Monday 4 August

Stage 2 – Corte – St Florent  106km

We started today’s stage in Corte so it was a treat not to have to travel by car to the race start.  It was also our last day on the island of Corsica as we would be transferring to Nice after the race today.

After yesterday’s disaster I decided to have a good warm up, particularly since the stage started with a 4km category 4 climb.  The race was due to start at midday but at 10.30am we were told the race was starting 30 minutes earlier.  This meant that with riders called to the start line at 11.15am, there was little time to sign in and warm up.  The sign in procedure involves each team coming up onto the stage to sign in with each rider being individually introduced.  There is always a lot of activity at the start line, with the band playing, fans hunting for autographs and photographers trying to get that pre-race shot.  I really enjoy the atmosphere at the start and particularly love the french’s passion for cycling.

After the sign-in, we rode part way up the climb to wake up the legs and to see what we had to look forward to.  I climbed at 15km/hr but knew the pace would be much higher during the race.  In fact, we climbed at 25km/hr which nearly ripped my legs off.

After this climb we had a flat to slightly downhill section for 50km which was great.  There is nothing more enjoyable than riding downhill!  The next hill came after a sharp right had corner and caught me completely off guard.  I was near the back of the field and gaps opened up as someone at the front attacked.  The gradient wasn’t steep but at 40km/hr I couldn’t’ stay with the mountain goats.  I ended up in a small group of 20 riders who were climbing at my speed.  Our group rode conservatively and tried to ignore the 51C heat that was beating down on us.  We had a long final category 4 climb of 16km which took us through the recently burnt out areas of Corsica.  The terrain was completely charred without a blade of grass or a tree in sight.

The last part of today’s stage was a 12km descent which had some really tight hairpin turns.  I love descending if I am at the front and don’t have to worry about riders slamming on their brakes.  I went to the front and followed the line a Gendarmarie (French policeman) motorcyclist took through each corner.  He took the corners so fast and leant his bike so that the panniers on either side of his bike were scrapping on the road.  I was scared he was going to wipe out in front of us but he just grinned back at us after each sharp corner and I am sure he was having more fun than we were.  In fact, these cops work fulltime for the organisers of French cycling races.  They go from race to race, protecting the cyclists from traffic and ensuring the race course is safe.  They are the ones that stand bravely in the middle of the road with a flag and a whistle to warn us of traffic islands or roundabouts that are hard to see from the middle of the peloton.  It must be unnerving for the peloton to ride straight at the policeman at 50km/hr and at the last second deviate either side of him to avoid whatever he is warning us about.

My legs felt better today and I finished in a higher group than yesterday.  My aim is to ride within myself for the first week, survive the alps and have something left for a few good stages in the second week.

After the race, we drove to Bastia to catch the ferry to Nice.  The organisers gave us a baguette for dinner so we headed out to find a restaurant that served pasta.  The ferry was due to depart at 7pm but didn’t leave until 9pm.  Nothing ever happens on time in France!  The ferry arrived at Nice at 2.30am.  We found our accommodation in the town of Grasse with only 4 laps of a particular roundabout.  It is a bit of a joke within the team that we enjoy doing at least a couple of U turns each day and a few laps of the roundabouts.  We crawled into bed at 4am and I wondered how on earth we would be able to race tomorrow, well later today.