A long flight for the crew this past week in preparation for our first European race and second World Cup of the year. We flew into Paris early last week and got settled into our house just outside of Troyes, France. On Thursday and Friday we spend the mornings by sleeping in until about 10am and then hitting the bike paths for some time on two wheels. On Saturday we rode 10 km to the Troyes Cyclocross World Cup course to do a few pre-ride laps before the big day on Sunday. It's a fast course with lots of turns that drag you up and over a hump or small hill a bunch of times. A handful of off-cambers and plenty of heavy sections. The ground had a ton of moisture making everything very slippery, with lots of running, and clay like mud clogging the bikes up.
Come Sunday Jules kicked us off in the U23 Men's race. The sun was shining and things were drying out, making some stiff ruts on course. Jules started the race on the second row and by the end of the first lap he was sitting somewhere around 30th position. Over the course of the next 60 minutes he worked himself into the mid 20s and stayed there all race. Being smooth and consistent landed him a 27th spot on the day.
Then Sid and I lined up for the Elite Women's race. Sid grabbing a 3rd row start with myself in 5th row. The first lap was complete chaos with the Women's field being the largest of the day. The course was not fully dry with plenty of technical and slippery spots, but it was definitely becoming faster. Sid had a flying start managing to work her way through the chaos and get herself in good position. Midway through the race she had a slow leak in her front tire which lost her some spots, but after a bike change she was on her way to fight for 28th spot. My race went fairly well, I had a good first lap making lots of passes and from there on started to fade a little bit losing some time but came back for the last two laps finishing up in 44th and 19th in the U23.
This was a great starting spot for the team. We had a lot of fun, and also learned a lot at the Troyes World Cup this weekend and can't wait for Dublin, Ireland next weekend.
Comments