STAGE 2 LIMOUSIN: TOUR FEMININ EN LIMOUSIN

For the next three nights we can be found on level 3 at the home of a local school. This time I'll be rooming with Ath and Kate, all of us having previously admitted to our poor sleeping tendencies. Daryl's suitcase has finally arrived thanks to Liv Gollan however his toolbox remains unseen. I used to wonder how he managed with three shirts all this time, seems that's all he had packed anyway. It came as no shock that the terrain for Limousin resembled the immediate landscape we had been neighbouring at our previous location. The one hour drive made it difficult to assume that we had escaped the climbs. Faced with a heated sun and 110kms of racing, I can say most were dreading the 4 QOM's and 3 sprints in the first 60kms! I on the other hand was eager :)

At 14kms the peloton split into three bunches... the leaders, the chase group and the hoop group. Tiff and I had positioned well and found ourselves up the front and it wasn't long before Kate and Lou had joined us. The pace eased mid race after we admitted defeat from Svetlana Bubnenkova and Sigrid Corneo, who simply rode away from us, 10 minutes away it seems. Four laps of a 12km circuit became monotonous and Daryl even found himself asleep in the follow car for 25kms of it! The sprint was sketchy but I participated none the less and ran 7th in the stage, the others safely in the bunch with Bel utilising some training time. Tired, hungry and a little sunburnt I'm ready to retire... to bed I mean.

Results: Tour Feminin en Limousin, Stage 2, Saint-Sulpice-Le-Gueretois, 110 kms