Biomecacycle

Un petit mot et remerciement à Maxime Baudel. Comme vous savez, j’ai cassé ma jambe droite en plusieurs morceaux en août 2008, ce qui a nécessité une opération pour fixer une broche et des vis. Après 3 mois avec des béquilles, j’ai recommencé à marcher un peu.

Fin 2009 j’ai repris la vélo et recommencé l’entrainement. En 2010 j’ai signé chez Vulco pour voir si j’avais le même niveau qu’avant. Malheureusement après une début du saison très difficile du à un manque d’entrainement depuis 2ans. J’ai trouvé mes jambes un petit peu vers juin, mais chaque fois que je forçais ou que je montais un col je perdais la sensation dans ma cuisse gauche. Suite à ce problème j’ai arrêté le vélo en août. J’ai fait le tour de tous les spécialistes de Lyon pour trouver la raison de ce problème. Au début on a pensé que c’était un blocage d’une artère, heureusement ce n’était pas le cas. Ensuite je suis allé voir un autre spécialiste et j’ai eu plusieurs IRM… après ça je suis allé voir un médecin spécialisé dans le système nerveux ; toujours rien trouvé. Après ça je suis allé voir le médecin de l’équipe du France de Rugby et toujours rien trouvé.

Finalement j’ai parlé avec quelqu’un qui m’a conseillé de voir une personne spécialiste dans la position des sportifs, qui sait comment régler ça pour avoir un maximum de performance. J’ai donc contacté Maxime Baudel de Biomecacycle à Lyon. Maxime a beaucoup travaillé avec des sportifs de haut-niveau notamment les joueurs de foot et hockey sur glace. Il est aussi spécialiste dans le mouvement de ‘swing’ pour les golfeurs.

J’ai vu Maxime et 20 minutes après le début mon examen il m’a dit que j’avais la jambe droite 2/3mm plus courte que la jambe gauche. Après ça je suis monté sur mon vélo et avec sa camera infra-rouge (qui prend 300 images par seconde) il m’a filmé et mis les marqueurs infrarouges sur mes genoux et hanches. On a pu voir que quand je roule dans une position normale je suis équilibré. Par contre quand je me suis mis en position ‘danseuse’ ou contre-la-montre je penche vers la droite à cause de ma jambe plus courte.

Le problème a donc été réglé avec une cale de 2mm sous ma chaussure droite.. et maintenant je commence à retrouver mes jambes !

Merci Max.

Pour plus de renseignements contact Maxime en cliquant sur le lien Biomecacycle.

Long time, no update

So, the last time I wrote here was just after we had won the Le Mans 24hr race… it seems a really long time ago now. After the 24hrs I started to focus on the British National Track champs. About a month before this I took the decision along with my coach to skip the individual pursuit. We took this decision for several reasons. The main being the scratch was only 36hrs after the scratch and I had more chance of doing well in that than the pursuit. Also the pursuit is something that takes months of solid preparation and me only really getting started on training for the nationals 3months before we thought it would be best if I just did the one race.
With the French track season lasting for such a short time I had lots of lonely but very productive track sessions over the summer. Having no-one else at the velodrome allowed me to do the required training without anyone getting in the way.
Very quickly the day of the nationals arrived. I arrived at the Manchester velodrome to be met by Martin (coach), Greg (who spent most of the time on the phone) and James (mechanic who convinced me my chain wasn’t going to snap when it started making loud noises).

I started warming up and felt really good, I’d arrived a couple of days before and done some easy rides on the turbo. We were to be in two groups of 20-25 for the qualifiers and then top 12 would go through to the final. The race started off well, but I soon realsied that I hadn’t warmed up properly. I seem to do this every time on the track. at least on the road i’ve got 120km to get warmed up. My legs still felt ok and I wasn’t finding it super quick. Unfortunately I left my tactics in France. I raced like a complete muppet, looking back on it it was truely awful. I didn’t qualify, I think I had the legs to do so, but a massive lack of experience. As Martin said before ‘ it’s easier when you are a known rider as you will be let into the line earlier, I am unknown in the UK so have to wait until the end of the peloton to get back in…
All in all it was good for the experience.

After that I took 3wks off training, I went on the bike a couple of times but nothing we could call ‘training’. Soon enough my next (unplanned) race came about. I started training again on Thursday 27th October, the race was on the 30th in Geneva. We can quite safely say I wasn’t very fit. I rolled up to the race not really expecting much. It turned out to be really good fun and have met some cool people who have invited me all over Europe to race.
The first race was the Scratch, I got into the break of 3riders, we stayed away for a large portion of the 42lap race only to be caught metres from the finish line. I finished 5th.

The next race was the Elimination, a race I don’t like as it gets a bit dicey towards the end. I rolled round and finished 5th (again).

The final official race was the points race. An 80lap race witha sprint every 10laps. It started well, my legs were feeling ok, so I thought i’d go and try and get a lap on everyone early on. I set off on my own to try and get a lap up, by lap 15 mission accomplished. I had my +20 on the others. It was then I started feeling the effects of my 3days of training…. I managed to hang in the peloton but no more attacks were going to come from me. I finished 4th.

This was normally going to be it for me. But one of the Italians asked if I wanted to ride with him in the Madison. After the training i’d done with Florian and the 2days of Geneva (in the same velodrome) coming up I thought it’d be some good training. It was good fun, we had good communication; he shouted when he was too tired to take his turn and I continued until he was recovered enough. It was good fun and we finished 3rd overall, after i’d done the last 4laps flat-out to keep our position.

