la merde en direct: la randonée d'espoir 2007

This was supposed to be a race report, but due to some bad placement of arrows/signage, this has to be changed to a cyclotour report instead. =/

Heard about this event about two weeks ago when we went to Pinsello to buy CF's bike. Decided to go for this as I thought that it would be a good way to break into the local cycling/tri scene, plus get to know the cycling routes here better. So at 7am today I rolled out into the cold and headed to Domène, the town where the race was supposed to start, with CF. Although the temperature was not really very cold, the windchill caused by cycling was sufficient to cause my fingers and ears to freeze. Dunno how am I going to bike in Winter..

So anyway we still managed to make our way to the registration point in spite of the risk of hypothermia. I was surprised when the Race Organiser recognised me and asked me if I was the one who called yesterday, until I realized that it was fully due to my bad spoken French. Haha.. How funny. In any case he was quite impressed that there were two Singaporeans who came to participate in this rather small and community-level race, and he announced that on stage and the other participants who were around applauded politely. How lovely.

Left the Depart at a little after 8. Due to the technical problems I faced yesterday (loose bottom bracket), I was not able to pedal properly, and I even had to stop pretty frequently to tighten it. To make matters worse, we took a wrong exit at a roundabout and got lost. We only realized that we were lost when we saw no other people along where we were cycling, so we had no choice but to backtrack. Eventually we found our way but it seemed pretty clear to me then that the race was over. The markings (orange arrows) were not very visible and infrequently placed. Most of the time I was chasing down peletons, getting lost, chasing more pelotons, and then finding that I was lost again. Even some of the French pelotons that I followed got lost, with riders splitting up at road junctions, each preferring to go their own way. Haha.. What a weird event!

Chose the 90km event over the shorter 56km one as this one promised to be less punishing. The 56km one had 2km of vertical climb! And yes my course was pretty rolling as compared to my other personal rides for the past two weeks. It felt good to be able to get on the dropbars and just hammer away. It felt good to be in my familiar rolling terrain. =P

Eventually after about 95km of riding (5km of getting lost) I crossed the Arrivée with an aching butt due to the super rough and uneven roads. There was a buffet assortment of fruits and bread so I filled myself up. There was an event t-shirt too - Not bad for just €5 registration fee! =P Clocked a total of 120km today door-to-door. =)

Here are some photos taken today, courtesy of CF.