It started off well for me as after the first few k's i found myself sitting in the front line following attacks nd wheels however i guess i got complacent as not long after i was well and truely swamped on either side just on the approach to a long straight road with.... the all time greatest hit... Crosswinds! And today these bastads were out in force trust me! So i got re-aquainted with my new friend "gutter" and proceeded to spend a fair amount of time with him in early in the race!
After managing to move up a bit, i could see that a group had clipped off the front and were starting to pull away... actually no, they had pulled away as they were very soon out of sight! A quick check on the radio and we had Clement and Matthieu in the front, with 20 others for company. This was the break for the day and gradually things calmed down behind... for a little while at least! 
We soon then hit the long open climbs of the Monts D'Arrée, well known around these parts and luckily i knew them too having spent a couple of days riding them on out early season training camp. A good positioning saw me sitting behind the Lombarden train (belgian) who weren't well represented upfront. As we headed over the tops to the exposed moors it was back int he gutter as the russian team put the hammer down. This shelled a lot of riders and we formed a first peloton and gradually started coming back to the group in front. In this group here, laurent and me survived and sat in the wheels until the finish laps where the gap was down to 40seconds, however attacks soon started left right and centre and the chase was up. The gap grew and they were away again up front. Up there, clement managed to make the front split of riders from which the 2 russians in the group (just happening to be twin brothers too!) rode away and won hand in hand! Not a bad family race memory i imagine! Clement finished 11th, and Matthieu 13th chasing on his own. I finished in the 2nd counter attack behind the break so somewhere between 30th/35th. I rolled across the line conserving what was left in the tank for round 2 tomorrow!
Sunday then was Boucles Guégonnaises, another elite race with the a similar field to the day bafore with the belgians and the russians staying over for the party. A full field of 205 riders rolled out for 105 km en ligne followed by 8 laps of 7+km. The plus side about todays race was that i wouldnt be seeing so much of yesterdays friend and the wind had dropped considerably!
So pretty much from the flag a group of 12 went away, we had one rider there, Enric, so we sat in behind as the break wasnt too much to worry about with several bigger teams having missed it, including Cotes D'Armor, 2 of the Belgians outfits.They pulled out to 3mins 30 before any riding really took place in which time i had a little "crevaison" (puncture) and dropped back for that. As the pace was slow i wound my way back through the cars nice and easily with several riders who had taken the same moment to have a "nature break". After about 75km the race started to hot up with a succesion of hard hills to get over. The pace on the front caused a split in the peloton with all of us making the front group confortably. These hills then lead us on to the finish circuit where the real war started. Infront, our man popped and eventually found himself abandoning from cramps, but his job was done, allowing us to sit in easy behind. As the finish laps passed i found myself getting stronger and did some towing on the fron to bring back a couple of moves and having the odd dig to bridge a gap of attack. But it was all together behind with 2laps to go, and there were still 4 riders left out front from the original break... long day in the wind for those lads! A small break crept away then as we neared the finish hill, a 5/600metre uphill drag to the line, i decided to torture mylegs for a while to get across to a good looking attack of a few big hitters. I got across after nearly the line however attacks ruined any sort of chance of us staying away. I kept on going with a few riders and found myself in 3rd wheel down the back straight with the bunch lined out behind. A short little hill followed on which i had one last big dig to see if i could break some elastic behind however 2 russian riders found their way with me, one infront, one behind. As the one infront (yesterdays winning brother) put the hammer down i started to lost his wheel and looked back to flick on the rider behind who just happened to be his brother/team mate who gave me a shake of the head which i took as "your on your own son!" As i proceeded to pop, several riders came past and it regrouped at about 2km out, sitting about 10seconds behind the leading 4 still. This lull allowed me to get back into the mix and as close to the front as i could before it hit the finish drag where all i could do was followed wheels and rolled in for 29th. The bunch caught the break on the line however 3 of the 4 held onto the top 3 places and the 4th was swallowed up in the last several metres! Pretty gutting for him i imagine. So the winner for the day was a Belgian, followed by a different russian, and our first rider was Vincent in 12th place. We would normally have tried to set the sprint up for resident sprinter Yann LeQuéau but he fell heavily on saturdays race and was happy to finish sunday (he did pretty well to even finish seeing as he properly stacked in on saturday, snapping his handlebars in half after hitting some road furniture... according to him he was looking away chatting to another rider at the time!!)
So another weekend passed and another weekend of improvement. I was happy with how it went however i know from how my legs were at the end of sundays race that i can be aiming for at least top 20's in all these races now. Just have to ride more intelligently i think!
So up next is another elite race this wednesday (tomorrow!), and only one race this weekend, Pontivy, on sunday. This not being an elite race, only 1,2,3 i should be in for a good result.
Also some good news this weekend, i got my place confirmed for the Tour of Brittany which i am very happy about! This being a preliminary goal for my early season. So everything is now leading up towards that, racing/training... bring it on!
O and the good weather is back this week. Dont think it will be as hot as before but sun is out all weel apparently so that is enough for me!
Keep following,
Tom
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