Tour de Vaucluse - Devo Report #1

Monday May 05, 2008  

Tour de Vaucluse

By Devon Novakowski

 On the weekend of April 19^th and 20^th I was put into a very difficult race. It was a three stage race called the Tour de Vaucluse. The race was in the category known as the deuxieme category one step below Elite or known as semi-professional in Canada. It is made up of senior 2, espoir, senior 3 and juniors. There were 120 riders in this race mostly consisting of Sen. 2s; however there were 20 of some of Frances fastest juniors there.

 

 The First stage consisted of a 110km road race around a 15km circuit. In this circuit was one climb about 1km long, a twisting descent on hard packed dirt and gravel, and the rest was all rolling hills. The race started out with a neutral start and as soon as the cars pulled away the attacks begun. The racing was very aggressive right from the start, no time to relax and take a breather, it was full throttle or you were off the back. The first two laps went very quickly and without any breaks. No crashes and only a few small breakaways got away but they were reeled in very quickly. It wasn't until partway though the third lap that anything serious got away. I had been at the front attacking aggressively with many others and finally when the peleton was strung out a group of about 10 managed to create a gap. I was among one of them who managed to hop into the train and do his share to make the break. The gap between the peleton and the break began to grow and another group of three bridged the gap. The group worked together very smoothly and our combined work was enough to hold the peleton at bay. The only time that it was ever split up was due to the attacks for the GPM at the top of the climb. The pace was extraordinarily hard. After 110km of racing the break finally reached the line with an average speed of 48km/h. We finished 3 minutes ahead of the first chase group, 4 ahead of the second and 5 minutes ahead of the peleton. I finished with the first group coming across the line in 11^th putting me in the first place junior jersey.

 

 The second stage was a 4800m uphill time trial. It was not a very steep climb, enough that it was going to be very difficult and one might contemplate before using a time trial bike. It went in the reverse order of the finishers from the day before. I went went up the climb averaging 27km/h which put me finished 25^th overall and 3^rd junior. This was enough to put me into 8^th place, I still had a significant gap over second place junior and held on to the junior jersey for another stage.

 

 The last stage was a 90km circuit race. The loop was 6km long that consisted of a 500m steep hill, a wicked fast descent and a smooth flat that was incredibly fast especially on junior gears. The start was halfway up the climb and so was the finish, making for both and interesting start and finish. The day was getting worse and an ugly cloud was now looming over the race course. The wind had started to pick up and it looked like a storm was coming on. The riders were at the start line ready to go none the less.

 

The race started off in a sprint. Right from the gun the pace was extraordinarily hard, even harder than the day before. A fellow Canadian racer, Andrew Lattimore was very active at the front for the first half of the race, attacking and covering the breaks for me. His work done Andrew went to the back to try and recover which was at an unfortunate time since this is when the pace really began to go. Riders began to fall off the back, and Andrew tired due to being on the front slowly slid off the back.

 

The rain began to fall next, I was still in the lead group and I got to the front and began to push the pace. Trying to get another break going, finally a group of four of us pulled away from the peleton and began to work together. We stayed away for a lap and a half before being caught by a chase group containing about 30 riders. The rain was now pouring and many of the racers were dropping out due to pure exhaustion. My strength which he had been just showing minutes before began to drain. I had not eaten enough and due to the cold and the pace my body began to crumble. There were two other juniors in the group with me and I knew I could not get dropped or he would loose my place as fastest junior, so I kept the pedals moving and held the pace. By the finish line I was the only junior left with 20 other riders, my body so spent that at the bottom of the last climb the group simply rode away from me. I crossed the line 19^th and nearly fell off my bike due to exhaustion. The team car had to push me to the parking space so I could get changed. I ended up finishing 8^th overall and 1^st junior. Only 45 of the 120 riders had finished the last stage.