Redon-Redon #4th

Where to start. It has been a Crazy year so far. A very short rest period after a very long season in SA (2015). Finishing 2015 off with a tough rainy 8 days in Rwanda and opening my account with a great Team effort from RoadCover in Mpumalanga Tour with fairly poor form.

Since then I have not had one week without racing. Challenging but well worth the challenge. Every weekend has been a roller Coaster. Not knowing what to expect, who to follow where and when. Most importantly finding the right nutrition as their eating habits are quite different to what I am used to in SA. Ranging from Grenadine in their bottles to a few cereal bars in your back pocket.

But those who adapt the slowest usually never make it. I made the necessary adjustments nutrient wise and things have been going better. Anyway...so this weekend I raced in Redon. Some history, Tyler Farrar won stage 3 of the Tour de France back in 2011. Not the same finish though.

No rain or wind was suspected for the day, but then again it is France, nothing here happens as expected. Twenty Kilometers into the race it was all fireworks and the race blew up into pieces in the gutters. Loudeac had the most riders present aswell as their Team leader Erwan Corbell. So as expected they had the pleasure of driving the break early on. Other teams in the split started assisting later on as they where sent to the front by their Team leaders.

The race was 165km long. As the climbs got longer and steeper the group slowly thinned out. As we approached the final circuit the race what about to heat up. Fortunately I had A few Teammates with me patrolling affairs along the way. The climb to the finish is quite tough but only good legs where going help you there. Of-course throwing away any full bottles before passing there for some marginal gains as they would call it. I missed an important selection up the road with Corbell, Bescond & co. Kevin Francis & Kevin Perret where left to close the gap as much as possible for me but still left me with a 20sec gap to bridge.

I managed to bridge but cost me dearly in the end as it was 20km to go. Its usually round about this point where the legs start feeling empty. But its also around this point you remember how hard you have worked, how far you've come and that your friends work was'nt all for charity. You take a gell, HTFU and nurse yourself with the job in hand.

As I got across there was'nt a lot of time left for japping. I skipped a few turns and soon started pushing on as other Teams where chassing from behind. To make a long story short, riding high watts some times just is'nt enough. It takes something special to win in France. Corbell just did that just powered away on the climb to the finish. Ive come close so many times this year but just never seem to have enough ammo. But ive grown more hungry than ever before and will continue to push on.