La Grande Finale de Francais

So today, I am heading back to where it all began, Belgium. France has been an amazing time. Its very sad to leave this beautiful country, and I will surely miss the people I have met in my short 11 days that I have been here. The riding has been excellent which is exactly what I needed after some real character testing on the cobbles of Belgium. My experience of kermesse racing can pretty much be summed up in just a few words, "no 2.5hrs of riding in the US can compare." Until you have done it, its hard to fully realize all that I have been mentioning in my writing. Its just completely different, from not knowing what teams are "good," which riders to follow, what the hell the announcer is saying, what the hell the riders around you are yelling about, and of course the most beat-up golf cart path roads to ride on. Its good that I did it because it has certainly added to my repertoire as a well-rounded rider which is what I want to be. Too many people what to feel they are specialist. Perhaps you can call yourself a specialist when you are making a ProTour salary but until you reach that point, you should be trying as many different types of racing and training in a variety of conditions to make yourself as rounded as possible. The truth of the matter is, specialists don't win the greatest of races and their successes are limited.

Now that I am off my soapbox, I could definitely tell how much better my body responded to the racing and riding in France. I know that the intensity of the Belgian cobbles certainly played a key roll in my ability to withstand higher intensities for longer periods that I could prior. Effectively, my pain tolerance went leaps forward. I have also seen my flat all-out power output increase as well, which is something I have always struggled with as a rider. Not to mention my awareness in the peloton and just the style of riding, ie everything is always fast. Case in point, my descending skills were a little weak when I first arrived in France which I attribute to not descending for over a month, but my bike handling in the kermesses did improve. After a few descents in the La Mure cyclosportiv, I could immediately see an increase in my ability to choose faster lines, brake less, and carry far more speed that I ever did in CA. The most notable change was jumping out of every switchback and jamming it as hard as i could to get back to speed. I occasionally did before leaving for Belgium, but now its just instinct.

During yesterday's 174km Vaujany cyclosportiv with 3800m of vertical, we went through some wicked fast descents. At the top of every col, the race directors would post a sign that said, "decente dangeroux," which translates to me as "awesome, we have a fast, technical descent." The most enjoyable descent was the Col de Ornon. At some parts of the descent there is just a 1.5ft barrier wall with a good 400ft straight dropoff. Then you throw in lots of chicanes, off-camber switchbacks on 10% grade and autos on the road, as well as many french and dutch cyclists, it makes for a hairraising experience for most but a rush for me. Yes mom, I always wear my helmet and I only push it to like 95% completely dangerous...leaving that 5% range of error =)

I ended up riding the entire route except for the last climb with the Brit, Allistair. He complimented me on my descending skills and noted that other riders where scared at the speed I was taking. YES, success!

The race itself was really good. I am pretty interested in seeing the SRM data from the ride b/c I was putting out some sick wattages on the climbs and on the flats throughout the entire ride. Only until the last 5km climb of 8-10% did I really hit the wall, but its probably a combination of drilling it at 40-45k/h on the flats for the 20km before the climb and the lack of proper food while riding(more on that later..) The race started out really funny and chaotic. I say race but it was just a Cyclosportiv but its never just a casual ride. Over 2000 riders competed. I was in the 2nd group to leave. We all wore timing chips so its not a complete non-competitive event. There were about a 100 riders in my group. It felt like the world championships for the first 15km which was basically all a slight descent to the first climb. Guys were attacking and jockying for position. Obviously, a little too much ego going into the event when 3800m and 160km more of riding exist. I played it cool, like a pro, and just let these guys beat themselves to death while I tucked really low and just cruised by in my super-aero descending mode. One guy pulled over to the side and was gasping for breath. Not a good sign for the rest of the day. When we hit the first climb it was time to have fun. I always seemed to start in the back of the climb then just roll up the climb in a pretty good tempo and just watch the people ride backwards with agony in their faces. One rider in a full Colnago kit and bike was on my wheel for about 8km of the 18km climb. He was trying his hardest to hold on but the breathing noises he made were a good indication that he was going to blow and he did, big time. Now we have all been there, and I although I enjoyed just dropping everybody on the climbs with a smile on my face and polite, "bonjour!" as I rode by, I know the suffering they are going through b/c I have gone through it and still do, for instance my climb up the Galibier last Wed. Marco Pantani, a great italian climber, told his parents after they questioned him as a kid why he is always at the back of the climb at the start, and his responded, "i enjoy watching people suffer as I ride by them." Now thats an incredibly sick philosophy, but its really funny. Before I started the cyclosportiv, I told the Brits that I was just treating it as a good training ride and wasn't going to go from the gun. I did my best to not treat it as a race and strictly make it a hard training ride by jamming up the climbs and just testing my legs. Allistair complained a little bit at the pace I was setting so that made me a little happy.

