Since my friend Jan lives in the Vienne region of France only about 3 hours drive from the Massif Central we thought this would be a good way to spend the weekend together. I'm not quite sure why i didn't suggest sitting around in a bar drinking Pelforth!
The CAC is a 2 day cyclosportive starting at Clermont Ferrand which is at one end of the Massif Central, spending the night in Aurillac which is at the other,then getting up the next day and going all the way back. The only problems being that there are a lot of hills in between, and it's also quite a long way. I clocked up 185k Saturday and 193k Sunday, apparently with about 3000m of ascent each day. With only 115 riders and only 4 other women we were a bit concerned we may be just in front of the broom wagon!
The event had a rather unusual format in that the first 60k on Saturday and the first 55k and last 25k Sunday weren't timed. We left The stadium in Clermont with a lead car and a possy of motorbikes whisking us through all the junctions and red lights. When people started to fall off the back they slowed the peloton down and we pretty much did the first 60k together.
When we arrived at La Borboule there was a bit of a scrum for the food and drink followed by about half an hour break. Fine by me since i never say no to a rest but not to the liking of a lot of the riders
They kindly let the women set off first but sent the men about 30 secs later so we were riding through the middle of town with bikes flying past at high speed. Our next objective was the food stop at 130k, we were relieved to find some people of a similar speed and we were accompanied by 2 guys from La Rochelle to the "ravi". Getting enough food and drink down is always a problem for me, I find eating on the move difficult and then trying to shovel something down at high speed at the stops is also pretty revolting, the fact that it was often dry bread with a bit of ham didn't help. I fished a soggy brown banana out of my pocket and forced it down. Time to go already, i felt strangely revived by the short stop and Jan told me to go ahead and wait at the top as our next objective was the highest point on the route the "Pas de Peyrol" which has been used a few times in the Tour. We had started to catch up with some of the randonneurs who had set off a couple of hours before us and i had a bit of fun picking them off on the 8k climb, strangely not many of them replied to my cheery "bonjour" as i went past! I had expected to be on my knees by now so i was feeling pretty pleased to still be going strong.
Jan wasn't far behind but since i was already off my bike we thought we may as well pose for a photo!
Instead of sending us straight down in to Aurillac the organisers had sadistically put in a last steep climb up on to a ridge which then had a number of painful undulations before we finally descended into Aurillac.
We had paid E80 for the whole event which included B&B and evening meal in a hotel in Aurillac. Considering how much it costs to enter things like the Fred Witton i wasn't expecting too much luxury but i suspect they had put the women in the best hotel. Our bags had already been delivered and we were all allowed to park our bikes in a rather smart looking function room. It was probably the poshest hotel i have ever stayed in and they had obviously been briefed on the type of food we would want and lots of it. There was even free wine which, amazingly for the French, hardly got touched.
6am arrived all too soon and after an even more spectacular breakfast it was time to get back in the saddle. My bum was so sore i could hardly sit down! It was going to be a long painful day. We were both suprised that our legs didn't feel too bad and the first 20k flew by. Unfortunately though Jan was beginning to really struggle with a bad back and was finding the hills especially tough. After the first stop at 55k we formed a small group with some of the French stragglers. Some rather strange riding styles resembling Cooperman on one of his Saturday morning breakaways threatened to break the group up but we kept up a steady rhythm and always reeled them back in. When we stopped again at 130k they were all dead keen to set off again together. The last 40k went pretty swiftly and our group of men insisted we ride over the line first. I thanked them all and was rather suprised that in true French tradition we all had to have 2 kisses, not easy while still on the bike wearing a helmet with a peak. It was all a bit bizarre as some of these guys hadn't even spoken to us but having ridden with them for 150k it felt like we were old friends!
After chilling out for half an hour or so we still had to return to Clermont Ferrand, everyone told us it was 25k all downhill but obviously it wasn't! Once we got into the city, the noise and traffic was horrible, a stark contrast to the almost desserted roads we had been riding all weekend.
The presentation was as strange as the event. they got all 6 women (including 1 who only did the first day) to the front and gave us all either a medal or trophy in a fairly random fashion! Luckily the trophy was too awkward for me to bring home so Jan is stuck with it.
As for our position, well we weren't last and we were the first ladies over 40, lets leave it at that! I think this event has something of a reputation and unlike most cyclosportives there weren't many people there who hadn't done some fairly serious preparation, although the slowest was 1hr20 behind us.
For me this event was great value for money, really well organised and as the only Brits and 2 of very few women we soon became well known. Everyone was really friendly and it was certainly a hard weekend. The massif Central is a beautiful area and we were on practically traffic free roads the whole weekend. Call me a whimp but i think 120k each day would have been enough, i would have had more time to enjoy the scenery and spent less time looking at the computer thinking it was still a very long way to go! Also we would have arrived in Aurillac a bit fresher to take more advantage of the hotel and go out for a beer instead of collapsing into bed at 9pm! But then that wouldn't really have been a challenge!
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