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Who is the real winner in bicycle races?

  • Writer: Einat Argon
    Einat Argon
  • Oct 30, 2016
  • 4 min read

Is it the one who crosses the finish line first or the one we found ourselves talking about after the race?

Write your answer in the comments, it will be interesting to see.

To share my opinion on this question, you will join me to my last weekend adventure, where I went to support team feminin languedoc roussillon on the first women French cup road race for this year, which took place in Chambery.

Chambery road race is a tradition. It is always the first race of the French cup.

The lap is 8 km long, starting at a top of a 1 km hill (which means, this hill is the final stretch to the finish line).

There's a nice descent, on a narrow road between the trees, a flat technical section with lots of traffic circles in an industrial area, couple strong left turn and the hill I mentioned before, where the crowd likes to gather, cheer, hand water and watch the best moves happen right in front of their eyes.

(Does cycling get you the best seats to see your heroes, or what?!)

Chambery road race is the classic race to start your season of racing with. The weather is usually nice, not too cold and not too warm, it was 14 Celsius degrees with some sun this year.

The hill is short enough to power up if you are still rusty from the winter and long enough to give your lungs the kick it needs as a reminder to real racing.

There is always big crowd to cheer and support the racers and a big field of racers (135 racers this year)

Which means...135 women racers who all want to cross the finish line first.

By the way, if you think a 1 km hill is not that big of a challenge. Try doing it 12 times.

Yeap, the race is 12 laps of 8 kilometers.

All of the racers of team feminin languedoc roussillon have raced Chambery before, all except one.

We had a 5 hours drive to get to our hotel in Chambery on the day before the race, so that was the perfect time for Alice to ask lots of questions about the race and the rest of the team was more than happy to share their experience with her. Some of the riders raced it 8 times already.

"The last part of the hill is very steep", "you should drink a lot", "watch out of traffic circles", "stay in the front of the peloton", "there are always lot of crashes on the first races", "attack", "the left sharp turn is dangerous", "it always comes down to a sprint", "there is always a break away"

......

We made it to Chambery, the girls went out to ride the course of the race, had dinner, went to sleep, got up, had breakfast and here we are on the start line.

The first lap of the race went smoothly, all the girls are in good positions. Getting to the first lap, Alice is at the front of the peloton, feeling good and just going hard up the hill to later realize she opened a few seconds gap on the peloton. A fast decision making and she's going for it, the first break away of the race.

During the second lap we had two dramas:

  1. Alice opens a bigger gap and she is now 40 seconds a head of the peloton, where the racers can't see her.

  2. There's a bad crash and one of the team mates is down.

Laura, the team mate had to leave with an ambulance to the hospital. Writing these words, she is still in the hospital. She is safe and getting treatment but won't be racing the next race.

The race keeps going, 7th lap and Alice has 2 minutes and 4 seconds on the peloton. Every time she goes up the hill, the whole town can hear it. The crowd loves it!!! The race radio called it "the festival of languedoc roussillon"

We are on the 9th lap, the gap came down to 1 minute and 40 seconds and everyone think this is it, we can announce the brave winner, the media around collects every piece of information they can about "crazy Alice"

10th lap, the peloton is not happy. The pace is going higher and higher, dropping lots of girls behind and suddenly closing on Alice, who can only imagine this "dragon" who chases her when she sees the gap she opened gets smaller and smaller.

It is the LAST lap on the race, the LAST flat section before the LAST hill where the peloton catches Alice.

She is tired on the last climb and manages to finish in the respectful 38th place.

On the podium we had the winners (elite and espoire) and Alice (queen of the mountains), the girls go down the podium, the winners to their team and Alice is lost under a mountain of people who want to see her, ask her questions, interview her and take pictures with her.

Now who is the real winner?!

The next French cup race will be in Pujols.

 
 
 

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