Staff downstairs, athletes upstairs in the attic. Bel and Tiff have the large room with a TV, Lou has her own room, a bed of which she rolled out of three times last night, and I've joined with Kate for some quality 'Dawson's Creek' time. The renovated farm house is the perfect location for 12-days of away time. Five girls living together for this long could either spell trouble or bonding. At dinner last night after a short ride I decided to trust Dazza's love of calzone... bad choice. Aside from being my worst meal ever, and not being given bread!... :( It left me feeling sick, rated 3.5, so I came home and feasted on the plums in our front yard to relieve the taste. Today saw our final day with Michel. He was leaving early so we delayed our ride to discuss our time away with him. It was sad to see him go and I think he was sad to leave us, tears welling up in his eyes during our final meeting. He went to the trouble of purchasing baguette and a special lunch this morning, a pastry filled with sausage and egg, I'm told it was nicer than it sounds! We are literally in the middle of nowhere, a ploy to keep us out of trouble. Yet we have peace and quiet, a landline, and coincidently, as the tour finished yesterday, a television. Broso joined us today after a lengthy flight and travelled with us into town for some shopping. Unfortunately everything is closed on Monday's so I found myself taking a tour of 'Chateau Naillac'... the worst 3.50euro I've ever spent.
If you don't include our 24-hour day at the airport or our adventurous 'day we no longer speak of' drive with Michel, then today is officially our very first day off since we received our contracts. Lou and Tiff chose to wake early for a short spin while Kate and I decided to sleep until we could sleep no more; turns out we can sleep for a while! After a full body massage I got into the landline trend and spoke to my Mum for the first time in 18 days! We spoke of Big Brother, cycling and my little niece Leila Lee who is now crawling everywhere... you know... the important things. Dazza organised a scenic tour of the local Château's while Ath prepared dinner, a simple plate of steak and veggies that tasted a whole heap better than MY version of simple steak and veggies.
We got a workout before our ride in having to lug our bikes and luggage up 5 flights of stairs. On the first level is food, level two showers…where 80% of the time you can catch someone towelling themselves down in the hallway! I feel a bit prudish compared to the French. We’re staying in school dorms so our rooms lack toilets and contain just the one bed. A desk for our laptops and a basin for hand washing has proven them to be worthy of race requirements, despite the lack of a lift... I'm told they don't believe in them here in France! Should I have dodged our 50kg excess allowance??
When it came time to head back to the first floor for a shower Kate claimed she couldn’t go it alone and I understood why when I arrived. The cubicles are small with the door shutting tight leaving little available air. There are two hooks, no shelves and a timer button lasting 10 seconds without variation in water temperature. The positive, we are probably saving water, the negative, having to push the button every 10 seconds! Liz Taylor, my coach, wasn’t lying when she said that it was windy here. Our short ride this afternoon proved that very true. The meals here were better than expected with the choice of some bread, a starter, meal, dessert and fruit all available. Our major concern on arrival had been the lack of security but somehow Michel used his French persuasiveness to have us as the only team with keys to our rooms =)
After keeping Lou up for half an hour last night with my snoring we woke to grey skies, the thought of rain and what seemed to be a blow up dog on top our team car. We later discovered that our new team mascot, now named ‘Roofus’, had been adopted that morning from a bush after a party down the road had gone astray last night. Let it be noted that Michel is not a fan… During our training ride we performed some wheel changes, bidon changes, lead-outs and even allowed Ath to practise her road-side feeding. Our motivation stemmed not only from the beautiful rainforest surroundings with pleasant towns, narrow roads and a cool breeze, but also from the unearthing of news that Robbie McEwen, Stuart O‘Grady, Mick Rogers and Brett Lancaster were out of the ‘Tour De France’!
Despite riding our last half hour in the rain we decided to head into ‘Tours’ for a brief shopping period and some serious internet time. Negotiating with a Frenchman isn’t easy therefore not many items were purchased, the exception…if your name is Kate Mercer. The drive seemed epic so on return the girls had no choice but to devour an incomprehensible amount of bread. We were always dreading our final night in this gorgeous location and decided to celebrate with a large home cooked meal, thanks 95% to the doing of our soigneur Athalee. Despite the fact we weren’t overly hungry after another bread devouring session, we didn’t hold back on the food intake. And if you had sampled it, you wouldn’t have blamed us.
They had been up since 4am, completed two walks and even driven to town to see if anything was open. As a last resort they woke us up wanting breakfast. Kate on the other hand wanted her chocolate, but a sudden urge at 5am saw her throw it in the bin. I often thought about retrieving it, instead Lou salvaged out Kate’s cycling socks that we had been laughing at the day prior, obviously she had taken it to heart and parted with them. We were adventurous on our ride today, trying to find a few hills for some intensity. We ride in silence to appreciate the scenery; houses carved into cliff walls, chateaus and local town features. I could have ridden all day it was that pretty but I was due home for my second ever massage, my first last year leaving me covered in bruises. Ath said I was ‘out of whack’ with a ‘tight arse’…but not in a good way.
