Cholet Pays de Loire Dames and Cite de Carcassonne

The drive to Cholet, France from Limoux was around 7 hours. A bit longer than we expected. There were 5 of us crammed into a relatively small car. Made for an interesting ride. Good times, but by the end, everyone was tired (as expected).

Limoux is near the bottom center of the map between Toulouse and Carcassonne. As you can see, we had quite the drive. That part of France is really flat by the way.

Megan brushing up on her French while Ashley helped.

Einat driving. "Hey look! I'm fast!"

Anyway, after arrive in Cholet and dropping Megan off with her new French team, we headed to our hotel which was nearby. This hotel was basically the Cofidis team's hotel. They had 5 team cars and a huge bus outside. It was amazing. There was another big team at our hotel too, but I can't remember the name of it. After we were settled in, we went to find food. That was quite the experience too. Eventually we ate, and made it back to our rooms to fall asleep.

Our hotel was right on the finishing stretch. My window was right at the 500meters to the finish sign. Pretty neat!

The Cofidis trailor.

I love European races. They start later in the day. This race was a French Cup race so it was huge! Our race went off at 13:00 Sunday afternoon. Before that, we had to sign in on stage. So we got introduced as the USA National Developmental team in front of a bunch of French people and teams. Unfortunately, we still do not have our USA kits. Hopefully they are here before next weekend. Anyway, we pre-rode the course a few times. The finishing straight was long. From the last corner, it was over 500meters to the finish. The finish was slightly uphill. Then it went into a sweeping right hand corner into a downhill. The downhill was fast but into a head wind. There were two round-a-bouts that were tricky, but not an issue if you were near the front. After that was a narrow right hand into an uphill. The uphill was probably 500meters long with an average grade of 5-6percent. Enough to wear on the legs for some, but not steep enough to throw it into the small ring. At the top of the hill was a sharp left hand corner into another fast downhill. There was a sharp right hand corner at the bottom of the hill into another flat section. This led into a round-a-bout into another straight away. Finally there was another right hand corner that wasn't too tricky. This led into the final stretch. The course was 5km total. It was pretty technical and fast.

We spent a lot of time sitting around before the start of our race. We watched the pro men sign autographs, listened to some music, had some amazing laughs, etc. Our director is hilarious! We were playing "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas on the radio before the race. On the last lap of the race, he played the song on our radios. Cracked me up!

Pre-race chamois time. We are wearing Chris's club teams jerseys.

What's so funny?

Our race was 16 laps, 80km. 178 women started the race. I started in probably the 10th row. They didn't do call-ups or line up by numbers. I was in the 2nd row from the line but everyone rode backwards on the course to the start line and parked in front of the start line. Crap! The first lap I sprinted to pass as many people as I could in the shortest amount of time. I made my way to the top 15 by the time we reached the 2nd downhill. Thank goodness! There were lots of crashes on the first lap. Unfortunately, my teammate Ashley went down. Her bike was broken and she couldn't finish the race. She is fine though. This crash split the field into a few huge groups. I was in the front 60-70 riders. There was another crash on lap 2 that took down my teammate Lauren. Fortunately she was able to get back up and race.

I spent a lot of time covering attacks and being in breaks. That was my mission for the race. We have a small team, so it's not like we could do much in the way of team tactics. It was more for the experience of being at the front. I felt confident in the front of the peloton. I was bumping shoulders and hips during the race. I was even being aggressive for position and staying on wheels rather than letting people bump me off. At one point in the race (I think 5 laps to go), I was in a break that had 20 seconds on the field. The attack happened at the right time and everything. We lapped 2 huge groups of riders, which should have caused some confusion and chaos back in the main field. However, miscommunication and disorganization led to us getting caught. I don't understand the racing here at all, but oh well. On lap 2 to go, a break of 3 riders rolled off the front. No one seemed to concerned. Eventually, fellow American Megan Guarnier bridged to the other 3. She ended up taking 2nd place in the sprint - AWESOME WORK! I had nothing left at the end of the race and didn't contest the field sprint in our group. Not sure what my overall place was, something like 58th. I am learning and getting more comfortable with the field, so I was happy about my race.


Today we went to the castle in Carcassonne. We took the train there. It was a pretty cool experience. Lots to see. However, we didn't have much time. Had to get back in time for a dinner with Chris and his guests. Good food by the way. I tried rabbit for the first time. It was very interesting. Anyway, here's some pictures from the castle. Enjoy!

Lauren on the train to Carcassonne.

The pigeon that almost decked me in the head. They were everywhere!

Einat standing in front of the toilet you had to pay to use.

I can be a tough girl too! :)

The castle from the distance.


The guy in the window jumped out and scared Lauren as I was taking this picture. It was hilarious!


Lauren, Einat, and I being tourists and getting our picture taken.

Me posing. No the guy didn't jump out and scare me. He was gone by the time we got back.

Looking down into Carcassonne.

Some cool paintings on a building on the walk back to the train station.

Ok that's all for now. Sprints tomorrow. Check back for updates then. Bonne nuit!
-A