samedi 30 janvier 2016

Valleycat

Hey People, ! Last week end was the ValleyCat !

Valleycat 1st Edition
The very first edition of the valleycat ! Valleywhat ? Valleycat ! Valley + alleycat = Valleycat ! Ok i explain for those who don't know what's an Alleycat ! It's the usual race where bikes messengers race them self in the city ! The rules are simple, most of time, a manifest is distributed at the start with some checkpoint to validate. The faster who validate all the checkpoint and get to the finish line win. Today Mike Hall give us the opportunity to reunite 2 months after the Transcontinental for an alleycat in the Wales' valley. For me it was also a good opportunity to test my latest bike the Specialized Diverge lend by the Team Franscoop.

We are looking for these clock through the valley


Well for me everything started very badly, the  race  ride was the 24 october, I took my ticket for the
25 ... Yeah I was 1 day late. Well, changed at the last minutes my bus ticket for a train, and could be at the start with ... 3 hours late.









The others guys started at 7am, My time started at 10.15 when Mike activated my GPS tracker, but he offered me a Border's Beer, I hop on my bike not before 10.30.









Last check of the map before take off

I wanted so much to catch the other that I forgot everything in my bag. No helmet, no light, just my tool bag. I started at a steady speed, more than 30km/h average speed.





Even if the morning was rainy, afternoon was sunny.


I had the opportunity to test the Specialized Diverge lend by Franscoop (www.franscoop.com) on some gravel road. It was a really nice shortcut, Mike told me at the beginning to don't miss a turn, if I do, I would finish on a road as bad as the Strada del Assietta

                

Guess where I ended up, well the Diverge show me part of his potential, incredible how the bike stick to the gravel even with slick tires. I could climb some mountain bike track easily.

The night approched faster than I expected, I speeded up into the aero position and catch up with Martin (http://themartincox.co.uk/) and another rider, with no light I didn't wanted to take any special risk, I finished safely with Martin's light.

People and TCR veteran were there, I'm glad to see my friend Gareth one more time. Beer and charity lottery, I won a cute cap


Wales was awesome, can't wait for the next one !

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