Stage One was a bad day on my part. It started off well when i got across to the break about 30kms in but only to hit the first climb a couple of k's later and have no power on the climb... needless to say i got shelled with a few others and then started a long chase. We held the gap we had lost after the climb but couldn't close it so i sat up and waited for the counter which i heard was coming across with a Matthieu and Vincent in it. Once this group caught us the speed died off and no one really took control, with attacks going off all the time. I wasnt feeling in any way in good shape and was happy just to sit in and follow wheels. As we hit the finish circuits i punctured and with the team car up the road behind one of the splits with Vincent i was left with a crappy slow wheel change and then left on the road as the car sped off before i could even ask for a tow!
I chased for a bit but knew i was going nowhere. After several k's i got caught by the break as they put a lap into me. I finished off my last lap alone and pissed off, and came in about 10minutes down on the winner where as the group i was in when i punctured finished only around 3-4mins down. At least i wasnt in the Grupetto which arrived after i was changed and leaving in one of the team cars... at about 35mins down!
The following stage TT i did at about 90% as i was already way down on GC and knew there wasnt any chance of a top 10 given the lack of form.
Stage 3 came down to a sprint behind a late break of 8, where i shut my eyes and got my elbows out to give the sprint a shot! I managed to hold the wheel of the Espoir French Champ behind his UC Nantes Atlantique leadout train and burnt him in the sprint to come 20th. Not too bad and would have been better had there not been a following car turning off the finish straight as we arrived causing the bunch to get dead tight and i lost a fair few places as im not exactly used to doing the sprints but i still enjoyed it! The winner was a Mr Samuel Plouhinec, the national french amateur champion, who also won the TT the day before, still on awesome form after winning the national champs 10days previously.
The final stage, was an interesting one, 170km with some hard climbs in and several ridersla close on the GC. I got in a couple of early moves but nothing was really sticking. As we hit the finish circuits for the final 30odd kms the race had come back together and on the first of 3times up the short but very sharp climb round the back of the circuit Clem got away with 2others, one of which was at 2seconds on GC. The yellow jersey only had one team mate left and between them they tried hard to close the gap but nothing came of it. On the last time up the climb the yellow jersey exploded and went out of the back of what was left of the peleton containing me Matt and Vinc. We had done a fairly good job of controlling the group with Clem up the road and just hoped he could pull off the win... which he didnt let us down with. He took the win from the three up sprint with our group coming in for about 15th place around a minute behind where Vinc gave me a little lead out and i think i nipped in the top 20.
Clém was pretty extatic and had reason to be as this was his best result of the season so far and the type of results he needs to be getting to turn pro next season which is his main goal for the year.
All in all a good weekend ending on a big high. For me, Matthieu, Thibault and fellow Breton Supersport Rider Florian Le Corre, a quick turn around was needed as we were heading straight from Dordogne to the Alps... Bourg D'Oisans to be precise, the foot of alp d'huez. It was going to be a long night...
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