We are living in a monastery varying in age from the 14th to the 19th century. Daryl could tell you a lot about history but I will tell you the cool facts. Access from the road to our home is via a drawbridge. The housing is surrounded by a waterway and possess’ a huge yard. The staff are forced to stay in the stables while we live it up with the washing machine, and the attic upstairs looks like it held capture a child in previous years.
First I met Ath, a gorgeous and energetic woman, then before noticing Tiff I met with Daryl who had failed to receive his luggage a few days prior, noted to be an experienced at airport getaways. Much confusion surrounded our exiting of the airport grounds. With the AIS 5-seater station wagon already stocked full, somehow we’re supposed to fit 8 people, 5 bikes and 200kgs of luggage into a 9-seater van?? Funnily enough it was Daryl who got stuck in the car park for over an hour; three visa cards and an attempt at cash didn’t seem please the exit gates. In the meantime Michel was illegally parked at a taxi rank to organise Ath, Kate and I a driver, none keen on the idea of a 3km job. Michel was forced to leave when the Gendarme’s started harassing Bel and Lou in the van! French men with guns…pretty intimidating…
After pleading with Michel not to leave them at the petrol station he returned for the rest of us. Daryl arrived soon after and as luggage was being packed, it unexpectedly began to pour. Everything was wet. A 4hr car drive totalled 41hrs of travel and on arriving at ‘Le Grand Plessis’ in ‘Chouze Sur Loire’ the sun was still shining and smiles beaming as we hit the road for our very first ride in France =) Our first meal in France wasn’t so good. I purchased steak, 80% fat and way overpriced. It turns out that they eat at 9pm here and meals are actually cheaper if you eat inside. Because we’re going leanios (attempting to become lean) Kate tried snails and Lou ordered what she thought was a salad but looked like cheese covered tomatoes, because it WAS cheese covered tomatoes.
In our last two days of what we call ‘school’ we have gained knowledge on media exposure and presentation, how to ‘walk the grid’, the ‘pinch’ and of course…how to smuggle dessert into the office when you have officially been told it is not allowed, and then taught how to avoid the wrath after you’ve been caught…nice work Dave! Despite repeated attempts from Bel and I to whiten our teeth it seems that our take home kit is a slight failure. The only change is negative bringing on sensitive teeth that is making anything but ice-cream and my magnificent lunch time AIS pizza difficult to consume. Suitcases are crammed and snack food packed, prepared for the 40 hours of travel time to our next residence in Loire, France =)
While Ruth drove the pace in the lead breakaway, claiming all 4 QOM’s, Lou had managed to get in with the chase bunch, doing her best to bring back the group of six. They stayed away and our previous GC position was now replaced with Ruth in 4th, Lou in 6th. After protesting some dirty sprint action Ruth finished second to Grace Sulzberger in the day’s stage…impressive.
Kate had been to see a doctor the week prior and acquired a prescription for antibiotics. She decided to do a hit out in the Time Trial and pulled up poorly; however, she still thrashed me in 16th, and decided to give the tour a miss catching up on some much needed sleep. In the meantime Bel was showing promise and almost ran a top 10. Ruth was placed second of the ‘Perform Group’ girls, decked out with a time trial bike and disc wheel she surprised even herself for GC contention, finishing 8th, 1:12mins off the podium. Our star of the day Lou, rooming with the sick one, put in a blinder of a ride to claim third. Outclassing Kathy Watt by half a second she’s proved that some serious training since China has put her in good stead for France.
Following the media shots we had a small press conference where Wazza, Ruth and I prepared short speeches for the reporters on hand. Some final footage capped off the day’s requirements before we returned home to complete a short session indoors. But first I had to change a tyre; I had punctured during takes, not a good start to the weekend.
Firstly...me. I‘m 19, an all rounder from country Victoria possessing some track experience. I also suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder…well inclinations. Kate Mercer, the first of three from the Sunshine Coast, possess’ vast strength on the bike and knows how to deliver on a climb. At 27 she is renown for her addiction to ’Sex and the City’ and chocolate. Ruth Corset, 33, is also from Queensland. With two beautiful girls, now 3 and 5, she has callous courage and speed up a climb. Although a new addition to cycling she is predicted to become the team’s mother figure. Belinda Goss, 23, is our most experienced member. The Tasmanian has the speed to steal victory and seems to draw inspiration from the most gorgeous of possessions, a young lion ‘Simba’.
Louise Kerr, the last of the Queenslanders, is less than a week from 20. Lou is relatively quirky, passionate about her Nintendo and has been labelled our time trial specialist. Tiffany Cromwell (not pictured), 19 on Friday, ventures from South Australia. What she lacks in size she makes up for in domestique ability and is notorious for unique fingernail designs and shopping dependence. With Michel Vermande and Paul Brosnan sharing coaching duties of the team while on tour, Warren McDonald will be our overseer. Also joining us will be the experienced and talkative mechanic Darryl McCulloch and newly on the scene Athalee Brown as our gorgeous soigneur.