Siobhan Horgan, leading, piles on the pressure during last year’s Tour du Limousin
Relieved at her imminent return to the road following her scare last weekend, Siobhan Horgan shares some insights about her life racing on the Continent.
At this moment in time I should be on the road with the team on the way to the Trofeo Alfredo Binda World Cup in Italy, but as was reported earlier in the week unfortunately I crashed badly in Cholet last Sunday and had a suspected fractured wrist.
I had an MRI scan yesterday and as it turned out the wrist is only badly bruised; so there was a slight over-reaction in France. But I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. The bad news is that I will miss the World Cup in Italy this weekend. But the good news is that I can start to train and race again on the road as soon as tomorrow.
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In anticipation of some bad news from the MRI I got some turbo sessions from Anthony Walsh (formerly of UCD), who is also out of action with a broken scapula at the moment. I was dreading doing the turbo for a prolonged period – but now I won’t have too. Anyway, rather than moaning on some more about my medical dramas, I thought I might provide you with an insight into our team’s travel days as we head to a race.
Normally we all meet at Jacques’ house at a specified time on the morning of our travel day. Jacques is the manager of Team GSD Gestion and along with his daughter Fabienne he looks after the day-to-day running of the team. Depending on our final destination some or all of the riders are there; sometimes we pick some up en-route or meet them at the race hotel, along with the physio (Kine), the mechanic, one or both of our Directeur Sportif’s (aka D.S. – the manager during the race), Jacques, Fabienne and Jacques’ wife Nadine.
After the usual French pleasantries (bonjour, ca va? Kiss kiss -both cheeks are mandatory) we load up the cars and commence the journey. We always travel in convoy with Jacques’ car leading the way, followed by the team car and then the team van.
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The team van is the most efficient use of space I have ever seen….. inside you will find all the RR bikes and spare bikes, TT bikes (if required for a particular race), turbo trainers, race food, water, race wheels and training wheels, a washing machine, a hose and all our bags. Everything has a place inside in the van, and no-one is allowed to interfere with the ‘system’ except the mechanic or Jacques.
Regardless of where we are going or what time we leave, once the clock strikes noon, all indicators are engaged and we pull into the nearest motorway restaurant. I don’t know if it’s a French tradition or just a Team GSD Gestion Tradition, but we always eat lunch at 12 noon on the dot, and dinner at half past seven in the evening. I find that really funny but actually its great because you know exactly when eating time is (a main priority for most cyclists). However,I always struggle with the dinner time being so late as I’m always starving come 5 o’clock. I usually fill half my race bag with my own food though, so I can normally struggle on until the ‘official’ dinner time. The motorway restaurants, while not of michelan star standard, are normally pretty decent with a good choice. We usually have a salad and bread, some pasta and meat and a desert is usually encouraged strangely enough. Our food choices are never restricted which I find refreshing for a cycling team.
Once we arrive at the race hotel we usually do a team training ride of between 60 and 90 minutes. This is always an easy ride. After that we have some ‘downtime’ which each riders gets a pre-race massage. While waiting for the massage and for dinner we usually just hang around the hotel chatting. At the pre-arranged dinner time (between 7.30-8) we always head down to the restaurant ravenous. The dinner is nearly always the same – a salad (usually consisting of carrottes rapees, beetroot and cous cous), then pasta (overcooked)with tomato sauce on the side and grated cheese, if you wish, accompanied by some meat. All of this is usually eaten with plenty of baguettes.
We always have a desert, which is either a yoghurt and some fruit or some tarte tatin (yummy apple cake made with puff pastry). The dinner always takes well over an hour which I always find a bit long, but there is always plenty of laughs so the time passes ok. There is a great atmosphere within the team, and generally speaking everyone gets along great – so its no problem just passing the evening away waiting til bedtime.
After dinner we always have a team meeting to discuss the race the next day as well as all the logistics like breakfast time, time of departure etc. For the races we always discuss the team tactics as well the race circuit itself. This is always a worthwhile and informative exercise. After the meeting we all head back to our rooms and hit the sack dreaming of a team victory in tomorrows race.
Cheers
Siobhan
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