Darragh Zaidan seen here leading the group in the colours of VCC Morteau
On the eve of returning to Ireland from his French base, former junior international Darragh Zaidan reflects on the mixed bag that has been the first part of his season at his new French team VCC Morteau. Having left these shores to pursue a dream, he has gained from the experience and looks forward to a break before returning to Eastern France for more.
As I sit here on this short flight from Geneva to Dublin, I do so contemplating the first part of my season living and racing in France. It’s been somewhat of a mixed experience to say the least; full of ups and downs and emotional at times.
As we sat on the team bus on our way to Geneva, I spoke at length with our DS Oran in French about my last weekend of racing in France until the end of June; it was enjoyable. My French is far from perfect but he understood and replied in his broken English.
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This short conversation made me realise one of the great things about leaving Ireland to do something I love, and to try to make a career from it and take a new culture from this adventure. As we spoke, I kept thinking of when I arrived here and how difficult it was to hold a conversation with Oran in exactly the same situation; my French was a bit rusty to say the least.
The latest weekend of racing ended quite prematurely for me. My run of bad luck continued. I was confident that my cracked frame would last until I get my new frame tomorrow from the Cycle Superstore, but as mentioned above my bad luck continued and did so with a vengeance.
I pay a lot of attention to detail when it comes to my bike and after a two-hour training ride on Friday with my clip-on aero bars - putting a lot of pressure on the saddle sitting in the aggressive TT position - I cleaned and prepared my bike for the weekend. Noticing no irregularities with my bike other than the crack in my top-tube it was the last time the Stevens was to race here. I hoped it would go out on a high as a ‘trusty steed’ but no, it was quite the opposite.
We arrived at the race with lots of time so I checked the bike again, got changed and warmed up; everything was normal and I was relaxed and raring to go. My state of calm turned to panic after just for 4kms. On a small downhill section, I felt my seat post drop underneath me; no major panic…… yet.
I raised my hand, pulled over to the side of the road and waited for my team car as per normal, took the allen key from the mechanic and got going again. I was cruising at 70km/h on the bumper of the car just about to re-join the cavalcade when it went again, this time I didn’t stop. I took the allen key from the mechanic and made rolling repairs but it was just no use. I had to stop and examine it properly and what I saw instantly brought the curtains down on my race; my seat clamp had shat itself and cracked/exploded.
I just laughed to myself. It was typical of how everything had been going recently and this just summed it up.
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My first thought was to cry and throw the bike as far as it would go. But I didn’t. I rode the bike down the descent and to the team bus, placed it in the back and waited for the team car so I could at least watch the race. I didn’t dwell on the situation, what was the point? It wouldn’t have fixed my problems or made me happy so I did the polar opposite. I smiled away to myself, knowing things couldn’t get worse and could only get better for me.
My holidays were just one day away. I was very excited from here on in and continuing in my usual fashion I tried to take the positives; going home to see my family and friends, riding some home races and to see how I have improved (if I have), enjoy a night out with my ‘Kiwi’ guest and my friends at home and get a new bike (it wasn’t intentional I swear!).
So with the race going on I just helped a little and watched from the car which wasn’t all bad. The club president JF and the mechanic Regis were great banter and we had a laugh. The weather was great - high 20’s and not a cloud in the sky. Although I wasn’t racing in the sun I still took some epic tan lines. These are a small comforts :).
Due to the great laughs we had at the race I have to mention ‘CougarTown-CougarVille’. It was like a more controlled boys weekend away, with the usual ‘boys will be boys’ antics. We renamed the town to CougarTown which is pretty self-explanatory. There were plenty of them and we did enjoy it.
The journey home from the race on Sunday was again filled with good banter. I ended up teaching English to the club president and my team mate Nico. And they in turn taught me French; it was funny.
I think I’ll stop rambling here and go for a little snooze. I got maybe four-and-a-half hours sleep after I packed etc and could do with some more. I should be landing in about half an hour (I think); although it’s not difficult to change the clock back 1hr I always struggle and I need conformation from at least three different sources.
I thank you all for reading and for supporting me. And for the Irish readers I’m sure I’ll see a lot of you on the road, track, pubs or clubs at some point.
Until then
D
To keep in touch with Darragh’s escapades in France, check out his blog.
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