50/50 Weekends and Sweet Euro Crits

After a slew of races that really have not fit my personal skill-sets, it was nice to know I would be racing a "Nocturn" for the first time in my stay. Basically, a "Nocturn" is a French version of a night criterium. This promised to be very exciting since going uphill is not my specialty, but going fast in tight corners and bumping is something that comes naturally to me.

As the days came down to race day, the weather seemed to take a turn for the worse. It seemed Friday we awoke to a very overcast day with a lot of spotted showers and sure rain for in the forecast for Saturday. This was not exciting, since I do night races, but I am not a fan of them in the rain.

Thankfully as Saturday progressed, the rain cleared and we were off to Doule le Fontaine for a dry night crit! The weather was a little chilly as we dipped below 50 degrees for the start. Glad we had enough time to preview the course as the last kilometer was pretty hectic. The last corner especially being tricky with it being downhill, a rain grate that extended the length of the road, traffic island, raised crosswalk and cobbles. The last kilometer comprised itself of 5 corners, cobbles, an addition traffic island and raised crosswalk on top of the aforementioned items for the final corner.

The course itself was more of a big circuit than the typical American Criterium course. Each lap was around 3.5 kilometers and sent us around some wide and narrow streets of Doule le Fontaine. Also things are done in laps here, so we were set to race 90km in total instead of a set time. Definitely longer than most American Criteriums, it would be interesting to see how the race would play out.


As we were called up to the starting line, something hilarious happened. It may have not been funny to anyone else but me, because sometimes things just do not transverse culturally. "What is Love" started blaring from the speakers, and I chuckled looking around to see who else would be nodding their heads like Will Ferrell or Chris Kattan. But unfortunately everyone was really seriously looking or really into the song. This was more funny then seeing someone nod their head. And just like that we were off!


Rolling out slowly, I was primed for attacking from the go but was informed that we were doing a neutral half lap and then the race would be on. Even getting past the neutral it seemed like we were going to do a full lap neutral until right before the last kilometer. Then it was on. Knowing how dicey it was, I knew I had to be towards the front to avoid any early mishaps and hit the final corner and gave it as much gas as I could. After I passed the line, I looked back and had a gap so I put my head down and went for it. 


Shortly after being caught, my teammate Kalvis counter attacked and that was the move. He drew out three riders with him and the only team with multiple riders, E'leclerc completely missed the move. They also had 5 riders inforce. So for the next 80km I was following their attempts to go across and or bring back the break. Eventually things dwindled down and the front group began to shred. It got to a point where E'leclerc was just sending guys up the road for us to chase them. This caused a split in groups with 3 to go. I found myself jumping across and then the group split again and I couldn't make it across. 


Sadly being ok with the group I was in, I had no other options but to win the sprint in our group. As we came into the final kilometer last years winner attacked and sat up before the 2nd of the 5 final corners. I just put my head down again, made it to the last corner and kicked again as hard as I could. I thought I might get passed by the line as I could hear the gears shifting behind me, but I was able to stick it out for 14th. Kalvis was able to snag 3rd place. So we ended on the podium!


The only downside to Nocturn racing is that we didn't get home until 10:30pm and had to leave the next day at 11am for Sunday's event. This left little time for a shower, food, stretching and sleep. Thankfully I was able to fall asleep rather easily and able to get up the next morning with enough time for a decent breakfast and coffee.


Heading to Sunday's race, we really were unsure of the course and distance. We finally got to the start in Sarent, the course was going to be very difficult. The field was also quiet large with 100+ riders and the French Continental team, Sojasun was also in attendance. As we started, things we thankfully neutral as we navigated out of Sarent due to the amount of traffic obstacles and narrow roads. Many riders opted for sidewalks and some off roading to avoid crashing. Clearing neutral we were graced with a nice 2km climb. This definitely made the legs scream, especially due to bad cross wind and chaos at the front of the field. 


With the confusion, a small break formed and it seemed that Sojasun missed it as well as the Cotes D'Amour team. So they decided to gutter the rest of the field in the cross wind for the next 40 minutes. As we came through some narrow farm roads, I seemed to drill a nice pot hole trying to stay at the front of the group and heard the explosion of my rear tyre. With my arm up, I got a change pretty fast and spent the next few moments behind the car trying to make it back to the caravan. Unfortunately the officials decided that my day was over and I ended up going for a training ride.


I tried to stay on the course, but ended up getting lost somewhere along the way. With no phone or anything else this mean a nice u-turn and backtrack to get to the start town. I got into Sarent shortly before the remnants of the peloton made it back. I ended my day with some bottle duty and just tried to stay focused on next weekend. 


Coming up for next weekend, we have a stage race starting on Friday, three days and four stages. Two of the stages being relatively flat and a short time trial. This will give yet another opportunity to shine. Until then....