First fall of 2013

Last week-end was amazing! I did two big events. There was the 12hours of Geneva which I did with Aurelien, Yvon and Damien. We were called Team Vifian , and were the youngest team. We came fourth overall and did 3188 laps of the velodrome which is 531km overall without counting the warm ups.

The next day, there was another event called the Match Franco-Suisse. I was with the French team of course. The first event was the flying lap. I was very nervous because I really wanted to get under 10s but I had done a lot of cycling the day before. Anyway, I managed to squeeze a time of 9,997s (an average of over 60kmh) I was so happy!! I couldn't believe it so I had to go back round and check. Only 3 other u16s have ever gone under 10 secs. The rest of the day went according to plan and we were in the lead until the last few events. Then it started going down hill and we got absolutely pummelled and failed to beat the Suisse , none of whom had done the 12h the day before.

This saturday there was the third session of the Haute Savoie challenge. It was a 3km pursuit, which is the French National U16 distance, and is always really tough. The best junior (u18) did a time of 3m37 on our 166.66m track. Very good time. After that there was a Madison. I asked if I could do the Madison with the juniors since I had the level. I teamed up with one of my best mates. Yvon. He's a good cyclist who is a year older than me.

It was soon my turn for the pursuit. I told my dad my technique: “Start fast, gradually increase the speed, and finish as fast as I can” It worked! I did a time of 3m43s. I was astonished with my time. With this time I would have become Rhone Alpe champion last year. In fact it would also win the nationals too.

The next day I went back to the track to get some training in. Yvon was there and I jumped straight on to the track. We got to wait at the begining of the session doing pursuits. We were doing 10mins in front each and finished the first ¨round¨. We stayed on the track and started off for another one. It was Yvon's turn. 6 mins in I saw that he was starting to get tired. I commenced encouraging him. He was losing his concentration and in the middle of the corner he went down to the blue. Of course when you are at 50km/h you can't do that. Down he went. I tried to avoid him but his bike followed me up and dragged me down. I just accepted it and I must have slid more than 50m. There I was on the floor once again thinking “ NOOO!! My bike!” I stood up and checked myself. I had nothing to bad wrong with me, but my bike was in a right state! I picked it up and walked back to centre track. I took both wheels off and noticed that my saddle was twisted, my bars were chipped, my front tyre was punctured and both my wheels were loose. I just thought “Even the best fall down sometimes. But only the best get right back up.” And that is when I asked for another set of wheels, put them on and straightened my saddle. Jumped back on the track to get over it and finished of with a good session.

Meanwhile Yvon was still in shock about the fall.

Oh well, just another obstacle to pass! 

The last I would like to say is that I have a twitter account. So, please follow me: @TomCyclist