well i made it across the water and survived the grueling 6hr drive from Dieppe - Brest, it is grueling sitting in the passenger sleep nodding off then just as you do you get woken upp to get a ticket from the toll machines! having found the team service course in town, the club president, Directeur sportif and more came down to meet and greet. they showed us round what turned out to be a huge and impressive building and then we sorted out some minor details and contract stuff then got down to the important bit... getting out my new bike! we went down so the workshop and there she sat, sleeping in the bike stand, dura ace gleaming! the car was so crammed full of my stuff that it almost didnt fit in so nearly had to say goodbye as soon as saying hello! but with a bit of tetris skills we managed to re-jig my food parcels etc and get going again. The rest of the day we were so knackered after the travelling, and about 3hrs sleep ont he ferry, we just kicked back in the travelodge place and had an early nite after dinner.
Wednesday morning we headed back for home... Quimper. and were treated to the standard Brittany weather of RAIN! still good to be back though.
Went to the appartement to pick up the key and check it out only to find that the electricity had been cut off! a few phone calls around and to edf energy and i had an appointment set up for friday afternoon for them to come turn it back on. Sorted. Luckily i have a mate on the same road who has said i'm welcome to stay round his whenever i want so will be taking him up on that one soon!
me and dad went out for a nice steady ride in the avo and the rain did hold off for most of it. we headed inland to a nice town called Chateaulin and grabbed some lunch. only asked for 2 tuna sandwiches but what we got was 2 huge baguettes full, a good 2foot each!! on the way back we headed over one of the local lumps and that got dad breathing a bit and asking where the top was! i was just spinning of course ;-) no problems with the bike apart from bars need dropping but apart from that it was great. Very light, felt stiff and handled really well. a big change from my winter hacker! So nice to be riding dura ace again, its soo smooth that stuff especially brand new!
This weekend was a local training camp for the team to get to know each other and to get in some group miles. 4hrs Saturday 5hrs Sunday was on the plan. Made a nice change to go out training without 2tons of food/puncture repair kit / food dragging me down all day as the team car followed us all day. After 2hrs steady riding Saturday we stopped for a quick chat with the DS and I half understood what he was implying… basically now its going to get hard! What followed was some pain followed by a tad more pain! How it worked was 2riders attacked and worked together with everybody else in pairs riding steady behind the team car, then when the gap was about 10-15seconds, Yvon (DS in car) honked horn for next 2 to attack and bridge across, then when you bridge you do hard through and off to hold the gap. This is repeated until everyone is in front of the car again. Unfortunately for me he set me off in one of the last pairs so I could watch for a bit first, however this meant the number of people infront going hard was more making it harder to get across… but we did it… eventually! We then did 15mins steady then repeated this 3more times. Not a bad work out by the end. Oh yea then he threw in another leg breaker… he pulled infront of the group so we were on the bumper then he gradually accelerated until everyone had dropped off the back!! That was painful! Felt like you were doing a ramp test as it just gradually got quicker! I cant remember when I got dropped but I was well up there with the last few riders so wasn’t to shabby. 
We then rolled back to the service course building to shower and have a little treat… some of our new kit!! This made all the hard work worth it! We got the Ekoi team helmets and glasses, the mavic team road shoes and jumpers/jackets to make us look like the dogs… when we roll up to the races ready to dominate!
We all then went out for a nice meal followed by some well earner sleep!
Sunday was a bit steadier as it was a longer ride and there were lots of sore legs! The ride included some sets of hard through and off for 10-15mins but there were only 6/7 of us doing it, and we were pre-selected to ride. I think that it was a good thing to be selected as it was the stronger more experienced ones doing the work so I was happy to join and give it some!
We got back after another good ride and were greeted with a bit of a feast set up ready for us! Tuck in boys! All in all a good weekend and I’m looking forward to the next one in 2weeks! The lads on the team all made me feel really welcome and I was laughing and joking with many of them so I know its going to be a good season team wise, and also they are bloody strong too! The elderly head of the team, arnaud le boulanger (brother to pro yoann le boulanger) is a top bloke and was cracking everyone up from the off but behind his funny persona you can tell he knows how to ride and doesn’t hold back from telling others too!
Today I’m chilling a bit as I’ve got a bit of a sore knee after the weekend so ill just do a gentle spin to see how it feels but as I’m writing this, snow is starting to come down quite heavily!! Might have to put out the sledge instead then!!
Ok, will update again soon,
Keep pedalling, A la prochaine,
Tom
We then rolled back to the service course building to shower and have a little treat… some of our new kit!! This made all the hard work worth it! We got the Ekoi team helmets and glasses, the mavic team road shoes and jumpers/jackets to make us look like the dogs… when we roll up to the races ready to dominate!
We all then went out for a nice meal followed by some well earner sleep!
Sunday was a bit steadier as it was a longer ride and there were lots of sore legs! The ride included some sets of hard through and off for 10-15mins but there were only 6/7 of us doing it, and we were pre-selected to ride. I think that it was a good thing to be selected as it was the stronger more experienced ones doing the work so I was happy to join and give it some!
We got back after another good ride and were greeted with a bit of a feast set up ready for us! Tuck in boys! All in all a good weekend and I’m looking forward to the next one in 2weeks! The lads on the team all made me feel really welcome and I was laughing and joking with many of them so I know its going to be a good season team wise, and also they are bloody strong too! The elderly head of the team, arnaud le boulanger (brother to pro yoann le boulanger) is a top bloke and was cracking everyone up from the off but behind his funny persona you can tell he knows how to ride and doesn’t hold back from telling others too!
Today I’m chilling a bit as I’ve got a bit of a sore knee after the weekend so ill just do a gentle spin to see how it feels but as I’m writing this, snow is starting to come down quite heavily!! Might have to put out the sledge instead then!!
Ok, will update again soon,
Keep pedalling, A la prochaine,
Tom