Training is now back on the agenda. The velodrome closes at 18h and with it getting dark about 17h30, it means I have to go training between 11:30 and 14h. We shall see what happens in the next race.
Talking of that, the next race will either be in Copenhagen next week or in Itlay on the 3rd December.

Winning

So, mission accomplished.

We won the Le Mans 24h bike race. Actually we got 1st and 4th. It should have been 1st and 2nd but due to a technical problem on the last lap the finish line was moved 300m further on. We got 2nd on the ‘finish line’ but not the new finish line. Never mind. We still won.
A very hard race, more mental than anything. getting up to race at 2am and then riding for 2hrs only to go back to bed. Forcing yourself to eat, its not so nice but all that had been forgotten at 15h on Sunday as Martins crossed the line for 1st and Alban for 4th.
So some pictures and videos from the event, a longer report to follow. I’m off to sleep some more

The weeks to come

So, entered for the British National Track Champs. This has been a quiet objective for me since the start of the season. But I wasn’t sure I had the legs for it or the training.
Since I am English and riding for a French team, I can’t race the regional champs in either the UK or France to see what my level i compared to the others. To me this seems stupid, I have a French licence so i should be allowed, they say it is to do with the insurance. So what’s the difference between that race and any of the others I do in the season?? So after this saga had finished, and I accepted that they wouldn’t let me ride I decided to focus completely on the track for the rest of the season.
I have been given advice by lots of people about track training, but for me I need an organised training structure. So again I asked the regional French federation for some help finding a coach, they were useless. The reason being because I am English and it would be of no benefit to them to coach me. Thanks!!!!

So I got in touch with Martin Dainty in the UK, a friend of Greg who helped me out all those years ago when I lived in the South of France. Martin was and still is a top track racer; national champ, national squad etc. He said he would help me find someone for the track coaching. Track coaches are rare, very rare. So it was a nightmare finding someone. In the end Martin agreed to help me. This has already been a HUGE help. I actually have a sense of progressing on the track and excited to be able to race for me and not having to work for the team. The training is very hard, but I can see progression. Tuesday night has a total track distance of 96km. So with this I am getting prepared for the individual pursuit and the scratch races at the nationals.
I arrive back in France on the 2nd October, to leave for a 3day race in Switzerland 2days after. This race has some of the biggest names in world track cycling competing, and i’m racing for a top pro track team.
I’ve got all that to look forward to in about 6wks time.

A little nearer to now is tomorrows race in Bourgogne. Its a national race, which means it will be a top quality field and quick. As its only 112km it will be 2.5hrs of suffering. Then on Monday i’m racing for me for once. Again a race in Bourgogne of 130km, with one long drag of 400m. We shall see what happens.
The weekend after I have been asked to race the Le Mans 24hrs on a bike. Team Vulco won it last year, so there is a fair amount of pressure. Its a circuit of 4.185km (about the same distance as the individual pursuit!!). So after having asked Martin if he thought it a good idea, I agreed to race.

After that i’m not sure of the race plans, needless to say its all geared towards the National Champs and the 3day race in Switzerland.

Top Track Racing

Almost a perfect Saturday on the track….

It was only myself and Bastien from Team VULCO on Saturday with good line-ups in the other teams. Thi did include about 12 rider from Lyon Sprint, so we knew it was going to be a hard day. On top of that this is my first track race after a little break so I didnt know how my legs were going to stand up to it.

After getting to the Velodrome Parc Tete d’Or a little late due to be stuck at the entry to the park by the Lyon Gay Pride parade I arrived 20mins before the first race. Grabbd my number, got changed and then started the 70lap point race. This started ok, I got 2nd in the 1st sprint and felt stong. then the ‘mafia’ started getting involved. Basically if you’re not one of them, then its near impossible to win…. I was blocked in for all the sprints until lap 35 when I stopped. Is not like me to do that, but I still had three races to do.
Unsuprisingly it was the team from Lyon who took the top 5places, working between themselves.
The next race was the Elite scratch. This one started a little better. Bastien was feeling good (he should be 2wks before the French natonals), he chased the first attack down on the first lap. Then he asked if I could chase the next down. As this was a 30laps race there was no rush in chasing them down quickly so I took my time chasing the three Lyon riders down. I was the only one chasing, at this point I looking behind and had dropped most of the riders. there were only 4 of us left with me on the front at 48kmh.

I took 3laps to chase them down, then the next attack happened. I stayed on the front chasing. At this point I had been on the front for about 10laps and was coming round to lap those who we had dropped earlier. They were then eliminated from the course.
There were now 6 of us left, i smashed it for 4laps before my legs went bang 1lap from the end. Luckily I had got bBastien in a good position, and he only had to win the 2man sprint. Which he did…. 1st VULCO win of the day.

The next race was the elimination. Every 2laps the last rider to cross the line is eliminated from the race. For the first time ever this was me after getting boxed in. Stupid tactical error. Wont be happening again. Bastien won…. top result.

The last race was a scratch again. Much the same thing happened as the first race. We even had some non-starters, maybe they knew the outcome already!!! On the 5th lap I got bored of the silly attacks, went to the front and rode at 49kmh for 5laps, this whittled the pack down to about 10 of us.

Then Bastien shouted at me to attack as he was slowing things up. This I did, well as much as possible after riding like a madman for the last 5laps. I got a gap, and kept the pace up. Behind they were chasing like mad, going through and off.

They got me with 2laps to go, then one of them launched an attack, I couldn’t go after it and Bastiens lags were cooked. We had to settle for 2nd and 3rd.

So all in all, a good day out for Vulco. Bastien has got some form going into the French national champs and I’ve got 3 and a half months to get ready for the nationals in the UK.