I was really looking forward to this race today. I think I gained a lot of confidence with my win yesterday even though it was really a short race. When we got up the day was very overcast but very humid. The hand cycles and trikes headed out first as we were racing at 11am. We got a great spot to set everything up, warmed up and then it was race time.
The hand cycles were first to head out on the course with the trikes last. We had 3 laps to do of the course which totaled 29.1 km for our race. I was very wary of the French guys because of the problems the first day of racing. The Canadian Marie Eve led out and eventually I took the lead on the downhill. There was one dodgy turn that I had a problem with each lap but at least I got around without too much of a problem.
We had been warned about the hill we had to climb, it was a sharp right hand turn directly into a climb. It didn't seem too bad at first because it flattened out slightly then you had to climb again, it did this a couple of times. One of the French guys took off up the climb so I chased him and caught him, trying to work with him, but no the French don't do that! You would have thought I would have learnt from the first day. The bunch ended up catching us but then we hit the downhill section again, now on our 2nd lap. I tried to get anyone from the group to take the lead and got a curt "no" from everyone! Talk about pissed off!
We hit the hill again and I felt like I was spent and ended up dropping off the back of the group. By the time we got to the top and starting on our 3rd lap I was about 150m off the back. I didn't think I would be able to chase them down on my own. But then we hit the downhill and I figured I would try catching the here, I put the hammer down put my trike into the hardest gear possible, hit 62.1 km/hr and caught the group! I stayed at the back trying to give myself time to recover and even stayed at the back, but in touch this time, up the hill. At the end of the lap there was a large blue blow up banner we had to turn left under and head about 1km to the finish. We were told about this before we headed out. There were about 5 of us rounding the corner at the same time and it was at that moment I saw Marie Eve lean forward and breath out a big sigh and almost stop. She thought she had finished, with that I decided that this would be the longest sprint ever and took off.
I wanted to be far enough ahead that when she realized she wouldn't be able to catch me. The French guys were in front and blocking my way and a few obscenities were yelled as the same one who tried to bump me Friday decided to try and bump me into the gutter, so I swung around him the other way and hammered by him crossing the line just behind the other Frenchman and I front of Marie Eve. I didn't even look back to see where she was. I was amazed that I had won!!!! I later saw her on her trike with her head on the handle bars and went over to ask her if she was okay. She lifted her head and said "well done" and in broken English said she thought the finish was at the corner.
One big lesson to learn, always know where the finish line is! 9 of us decided to go to the presentation evening which was to take place at 7pm back at the road race course. This is a 40 minute trip from where we are staying, so we got there about 6:35pm. True to French time the awards didn't start until just after 8pm and took almost 2 hours to get through! We hadn't even had anything to eat, so as soon as we got our awards it was off to the local pizza shop for a bite to eat. The Australians did very well and I will put the results separately as there are quite a few! Tomorrow we are off to Spain as the 2nd World Cup is next weekend. Au revoir France, hola Spain!
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