Minervois
Here is just a taste of the ride I did today…my bike will show you the view…
It was a beautiful ride…It was from a town called Minervois in the Massif Central… We climbed up from there, over the bridge, through the town and along these gorges. There was a cool natural bridge that we saw…
Chris told us that this climb is often used in the TdF, and it has the reputation of being a more frustrating climb then the Pyrenees since you never see the top… I wish Chris hadn’t told us that, because as we started the 1 hour climb, you never felt like you were going anywhere. There were no mountains, no peaks, just a constant grade that meandered up a ridge line or something. Like I said, I felt like I was riding in place.
The views were pretty, but my legs were feeling strangely absent. I thought back to my day yesterday…
- Proper 45 minute warm-up, check
- 15k TT, check
- Proper easy 1.5 hour cool down and easy spin, check
- Recovery drink, marginal
- Shoe Shopping with Sinead, check
- Touring Limoux by foot, check
- Fueling window recovery meal—absent until 8pm
Oops. Didn’t recover very good yesterday. I know better. Oh well, it was a good lesson to remind me of the important recovery protocol. The ride was beautiful anyway. We ended the ride with a great dinner at an artist’s studio. I tried to compensate by eating large portions tonight in hopes that I will be refueled for tomorrow’s race… We are headed to Bordeaux! As for now, I am confined to my bed to try to digest that meal and think about racing my bike tomorrow!
The Biggest Castle in the WORLD!
We heard a rumor that just 20k from Limoux resided the claimed, “biggest castle in the world”…. So, we had to go visit it. This walled city in Carcassone, a town very close to Limoux, contains in a 900 year old wall, as we call it, a castle within a castle, a full medieval town with a huge church in it. It was beautiful, and well worth checking out. It sits on hill overlooking the lush countryside of the Languedoc and the distant Pyrenees Mountains.
This castle was awesome…there was lots of opportunities to get yummy treats…
And an opportunity to get a new top? I am pretty sure this a top…made from chain maille…
Before we went to the castle, we had to do some sprint/attacking drills followed by a ride in the hills. Sinead and I decided to do our own interpretation of a “ride in the hill” in an exploratory fashion. In our defense, we didn’t get lost…but we were chatting as we were riding along, and climbing…climbing…and climbing… After about 40 minutes of climbing, we realized that the roads were looking strangely…unfamiliar. Where were we? We had some great conversation…but by the time we realized where we were, turned around, and rode back to Limoux, our ‘ride in the hills” took 4 hours and 40 minutes! Wow! It was a great day, but a busy day at that!
Just so you know…
At the track race, it was only my second time on a track, and only my second time getting off and on the bike.
Check out the improvement though. Maybe the skinsuit gives me super powers.
Chris might be take us to the track this week to do some testing. That could be sweet. We have a French Cup in Paris on Sunday, and another race on our way on Friday. I don’t know any of the details except that this trip does include spending two night in Bordeaux! I can’t wait! I guess the race promoter wanted us to come, so he is giving us some lodging there.
Les Pruneaux D'Agen
Another race down for the count. Les Pruneaux D’Agen. Which, I don’t know what that is in English. Basically, it was a criterium, in the town of Agen, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from Limoux. Chris Georgas, once again our fearless leader, picked us up and took us to the race. I don’t have a lot of directional understanding here in Limoux, but since we are so south, I figure we went somewhat north to get there.
It was great race conditions, according to Chris. It was raining, and cold. It was a 70k crit. 40 laps. That was the longest crit I had ever done. It took us just 1 hour and 50 minutes. There is something that is a little defeating when you look at the lap cards and you still have 33 laps to go. With 6 girls in the race, our goal was to make it hard, fast and safe. The course contained a hill that was about 500m in length, and a big ring climb. A slight downhill, a hard turn over an old bridge, and then a 180 degree turn on the descent towards the start/finish.
At the beginning of the race, we received a call up! It was my first call up EVER (and I really hope it won’t be my last). The announcer tried to interview us, but he couldn’t speak English. I just told him I was happy to be there, excited, and very cold. We attacked from the gun, and by 5 laps in, we had already created a couple of breaks that were brought back. About 5 laps in, fellow American, Megan Guarnier and fellow USA National Development rider, Devon Haskell established a 3 women break. The chase started, leaving myself, Lindsey Myers, and Sinead Miller with 4 other girls. We just sat in and covered all the attacks. One thing I learned, these girls were relentless in attacking! We had 33 laps to go, and they attacked every lap. All we had to do was grab a wheel and take a ride. As the chase continued, we lapped the rest of the field—2 times! I was trying to stay on my teammates’ wheels on the technical turns, and it was hard. Sinead has some skills on the bike, especially since she was a pro BMX rider by 14 years old! Even though the French girls were attacking and very motivated, they refused to work together. Thus, the break was going to stick.
