Tour de la Manche

stage racing= eating many plates of food+ resting (Steven and Peter here)+ bending your knee over 75,000 times.

Tour de la Manche was good. For long version see below.

Like a fine French wine the JCBA/ Cycling Center Team got better with age. Every day we rode stronger and as a more cohesive team until it culminated into a victory on the final stage! That's right Steven Van Vooren won the final stage on a tough uphill finish out of a small escape group. It was a win that not only reflected Steven's great riding and ability but the depth and teamwork of our squad. But allow me to take you back to the morning of Wednesday, May 7th. The entire team and staff departed the CC at 9am sharp for a long and scenic drive to the region of Normandy. Our hotel was a walk from the beach and a short drive to the historic WWII areas of Saint-Lo, Countance, and Utah Beach. A 2 hour spin along the coast and some course previewing opened our legs from the long drive.

The first stage was a 160km race that finished on a fairly flat local circuit. All the climbs were early on in the stage which made for a tough aggressive start. Christophe had a problem in the first part of the race so I dropped back to help him get back in the peloton. It was a bullet well spent but a bullet nonetheless. While racing into town there was a large split that I failed to make, but we had 3 riders in the escape of 30 so all was not lost. My own GC hopes were dashed on the first day though as the entire peloton stopped racing and finished 10 minutes down. Steven, Peter, and Ian finished up the road but not in the first group of 7, which was filled with pros and ex-pros. A respectable day, but nothing to celebrate.

There were 2 highly regarded French Professional teams in the race: Auber 93 and Bretagne Armor-Lux. The riders on these teams were all seasoned pros and their strength was only outmatched by their smart racing. It was one of these two teams that usually controlled the race and stage 2 was no exception. A very hilly course of about 155km, the second stage proved to be one of the hardest. The local laps were very challenging and whittled the peloton to a small number. One rider escaped solo to take the victory and the CC had 4 finish in the peloton. I really thought a top ten was in the cards for me on this day. I had great position with 3-4km to go... sitting in the top 5-8 on narrow roads, and then came the swarm and my energy expenditure to move up again cost me in the final 200 meter ride to the finish. I went backwards in the peloton very quickly in that final 200. Quite disappointing.

Day 3: Morning Time Trial of 14km and afternoon road stage of 105km. Ah, the double day. Up at 5:45 am. Metabolism revving all day. 5 hours of riding including warm ups and cool downs. Bed by 10:30pm. The time trial was absolutely CRAZY. I am 100% sure that there is no time trial in the US held on such a narrow and technical course. Most of the roads were about the width of a bike path and no section of 200 meters was flat and straight. The entire 14km was either up or down curving left or right. Steven was 7th and the rest of us were sandwiched between 20th and 45th, I think. I would say that it was one of my best time trials even though my result wasn't spectacular. The course worked well for me, the legs felt good, I had a great warm up, and I absolutely FLEW by my 1 minute man! That's a good feeling. The afternoon stage can be summed up in one word: teamwork. It was short, difficult, up and down, and then finished with 4 x 7km local laps on a fairly flat circuit. With 2km to go I got my engine chugging up the side of the peloton, picking up my teammates as I passed them. With a little more than 1 km to go we had 5 CC riders drilling up the side with me at the wheel. What a feeling! I self detonated for my teammates and watched as they kept going at the front, battling other teams. I felt like my effort had meaning as I watched Steven take 3rd in the sprint and Peter take a top 20. Steven took the young rider's jersey, even though he was 2nd or 3rd in the competition. The first 2 had other jersey's to wear.

The final day was the big one. Although it was only 145km, there were 4 hard climbs on the way to the finishing circuits. There were 5 laps of 5km with a 700 meter climb to the finish! My duty for the day was to be Steven's shadow and windbreaker. I positioned him at the base of the climbs and twice fetched bottles from the caravan for him and my other teammates. I felt like a super-domestique and took pride in protecting Steven in his Blue attire. We all made it to the local laps when the real fireworks began. Things started to blow on the tough circuit and Steven made it up the road with 4 others. Peter crashed on a decent (luckily wasn't injured) and couldn't make it back to the single file peloton. So Ian, Aaron, and I did what we could to keep the peloton on lock down, which granted wasn't much more than keeping good position and a good eye to the front. It was a suffer fest for the last few laps. The fatigue of the race and the burn of the finishing climb was only overcome by the fact that our teammate was in contention to win so we dug deep to keep going. I had a pretty good finish on the day (waiting to see results) but the most important thing was the win. A win for Steven, but more importantly a win for the team.

I'm chillin' today. Went for a short ride this morning and felt surprisingly awesome. Shutting down the engine tomorrow and then I'll start to prepare for Triptique Ardennais, a 3 day, 4 stage race in the hills of Wallonia, May 16-18.