Neil Shirley Diary Tour De Beauce – Stage 1
6/11/08 - This week the Jittery Joe’s team (7 of us) is up in Quebec taking part in the 6-day Tour De Beauce Stage Race. It’s a UCI 2.2 event, which means it attracts a lot of International teams. A handful of the teams that we were racing against at the Commerce Bank Triple Crown last week are present, including Team Type 1 who with a stacked roster are the team to beat. There are teams from 12 different countries, including New Zealand, Ireland, Britain, South Africa, and of course Canada. Beauce is famous for their relentlessly undulating terrain, bad weather, and roads that aren’t even suitable to drive a car on. Due to the harsh winters the roads have huge cracks and holes everywhere.
We arrived at the hotel at 4:30 pm on Monday and jumped on the bikes immediately for an hour spin. After that we had team presentations, dinner, and then off to bed. There was no easing into the race, Stage 1 was 105-miles with 3 KOM’s and a tough finish. Trent Wilson was on the start line for us, broken hand and all. He was going to give it a go and hope for the best. As we came out of the neutral section Trent rolled up to the front of the field and announced that he had a broken hand, he showed his cast and said see ya’. No, he wasn’t pulling out, he was going off the front! Everyone watched him roll away. With a mellow start in the field Trent was able to gain up to 5 minutes, even taking the first KOM and Sprint points. His only problem was that he couldn’t get out of the saddle due to his hand. So, once the field started racing the gap tumbled down and when we caught Trent it was single file in the gutter going 30 mph. Unfortunately for Trent there was no way he could ride at those speeds single file without creating a dangerous situation. He pulled out of the race a bit later since it just wasn’t possible for him to ride in the pack.
I felt good the first third of the race, terrible in the middle and then good again the final third. Going into the last 20 miles, three riders were off the front by 4 minutes. Symmetrics, Team Type 1, Sparkasse, and Amore Vita all had riders on the front trying to close down the gap. I was feeling good and thought the finish would suit me well. Two of the three riders were caught just as we were hitting the final kicker climbs in the last few miles. Over the last hill with 1 mile to go I just couldn’t hold onto the front group of 10-12 riders. I sat about 10 feet off of the last riders wheel in the front group for almost 500 meters, I couldn’t close the gap for the life of me. I blew hard and fell back two more groups to finish maybe around 20th. I’m definitely a few percent off of my top form right now. That few percent is the difference between making the front group and going for a podium spot or suffering like a dog and ultimately not making the front group. A Mexican Tecos rider stayed away solo to take the win ahead Amore Vita and Sparkasse.
Tomorrow is another 105-mile day with three more KOM’s. I’m excited to try my hand in the breaks tomorrow and see what happens.
Thanks for reading!