Devon and Megan ended up dropping the other rider. Chris told us we were racing for 3rd, and with 3 laps to go, gave us the green light to attack. I was chomping at the bit to attack, so I went as hard as I could and took off up the hill. Just under 2 laps to go, I got caught. I thought I could lead Sinead out, but the final corner was an extremely technical 180 degree corner, and it was getting very slippery out. I knew Sinead could win the bunch sprint, so with 1 lap to go, I attacked again. Hopefully just to draw out some of the other riders to shred their legs a little. I jumped over the top of the hill and hammered along…my wheel slipped on turn #3, and I cautiously took the 180… I saw the 500m to the finish, and just started pretending I was doing the pursuit again. I wanted to see how fast I could go with a high cadence. And, crossed the line solo for the 3rd place finish! Sinead took 4th, and Lindsey took 5th! Wow! Team USA Femme Deveoppmente dominated the race in true fashion and style! When the announcer said my name for the podium, it was Alison StarnES.
The race finish was full of flowers, trophies and kisses. Too bad it was freezing and raining. We took some quick pictures and then Chris whisked us away for some chocolat chaude, my new favorite recovery drink for all this rainy racing. It was a great experience, and a great race. I am very proud of Les Americans!
Total Trackie
Yesterday Chris Georges took us to the outdoor track in Fiox, France. This town is about 75k from Limoux, and has one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen. In the town square, a stage of the Tour de France is often completed. What a beautiful area.
Now, I have never been on the track before. I was a little nervous. Apparently, you can’t stop pedalling, nor should you. Chris set me up on the bike. I couldn’t really figure out how to get on, and once I got rolling, I didn’t dare try to get off. An hour later, I was ready to get off, and it was pretty funny. Here is a video of my first attempt of dismounting a track bike..
First time getting off a track bike…
Chris set everyone up on bikes, and on my sweet ride, he put on aero bars and some aero equipment so I could practice the pursuit. Here is the track bike that I got to use! It is even a LOOK!
We spent all day at the track and I got to practice one time pursuit. A pursuit is a very interesting discipline for cycling. For women, it is 3k long, which is just 12 laps around the track. It is an all-out effort. You start from a stop, as you are with held by someone or a machine, you accelerate for 200m out of the saddle until you are 3-5 kph over your desired speed…then you get down in aero position and head around the track…
After our practice, Chris told us we were to be racing the track the next day! Yikes. Somewhere between the practice and the race, I got some sort of stomach bug, and I wasn’t feeling very well. I was determined to race anyway, because when ever to I have a chance to be on the track!? The cool ting about the track is that it is all very calculatable, and scientific. Everything matters. Which foot you start with, where you ride the line, and how you deliver each lap. It is fascinating the science that can go into a track race.
We drove up to Foix yesterday morning for the race. I couldn’t keep much food down, but was excited to check it out. It is an outdoor track, and it is concrete. Chris gave us our 1 hour warm-up protocol which is a brutal warm-up full of 115rpm openers. Ouch, but when your event shouldn’t take over 4 minutes…you better be good and warm before you start. Then it started raining. Rain on a track is dangerous. People started crashing, but we were still going to race. Finally it was my turn to go, and I started off (my starts are very slow and need a lot of work), my holder let me go, and then as I slooooowly accelerated, he said, “mademoiselle, go go, allez?”. I started pinning it, and thought I was about to lose what was left in my stomach. I dialled it back to a more reasonable base and finished the laps. For those of you who know my songs that get in my head…my track song yesterday was “Round and Round” by Ratt. How appropriate.
It was so much fun though! I ended up winning the pursuit, and learning a thing or two about track cycling. I almost forgot to keep pedalling when I finished my effort, and was nervous dismounting after the race as well–I had only gotten off a track bike one before! I may not be a trackie yet, but it was a blast.
Today we are headed to do a 70k criterium….
