Chrono Chatelleraudais AKA: The Time Trial

So there it was... The "big" day. Saturday, TT day, and also, maybe more importantly the day we had to go to the estate agents and sign all the papers etc for Gaelle's house. So after having breakfast in our room using bread and jam etc we had got from the supermarket last night (penny saving cheapskates) we headed off to the agency for a good hour of paper signing (everything in France takes longer). Just before walking into the agency I was finally communicated my TT start time, which was a huge relief because as things stood this morning we were only going to have 30mins for all the paperwork and even that was cutting things close.

So with the paper pushing done and out of the way we had lunch in the parking lot (more penny saving) and headed off to the TT.

I haven't been sleeping well this week, we've had long and stressful days, and my training has been far from ideal. And I am feeling it I must say.

After a good warm-up I headed to the start ramp and from here on in it gets pretty boring... I rolled down the start ramp and pedaled. I felt pretty shit at first and had a hard time getting my heart rate up. But about half way through I started to feel a little better.

The TT was 22km long and was, as is typical in Europe, "rolling"... ie: lots of hills, corners etc. It was cool, but painful.

1 guy passed me, and although I hoped it was the Polish National TT champ who was actually "only" finished 3rd, it was just some French guy. But it's OK, he finished 2nd.

The finish/podium bus

I rolled in in 9th spot, which wasn't bad. I improved by about 40 second on my time from 2 years ago, so that's OK. All that being said I wasn't overly happy with the result or the way I rode. I feel I could have done better. Oh well, there you go.

Now it's off to Buffalo Grill for a bit old feast before doing it all over again tomorrow... only this time it is a road race, that I will probably do a training.