One thing we were all certain of was that it was likely to be a fast one due to the lack of hills. This was something that the camera lens failed to convey, but the attentive reader would note in the last chapter of Max's blog it does warn you about the last hill and the hill profile shows it is not flat.
However, it is fast!
We got there super late due to traffic on the motorway and Richard and Jason only made it to the pick up point in Morges with minutes to spare, especially with Richard needing to sign in to pay for his extra etape.
We dropped Richard at first sight of the depart and he shot off across a farmer's field to get to the sign in place. The traffic controlling people forced us to do a tour of Penthaz before making us park on the other side of the round about they'd closed where we dropped Richard. Very annoying, as there was now only 10 minutes left until the start. Our warm up consisted of essentials in a bush then hammering it over to the start line. We found each other and discovered they'd delayed the start by 5 mins.
I was reasonably happy with where we were placed at the start, but was concerned about the to women in front of me and at the gun I was shouted at for pushing through. So sorry for that, but it is a RACE. If you want to hang around at the start don't stand 10 paces away from the elite, get back a bit. Anyway, the first km was not fast enough, it felt super slow as I weaved my way through the field trying to find some one else going a 4m km. First km I hit in 4:11 and was annoyed as it was downhill. Next km I made it back finally catching the 4m km brigade. hit km 2 in 7:38 which meant that 2nd km was much too fast. Forced myself to ease off and just try and enjoy it.
The hills were rolling and not too big, but you felt them all right. Around 3rd or 4th km there is a sharp left turn and a steep down hill. A guy who had caught me was not happy about that and we exchanged grunts. I took the hill hard down and had to skip and jump a bit to avoid falling, made some places back. And so the pattern was set. I lost a little on the hills, but saved myself for the flat and the downhill. As the race wore on I started overtaking on the up hill as well as the down hill, but oddly was caught a few times on the flat. At 6km a guy overtook me and held his pace, which I just could not match.
Lost the plot a bit after that and forgot if I had passed the 7km marker or not and when I did get to the next one and it said 8km I was euphoric. 500m to go and one hill. You could see the hill up ahead which was about 200m and steep. I held my faster downhill pace on the decent beforehand and became aware of two more runners, one on each side had joined me. The road flattened out and snaked so we could not see the hill any more and all three of us suddenly looked at each other and no-one wanted to lead into the hill so we came up it all together waiting, waiting for one of us to crack and race to the finish. I saw the top of the hill and pulled away, I saw the cranes that had marked the start so held it at 90% then I caught a glimpse of the finish line and let rip - the guy who got me at six km was 20m ahead and I was closing fast. The crowd started cheering and with only 10m left to the line he looks around to see what the crowd is on about and sees me coming at him like a steam train so he accelerates and I just don't make it over the line before him. Found him at the end and shook hands.
Here is a picture (courtesy of Max) showing the hill, which does not look to bad, but after 8.2 km of hard running....
Some sports drink and water in me I went back to cheer the boys home.
Richard looked great again tonight, coming in hard like he had been red-lining for a while and squeezing out the last seconds and places in the sprint to the line.
Stefan was cool calm and collected as he cruised home.
Jason was not far behind and responded to the cheer by singling out the target he wanted in the sprint and then going for it at 100 miles an hour.
Soup looked great but had run out. Great cakes and priced very reasonably too. Food ran out and Richard gave the people next to us some of our cheese as they and been twice to try and get food and come back with only bread.
Scores on the doors here:
I was pleased and disappointed at the same time. I was 4.08s average (and I thought I could get closer to 4.00 dead) but the improvement is there and the course was not as flat as I thought it was going to be. Arriving minutes before the start was probably not ideal either. Nor was my start position. I need to start nearer the front, although I do like overtaking so not too much closer!
All to run for now as we prepare for the final, double counting etape in St. Prex next week.
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