The Coupe De France - 1st Place                     

22nd August

I have been staying in the Vienne region of France with Jez in a lovely French châteaux style hotel.   I have been having ice baths most days to try and get my swelling down on my back and to get my legs back to normal.

The rest of the team arrived yesterday ready for today's race which was 109k in the rolling hills of Loudon.  There was a full field of racers including the top French team and Jeannie Longo who must of just flown back recently from Beijing!   The race started fast with Longo stinging the bunch out for the first 2ok or so!  her team mate from Le Carroz attacked on the first climb which saw about 9 of us away including me and Christine but we were pulled back after the bunch chased hard for 10k to bridge us back.    Magalie Lavier from Le Carroz attacked early on in the race and got a few minutes on the bunch.  I attacked and bridged across to her when I felt the head wind blowing in our faces!  Emmanuelle Merlot from Futuroscope came across with me and the three of us worked together to get a gap of almost 2 minutes to the bunch. 

    Emmanuelle and I were doing most of the work to keep us away as Magalie clamed to be tired but was surely saving herself for the sprint I think!    Our time gap dropped to 30 seconds on the finishing lap which was 11k. Suddenly Magalie came to the fore and realized she had better help us or we were going to get swamped by the bunch!  The closing kilometres games were being played but there was not much time for them so I took the opportunity whilst they were both behind me before the 2nd final bed to attack and the keep it going to the finish line!  Yes it was a long sprint but I know Magalie is a good sprinter so I needed a head start on her.   I eventually crossed the finish line in 1st place, I was so happy as this was a very important race for our team today and wining it was the icing on the cake for us as a team!  My team did a great job controlling things in the bunch and we won the French Cup best team award as well as the U23 cup and Beatrice finished 5th place overall in the series.

Next stop for us is Plouay World Cup in 2 days time, so time for some rest I think now!

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