Transmaurienne

31 times.

That's the number of times they already organised this race in the French Alps.

Due to COVID it was postponed to a later date, so this year we could participate in this stage race over 5 days.

Our camper has been loaded since beginning of July, so packing is just getting the bibs and jerseys all together, and off we go.

Off we go! 

The plan was to combine this race and then afterwards drive through to the Black Forest in Germany for the Rothaus Bike Giro.

Because we don't like mixing holiday and racing, this time  (this season) it was going to be a little different. Staying on camping sites before and in between races always gives that little sense of holidays;

But nothing to complain about. We're happy to be riding and to have numbers on our bikes.

The first two days of racing were held in Lanslevillard and for the next two days we would be travelling to Aussois.

prerace ride 💨

Both are typical French Alp villages with a lot of charm and conviviality. The organisation was spot on, and it seemed like a World Championship seeing all the big names on the starting-list. The first day there was also the French Championship XCM, so a lot of beautiful people were headed to Lanslevillard on Monday.

As always we like to come prepared, so we had arranged a reconnaissance with a bunch of Belgian riders.

Recon with the boys 👊

The tracks were splendid and since it hadn't been raining for a long time, the soil was hard and dusty as we like. (We also like to ride wet and soft, but that's for later...)

Small detail: there were two distances proposed to the riders. One with 9000 am and a shorter one with 6000 am.

Ready to race!

Pink for the ladies ♀

Sara went for the 9000 and I did the 'kids' race...  Afterwards the small distance race was perhaps harder. A lot of young riders who started off like missiles at the start, and then slowed down. There were a lot I could catch up later in the race. Feels good to show them slow is often faster at the finish.

The first stage was a hell of a story. Due to bad weather the riders were sent back on the trail of the 9000 stage. No problem if the race is cancelled. But they did not cancel because some riders already were past the point were the others had to turn around.

What goes up must come down...

Sara was one of the blocked riders. Race was over. At the finish they told us they would put everyone as a finisher, but without saying that the unlucky riders all had 105' of penalty.  WHAT? was the reaction from most of them.

The jury found that this was the most honest thing to do...  I NOT AGREE.

Sara did not spent much energy, but catching up 105' in four days, would be impossible. Going for a stage victory was not among the possibilities. To many strong professional female riders in the bunch to clear that one.

So Sara forgot the first day and had a good race for the next days. No crashes, no flats, no flaws... Just riding as hard as she could and finish. Finishing strong after 5 days resulted in a 6th spot in GC WOMEN ELITE category.

Downhill fun 👌

Myself was also riding with a lot of confidence and I felt stronger each day. I could manage to ride around a 10th spot in my age-category. 8th was best, 12th was the lowest score.

After the race we did not have any options. Our next race would be starting 5 days later in Germany.

The organisation did a great job organizing this event. And also a big high five to all the volunteers who made this one possible in this crazy season. Sure to be back here in the future.

Not wasting much time in France, we headed to Germany the next morning. The weather forecast was not that good for the coming days.

TransMaurienne in the books ✔

When writing this down, we just got kept up to date for the last big goal of this year, namely the ROC d'AZUR. Bad news: CANCELLED DUE TO COVID.

So this is probably one of our lasts race posts of 2020. 

Good news also came to us today:There will be a Belgian Championship organized in La Roche on October 3rd. So still a chance to go for that one big goal for 2020.