Fri 27th – Day 2

I was feeling good for the first proper racing day. Today we had GC and Sprint sections to ride as well as more KOM points to contest. The first GC section was 33k long and started after about 10k. Harsh. For me, hanging on was all I was concerned with.

Ate breakfast quickly (fried stuff and croissants, coffee) and chatted with Marcel about whether or not we should even start in Group 1. “Yes, let’s see how we go” was the conclusion.

We had something like 2 hours to wait at the start point where we’d left our bikes before our actual start time of 10am. This proved useful to me as I’d forgotten the 1mm spacer for my cassette. Stupid wheel changes! Mavic Ksyrium needs a 2mm spacer, Powertap needs a 1mm spacer if it’s a 10spd cassette but no spacer if it’s a 9spd cassette. I’d taken off the Mavic 2mm spacer but forgot to put the 1mm spacer on (I was using my 10spd 12-23 DA cassette). Since the Powertap freehub is made of cheese, the cassette had dug in and I didn’t even notice the spacer missing until I hit a bump on Day 1 and something started rattling. Clearly the bump had shaken the sprockets loose.

The two G1 mechanics, Graeme and (I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name!) did a great job digging around until they found the necessary spacer. Phew! Sat around and watched the same mechanics do a fork swap in a few minutes.

We finally rolled out easily and I found it amusing the number of people that punctured or had to stop for a leak after only 2k! We turned onto a road (and I use the term “road” very loosely!) next to the canal leading us out of Calais. As we bumped and bounced our way closer to the start of the first GC section the pace went up and up. The bunch was maybe 3 wide as that’s all that would fit on the canal path. Looking at my Powertap data now and I see I was hitting 54.8kph/34mph at the 26min mark, 55.4kph at 29min! This is on the flat. At 18k/34min I’m at 600W and 43.5kph. Then it happens..

The riders in front of me hit their brakes. Thanks. FSCK! Not wanting to have the riders behind me run up my arse I go for the small gap to the right. Unfortunately, the gap isn’t deep enough and I’m forced wide towards the meter-wide grass verge, between the path and canal. This would have been fine except there was a hard edge to the grass divider (picture when a car drives through dirt in the wet it leaves a rut and then the rut dries hard). So, as I’m forced out I clip this rut and flip over. Now, at 43.5kph this could have been nasty, but it was on the grass at this point so I basically rolled along and was fine. Jenny Fay(?) (an Elite Irish racer) was behind me and later told me I crashed like a pro! Haha! I should have told her it’s all the practice I get 😛

Of course, as most people have already heard, this wasn’t the full extent of the crash.. As I rolled over I looked up to see my bike flying over the top of me.. over the top of me and straight into the CANAL! Noooooooooo waaaaaaaaaay!!

I scramble/roll to the edge and all I can see is the front wheel – the rest of the bike has already sunk and is out of sight. Shiiiit! I continue my scramble/roll and grab for the front wheel. The water level is a foot or more below the edge and I’m not able to get the wheel without sliding in. Time for a swim! I slip into the canal and grab the front wheel. It’s deeper than I thought and I can’t actually touch the bottom. So, in my left hand I’m gripping the front wheel and I paddle back to the edge and grab a handful of the grass bank with my right hand.

The water is up to my chest/neck and now I’m basically stuck. I can’t lift the bike over my head, I can’t climb up the bank, I can’t see anything above the bank and I can’t touch the bottom. Um…

“Oi! Some help down here!!!” I yell out, not actually sure if anyone has seen me go in the water. Within maybe 30 seconds I’m greeted with the panic stricken face of one of the French motorbike outriders. “It’s ok, I’m Aussie, I can swim. Take the bike!”. I hand up the bike as much as possible and he grabs it. Then me.. I can’t actually drag myself out of the canal (all that ‘descending ballast’ I carry) because the bank is too high and there’s nothing to grip onto. Another guy from one of the follow cars has appeared and the two blokes drag me out. The moto guy was more worried than me! “Cheers guys!” (plus much swearing at myself) and I’m shaking my bike out and checking it for damage – it’s fine, if a little wet :).

