Sitting in the back of the team car on the auto route heading south to Angouleme, I feel completely depleted of all the fuel I took in over the last 24hrs, the legs have aching feeling like a nasty migraine, but I feel more than satisfied to be have been back in the peloton today after over three months on the side line. 

It sure didn’t take long to get back into race mode as usual in most French races they went from the blocks and didn’t let up for a 100k.  With all the French pro tour teams, the French continental teams with riders always trying to show there hand, throw in a few Japs and Belgy’s, and you have fare shit fight as you twist an turn on the small country roads of central France. 

Chateauroux is a fairly flat area of France, so it was a nice race to get back into the swing of things.  Though at 200k long and the peloton spending most of its time at over 50 clicks an hour it was always going to touch up the legs a little.  At the 100k mark I swung my musette, or feed bag in English over my shoulder and saw five guys take off up the road, and thought to myself ah magic a little respite before it’s on for the finish.  So I took some food on board, a pear tart for that matter mmmmm gota love them, and took a quick nature stop.  I wasn’t back in the pack for more than a minute and my radio starts crackling in my ear.  I just made out what Yvon the director said, but wasn’t sure so I turned to my team mate to confirm and he nods, “oui Tim tu doit allez roulez” that pretty much means on the front son, and don’t let that gap get to big eh.  Dam I was sure I saw a white jersey ride away in that break, but obviously not.  Though I wasn’t alone two of my team mates joined me and we got stuck into our work as the wind blew from the wrong direction.   

70km later I found myself flapping in the wind on the back of the bunch but wasn’t too worried, my job was done and there was 10k to go.  The fellas didn’t quite finish it off today but that’s bike racing, you win a little and you loose a lot.   

So a day off tomorrow which will be spent with the feet up, a little ride and a good massage before hooking back into it on Tuesday.  

An on final but not surely not least you probably haven’t heard yet, though my flattie and wingman Pete stacked it pretty bad at a race near the Pyrenees yesterday and is in hospital with displaced and fractured vertebrae.  He’s ok but could be there for a while and definitely out for quite some time. So flick the man a txt if you can, I’m sure he’d be more than grateful, as there are only so many movies you can watch while hanging out solo in a foreign hospital.  Cycling is a tough sport at the best of times, but it sure can knock you down sometimes and normally when you least need it.  

Thanks for reading, will let you know how the legs pull up in a day of two.  Cheers

Tim