Thursday, March 27, 2008
Une Année Décisive
Hi all, having the support of the Dave Rayner Fund was one of the deciding factors on my return to France this year, which I see as a real make or break year. Following a couple of disappointing seasons for various reasons, as a third year espoir this year I hope to see enough development for me to continue next year at the next level, for example within a DN1 feeder team over here in France.
This year I am based in the Ardéche department of France, which is within the Rhone Alpes region, for a DN2 team named UC Aubenas. I have been extremely impressed with the team so far. In addition to the usual bike and kit provided by most teams, they provide me with accommodation at Village Vacances Vogue (http://www.vogue-vacances.com/) as well as a car to commute to and from the local town! It didn’t take me long to realise how fortunate I am to be here when at the start of the season there were teams from all over France and Europe basing their training camps from there! Another big difference with this team is that everyone within its organisation are impressively friendly, never give me any pressure and are genuinely interested in my development as opposed to other teams I’ve been in who are just there for the money and have the win at any cost attitude just to satisfy sponsors. Which I believe is the biggest problem in cycling.
For training the area is fantastic it has a perfect balance of routes for any type of session I want to do, be it in mountains or motor paced sessions on the flat.
I have done 5 races so far, they are manly classed as elite open (1ere and 2eme cat in the French category system) or elite regional (1ere, 2eme, 3eme) races. I should have done more but I ended up getting ill when I arrived forcing me to take some time off, which was real annoying as I got through the whole of winter in the UK without a single cold or any illness! I have learnt a lot from the races I have done so far, I wasn’t going too well for the first 2 and took a bit of a kicking just achieving peloton finishes, after these 2 races I began to race a little more competitively and actively in the races I was doing and noticed a difference in the way I was feeling during the races particularly when it was lined out in the gutter I felt comfortable in the line whereas only a couple of weeks it was really hurting!
The latest race I competed in, GP Forca Real was more successful and I managed to win alone by attacking my breakaway companions in the last 5km of the final 6km climb. The decisive move went after only 10km and was dominated by Spanish riders who had crossed the border to compete and had won this race every year over the past few years apparently. I attacked with 40 km to go to split the group as people were starting to miss turns. This left myself and 2 Spaniards in the lead ahead of the chase group by around 30 secs at the bottom of the final climb, I knew that the main group were closing pretty fast so I jumped earlier than I perhaps would have liked but managed to stay away and finish over 2mins ahead of my original breakaway companions by the summit.
Now I have the valuable confidence boost I needed I hope the rest of the season continues to progress in the same direction, I have many big races and opportunities coming up over the next few months starting with the GP St Etienne this weekend.
As always thanks to the Rayner Fund and particularly to my coach Dave Wilkes.
This year I am based in the Ardéche department of France, which is within the Rhone Alpes region, for a DN2 team named UC Aubenas. I have been extremely impressed with the team so far. In addition to the usual bike and kit provided by most teams, they provide me with accommodation at Village Vacances Vogue (http://www.vogue-vacances.com/) as well as a car to commute to and from the local town! It didn’t take me long to realise how fortunate I am to be here when at the start of the season there were teams from all over France and Europe basing their training camps from there! Another big difference with this team is that everyone within its organisation are impressively friendly, never give me any pressure and are genuinely interested in my development as opposed to other teams I’ve been in who are just there for the money and have the win at any cost attitude just to satisfy sponsors. Which I believe is the biggest problem in cycling.
For training the area is fantastic it has a perfect balance of routes for any type of session I want to do, be it in mountains or motor paced sessions on the flat.
I have done 5 races so far, they are manly classed as elite open (1ere and 2eme cat in the French category system) or elite regional (1ere, 2eme, 3eme) races. I should have done more but I ended up getting ill when I arrived forcing me to take some time off, which was real annoying as I got through the whole of winter in the UK without a single cold or any illness! I have learnt a lot from the races I have done so far, I wasn’t going too well for the first 2 and took a bit of a kicking just achieving peloton finishes, after these 2 races I began to race a little more competitively and actively in the races I was doing and noticed a difference in the way I was feeling during the races particularly when it was lined out in the gutter I felt comfortable in the line whereas only a couple of weeks it was really hurting!
The latest race I competed in, GP Forca Real was more successful and I managed to win alone by attacking my breakaway companions in the last 5km of the final 6km climb. The decisive move went after only 10km and was dominated by Spanish riders who had crossed the border to compete and had won this race every year over the past few years apparently. I attacked with 40 km to go to split the group as people were starting to miss turns. This left myself and 2 Spaniards in the lead ahead of the chase group by around 30 secs at the bottom of the final climb, I knew that the main group were closing pretty fast so I jumped earlier than I perhaps would have liked but managed to stay away and finish over 2mins ahead of my original breakaway companions by the summit.
Now I have the valuable confidence boost I needed I hope the rest of the season continues to progress in the same direction, I have many big races and opportunities coming up over the next few months starting with the GP St Etienne this weekend.
As always thanks to the Rayner Fund and particularly to my coach Dave Wilkes.
# posted by Adam Biggs @ Thursday, March 27, 2008 
