Thursday 26 July 2007

STAGE 1 LIMOUSIN: PLAGUED BY THE CURSE!

We woke to the alarm, rode in the sunshine, scrutinized our king sized detailed maps, then jammed our large amounts of luggage into the limited space we have available. We prayed not to get lost... again. The time has come once more to say goodbye to our washing machine and hello to the world of hand washing. We were on the road to Limousin to begin our second tour :) Before breakfast Ath had headed down to the shops to purchase fresh bread, milk and bananas as she has every morning. A few toots cautioned her off the road, followed by a friendly wave from the bread delivery man. Turnes out he has a thing for her and later on was performing one arm push-ups in an attempt to impress! Michel was more impressive when he discovered a small teaspoon blocking our troubled drain.

I felt pretty average during my efforts this morning and required a kip after a short shopping expedition in Limoges. Checking into our accomodation saw neat rooms, Australia given the disabled apartment before preparing for a 7:30pm race start! The 4.6km time trial course was relatively flat and technical so I decided to take Kate around race line corners during warm up. Coming out of the final bend she locked up her back brakes, as did the car headed right for her! Once again the curse came to mind. A small bruise on the leg and some re-adjustments were all that resulted. I was happy with my efforts, thankful that on Kate's dreaded corner I simply scraped my pedal as an alternative to colliding with the oncoming runners. The curse returned in warm down. I lost my back wheel over a cable and fell onto Kate who then fell into the barrier, how professional! That aside, with lack of equipment we all finished first page.

Results: Tour Feminin en Limousin, Stage 1, Limoges-Landouge, 4.6 kms