During one part of the ride, there were 5 of us in a group, and I am pulling this guys for several kms at 50k/h and these three knuckleheads attack me as I elbow them to pull around. Geez! I pull you along at 50k/h, far faster than you can ride then you attack me and throw off the paceline. Unbelievable! They would suffer later on. We stopped at most of the food and water stops which allowed all the "racers" to pass us, but by midway up the climb, they would be riding backwards as I politely rode by and said, "bonjour!" with my wide grinned mouth. I think some people must have been totally devastated b/c we passed them back like 3-4 times over the ride.

Now to the food situation. We woke up just before 6am with our "race" to start at 7:15. I ate two bowls of muesli with milk and one with yogurt. I knew I had to pack some calories but it proved to be disasterous for the first 3hours of the ride. Basically, I felt I wanted to vomit for the first 3 hours. Now most persons of reasonable sanity would say, "Maybe I should stop what I am doing." I decided to suffer through it. It would be a proper training ride if I didn't punish my body, and I paid 38Euro for my entry which was the primary condition for riding while I wanted to hurl. With my 38Euro, I got a bag of goodies that included arm warmers, meal ticket, and a french velo magazine. Since our ride left, and not wanting to lose my french cycling magazine or my cheap arm warmers, i decided to carry the bag with was probably 2kg with all the junk in it for the first 80km. Finally I handed it off at the summit of the Col de Ornon to Helyn from King of the Mountains. I thought I would see her later at the meal b/c her husband, Guy, was riding the vent as well. Unfortunately, I didn't find her and I am w/o my arm warmers and velo mag which I can't really understand. I guess its just part of the sacrafices I make to save a few grams on the bike, some might think I was being a weight weeny for chucking the bag to save a little bit. I'm okay with that.

At the finish, they had typically french faire: julliened carrots, brie, baguettes, a small bit of pasta, and some mushroom risotto. I opted for like 4 cups of coke when I finished b/c my stomach was not really into it. during the ride, I ate 2 cereal bars, some dried apricots, dried pineapples and small piece of baguette. Not very intelligent for a 174km race. But the feeling of vomiting in the French countryside peaked its head out throughout the entire ride. While sitting at our table, a dutch rider sat with us who had tried holding onto us on the descent of the Col de Saronne. He was tall guy like myself. He had a his full Francaise des Jeux kit. Most dutch go with the Rabobank kit but he said he preferred the white kit. I guess its logical to wear white while riding in Holland. It doesn't rain there right? Ever? He started talking to me, and complimented me on my riding. He said, "I looked so smooth going up the climbs and its just looked too easy for me." I told him I do train a lot but its still hurts, but I have learned to tolerate it better. I gave him some advice on improving his climbing. Basically, to be a good climber, you need to have a high tolerance for pain, or atleast tolerate it for more than 15-20min and if you are doing Alpine cols, 30-45min or more. I suggested that he try to start doing 15min intervals at the highest heartrate/power level he can hold then repeat it after a 15min break. Slowly working his way up to 30min max intervals. And try to do it once a week. He was very appreciative of the advice. Hopefully it will work for him. But I felt like a million dollars when he commented on how smooth I looked while climbing. Good motivation and sign my fitness has gained.

