Hi guys,
I’m so
sorry that I haven’t updated my blog in a long time. I have had the busiest
summer ever. I have been travelling so much. I have raced so much in the UK and
in France. This is probably the first time I have opened my computer all
summer. So here’s the story of my season.
I will only
go through the most important events with you.
I was
selected for the Rhône-Alpes team for both the road and track French nationals.
A week before the track national, which took place in Hyeres down by the
Mediterranean Sea, we had a 2 day camp to prepare for them. The camp was for
all the selected people apart from the junior boys. The first day was very hard
because we doing 500m reps and then behind the derny points racing. The second
day we were Madison training. During the Madison training the other team lost
concentration and when I gave Anthony the relay the other team went underneath
me and crashed into me instead of going over the top of me. I ended up in
hospital not being able to move. I was worried I would not be able to
participate in the nationals. I was really scratched but recovered enough to
travel with the team. But my preparation for the event had been badly
disrupted.
I had 4
days off because of my fall. I was back on my bike for the first time 2 days
before my first race which was the 3km pursuit. We stayed in a 3 star hotel. I
was in a nice room with Anthony. I was in so much pain on and off the bike but
I really wanted to race. My 3km pursuit time is normally under 3min40secs. My
time in this event was 3mins48! I was shocked at how badly I did. At the beginning
I thought it was my form’s fault but then I talked to dad and he looked it up.
It turned out to be because of 2 different factors: the fall and the preparation
(having 4 days off). Coming up to this event I was on the form of my life and
then the inevitable happened…
The following
day Anthony and I were not racing. So we decided to go for a nice long ride
next to the Mediterranean Sea. It was such a nice ride! We rode up a 16%
average col and I felt so much better afterwards. We were going to do 50km but
ended up doing 75km. On the Thursday I went on a 1h ride and then met Anthony
at the velodrome to practise our Madison changing via the shorts.
Anyway, the
second race was the next day, it was the point’s race. The qualifiers were in
the morning. I still didn’t feel like myself. I qualified easy enough. But the
final ! It was so hard ! It was 80laps and 24 of us in the race. I can’t
remember a thing about that race. I only know that I got 1 point in the final
sprint and had the worst race ever ! I got 14th in the end… very disappointed.
The last
race I was entered for was the Madison. Of course I was buddied up with Anthony
! The night before the race we actually “prayed” to the Madison god! How funny?
We asked him to give us a chance to shine because the nationals didn’t go as
well as we hoped they would. Our first race was at 10 in the morning and it was
the qualifiers. We so ready for it. We were buzzing on the start line. The gun
went and we were off. For most of you who don’t know how the Madison works in
France, it’s a co-op race and one of us is racing whilst the other is going as
slow as possible at the top of the track waiting to take the relay. The relay
in France is done with a foam thing in the shorts and the person racing grabs
on to that and throws the other into the race (actually quite dangerous…). The
qualifying race was 40 laps with 2 sprints every 20. The first sprint went
badly and we were getting nervous. The final sprint was 3laps away and I threw
Anthony into the race and he attacked. He got a small break and with 1 lap to
go I came into the race to finish it off. We won the sprint and qualified for
the final in 1st place. We were happy that the Madison god listened.
Lol!
With only
2h to wait before the final we decided to pray again to the Madison god since
it worked out so well the first time. Just before the race we had a quick chat.
We said that the race was ours to win and that we deserved it and we had been
dreaming about it for ages.
On the
start line I was nervous, I don’t know what Anthony was thinking but I guess he
was as nervous as I was. The gun went and the race started fast. Anthony’s dad
was besides the track telling us what do to when we were waiting (eg: slow
down, speed up) so we could catch the sprint perfectly. I was sprinting and he
was throwing me into the last lap and a half. The race was 80 laps with sprints
every 20. On the first sprint we managed a good 2nd place, the “pink
team” won it. The 2nd sprint we won and the pink team got 2nd
so it meant half way through the race we were in tied 1ST with the
pink team. The 3rd sprint was hard. We won it but in the last corner
I went between a team that was doing a relay. The commissaires didn’t give the
results out on the speaker because they were checking that there was no error.
In the end there wasn’t any fault (I knew that it was fine) so we got maximum
points. In that sprint the pink team were nowhere! We were in the lead with one
sprint to go!! I threw Anthony in the race and he attacked. We got away and one
team managed to get across the gap and it wasn’t the pink team. We worked
together and stayed away until the end. In the last sprint we got 2nd.
We knew we had won! At first I laughed and then burst out crying with joy.
In the end
the nationals turned out to pretty successful. I won a national jersey!!!
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