Tour de Bretagne wrap up

For the first time this season I think I can honestly say that I loved every minute of Stage 3, the 129km road race. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed many other races this season, but this was the first time that everything just seemed to flow and feel good and I was totally loving racing! After a bit of a rocky start to my season, finally things seem to be coming good again!

Stage 3 was billed as the toughest stage of the Tour de Bretagne and it didn't disappoint! There was even a wee "mountain" thrown in there that took everyone by surprise! It was this that saw a decisive split in the race. Hitting the sharp incline after a fast descent was met with crunching gears and a fair few shrieks as girls dropped their chains or struggled with the ascent. Around 30 riders regrouped at the top and rode on towards the finishing circuit. It was a fairly steady pace on the undulating roads and I think everyone was taken by surprise when suddenly the group swelled in numbers as a large group of riders caught us. This large group remained to the finishing circuit and as soon as we reached the "circuit arrivé" sign, the memories from last year came flooding back. This was the same circuit as Stage 1 from the 2013 tour. Far hillier than the profile in the race manual would have you believe, the group gradually thinned out as the demands of the circuit took it's toll.

Hitting the flyover climb on the last lap, a few riders attacked. The group lined out but eventually came back together with around 3km to go. At this point position was key as there was a fast descent followed by a 90 degree right hander that took you onto the finishing straight with 500m to go. We were lapping riders at this point so a few sketchy moments before we hit the straight for the sprint finish. I managed to hang on with the group and finished 32nd, a result that moved me up to 39th on GC. It was all smiles after the race with most of the team having had a good race and pretty buzzing! 

Final stage and we headed for the coast. Team morale was good, despite tired legs. Race underway and pretty soon there was an attack. This was closely followed by another from Louise from Epic-Scott, who bridged to the initial attack. Another 4 or 5 riders made the breakaway and they opened up a decent gap. We were all hoping Louise would stay away, a very brave move going so early in the race, total respect! 

I think the finish of this final circuit was the toughest!! A hard climb of 300-400m, which might not sound a lot, but when your legs are screaming and your lungs are burst, trying to sprint uphill feels like you are riding on a double puncture!! Going into the penultimate lap, the yellow jersey hit the front and ramped up the pace on the climb. I couldn't quite stay with this though, which was pretty disappointing given there was only 10km to go. Crossing the finish line, I knew I'd given it everything I had though, so had to be happy with the result. It was such an ace week riding with the Epic-Scott team, thanks guys (Phil, Alex, Sam, Molly, Hannah, Anna, Mel, Louise). 

Looking back to last year, this was big progress! I finished 40th on GC in comparison to 79th last year and by a much smaller time margin from the yellow jersey this year compared to last. Ok so 40th might not sound all that good but the way I rode each stage and the confidence that I can take out of the whole race is really going to help me for the future! I'd love to return next year!!

After a week and a bit back home, I'm on my travels again, this time to Stafford for the Women's National Series. Next weekend it's the RideLondon GP, with none other than Marianne Vos, exciting times!!

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Jools. 

Ride of attrition

3 stages down, 2 to go. After the prologue only seconds were in it on GC. That was all to change after Stage 1...

Starting and finishing in St Meen Le Grand, the race headed out for 90km before returning to the town for five laps of a 5km finishing circuit. This was like two races in one, a road race and then a crit! As we chilled out before the start, the temperature just kept rising and rising! When we rolled out it was something like 34 degrees, which would then top out at 38 degrees during the race!!! 

With Anna Christian on one of the climbs. Thanks to Owen Philipson for the photo :)

The first queen of the mountains (QOM) came after only 13km so positioning right from the start was important. The pace was fairly steady nothing too rapid, other than after a crash going uphill (?..) where I did a bit of bunnyhopping the kerb to get round and then bit of an effort to close the gap to the top of the hill. Riding in extreme heat when you're not used to it (I mean we're lucky if we get into the 20s in the North East of Scotland!!) saps your energy and makes it even harder to stay switched on. Waves of heat go through your body and its nigh on impossible to keep cool. By the time we reached the first feed at 50km I'd drunk a full bottle and most of the second, so was almost ecstatic when I safely collected a fresh bottle of water from our soigneur. Some teams had the luxury of multiple feeds along the course where they could collect a couple of bottles at a time, one to drink and the other to pour over their head. If you happened to catch a few drops of spray as they did this, the momentary splash of cool water hitting your skin was like pure heaven!!!

