Hopla

So after finishing both Marseille last Sunday, and Tour of Besseges this Sunday, I am slightly looking forward to go into a small rest period after a hard 4-5 weeks training, racing and travelling.

I've never started my season this early before, the 31st of January to be precise, simply because I couldn't, Marseille was with in my early season plans to see how I measured up against the seasoned professionals. It was nice to blow out the legs on a hilly circuit around Marseille, however the final climb was to much for me, and I came to the line solo. The immediate thoughts were "hmmmm that was hard, I hope I don't perform like this all year".

The following morning I found out I had the chance to do Besseges, a 5 day Tour with a Time Trial on the final day. I went in wanting to gain more experience, but on the 1st and 2nd day there was a sense of, this is very different to Marseille, I can push here, but still I wanted to go day by day, not over doing it early on or getting over confident, the plan was to finish the Tour and get stronger, and then stage 4 came around. 

I had survived the hardest stage of the race in the peloton with a few groups behind us (Stage 3) , a lot of the day was spent climbing and then on to a flat circuit to finish, been in the peloton was good for the mind its self, but I had a sense that it wasn't enough, that I wanted to see what it's really like out in front, stage 4 rolled around and it felt like a dark day, the weather had changed, the climbs still in the legs from stage 3. However when the chance opened up early on I took it, in my head as soon as I went I thought "ooooft mistake" in my mind it was going to take 2-3 minutes to cross the gap to the break, 40-50 minutes later I was there, I had taken on a fair amount of pain and effort that day, but the small reward was making it to the finish line and claiming 5th on the stage. 

However after all that, I was more nervous for a 12km TT on the Sunday. But I stuck to my old warm up routine, and pushed on to the finish up the climb, the sensation was good on the flat, but the legs weren't able to push like I wanted them on the final climb.

It's been a very good learning experience the last weeks, and from these races I hope I can only go forward, for me there is not a result to relax on, I see it as a result to build on. There's elements of my racing and conditioning still to work on, but with the help I have it's possible to make those steps forward. 

Cheers Jake