There’s nothing like a little disaster to get the blood pumping!
Like madly trying to recover an unshipped chain just as the group you were clinging to drops the hammer I’m in scramble mode. OOOOOOH its race time!
As you may be aware my unofficial DS is Will Hayter. Will has most recently decided to fling himself around a wayward vineyard wire and land with and all mighty crunch on a 8 day battered hip joint.
His hip decided enough was enough and gave way, as any sane person knows, this is nothing short of show stopping and stupidly painful!
Never one to kick up a fuss Will dragged himself to the finish of Cape Epic, one times broken hip, one times equal measures horrified and dejected Mike (Will’s food poisoned race partner) and one times long road to recovery all over again. Honestly, this mans timing is terrible!
Now there are two things Will does very well, one is race like a man possessed and two is organise!
When Will isn’t riding he is most certainly planning one….ok so I lie, being a man of many talents he can also be found shooting arrows, quaffing fine wines or probably reworking Mozart’s Requiem but for the purposes of my longwinded point, he is the one who gets me to the races!!!
Routes, entries, flights, transfers, schedules, insurance, he’s a one man marathon racers tourism office.
But now….he’s broken, oh, hell!
Aside from the small point Will is absolutely gutted to not be joining me and far be it for me to doubt my own ability to actually be organised I had some immediate concerns:
1) Where are we racing this weekend?
Roc Laissagais UCI Marathon – Southern France – Pyrenees *gulp*, yep excellent!
2) How bad can it be?
85km, 2884m of climbing and some rather demanding single track, oh and lets not forget you were a little bit blue at the start last year (blue!? I was hypothermic).
3) How do I get there
Gatwick, plane, train, car, usual….don’t panic Spies the race is meant to be the hard part!!
My last time at Roc was a huge disappointment, not for the riding, the riding was incredible but I was a shell on the start line, propped up with a plethora of cold and flu remedies and trying to put a smile on the dial as the perpetual drizzle promised a very hard old day on the bike.
Roc Laissagais is really a hidden gem in my opinion, more UK based riders specifically need to look to races like Roc as a way of seeing some inspiring new places and pushing their comfort zones.
As with any marathon its more a case of you against yourself and the terrain than you against your fellow man, competitors become brethren, fellow combatants in a fight to the finish. My most endearing memory that typifies this experience at Roc was battling for over 2 hours with a stoic French rider who paced beautifully in tandem with me and gave me a wheel to focus on and a reason to keep pushing. Flowing through the abundant Roc singletrack then setting rhythms that we both could manage, all in a telepathic haze where you are helping each other maintain a workmanlike drive towards the mutual goal.
I’m looking forward to this years race with equal measures of respect, excitement and determination. I want to make it a great ride in honour of my downed buddy and I want to get these string bean legs back into race mode, the miles are done, the bags are packed (relatively speaking), now all I need to do is find that Passport!
See you all on the flipside with a full run down of Roc Laissagais 2013!