Feeding from the team car during the race is also allowed. You just stick your arm in the air holding your bottle and the commissaire radios to your team car to come up to the back of the bunch for a feed. You drop back behind the commissaire car to get a bottle/gel etc. I'm never really sure about doing this but needs must and desperation for water had started to set in so I stuck my bottle in the air and got ready to drop back. Most of my team mates had the same idea so Molly came to our rescue and dropped back to the car. As she did this though the pace started to ramp up and the bunch lined out. We heard later that as she was back at the car putting bottles into her jersey Phil had shouted don't take any more! She glanced up and saw a gap had opened up to the next car as the pace had gone up. Thankfully though she made it back to the bunch weighed down with all the spare bottles, thanks Molly!!

A break had gone up the road and we were getting time checks from the motorbike. As we neared the circuit we picked up some of the breakaway, which left one lone rider. She was to hold on to her lead to take the win with 11 seconds on the bunch sprint for second. The finishing circuit rode a bit like a crit and the pace for the first few laps was pretty hard! There was an intermediate sprint with 3 laps to go, after which it settled down a bit. Coming into the last lap, the heat had finally started to really bite and having missed the last opportunity to feed (you're not allowed to feed within the last 20km), I was down to rationing the last few drops of water. There was a stretch where it was quite windy and when gaps opened up I just didn't have the legs to close it. Hayley (my Velosport-Pasta Montegrappa team mate) and I ride in together, finishing just over a minute down on the leader. I was pretty gutted not to have had the legs to stay with the bunch to the end but on reflection this was a big improvement to last year where I only managed to stay with the bunch once! The whole team all rode really well and survived the heat, albeit with varying degrees of dehydration!!

Stage 2 and it was a big relief that it was the individual TT day. Quite short at 11km, we did a recce of the course after lunch. It wasn't too technical with nice long stretches where you could really put the power down. I sound a bit like a tester, hmm not really my strong point but gave it full effort regardless! I think it's a year since I'd last ridden with TT bars (it was this race last year in fact) so the position felt a bit alien! Overall I guess I was happy enough with how I did and really happy for a fellow Brit, Sarah Storey, to take the win! Chapeau Sarah, awesome ride!!

Onto today and Stage 3, 126km RR. The race rolls out from our accommodation so we've had the luxury of a pretty chilled out morning, before lunch and race start at 2pm. 

Until next time au revoir,

Jools. 

Back at Bretagne

A year on from what was my very first UCI race and only my second ever stage race, I'm back in France for the Tour de Bretagne Feminin. Such a contrast in emotions to last year!! I'm excited, but also a wee bit nervous although I like a bit of nerves as part of my race prep. Last year though I was just super nervous full stop!!!  So this year I'm guesting for Epic-Scott WRT. Need to say a big big thank you to the team for the opportunity to race here again, thanks guys!! 

When I started writing this post I realised that it's been ages since my last one!! Almost 3 months I think...and I think to say those 3 months have been a complete rollercoaster sums it up best! To recap really quickly I've raced Energiewacht Tour and Omloop van Borsele in Holland, Dwars door de Westhoek and Trofee Maarten Wynants in Belgium, the Scottish and British National Road Races and Surf and Turf and Curlew Cup in the British Women's National Series. Lots and lots of travelling but it's been a blast! So I guess the racing and fun times that come along with that encapsulates the highs. I've learnt loads, had some good performances and some not so good ones but above all else just been loving riding my bike! There has been one very significant low though...Not being selected for Team Scotland for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. To say I'm absolutely gutted is an understatement and I don't think this hurt will ever totally go away. Now isn't the time to blog about this though, maybe one day...

So back to France and today is the 2.3 km prologue. Short and sharp to kick off the racing before the first road stage tomorrow of 120km. At the moment I think the sun god is being kind as it's not as scorching hot as last year! Just a nice temperature to have a wee team spin before we set off for the prologue start. 

Thanks to Ali for the frame number holder, it's first outing! :)

Will try to update during the week and not be such a stranger to this blog as I've been!

Thanks for reading and catch you soon,

Jools.