Bastille Day

Not the day I was looking for. I have been having the opportunity to enjoy nice, clear sunny days every day here in Normandy now for close to 2 weeks. That horrible spring time weather has departed, folks are taking vacations to the beach and summer is in the air. What a splendid time. Yesterday I awoke to dark, ominous layer of clouds hanging over France. Not an hour later, she decided to open up on race day, but of course. As the time got closer to my departure for the race, the sound of thunder could be heard and lightning seen, but still I prepared. Upon arriving at the race my vision was limited to 50 meters because of the heavy rain. On any other day, motivation for the field would be low, but not on this day, the day of days in France. Every single Frenchman wants to win and every non Frenchman wants to beat them. It was not to be for the latter.

With the heavy rain, wrecks abounded quite frequently and not an hour into the day, we got to experience a stretch of cobblestones in the rain as we raced through of the of umpteenth towns we went through. Like I have said numerous times, common sense is quite limited and especially on this day, every riders sense of risk taking hits a new level. On that cobblestone stretch, I went down with around 40 other guys. Trying to brake on the wet pave reminded me of trying to ice skate, no matter what I did, the wheels would just slide out and compound that to a whole peloton of riders and you have a cluster of a time. Thankfully I came out ok, just sore, but not missing my teeth from trying to eat a cobble or any number of other injuries. That one dude was messed up, he looked like he came out of some horror film. Later when all was settled, the rest of the race who did not wreck were close to ten minutes up and we who had wrecked were pretty much out of the running. Thankfully, the race was neutralized and we got back to them to have a second start which was pretty unique, I have experienced 2 races now in one season where I had to have 2 starts in a day and never once in my life before had I had to do that.

But, it was not my day as more and more wrecks kept happening as the other riders common sense in the rain was turned off. I ultimately pulled the plug, cut my losses thankful that I neither broke any equipment or bones on the day, something many others could not say.

The highlight of the day I must say was seeing the flyover in Vernon from the French Air Force.
I am convinced that this is the whole of the French Air Force too. But, regardless it was cool to see.