Untitled by l2pstuart at Garmin Connect - Details
Fourteen of us travelled over on the 'fast' ferry Friday evening to St Malo. The 'fast' ferry was once again running slow with only 3 of its 4 engines working, and the three that were at two thirds power. Our plans were going wrong already. The idea was to have arrived at our hotel 10 miles from Lamballe, and enjoy a pasta meal followed by an 'earlyish' night. I was fortunately in the car without bikes on top, so 5 of us arrived at the hotel 21:45 (French Time). We just managed to get a table before the restaurant nearby closed, but the others were not so lucky, and had to resort to a late night Chinese. We enjoyed a fine meal washed down with a couple of bottles of red wine (not recommended), but as the other 4 were all in their twenties I did not want to be classed as the old man(despite being referred to as dad) so joined in. We eventually met the others and all went to bed at just after midnight, with alarms set at 05:30 for breakfast at 06:00. So much for a good nights rest. It gets worse! Not that any of us slept properly but at 04:30 I heard someone running down the hallway, out of the fire escape and down the metal stairway outside. Some 15 minutes later the fire alarm went off. Although not asleep, the desire to evacuate was only considered briefly. Several minutes later I opened the door to check. No smell of burning and no other activity. Was this a cunning plan to make sure we got up? The alarm finally fell silent just after 5am by which time it seemed pointless to go back to bed, so we all agreed to get ready and load all the bikes back onto the racks etc before breakfast. The plan was to set off about 6:30/45 to allow plenty of time to arrive at the check in. We arrived at Lamballe and followed the signs to the race start. The car park was empty with no other cyclists in sight. Did we have the right day? We found a poster outside the Velo Sport Club and breathed a sigh of relief. We were early as the race was due to start at 08:45. An official approached and advised that the main area was 200m away around the corner. We were early but at least we were near the start. Weather was cool but dry and only a light breeze. We were soon joined by 1000+ cyclists of all abilities as there were several routes. Starting close to the the back it took nearly 10Km before we could safely settle down without being hindered by others. The course was extremely well signposted with Marshall's at every junction to stop traffic and wave us through. We even had motorcycle escorts at various points. The more serious racers in our party had managed to get to the front of the lead peleton which was very fortunate as there was a massive pile up involving about 40 cyclists! Out top rider came second overall although there were doubts over whether the French energy gels etc were SIS or something altogether stronger!! Our group of 5 managed to stick together for the whole race although we were were joined by several French riders throughout the morning. We did however suggest that they took turns to lead the group which they did without question. Although we stopped briefly at the the second feed station our French guests carried on. With only 30km to go we all agreed that our target was to complete the course in under 5 hours. Flowers watered, and enough time to top up drinks and fuel up we were off in pursuit. We eventually caught the French riders ahead of us and with 10km to go Ian gave the signal to take whatever energy gels we had left. Whether psychological or not we stepped up a gear and managed to pull away arriving with a minute to spare.
All told we had a great day and were very fortunate to have near perfect conditions. Looking out of the window today it could all have been very different!
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