Academy France Trip Report
A team of Utmost Ian Brown’s Cycle Shop Academy riders spent last weekend in France, gaining valuable experience of both road racing and indoor cycling in a busy few days.
Friday’s indoor track session at the Velodrome de Bretagne provided a good introduction to fixed gear indoor cycling, with a local coach putting the team through their paces before a ‘fun’ flying lap sprint competition won by Charlie Tourtel. The session around the 200m wooden track also acted as a good leg stretch ahead of the weekend’s racing.
The serious racing started on Saturday with a hilly 7km circuit race at Hénon in Brittany. Amy & Holly Smith were first off in the 4-lap U15 race, which quickly split apart on the first lap. Both worked hard in their first off-island road race, settling into smaller groups which other local riders trying to chase down the leaders. Seth Davey and Charlie Tourtel followed in the 63km U17 race, both sticking with the peloton after an early break took the win after 9 laps. Ollie Duguid was in the day’s final event, the Open 3/Access 1.2 race, but was unfortunately caught behind a crash just a few kilometres from the start. Having picked himself off the deck, and lost further time trying to un-jam his chain, he spent a lonely 70km chasing the main group without success.
The team moved onto the Pays de la Loire for Sunday’s race, a flatter 10km circuit at Bonnétable, just north of Le Mans. Amy & Holly were again first off, with Holly claiming a superb second place in sprint finish to the U15 girls race as sister Amy suffered mechanical problems and dropped off the pace towards the end of the race. Seth and Charlie both took turns driving the pace in the U17 race as they eventually helped force a breakaway that set up a bunch sprint finish. Unfortunately their earlier efforts in the heat took their toll, as Charlie slid out the back on the last lap and Seth came home 10th in the sprint. Ollie had more luck than Saturday, sticking with the peloton in the Access 1.2 for several laps until a series of attacks splintered the field and he found himself finishing with a group of 5 chasers.
Amy Smith said: “The second race was quite tough as my chain came off three times and I was on my own for most of the race, and I preferred Saturday’s race more as it was a faster and better course. The velodrome was really cool, and way harder than it looks”, whilst Holly echoed her sister’s comments: “The velodrome was amazing because of how high the banking is. It was a bit scary but we soon got used to it. I really enjoyed the racing because I am normally racing against 7 or 8 people compared with the 30 or 40 people I was racing with at the weekend”
All agreed that the increased race fields to those they are normally used to added a new dimension to the racing. “This weekend was a totally new experience as, having experienced local road races and one or two smaller races in the UK in the past, nothing could have prepared us for these two in France as they were so physically and mentally demanding having attacks out of every corner for over one and a half hours” Charlie said. Seth agreed that “the weekend away was great, especially racing in a big pack with 50 juniors on closed roads. The difference from home where there is less riders made it a great experience and getting into the break group and ending up with a good result in the second race was amazing.”
Ollie Duguid added “this weekend away was a really good change from the usual Guernsey roads. It was my second time in France and I performed miles better than the previous trip. My first race was a bit up and down with a crash on the first lap and a solo 70km to end. The second race however was better as I stuck with the group for longer than I expected, and was with a small bunch until the finish.”
Club President Alex Margison, who accompanied the group, said “Our Utmost Ian Brown’s Cycle Shop Academy riders will hopefully be our future Island Games and Commonwealth Games stars, so the weekend was all about getting them used to travelling away together and bonding as a team whilst taking them out of their comfort zones by racing on new roads, in bigger groups, and against riders they don’t know. After Saturday’s race we discussed their thoughts about the races, what they felt went well and what they could have done better, and they all applied it on Sunday which showed in the results. The way they raced on both days, and conducted themselves all weekend, has been an absolute credit to them."
"It’s been great to give them this opportunity to develop themselves as cyclists, which we couldn’t do without the support of our sponsors Utmost and Ian Brown’s Cycle Shop, and a massive thanks to The Guernsey Sports Commission and Ray Lowe Sporting Foundation, who provided additional funding to make this trip happen”.