PROLOGUE FRANCE: LA ROUTE DE FRANCE FEMININE

Was it some kind of sick practical joke that saw only Australia show for breakfast at 7:30am? Even the baker hadn't arrived so I was forced to wait for my baguette this morning, the first of six I totalled for the day. Ham and mash was replaced with chicken for lunch and pasta for dinner. They even provided us with pastry snacks that we've stolen and stashed in the team race food kitty as our budget is slowly dwindling. From race finish to the hotel I found myself dwelling on the return of our now 7 second shower button and am also dreading the newly introduced 'one-temp tap' that sees us brushing our teeth with warm water. Not to mention that pillows were never provided. Wish me luck =)

When I asked Bel how much time you can lose on a 2.2km time trial she replied 40 seconds. I was hoping that wasn't the case because a 25% cut-off time would see us out of the tour on conclusion of the prologue. Upon reflection by the team it was obvious that we found faults among ourselves over the 3 minutes of exercise. Some of us refuse to call it pain because the lactate never kicked in. We found ourselves arguing over who had the worst time trial, most of us claiming that we were the head of the Hubbard's (a poor bike handler) in the cornering class. From the 84 starters 83 managed to stay upright, with a lone Chinese girl taking a spill. From the 5 corners and 1 chicane I delivered well on... solely the chicane. I'm slightly disappointed with the effort but overly pleased with the result... of 17th... 8seconds down.

Results: La Route De France Feminine, Prologue, Fécamp, 2.2 kms