On the weekend of the 27/28th April, I was competing in a 3-stage 2-day tour in Orthez, France. I am a well travelled cyclist, I have raced in Belgium, Italy, Norway, Spain, as well as obviously the UK, however this was the first time that I have ever raced in France, so this was a new experience to me.
We left the north of Spain on the Friday afternoon, and we drove through the Pyrenees, which was utterly stunning, to get to the south of France for the location of the race. On the way up, we stopped at a friend of the team’s home in Pau, France, for tea. He then came with us to the race and helped out a lot over the weekend, so a shoutout to him for all his help.
The first stage was a TTT (Team Time Trial), with there being 6 of us in the team, and the course being rolling and 9.6km in length. The team had 4 TT bikes, I was given a bike, with a deep section front wheel and a disc rear wheel, but it didn’t make it any easier! We ended up finishing with 5 riders, and we took an amazing 3rd place from 23 teams and over 130 riders. This put us all in the top 15 going into stage 2, so we had a great start. I really think that as we started so well, it changed my whole ambition on the race and I automatically expected the top results.
The afternoon stage was 84km, with 3 main short punchy climbs. I felt very strong, and made a few breakaways around halfway through the race, but we could not get a gap. Then Josh managed to get away and pick up quite a lot of points for both the sprints jersey and the mountains classification, then however, he was caught with 20km to go. I worked for Alexis, our team sprinter, as it was inevitably going to be a sprint, I also marked the moves in the end, and stayed near the front to pick up 25th on the stage, which I was very happy with as I also managed to hit over a 1,000W, which hasn’t happened for a long time since I became a climber. I managed to get Alexis in a good position, and he finished it off for 3rd on the stage!
Going into the final stage, I was 11th on GC, only 41 seconds off 1st place, so it was still all to play for. The final say was 123km with 5 big climbs, ranging from 2-7km. Going into the day, Josh was in 2nd place for both the sprints and mountains classification, so the plan was to work for him to pick up more points to take home a jersey. However, a break went early on which he wasn’t in, so this meant we had to chase. We put Antonio on the front on the flatter sections before the main climb, then I lead all the way up the main longest 2nd category climb, as though I was Kwiatkowski and Josh was Froome. I dropped a lot of guys from the peloton, then riders went over the top of me in the last kilometer of the climb, but I hung on to the peloton, and stayed in the group.
On the next climb, Ash managed to get in a move, which ended up staying all the way to the finish. I had the legs for the move, but thought twice then it was gone and too late to try to get across, as I would only have been bringing my team mate back. The pace really slowed in the peloton, so on the final climb, I attacked and absolutely drilled it. A rider came with me but was not assisting with the pace making, so I dropped him. I then got on with a chasing breakaway, we worked well, mopped up some of the riders from the original breakaway and left the peloton for dead. I then sprinted to 5th from my group and 12th on the stage.
In the end, this meant that I moved up to 7th overall in the general classification, which is my best ever GC in a tour, and arguably, my best every result! So I am over the moon with how strong I am right now, and I know that there is definitely a lot more in me, I can easily see myself winning these races now, which is a massive improvement to my mentality for a long time. Additionally, my team ‘La Tova’ got 2nd best team!
My next race will be in Aragon, which is the area where I am living, so it is a more local one, and I think it is a lower level, so one that I can win!
Elliot Reed Cycling 