This photo was taken in 2005, when I cycled along the Calais canal path on an mtb at a much reduced pace!

The Group 1 mechanics are on the scene explaining they’ll pace me back to the bunch. I get behind the big van and off we go. Within a couple of minutes I’m doing over 50kph behind the van. Sitting just to the right so they can see me and I can see them. They’re great giving me positive comments like “you’re doing great” and “use a higher gear, it’s easier to manage at this speed” and giving thumbs up and things like this.

I’m behind the van for 20 minutes, averaging over 45kph, before I hit a very tight corner, literally.

“We couldn’t see you to tell you to slow down. We usually use station wagons with a rear window for this.”

“It felt like we were on two wheels going around that!”

“We didn’t see you crash but we certainly heard you. The sound of bike hitting tarmac has quite a recognisable sound.”

I’d gone into a very tight right hander way too fast and just put the bike down trying to make the corner. Hitting the deck at 30kph when I should been doing 15-20kph on what was basically a slippery switch-back. (Insert large amount of angry swearing here). Again, the fantastic Group 1 mechanics came to my rescue and calmed me down. I’d damaged my rear Powertap wheel to some extent (I still don’t really know what was wrong with it – probably just buckled a bit) so they got me a spare (deep and carbon, ooh flashy! :)). Off I set again behind the van, cursing myself a little more. I’d bloodied my elbow and some fingers this time as well as having a nice corked and scratched up right hip – no damage to my Assos knicks though 🙂

Continued behind the van at speed again for a while until we picked up a rider who’d suffered a puncture. I rode on ahead while they sorted him out and drove back up to me. I was pretty tired now and dropped off the back of the van at one point thinking I’d just let them go (with the puncture guy hanging on). They slowed and I got back on. We drove up to a group of 4 riders who must have been dropped from the main bunch. So there was now 6 of us behind the van for a while. Then we came upon some motos who instructed us to pull over. Huh? What’s going on? Turns out, the main peloton had taken a wrong turn! Sitting by the side of the road, eating, drinking, talking about my swimming detour, our little group were now “leading” the race haha 🙂

Regrouping, it was then a matter of hanging on until the lunch stop. At lunch, the questions started and “The Fish” was born.

Unfortunately, on this day mine wasn’t the only incident. One of the other Group 1 riders, Andy D’Agata reportedly hit some diesel on the road and was subsequently hit by one of the motorcycle outriders. He sustained serious head injuries and later died after being airlifted to a hospital in Lille. I didn’t know the full extent of his injuries until the Sunday after arriving in Paris but we did know it was very serious as further racing sections for Group 1 were canceled. I would just like to extend my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Andy.

The rest of the day was very hard work (for me). I’d lost my nerve from the crashes and was hanging out the back, not really interested in things. The bunch was going up hill at quite a clip so I was chasing to get back on and then I’d crest the hills and they’d have knocked 10kph off their speed! Then the lead car would slow the descent. It was quite infuriating (but I can understand it, after Andy’s accident) and I used up loads more energy than I should have if I just stayed mid-bunch. The hills just went up and down forever!

We stopped at the top of one of them (poor Marcel was looking worse than me! I think he needed to eat more) and (sorry I’ve forgotten your name) the Aussie bloke encouraged the bunch to ease up a little going upwards and keep the pace higher on the flat. It did help and by the run into Amiens I was in the bunch and feeling much better. I made a point of passing Stephen Roche on the super nice roads into town 🙂

We left the bikes at the start point and were bussed to our hotel. Des and I roomed again and I spent the evening talking about my ‘swim’ and deciding when I should start the Run leg. 🙂

We had dinner in a nearby restaurant. Steak and pasta I think with wine. Starters were little veg. skewers and and apple cake dessert thing. The diners in the other room were rude buzztards, cheering when they received food. I mean, so it takes a while to get your meal, big deal. I’m a pig and I waited patiently. Can’t take cyclists anywhere! Home to bed, asleep quickly. Day 2 done.

I’ve just been telling people I’m doing what the Pros do:

Frank Schleck falls in pool..