Racing in Brittany St Andre Des Eaux - 4 Aug 24
On a lovely sunny afternoon in Brittany at St Andre Des Eaux , two Caesarean Cycling Club members raced for CC Plancoet. The two riders were Jay Cracknell and Tom Huelin, with the latter having his first race in France for the French club because of a lengthy time out with an in to his knee.
The race was organized by Team Pays Dinan Guinefort. The course was 4km long, 25 laps and pan flat with raised road furniture on the last bend before a 200 mtr straight to the finish line . With no wind, narrow roads, tight corners it was always going to be advantageous to stay near the front of the race.
The race started with 125 riders in the field and soon there was an early break on the 2nd lap which was quickly shut down. Jay Cracknell then attacked and got into a break with another rider and one lap later Jay attacked again and found himself in the lead on his own and by the time he was joined at the front on lap 6 , by 5 other riders, he had won 2 sprint prims. By lap 7 the leading 6 riders had a 12 seconds lead. Meanwhile in the chasing peloton Tom was staying at the front end of the peloton and ready if a counter attack went to bridge to the leaders. By lap 11 the leaders had an 18 seconds lead and Jay had won a third sprint prim. The race was now just past the halfway stage with an average speed nearing 45km ph . Lap 14 saw Jay win his 4th sprint prim from a group that had now swelled up to 10 riders after 4 got out of the peloton and bridged across. Tom was still riding strongly at the front end of the main bunch holding his position position well. With 8 laps to go the gap between the leaders and the peloton got up to almost 40 seconds, this was to be the biggest margin the leaders had over the peloton.With 6 laps to the peloton were gaining quickly on leaders and the gap was coming down fast to 15 seconds. Unfortunately with 6 laps to go Tom had a big lump on the top of his front tyre and handling the bike on the tight corners became dangerous and he was forced stop unfortunately after a great effort back from injury.
The race was now reaching the final three laps when the bunch caught the breakaway, which Jay had been in for almost 20 of 25 laps, by which time Jay finished up winning 6sprint laps.
The last three laps were fast and furious and coming to the finish Jay was pushed out wide over the raised road furniture, which put him out of contention for sprint but he still came in 25th overall . Jay’s bike bike handling skills certainly showed with some impressive cornering .Jay way congratulated by his teammates and CC Plancoet management representatives on a great ride.Special mention and thanks to Caesarean Cycling Club for their support of the riders and of course the support of their French Cc Plancoet.