Wow what a race, it didn’t start well on Saturday with my FSA Carbon cranks going ‘Kaput’. I missed watching the DH race while I legged down to Barcelonnette to get new cranks. Luckly the guy in the shop was very helpful he fitted new a XT chainset cheaper than you would buy them on the net.
The race went well I lost a bit of time in the first lap but nothing major, on the second lap I was back in the grove picking riders off as I went. I was lapping around a minute quicker than last year but yet again the standard is up on the previous year. They also had one less lap this year which meant there was less people to catch towards the end. Happy with 20th, course was deadly, tough rocky descents , super fast flat single track sections and ridiculously steep kickers. No racing there until 2013, lets hope the Irish can put together as good an event next year.
It was a good weekend, the Hotel in Praloup was fantastic, we also rode up the Alp D’Huez yesterday. Here's some pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/mccluskey.james/Alpdhuez#