TRAINING CAMP WITH EVIAN
This week I am staying in La Londe, west of St Tropie on the cote d’azur. I am with the Evian road club, on their ‘stage’ or training camp.
When we arrived at the accomodation, I was amazed to see many other cyclists. We are staying in a big complex, together with about 5 other road clubs, and normal tourists as well.
I have been training with the club on most days, and its good fun. They are usually going out pretty fast, and between 3-5hrs. Its amazing how many riders there are down here training at the moment. I would say we meet around 200 cyclists on the road each day!
We all eat together at a huge cafeteria which cateres for about 300 people. I’m trying not to be fussy, but the food is just terrible. I have never been much of a fan for the French cuisine, but I don’t understand how cyclists are meant to stay healthy like this!
Here is an idea of what they are eating everyday…
Breakfast: Dry baguettes that they dip into bowls of coffee (yes bowl), or hot chocolate.
Lunch & Dinner: A little bit of meat, usually covered in cheese, or butter sauce of somekind, together with a few over cooked veges and some sooky pasta. This is followed by cheese buffet (which they eat straight or with baguette), then desert buffet.
You may understand why I travel with my little cooker, and prepare my own food almost everywhere I go.
Today it was raining all day, so instead of riding, we went to the movies and saw 'catch me if you can', in French! This weekend we will race another road race, and then finally I will return home to Annecy again.
ROAD RACES IN FRANCE
Last weekend I made my first major efforts for the year by competing in three Elite 2 level races on the south of France.
21 Feb – Rochville (Cannes) – 150km
Because this was my first race for the year, Benoit asked me to pull out after 1.5hrs. This is not as easy as it may seem, because after fighting hard to stay on wheels all that time, the last thing you want to do is just stop! It was a beautiful day, and my legs were totally fresh, so it was good fun. We were averaging over 50km per hour, and the 200 strong peleton was strung out for over 1km! After 20km the race turned inland, and the hills began. I was not interested in racing too hard, so just stayed back and enjoyed the ride. At 2hrs I pulled out, and got a lift back to the hotel.
22 Feb – Vence (Nice) – 140km
This 4 lap race was nothing but climbing and decending. The pace was high again from the gun, as riders attacked one after the other on the decents. The climbs were steady, but after 3 laps I was pretty toasted. I finally finished in the 3rd group, in about 30th position… which I can be quite content with.
23 Feb – Antibe (Nice) – 135km
This 7km circuit once again had almost no flat sections, but the hills were less steep then in Vence. My legs were feeling tired, and after 10 or the 15 laps I could no longer hang on. I had to be content with some good hard training days, and seeing some more nice areas around the south of France.
