Kreiz Breiz Elite

Last weekend i raced the Kreiz Breiz Elite 3day stage race. A UCI 2.2 with a good field:

-ALBI VELO SPORT

-COTES D'ARMOR CYCLISME
-VC EVREUX

-AC LANESTER 56

-NEW HEEBRA LOMBARDEN
-AUBER 93
-DRAPAC PORSCHE CYCLING

-BRIDGESTONE ANCHOR JAPON

-BRETAGNE SCHULLER

-SUNWEB-PROJOB

-SUPER SPORT 35 ACNC
-CHAMBERY CYCLISME FORMATION

-VELOCE CLUB ROUEN 76

-VAN HEMERT GROEP DE JONGE RENNER
-UCI CONTINENTAL CYCLING TEAM JO PIELS

-KATYUSHA

-BEVEREN 2000 QUICK STEP

-BIC 2000

-US STE AUSTREBERTHE PAVILLY BARENTIN

-VCP LORIENT

-TEAM WILO AGEM 72

-ENTENTE SUD GASCOGNE

-UNION CYCLISTE BRIOCHINE

-CYCLING TEAM BOURGAS

-KROLSTONE CYCLING TEAM

-SEVENSTONES CYCLING TEAM

-HENNEBONT CYCLISME

Stage 1 Saturday 175km:

I wasnt feeling great legs wise today mainly due to not having fully recovered from the Alps trip in which we got home 3 days prior to leaving for the KBE. Luckily the stage didnt have a large impact on the GC with Dimitri Champion and Guillaume Mallé holding off the peloton by 20seconds with Champion taking the win in his bling national french champs kit. I finished safely in the bunch and luckily avoided a nastly crash about 6kms out. None of us from Bic came down.

Stage 2: Sunday morning 97km.

Today was a split day with pretty much 100km in both the morning and the afternoon so you couldnt give it everything in the morning to be dead in the afternoon yet the race split up pretty well in the morning stage with a large break of about 25 going clear about lid way through. I got in one of 2 early moves but we were only allowed about a 20second gap before we were reeled in after about 10kms out front. The split happened on one of the KOM's and i was caught napping really. The break had some big fire power in and the teams not represented behind were having trouble keeping a check on it. As we hit the finish circuits, the first time up the climb on the circuit the peloton split up with a small group going clear. At the same time i think all of the Cycling team Jo Piels riders went straight out the other end after chasing hard all day. A few laps later and i got away and across to a small chase group. We caught another counter and were chasing about 1minute 30 behind the main break up front. It stayed this way at the finish with the peloton loosing over 6minutes ont the stage whereas my group came in just under 2minutes down.

Stage 3 Sunday Afternoon 99km:

This was bizarre. Having headed back to the digs and re-fuelling... and trying to have a quick nap with the dodgey russians from Katyusha next door making a proper racket... we were back on the bike spinning it out on the way to the start of the third stage and the second on the same day.

The stage started fast with not much getting away. I was in a move of 5 which at first we were allowed to go free but counter attacks behind brought us back after not too long out front. The pace was kept high as we took in some tough hills and i was happy just to be sticking in the top end of the peloton. The highlight of the stage, well i say highlight it was more the most painful part, was the Mur-de-Bretagne, 1.5km climb on a dead straight road with a 10% average...It was here that the race really started to split and over the top i was in the front split of about 30odd which didnt work together and all regrouped by the bottom of the descent (the ds was quite happily telling us how many riders were getting shelled ut the back and forgot to tell us that the road kicked up again sharp-style straight after the descent... so there i was looking like a fool as i took off on the twisty bits in poursuite of a small break just ûp the road, only to see the road rear up infront of me... i found myself back in the peloton in a flash!

Two riders clipped off at about 30km out and the peloton was happy just to ride tempo behind. The two puled out to four minutes as we hit the finish laps and stayed clear to contest the win with the sprint coming in about two minutes later. Janek Tombak, Bourgas CC, clipped off on the last lap to steal the yellow jersey by a few seconds going into the final stage.

Stage 4 Monday 178km:

I was feeling good this morning and was set on getting out front in the break for the day however this is never that easy. It was looking good for a while as i got away with fellow alps companion Jean-Marc Bideau only for the yellow jersey to jump across and spell the end of our escapade! Immediately after, french amateur champ Samuel Plouhinec countered taking 5others with him and me at about 5 metres behind the last rider... it stayed this way with the 5metres gradually becoming 10, 20 and then they were gone. A little déja vu from the Tour of Brittany but this time it was me having reacted a second too late instead of a complete twat letting the wheel go to purposely drop me as their team didnt like the way we were riding.

The race came back together on the finish laps and was non-stop attacking. I had a go with about 10km to go and at first had champion, two belgian a russian for company before i countered again and took just a belgian with who was suffering a bit too much and could hardly pull through so we didnt last long. The stage finished with two riders clipping off one of which was at 2seconds on GC and so he stole Yellow in the last few kms... serves Tombak right for chasing me and Jean-Marc down at the start when we were no threat on GC! Fool.

Me, i finished in what was left on the peloton and took 39th on GC... nothing special but an improvement on Tour of Brittany.

Next stop is the Mi Aout another 2.2 12th-15th august. Rapha Condor are making the trip across the channel for it ... should be interesting!

ok, will find something different to blog about soon rather than just a dragged out race report!

Soooorry