L’ Ecureuil 2010
Last Sundays the ‘L’Ecureuil’ cyclosportive was the penultimate ride in the UFOLEP (French sporting body) National series of cyclosportives. This was the 3rd time I have taken part in this event and I managed to produced my best time so far, finishing in just a few seconds over the 5 hour mark, I rode the 100 miles at an average of 32km/hour (20mph)
In the UFOLEP series I’m currently sitting in 5th position in my age category. With just one race/sportive to go it is going to be tough to hold onto this. On Sunday I dug deep to gain as many points as possible, but unfortunately the 2 riders below me in the competion strengthened their overall positions too.
Despite a 32 point lead over them at the current time. Both riders have one ride in hand over me with both riders having the potential to gain 50 – 60 points each based on previous results. Thus my existing results could leave me trailing by 20 – 30 points.
However it’s not over yet, because only my best 5 results from the series count overall in the rankings. I therefore have the ability to purge my worse result so far (30 points). So all my focus will be on producing the best result possible on the day and reducing the chance of being leap froged in the competion.
So all the focus now is getting prepared for the next sportive in Normandy on the 19th of September. Allons-y!
Like this:
Lanterne Rouge
A friend of mine recently asked whats this name ‘Lanterne Rouge’ all about. Well literally it translates to ‘red light’ not the red light found in seedy areas of towns and cities such as Amsterdam, duh!. In the case here it is the prestigious title given to the last man in the overall classification to finish the ‘Tour de France’ each year. The French almost hold as much respect for the last man in the tour as the first man. Why not? he’s done the same distance, probably gone through more pain and by the time he crosses the line in Paris he has been on the bike the longest. A special idiosyncrasy of the sport!
I guess when I was younger there was that dream of being the ‘best‘ at something, normally a sport, running, football, boxing, cycling, the list goes on. Of all of these cycling has been the one constant, so if I could have been the best cyclist around I suppose winning the Tour de France would have put me pretty close to that dream. Well the years roll by and priorities change and rather than being the best I think more like the old cliché – ‘its the taking part which counts’. Yeah, sure as cyclists we’d all love to win ‘Le Tour’ but just to have competed and finished would be more than enough, hence Lanterne Rouge!
Lanterne Rouge is primarily about cycling, but other things in my life are included as there are many hours in my life when i’m not on the bike, (then I’m just thinking about cycling)! Well for those who maybe interested, friends, family this is a little about what I’m doing and life in France generally.
Question – Guess who designed this shirt, look closely?
Answer: Paul Smith – OK not me, but along with the same name we both share a love of cycling.
