France is a country of great diversity and it certainly stands out for me when I fly north for racing near the Belgium boarder.  The dull block houses lining the streets resemble that of southern England, and the cycling fans are just as madly passionate for the velo as those you find in Belgium. 

Saturday brought one of the oldest semi classics in Europe, Paris Brussels.  First won by Andre Henry ofBelgium in 1893, it was contested over a parcour of 400km.  This sort of distance is just unheard of these days as the UCI has caps on how long races can be, and I know many of the peloton are happy about that, as the thought of racing from the Champs-Elysées in Paris to the center on Brussels isn’t that inviting.  However this year’s race was held over a respectable though still long 230km course.   

Over following eights days there are four other one day races on in the area, and for the riders who didn’t take part in the Vuelta a Espana or Tour of Poland these one day races are used as vital build up races for riders preparing for the World Championships in two weeks time.  So the fields are always strong and filled with quite a few motivated big names ready to mix it up. 

For me I went into the race preparing to help out our sprinter Seb Chavenal as there was a good chance of a mass bunch sprint with the fast rolling course, and sure enough it ended in a mad dash for the line through the streets of Brussels with a good part of the bunch still in tact.  With a few k’s to got I got Seb on my wheel and started to position him, though he was having an off day at left me to go on my own.  On the last corner with a kilometer to go I found myself on Thor Hushovd’s wheel about 7 back from the front and though here we go, just follow and you’ll be in the mix.  Though it wasn’t quite to be as the Liquigas lead out train set up for Luco Paolini stalled with about 700m to go and I got swamped from behind, I fought my way out again but was to late and didn’t quite have the legs to finish it as I died in the final meters anyway and must have been past by around 8 guys within 50m of the line. 

All in all though I was happy to get amongst the action at the front end of a race, as it’s sure has been a long time since I last did that, though hopefully not the last. 

After a quick shower it was back across the boarder to France to the small village of Fourmies which we would start, finish and pass several times in tomorrow’s race.  With most riders having raced the previous day and feeling the long day in their legs we rolled out of town quietly too let the legs stretch out a little before the race began.  Though it didn’t take long for the fireworks to start, and they didn’t stop for almost 3hrs, it was just on as every group that would get away from the peloton never seemed to have the right make up.  Though when a break did get away it really got away, as 22 guys were joined by another 16 and all teams were represented, that was it race over.   As every team from the peloton was represented, some not as strongly as they would have liked, such as FDJ (whoops) though there is little you can do as a group of 40 is near impossible to bring back.  So as the front of the race started to do battle on the 5 laps of the finishing circuit me along with the rest of the peloton took an early shower. As the European Pro season is drawing to a close a lot of riders are starting to get pretty tired and a well earned break is just on the horizon, you will find a number of races finishing in this way.  There are the few motivated ones with Worlds just around the corner and those still searching for that elusive win to seal a contract for next year, but for many the season is starting to take its toll on the body and the need for another 50km training at the end of a long weekend just isn’t there so an early shower is quite often the only answer. 

I am now taking a few days easy before returning to the north on Thursday for Tour de la Somme in Normandie on Friday.  I was lucky enough however to receive my suitcase yesterday afternoon after putting it on the plane to Paris on Friday, “Thanks Air France”.   

Below are pics from the last couple of days.  First my two favourite soigners Aurélie and Sofie at GP Fourmies, always good value and look after the fellas very well.  Then a few from the freak hail storm I got caught in training yesteday, not really what your after on a recovery ride but there wasn’t a lot I could do to get away from this one than take cover under some trees and hope they didn’t fall over like many other others did blocking roads all around town. And finally the dark gloomy skies that were left over Albi that evening.

Will be back again soon with news from the next weekend racing. Cheers  

Tim