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Tour of Brittanie - 17-20th June -
France-
Final GC 26th
My first race with my new team ESGL-Gestion was the
Tour of Brittany 4 day stage race in France. A full field of
around 125 girls from across the globe set the pace for the 4
days of racing.
The
first stage was a road stage of about 120k in the rolling
country side. I was using the early stages to find my legs
after a few weeks resting so I was feeling the pace at times but
Jo was feeling good and finished in the top 20 today and the
rest of us finished in the same group.
2k from the finish on stage 2 there was a crash
which I hit the tail end of and came crashing down into Pitel
who also fell. We got the same time as the front bunch as
the crash happened in the final 3k.
Thankfully my LOOK 585 was not damaged just a few scratches on
me and just a bit of road rash!
The next few stages were very fast with the American
national team setting the pace defending their GC
contenders. Jo, Christine and I finished in the first groups in
the last 2 stages but were not very organised in the sprint
which saw us finishing in the top 30 and to be honest I was
struggling to find my legs at points especially come the
finishing circuits which split the field to pieces but
thankfully I managed to hang in the first groups.
British rider Emma Pooley took over the Yellow Jersey on stage 3
when she went for a solo break mid race and kept a 40sec gap
till the finish which she was sure to keep as the final stage
was a 9k Individual Time Trial followed by a 80k road race in
the afternoon.
The afternoons stage was hard especially on the finishing
circuit which climbed up for about 1k to the finish and
continued to drag up until it dropped down a fast
descent towards the finishing climb. 3 of our team finished up
in the first group just losing a bit of time on the sprint lap
were the final sprint split the group.
British rider Emma Pooley finished in 1st place with Christine
(ESGL) 13th overall and me 26th a great ride for the Brits in
Brittany.
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