Tour De La Manche with NextGenU23

My first stage race of the season was the four day, five stage Tour de la Manche in Normandie, France. The race consists of four road stages varying from 105-168 km, and a short 15 km individual time trial. I had just come off a good block of training and was feeling pretty good going into the race. TDLM is a top level amateur race in France, all the teams are division one and two teams which pay their riders, but to put it simply, it’s the best of the people who work day jobs. We knew we could be competitive at this race and looked to do so one the first stage.

Stage one was the longest of the race, 168 km with moderate rolling hills all day and finished on an eight km circuit. I think we all got a little too excited and used too much energy in the first hour of racing. Luc had given us a rundown of how racing in France works, but it was a lot to take in, and he could not have been more right. Luc said that these guys will race, really race, from kilometer one to the finish, there was attacking left right and center all day. Luc also gave us some good advice about how to play our cards during the first day; because nobody knew who we are, they were afraid of us and we should have used that to our advantage and held back, but we ended up throwing that away and showing all our cards in the first two hours of racing. Day one ended in a bad way with us missing the break away and having to use all of our riders to chase for about 40 km during the stage. The French teams were not willing to work with us because they did not know enough about us. In any case, we all came in as pack fill on stage one, Sean our GC man losing 2:20 on the winning break of 20 riders, definitely a day to forget.

Day two was the double day, an ITT in morning followed by a 105 km stage late in the afternoon. I had been suffering with stomach pain shortly after stage one, but luckily for me it subsided and I am usually pretty quick to recover during stage races. I was excited for the ITT, hoping for a good ride, but Luc told me that since I was not a feature for the GC and realistically for the stage win either, that I would be going Merckx style (no aerodynamic equipment). I did my warm-up and I had a skinsuit but nothing else, just a normal road bike with shallow wheels and regular helmet. It was a super fun course, really twisty, maybe a little more than I would have liked but fun nonetheless. I came in super far down, around 87th of 108 starters. Stage 3 was a later afternoon start of 100 km. It was this stage that proved to be very difficult, the teams who had lost the jerseys earlier in the day were out for vengeance that afternoon. Will managed to get into the break away and was fighting hard all day to stay in front, there was a relentless pace in the group behind. My Job was to cover break away attempts early in the stage, I had a terrible starting spot and with the first few km’s being one lane wide I couldn’t get to the front to do my job. After a few more kilometers I made it to the front just in time, I was on Will’s wheel and there was an attack, he jumped onto the wheels in front and I let the gap go, that was it, the break went after that and we had a man in it. I got there at just the right time. It was a hard stage after all that and I was suffering all day in the group.

Day three brought on stage four, I felt better than expected going into the stage and I was again on duty to cover early moves, and this time I wouldn’t screw it up. I made my way to start line after a good warm-up and had a good position, though the neutral start was crazy doing multiple roundabouts and twisting around narrow streets, I was able to stay at the front and spent the next 30 Km covering as many moves as possible, Adam and myself were the ones who were really on fire in terms of covering moves, taking turns almost perfectly. The green jersey(Best under 25 rider, and what we were aiming for with Sean) attacked and tried to go with a move, Adam and myself rode him down and a few minutes later Adam made another big effort to cover a move on a hill and I was cracked, I was drifting backwards fast and Adams effort paid off as that was ‘the move’. Adam stayed out front all day and hung on for 6th. I again suffered and near the end of the day I got dropped on a cross wind section and rolled in with a group of 25-30 riders losing about four minutes.

The last day was 142 km of rolling course before we hit the coast line near the famous Mont St Michel. It was an amazing day for racing, nearly 30 degrees and awesome course with four loops of a 5 km finishing circuit to cap off the race. I tried my best to get into the break away, but again to no avail. I spent the day trying to save as much energy as possible because there were some good climbs on the circuit. We had some amazing views of the coast and of the Mont St Michel. When the race hit the circuits, we all got a real shock with how much traffic furniture there was; little roundabouts and medians everywhere. Unfortunately Adam hooked his wheel on one of these super dangerous medians and went down hard. Adam was going about 60 kph and had some deep wounds but he was able to get up and make it to the van. I made it to the second of four laps of the circuit before I lost contact on one of the fast technical downhill sections. I was in a chase group of five for the remainder of the day rolling in about four minutes down on the winner. That concluded our 2015 Tour de la Manche, with Sean finishing fourth in the young rider competition, and Will and Adam getting a fifth and two sixth places on individual stages.

We are staying in Normandie for the next few days to recover and switch the team around for the up and coming races in Belgium and Ireland. Five of guys will leave on 15th to go to Ireland for the An Post Ras, an eight day stage race. Myself and injured Adam will return to Tielt Winge and do more Kermesse racing. Tour de la Manche was incredibly difficult for me and I was at my limit every day. Some down time should get me stronger than ever, and I'm looking forward to getting back home in a little over two weeks!

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