Tour de L'Ariege (Pyrenees)

OUCH! 3 stages, Big mountain passes and nothing but rain and crashes. Hmmm.... Still a fantastic race!!! How often is it that you get to race over the huge mountain passes of the Pyrenees?

Stage 1: last minute pannick

It rained the whole time. I was planning to go for the King of the Mountains in this Tour, and try for a top 10 overall. But from stage 1 I could tell I wasn’t feeling great. I made it over the first climb of the race in 3rd spot, and got myself a few Mountains points, but that would be it sadly. The stage actually finished in a crazy uphill mass(ish)-sprint on soaking wet cobbles in a twisty little Pyrenean town. A Police motorbike in the final 1km blocked us, and my teammate Hugo and I had to stop, unclip, get around him and sprint like mad so as not to loose any time for the overall. Our team walked away with the green jersey at the end of the day, and the rest of us all in the peloton, safe and sound... well, except for a few scrapes and bruises.

(Eric got the Gree Jersey on Stage 1)

Stage 2: Sill in with a chance


Stage 2 would be surprisingly similar to stage 1. I felt as if I had dead legs and just wasn’t performing right. One of our guys crashed, another got a flat and 3 of our boys went back to help him and were forced to chase for most of the race in the team cars. It once again all finished in a very surprising uphill mass sprint. Two of us from the team finished in the Peloton and were therefore still well poised for the overall classification. However some rider were already 20minutes down overall. So although a sprint finish, the Pyrenees roads of the Ariege were starting to take their toll.
Stage 3: the BIG mountains

Still a little snow up at altitude...

The big one. 4 mountains on the day, 2 mountains of well over 1000meters, the final 2 climbs coming in the last 30km of the race, and the finish up the top of the Mont d’Olmes ski station at 1700meters. Things didn’t go quite to plan once again, and I was the only one from the team vaguly able to follow the pace over the climbs. As I crested the second to last climb alone just outside the top 20 and shot down the wet descent I was reminded of the dangers of cycling. There were riders all over the road, some standing by cars their bikes over the other side of the road. Some climbing back over the edge of the road to the bikes that lay under barriers at the side of the road… it was carnage. Speaking of carnage, we then hit the final climb. 17km of climbing through the clouds and in the rain to the finish were snow still sat at the side of roads. I really wasn’t feeling right, and my team car could see it as clear as day. They kept coming up along side me and encouraging me, reminding me that this sort of terrain is what I’m made for, but for some reason I just couldn’t get my heartrate up.

National Champion and King of the Mountains jersey winner Glacial (FRA, Tarbes) rolled in over 20minutes back on the last stage.

At the end of the day I finished 19th on the stage and 18th over, we came away from the race soaking wet, with 3 inured riders from crashes, 2 abandons, one cracked collar bone and a lot of doubts in our minds.

That was pretty much the last time I got to wear my Pyrenees Champion Jersey, as the Championships are on June 8th. Everyone will be trying to take the jersey off my back, even my own bloody teamates... Bastard. :)