la Ronde de Bourgogne

Friday morning we headed to Dijon, France for a 3 stage, 2-day race. And yes, Dijon is the home of the mustard. It was a long drive from Limoux, about 7.5 hours. 7 of us squished into the van with all of our bikes and gear. Fortunately, I put some good tunes on my iPod and fell asleep for most of the drive. We were packed in the van like sardines though and it was a very uncomfortable ride. A good team bonding experience though! We arrived early enough to go for a ride. Megan's team (ASPTT Dijon) took us out to pre-ride the team time trial course and the "criterium" course.

The team time trial course was 22km long. It was mostly flat, with some false-flat action. There were a few technical corners, but for the most part it was a great time trial course.

The criterium course was 3.7km in length. I definitely don't consider it a criterium, but apparently the French do :). It was a pretty fun course with almost everything in it. There were two technical corners, some uphill, a fast downhill, and a long straight away for the sprint.

The neat castle in the town we stayed in. The race promoter set something up with a dormitory in a town 18km from the race. The rooms had 6 beds in them. I am pretty sure all the teams stayed there. It was actually a very nice place. Each room had it's own bathroom and shower.

Saturday was the road race. It was 106km long. Not sure how many people started the race. The highest number I saw was in the 120's. We had a neutral 3km roll out to get us out of town. Our team had good starting positions and held it for quite a while. At one point in the first 20km, there was some wheel rubbing going on. I found myself way too far back in the pack and actually had to go off the road into the ditch to avoid people. Then I had to sprint back up to the group. Learned not to do that any more! It was then that I decided I needed to move up. So I sprinted up the side and positioned myself on Jeannie Longo's wheel. Our team did an awesome job staying at the front of the race. It was amazing to see.


Things didn't get too interesting until we hit the hills. During the race, there were 6 Queen of the Mountain points. The "hills" were pretty decent hills. Nothing too long, but long enough to hurt. They ranged from 1km to 3 or 4km (I am guessing). There was a 1km signed painted on the road for each hill. Sometimes the finish for the QOM would be over the top of the hill and on a straight away. Other times it would be at the top of the hill. Either way, they were hard. I decided to go for the points. The first hill I got 4th in the sprint. It was a long climb and things blew up. There was a small group of us off the front for a few kilometers. My teammate, Devon Haskell, was in the group with me. We all rotated, but it wasn't super organized. It didn't stick and we were soon swallowed by the field. The group started to dwindle down at this point. It was a lot smaller than what we originally started at. Everyone on our team did an awesome job at covering attacks and staying near the front. On the second QOM, I sat on wheels and watched. It was pretty tough from the base of the hill. Devon was killing it. Neither of us knew the lengths of the climbs. It would have been to our advantage if we knew the course. Oh well, it was still fun! Anyway, we reached the 1km to go mark and I stayed in the top 3. This sprint was on the flats at the top of a hill. I sprinted and took the points for 1st. Things really split up on this climb because it was long and we were going pretty hard up it.

I don't remember when during the race the group split into 25 riders in the front group, but eventually this happened. Every time we hit a climb, people popped off. Usually they would catch back. I continued to go for the QOM points. Eventually Jeannie Longo and a FuturaScope rider got off the front. They put some time into us and no one really seemed to be worried. Some people tried to jump to them (myself included), but nothing worked. Jeannie stayed away the entire race and put 3 minutes on the field. She dropped her break-away partner. We caught her in the final 10km of the race. She was toasted.

My funny moment: We were descending a pretty steep downhill. I didn't know the corners and came into one of them WAY too fast. Luckily, it was the first hair pin and I wasn't carrying full speed. I was still going really fast though. Anyway, I over shot the corner. Tried to stop, but I was carrying too much speed. I locked up my breaks and skidded my tire. The only reason I stopped is because I ran into the bush/shrub/tree in front of me. I didn't fall off my bike though. Just unclipped, turned around and sprinted back onto the group. Fortunately it was a small group and everyone was already spread out. Did I mention that this was at the front of the group too? So yes, everyone saw it. A moto passed me as I was getting back up to speed. I thought the driver said "Nice save!", but then again I am in France and really didn't expect to hear those words from someone French. Who knows though. It was pretty commical and I'm glad I kept it upright. Come to think of it, I did a lot of off-roading in the road race this weekend. Hmmm.

Anyway, we came to the final 5km. I wasn't sure of the finish. Didn't know where it was, etc. We rounded the final corner and I saw the finish line. Fortunately I wasn't sitting at the back of the pack. But I definitely was not in the best position. I sprinted as hard as I could and came out 6th in the sprint, 7th overall. Devon did an awesome job and finished 12th. I accumulated enough points in the QOM competition to get 2nd.


A shot of the caravan in the road race.

Bike maintenance by the moon light.

Sunday morning was the team time trial. We were off at 9:58am. Everyone worked really well together and it went really smooth. We didn't have much in the form of aero gear. Just aero bars and one TT bike. There wasn't a ton of wind, which was nice. Anyway, we rolled turns and put in an awesome time. Good enough for 3rd place.


Later in the afternoon was the "criterium". I put that in quotations because the criterium was 72km. Yes, 20 laps of a 3.7km loop. It took 2 hours. That is not considered a criterium by U.S. standards. Anyway, it was a hard race. Everyone was tired (myself included).


There were sprint points on lap 5, 10, and 15. So there was some sprinting going on, but nothing stuck. In the last 5 laps or so, a rider got off the front. My teammate Lauren was on her wheel for a while. However, the rider had too much horse power and pulled away. She put quite a bit of time on the peloton. No one really seemed too concerned either. It was weird. I don't think there was ever an organized effort to chase her down. Anyway, she won.

For a majority of the race I was sitting on Jeannie Longo's wheel. It was pretty cool. I learned a lot from doing that. I actually talked to her during the road race and she knew who I was. How cool? Pretty sure she knew I was sitting on her wheel for most of the race too.

At some point in the last lap or two, another girl sprinted off the front. I didn't realize this until after the race. So there were two girls off the front, which meant we were sprinting for 3rd. Coming into the last time up the hill, Devon, Lauren and I made our way to the front. Megan jumped on too. Check out her blog for her cool story too. Devon strung it out going down the hill and the last straight away. I took over coming out of the last corner (about 400 meters from the finish). I though Lauren was on my wheel, but she got bumped off coming down the hill. Megan was on my wheel though. I sprinted until the 200meter sign and then Megan jumped around me. She ended up taking 2nd in the field sprint, 4th place overall. I pulled off a 13th place. It was pretty sweet to be able to control the front and do a lead-out like we did. Too bad it didn't work. Next time though!! :) Our team was very active in the race. It was fun. We would attack, counter attack, chase down breaks, all that fun stuff. Great learning experience! Not sure on how we finished as a team in the overall. I think I pulled off a top 10 individual result in the G.C. We will see though.

Well that's all for now. My flight leaves tomorrow morning, really early. I'm sad to be leaving. This has been an amazing experience. I hope to come back soon though! Thanks for stopping in. I'll try and post an update when I get back to the states.
-A
Group photo from left to right (Devon Haskell, me, Lauren Hecht, Chris Georgas, Jerika Hutchinson, Jo Markham, Ashley Dymond). (minus Einat and Megan)