France (March 26, 2002)

Hello guys, I just got back from France last night and the car ride seemed to take forever. We got in around 11, but it seemed alot later then that, maybe because we were so tired from the races that we did. Well to get started, we left for France on Thursday morning to a place called Nantes. We arrivied and went for a short bike ride, which included some of the hills that we would be racing on in Saturdays race, and of course with our luck it started to rain, and by the time we got back to the hotel we were all soaked and muddy. The next day we road the courses other hills and got familliar with the corners and finishing circuits, but the big difference was the weather. It was around 17-20 degrees which is around 65 F, so it was a real treat for early european racing. On Saturday we raced a 180 kilometers and it took us around 3 hours and 50 minuets. I got dropped with like 30 kilometers to go. It wasn't very fun, we were doing 56K/Hour in the gutter and the field was splitting up, so if you were too far in the back like me its very easy to get dropped because someone in front of you lets a gap go, but hey thats racing.

That night we drove to Tours which was two hours away from the race we just did. We ate our race meal and then went to bed cause we were all really tired from the days race. The next day we all got ready and departed from our hotel for the race. It was 180k also, but the difference was that it was an Under 23 race, and it had about 11 one kilometer climbs in it, which makes for a tough day. After about 120 kilometers it started to break up, and I ended up in a group of 9 in between the front group of 40, and the back group of the remainder of the field. We finally finished the race, and when I got back to the car I had found out that Patrick, made the break with former World Champ, Mark Scanllion, and 3 Pollish guys, and 2 Vellotux guys.( last years U23 champ road for them). He got caught by the main field with 4 K to go, but still a very impressive result none the less. So thats all the really happend in our first two races of the season, but we just did them to get our fitness up and to get ready for our next race........Waregem on on Wednesday. So until then.

timmy