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Last weekend I recorded my second victory of the season in the Tour de Loire Pilat. The race was held in the Pilat Mountains that surround St Etienne and open to all riders under 26 years of age. The hilly nature of the race, which consisted of two road stages, one individual timetrial and a team timetrial, appealed to my team and me for a long time.

The opening team time trial was on a short 8km circuit but included a steep 15% climb in the middle. My team rode ok to finish 6th on this stage. The next days 130km stage included 4 climbs in the beginning and then a 15km finishing circuit. Early in the stage the race split into many groups, which made holding a good position vital. When we arrived on the finishing circuit there was a breakaway of four including a team mate of mine Wilfred Exertier. Wilfred kept his cool in the closing kilometres to win the stage by 36seconds. I finished the stage 3minutes down in 16th place.

The next day involved two stages. A 5km timetrial in the morning and a 105km road stage in the afternoon. The time trial was very hilly and it meant that all the riders rode on standard equipment with nobody wishing to use extra aerodynamic time trial gear. I was pleased with my time trial however was disappointed to come 4th, 9seconds down on the winner, Kalle Kritt from Estonia. My team-mate will rode a respectful time and finished 22nd and still held on to his lead in the overall classification. A few hours later we were all lining up again for the final stage of the race a 105km slog over the Col de la Gachet, montée de Chavanol, Col de la Croix de Chaubouret, Col de l'Oeillon, Col de la Croix Montvieux eventually finishing in the town of St Paul en Jarez. Attacks started as soon as the flag went down and soon a group of 35 riders had formed by the time we reached the summit of the Col de la Gachet. 40km later and the race was far more split up by the time we reached the summit of the Col de Chaubouret with one rider ahead two minutes in front of my group which contained three riders. At this point with only 30km to go until the finish I was in a good position to win the race’s overall classification. I worked to keep my group ahead as well as tried to catch back time to the lone rider ahead. In the end I didn’t quite manage to win the stage but my 3rd place was enough to win the general classification.
The win is my first stage race victory in France and my second win of the season.

With just over a month of racing left on the calendar I am very motivated to try and bag a 3rd win for the year. Here is my end of season race schedule.
1 September- Paris Chalette
2 September- Paris Chauny
8-9 September-Tour de Pays du Gex
14-16 September-Tour de Gevaudan
23 September- Grand Prix Faucigny