Madison season

 I had such a great time in Manchester with Tom ROTHERHAM at the national Madison race.

I flew over on the Friday to Liverpool. I had to catch a bus from Liverpool to Manchester and was supposed to meet my friend at the bus station in the middle of Manchester. It was all going smoothly. Suddenly, my bus stopped and I got off. I called Tom and he said he was just waiting for me at the bus stop. I looked around and there was no sign of him. I called him up again and he said that I had got off at the wrong bus stop. I didn’t even know there were 2 bus stops. He told me to stay put and he would come and get me. He arrived and told me that I was in the middle of Manchester gay town! Haha, such a good start to the week end.

Saturday was the big race day. I have to admit that nearly everything went wrong. We were warming up and Tom had a back wheel puncture and nearly fell off. He had to quickly change his wheel and go to the bike check. Then his bike was deemed illegal, which meant that he had to change his stem to a shorter one. He had to go to a shop to buy a new one and then come back and change it! By then we had about 10mins until the race started. We hadn’t done any warming up. 

We just got on our rollers to warm up and the commissaire told us to prepare for the race. It was a 40 lap Madison with 4 sprints. We won the first one and then got 2^nd in the second sprint. We then knew we had qualified so just stayed in the peloton and stayed safe. It was such an easy qualifier. We were not surprised about qualifying but we were surprised about being ready for the first sprint.

The final was another 4 hours away. I had just about enough time to meet some very nice people and some great friends.

It was 1800 and we were getting ready for the final. We were very nervous and we knew we had a good chance. There were some very good teams around though… The final was going really well! It was an 80lap Madison with sprints every 20 laps so 4 sprints. We won the first sprint! Perfect. I knew my partner and I had good chance. Until… I fell. It was such a stupid mistake. I think I was just not paying attention or something. But I jumped right back up and kept going although my handlebars were badly twisted. After that, honestly, I can’t really remember what happened. It was so tense. In the end, we came 2^nd. We were very happy! Great result!

Last week-end was also a great fun. It was the 3days of Aigle. The event that Anthony and I have been dreaming of for such a long time. On the first night I came 3^rd in the scratch that counts towards the individual classification. Then we won the Madison. The second night I won the elimination and we came 2^nd in the Madison race. That meant that I was in 2^nd by 1 point in the individual classification and we were in the lead of the Madison. The last night was pretty tense because firstly, I had to beat the guy who was in the individual lead and secondly because we had to beat the team in 2^nd place in the Madison. I came 2^nd in the points race with ease behind a guy who was far down in the general. Us and the other team were so busy watching each other that we let another team get away and take a lap. Damn. Which of course meant that they won the race. We got 2^nd.

I won the individual 3 days of Aigle and came 2^nd in the General Madison classification.

I am now more determined than ever to achieve my last goal of the year.