Lisa Howard: Suffering in France

« Solemate Adventure! | Main | In other news... »

May 25, 2005

Suffering in France

Hello Kids,

Well, as most of you know, I've just been to France. For those of you who don't, well now you do. It really goes to show the usefulness of gossip. My dad came across Mandy Poitras, who had just returned from the Pan Am championships in Argentina, where three of the riders slated to compete in the upcoming Tour de L'Aude had become sick or injured. As such, there was room on the National Team for more riders to go. I decided to call the athletes services guy at the CCA to investigate this opportunity (not expecting in my wildest dreams to be able to go). The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hi, I hear there's an opportunity to compete in the Tour de L'Aude."
Sean: "Yes there is, do you want to go?"
Me: "OK"
Sean: "You leave tomorrow."

And that was that. There was considerable more stress involved, and consulting with my coach etc. However, essentially that's how it went. Craziness of craziness.

So once the stress died down, I hopped on a plane bound for Toulouse. Well, Paris, then Stupid Air France made me miss my connection, so I waited in Charles de Gaulle 2 for a while before hopping a plane to Toulouse. Harumph.

I arrived in France on the Wednesday, and the Prologue was on the Friday. It was probably best not to be there too long before the start of the race, I didn't really have to much time to think about what I was getting into...

For more info about the Tour de l'Aude Feminin

Anyhow, here are some things i learned during the tour:

- getting to the front and staying there is hard
- i didn't really know what suffering was
- motor bikes are annoying
- the front is a good place to start a climb
- bunch sprints are pretty crazy and hectic
- spanish girls are very bitchy
- i don't suck, but i definitely have a ways to go to be world class

Here are some photos of the south of France. There's a lot of wine fields there, and rolling hills, which are actually pretty long, but not very steep. The landscape is dotted with tons of little towns, and it's really neat racing through them, b/c there are people in front of their houses and cafes all cheering us on "Bon courage les filles!"