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It’s with great pleasure that I am able to report my 3rd win of the season. Just two weeks after winning the Tour de Loire Pilat good luck and good legs struck again at the right time as I was able to take the Final stage of the Tour de Pays Gex

The area of France called ‘Gex’ is for those less familiar with Eastern France the little strip of French Territory that lies between Lake Geneva and the Swiss Vaud Mountains. The race was two days long with two road stages and a 10km time trial. My team Charvieu Chavagneux was fortunate in having three riders familiar with the area so we where able to plan well for the stages.

The First stage was hard with a fast 42km/h average over many short 2-3km climbs and narrow descents. Charvieu placed two riders in the breakaway but lost out in the finish with team mate Fred Perriat’s 4th place in the stage all to show for day one

On the second day we had to wake early to tackle a deceptively hard time trial with a stiff climb in the final kilometre. I was off around half way through the starters and was pleased to record the provisional fastest time. I had worked quite a bit in the past few week on my time trial bike and felt really good during the stage. However before long my time was beaten my none other than my Geordie friend Johnathan Rosenbrier of St Etienne cycling team. He held the lead until just before the End when he was beaten by 30seconds by a Polish cruise missile. I finished the stage in 4th and by the nature of the previous days close finish I also found myself in 4th on the general classification.

In the afternoons stage I was very motivated because I felt I had good legs and also stage profile. The final 20km featured four steep 2-3km hills with little rest between. The team tactic for the day was to get a rider in the first breakaway and then if that don’t work then attack to hell on the final four hills. This is exactly what happened, my team-mate Fred was away in a small break of five riders. The yellow Jerseys team was working hard and as we reached the first climb with 20km to go the break had been brought back. Then started a barrage of attacks by my team-mates which weakened the other teams. With 18km to go I managed to get away and create a good gap of 30seconds. I held the gap until the final 5km when a stiff headwind came into play bringing my lead down to 15seconds in the final kilometre. The Next 995metres I don’t seem to remember but luckily I was able to hold off the peloton to win by 10sconds with my team mate Nico Inaudi taking out the 2nd place sprint. In addition to my win the time bonus moved me up to 3rd on the final General Classification. Charvieu claimed the team prize and king of the mountain title to cap off a good weekend for all involved.

My season is coming to an end with two more races left on the calendar.
The Tour of Gevaudan starting this Friday (14th Sept) and the Grand Prix Faucigny in the Alpes the following Sunday (23rd). Hopefully I can find a fourth win somewhere in there.