in lap 3 that there were only 15 or so riders remaining in the race from the 60
starters. “Onto the next” as my coach says.
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| Pinning on my numbers at Puyloubier. One of those days spent in the hurt locker. |
Return to Ventoux:
I took advantage of the warm weather and plenty of climbs
all around Aix-en-Provence and logged in 17.5hours of riding in the next six
days. On my penultimate day of riding in France I headed to a race at Bedoin
with my teammate David. If you are a bike racing geek like moi, you’d realize
that Bedoin is the town at the base of Mt.Ventoux. That race involved a neutral
zone around the base of the climb and then a race from the bottom to the top!
F: “hey man, how’s it goin?”
Me: “Who are you?”
F: “I’m fatigue. Just thought I’d catch up with ya”
Me: *Gulp*
In the neutral section, I felt like my legs were jelly but
was pleasantly surprised on hearing that former Tour de France KOM winner
Laurent Jalabert was also doing the race. Once the flag got dropped, David
surged to the front and lifted the pace as he was aiming for a wind and PB that
day. 3kms in -
Me: “How long before I should drop from the front bunch to
avoid a burnout?”
F: “3kms ago!!!”
I did drop back a few seconds later and saw 10-12 riders
pass up ahead. In the second bunch, I was mildly distracted by my inner fan
girl as Jalabert came up and began setting the pace. At the 5km mark, we enter
the forest region and the gradient kicks up. I quickly found a good rhythm.
Having changed into a bigger cassette than the last time, I was able to
maintain a higher cadence of 70rpm!
The next hour and 20minutes were spent
being dropped by “Jaja”, then catching up with him before being dropped again
and then catching up. Again.
The last 2kms, were more of a mental battle than a physical
one as I struggled to fight away fatigue and lactic acid. With black spots
appearing in the edge of my eyesight, I had trouble maintaining a proper line
ascending. The recognizable lighthouse at the summit, was my northern star as
sweat swept into my eyes and the sheer hurt spreading through all the neurons
as I emptied the tank in the final 600 metres. I hit the lap button and a
warmth of joy came about as I realised I had beat my previous timing by 5 whole
minutes!
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| All's well that ends with a PB! |
After the descent, my teammate suggested we do a 65-70km
spin around the mountain as it was a beautiful place to ride. I signed up,
wrongly assuming it would be flat. 11kms into the ride-
David: “this is where the first climb begins.”
Me (in horror): “There are climbs in this route? This is the
first?”
David: “Yup, one cat1 climb and one cat2 climb”
5.5hrs, 3350m of elevation gain and 20mins spent in a bonk
on the ascent up Mt. Ventoux from the rear, later, I finally made it to the
parking lot where we had parked the car. After a quick lunch, it was back to
the hotel.
On the last ride the next day, I took in the sights of
Aix-en-Provence, which has been the most beautiful and the second hottest
(Chennai tops the list) place I’ve ridden in so far.
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| Even the sky seemed breath-taking at "Aix"! |
Packing my bike box and bags, I was a bit sad to say goodbye
to the climbs and stunning scenery but was excited to head back into the
comfortable bikepaths of Belgium and the madness of kermesse racing, both of
which when used right ought to be the perfect preparation for the national
championships scheduled for the 2nd week of November.
