Tour of Limousin stage race 24-27th June - France-

Final GC 27th
After the tour of Brittany Jo, Estelle and I headed south about 5 hours to stay at our Team Managers holiday house.   We had a few days chilling by the pool in the lovely sunshine and sampling some fine French cuisine. Perfect in between stage race preparation.
 

Back to work after a few days of luxury as we drove to Limousin to get ready for stage 1,  a 5k Prologue.  I did not feel too zippy in the prologue but new the next few days would be important and the prologue was a good leg opener! Two Dutch riders from VVHP finished on the podium for the prologue but this was sure to change when we hit the hills on stage 2 and 3. 
          I felt stronger than I did in the tour of Brittany which I was expecting but I was riding too strongly in the early stages of the  race which did not help me in the finishing stages but I have learnt that lesson now. 

Stage 1 I felt very good and responsive  trying to go with every break  which caught up with me in the end as when it came down to the final climb which Edwige Pitel (LeCarroz) attacked on I was unable to respond and she rode away from the bunch with a Russian rider to finish 1 and 2.  We had a front group of around 40 girls all fired up for the slight uphill sprint finish where I finished 13th.   
          The next few days saw the terrain kick up some more, climbing up to 400 metres.   I tried my hand a few times to attack and try and get away but the field was being closely monitored by the Russian team as they were lying 2nd on GC.  Again I was feeling strong on stage 2  but showing my hand too much which left me tired for the later stages of the race

            Stage 3  was really tough over a 125k course with a lot of climbing plus it was very hot.  The field shattered the first time up the main climb and again the 2nd time up the climb with about 10 girls taking the lead in the front group including Pitel and 2 of the Russian National squad.  It was a matter of holding on to the finish!  I was in the 2nd group going over the climb but we had about 40k to go to the finish so it was just a case of keeping it going to the finish as the time gap to the front group was over 3 mins by this stage so we were not going to get them back now.   I finished 23rd today.
          The final stage was tough with rolling terrain starting pretty much from the first few kilometres.  The Russian team and French teams were controlling the race today which saw team Russia take the win and the overall stage race ahead of French rider Egwige Pitel.  Unfortunately I had a flat tyre in the final stages which saw me drop to the second group and I lost some time finishing 27th overall on General Classement.
 
My next stop was Home where I took a few days rest before heading to Dorset and Cornwall for some west country Hill terrain along the coast from Tintagel to Bude before heading back to France for the Route de France 8 day stage race from the 10-17th August.


 

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