Crazy times at the Tour of Languedoc Roussillon

Over the last week I have been competing in the UCI 2.2 Tour of Languedoc-Rousillon, in the south of France, and it is fair to say, it has probably been one of the strangest, unpredictable weeks in bike racing.

The week started badly, when, half an hour from arriving at the race hotel, after a 6 hour drive from Spain, my team mate received a text from a another cyclist, saying that the organiser had decided to cancel the tour! It was then confirmed once we got to the hotel that the organiser did not have the money to pay the police to set up the race courses, so the race was not able to go ahead. As you can imagine, none of the teams were too pleased about this, as everyone had spent a lot of money and time getting to the race, and as a UCI ranked race, it was ridiculous that it could be cancelled less than 24 hours before the start of the first stage. Anyway, after several meetings, the money for the police was somehow found, and it was decided that the tour would go ahead, but would start a day late, reducing it from 6 stages to 5. However2 of the big teams- Rabobank and Dolmans, who could obviously afford to write off the money spent getting to the race decided to leave the anyway, in protest about what had happened.

So after an extra day chilling at the hotel, the race started on Saturday, with a relatively easy stage of 120km. However, to show that we were not pleased with what had happened, the riders decided to stage a protest before the start of the race. So instead of starting when we were told to, all the riders dismounted their bikes and sat on the ground for a minute, before getting up and beginning the race! The stage consisted of 3 climbs, with the longest only being around 3km, and it finished in a bunch sprint.

protest before stage

The next day was the mountain stage of the tour, and it was one of the coolest race courses I have ever ridden. During the 130km stage, we climbed 3 hors-categorie climbs, and finished on top of a mountain, at a ski station. On the second climb of the day, I unfortunately had a bad moment and was dropped from the front group. However, I recovered and over the next 40kms was able to pass a number of riders from the decimated group ahead, to finish in 14^th place. Team mate Belen Lopez also had a great ride, finishing in 9^th place and winning the combativity jersey for the day. That night we stayed in a hotel in the mountains, which had pretty amazing views.

View from the hotel after the mountain stage

Day 3 was, on paper, a much easier stage than the day before, consisting of 2 5km climbs and a 10km climb. However, just to add a wee bit more excitement to the tour, we were re-routed during the race, to avoid the longest climb, as there had been an armed robbery in the area that day! On the last climb of the day, our GC rider unfortunately missed the breakaway. Not wanting to lose her top 10 position, the 4 riders from our team got on the front of the 2^nd bunch and hammered it for the last 25km to try and get back to the riders ahead. With 25km to go the gap was almost 2 minutes, but we managed to catch the girls in front with 2km to go! It was a really awesome display of teamwork, and showed how different this team is from any other teams I have been in before!

Day 4 was the day I was dreading- a 30km time trial, which was not only the longest time trial I had ever done, but was also on a flat, very windy course, not suited to me at all! However, the team had kitted me up with all the flash gear- including the time trial bike of a former world champion, all painted up in the world champion rainbow stripes, which I found quite funny. But, to my surprise, I actually felt really good in the time trial, and with the additional motivation of kiwi star time trialler, Georgia Williams chasing me, I managed to do one of the better time trials I have done, and was able to keep my GC place from the day before.

The last stage was my least favourite of the tour- flat and extemely windy- it was one of those races which seems to go on forever, and you spend the whole race wanting it to finish. A small breakaway of 4 riders, all low on GC escaped near the start of the stage, and the rest of the peloton arrived together to the finish for a technical bunch sprint.

So overall I was very happy to finish the tour in 14^th place, with my team mate Belen in 10^th and team 5^th in the teams classification. We now have 2 days rest before a big spanish race on Saturday- hoping my legs will recover a bit by then!!

Emma