I finished the "race" in 68th overall with a time of 6:57:50 for the 174km course. I estimate I stopped for about 20min for food and water. I was the top American finisher! I don't know that statistics of the other american riders but I am sure they composed of atleast 30% of the field....riiigggghhhtttt. But I achieved my "Gold Diploma" for my ride. The winners were just below 6 hours.

After the race, I went back to Bourg d'Oisons and went to a pizzeria with Diana after taking in a free drink from the BO tourist office. Some sort of liquor drink. As I mentioned dinner was going to be a celebration and a little cutting loose after my many weeks of hard training. For me that means, drinking some wine and ordering desert at dinner....I know hold your breath for the excitement. The previous bottle of French wine I bought was from Bordeaux which has good wines but their inexpensive ones are no dice according to a french teacher Diana use to have. She said that Cote de Rhone has very good inexpensive wines. So went searching at the Casino for a bottle. Open alcohol laws don't typically apply in france so we sat on a concrete step and had a plastic cup of the goodness. Neither of us had a corkscrew so using hand signals and my charm I got a pizzeria owner to let me borrow his corkscrew. He happily obliged. Despite knowing very, very little French I managed pretty well during my trip. We then went to a pizzeria and each ordered pizza. Pizzas here, as I assume they are similar in Italy are very thin crust and are ideal for one person, not like the american version, or the Chicago style which could solve world hunger. As part of my letting loose and trying to take in the full french culture, I ordered a crepe chocolat, nutella which is a crepe with nutella in the inside. It was pretty tasty and allowed me to check it off of things to see, do and eat while on my trip. And with still quite a bit of wine left, the opportunity to "drink wine on park bench at night" presented itself so we drank the rest of the bottle on French park bench. It was total class and everything that you read about in all the great american impressions and stories of france. Finally, I was living those stories. It was true class and the true "french experience." i brought my bike to Bourg d'Oisons to ride back after meeting up with Diana. Unfortunately her hotel locked my bike up in their bike storage. So the rest of the story and the whipped cream on the French experience sundae.

It was midnight, raining, and I had 10km to my hotel. Doing that math and my detailed history of long walks in Chicago as anyone who knows me and my, "its just a few more blocks" walks, I estimated it would take me about 1.5-1.75 hours. So I set off in the rain...Being a ski village in the winter time, and being Europe you routinely see people asking for rides. You could call these people "hitchhikers." As I have said earlier, I wanted to entire French experience. So after watching these "hitchhikers" techniques in previous days I gave it wurl. After many failed attempts, by km 5 my persistence amidst the adversity and previous failures I found success. A guy pulled over in a van and I was hitching my first ride in Europe. The experience left me breathless for the entire 1km of my experience as the road split and the driver was going the opposite way. I tried not to smile too much during the "hitchhiking" but it was difficult b/c I knew I had completed another French experience. I got out after the experience feeling so money then I had to walk 4.5km uphill. Arrival: 1:36am at hotel w/o bike.

I was hoping to meet Diana and her mother for an authentic "French breakfast" at 7:30 this morning but the hotel owners weren't very keen on giving me a quick lift to town. It was a little stressful b/c the bus left at 8:34am and I had to get my bike from her hotel and it was 8:10 when we left my hotel. Nevertheless, I made it b/c I am writing to you while going 300km/h on the TGV to Paris. The weather in Grenoble was pretty bad this morning with heavy rain. Not very enjoyable for riding but it was a bittersweet experience. I have really enjoyed the riding the Alps and sharing laughs with Diana. But the french experience felt pretty complete b/c I I took so much in and met a really great girl while out riding. There is still more I would like to do, but thats just extra motivation for me to plan my next adventure. Now its time to eat my cheese baguette and enjoy 300km/h of TGV engineering....

Au Revoir,
Matthew