La Ronde De Tahitenne 110k, 42 / 200+
I'm not sure what this event is; its kind of a Fondo, but the pointy end has some real talent including at least one former TDF pro and was televised in French Polynesia as their premiere 'race'. This is the first time I've done an event like this so I didn't know what to expect. Prior to the week, I had a decision to make; enjoy riding my bike on remote islands, or save my legs for this event. I chose the former and don't regret it. I may never ride on a small island with perfect roads, but there will always be racing.
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200+ of us started out together for the first 10k until we hit a 1k hill @ 6% and that split the group. As usual, I was stuck by myself between the fast and slow racers (because I suck at small surges like that) and settled into the frustratingly slow group of 100+, half of which didn't know how to ride and were crossing the center line (this is important for later). I also rode with Richard Virenque for a few kilos and got some TV airtime.
At the halfway mark 2 people tried to break free and I joined them. While we couldn't shake the peloton a small group of 8 were rotating at a good clip, and if someone came in and didn't help we'd yell at them.
While I was towing the group I heard a screech of metal in the background, and figured bikes were going down...I was wrong. A truck came from the left side skidding on 2 wheels, 10 feet (according to other riders) in front of me. I looked up and saw an undercarriage and decided to just stay on the brakes and pray it moves. It went off the road to the right. Happened too fast for me to be scared and rode on.
Eventually with 15k to go we were down to 5 people, and on the hill I was able shake all but one and came in at 42nd.
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While it felt good to almost single handedly obliterate a pack of 100 riders, I did feel that I could have pulled out a top 20; but really that wasn't enough to get the podium in my AG (I didn't have close to the talent of some of those guys) and with a week of buffets and no structured (but high TSS) riding I'm not going to cry about it.
After the finish a bunch of the riders came up and starting hugging me and talking to me in French (which is jibberish to me) and that felt pretty good. Not sure if that's a French thing or Fondo thing but different that SCNCA races fo sho.
Oh yeah, the Tahiti Police are supposed to call me about the crash today as a key witness. I'm already wondering what will happen if I get subpoena'ed.
Last edited by furiousferret; 05-21-19 at 07:10 PM.