I haven't written a preview of the 2013 Duo Normand, principally because both of us have had particularly lacklustre seasons this year for reasons of pressure of work and of illness and injury. However, on a recent joint holiday to Normandy, we did seem to see the vague signs of returning form. I built on this by riding five events between coming back from Normandy and returning for the Duo Normand. Everything seemed to be falling into place. From my perspective, at least. Things began to change a few days before we were due to leave for the Duo Normand - Gerry reported he'd picked up a cold. What was worse, it appeared to be quite severe. Not to worry, I observed, it'll probably pass before the race itself. But I found myself sharing a cabin on the overnight ferry to Caen on the Wednesday before the race with a severely bunged up and coughing team mate. It was looking a bit bleak for our tenth outing at the Duo Normand.
By the time we rolled out of the ferry and into the dark Norman countryside, Gerry seemed a bit better. By which I mean the coughing wasn't quite so body-wracking as the night before (we tried our best to ignore the awful possibility that I might contract the bug in time for Sunday's ride). We made our way to the small collection of farmhouses and cottages among which was the house we'd booked for the weekend. That was the easy bit, the problem we had was identifying which was the one we'd rented! Eventually, we figured it out and extracted the key from the key safe. But inside it was a bit dusty, and the water, gas and electricity were all turned off. Further investigation revealed that the house was completely unprepared for our arrival, but a few phone calls brought in the previous caretakers - no longer responsible for the house - who were very kindly and (quite unnecessarily) apologetic. While the house was being readied, we popped out to a local supermarket for supplies. One other thing: we seemed to be staying in a cellular blackspot and could only get a phone signal with one of our phones, and even then only while standing in the garden. And no signal at all with Gerry's mobile WiFi router. Thus, we found ourselves limited to driving elsewhere for internet updates. Among other things, we wanted to keep abreast of changes to the weather forecast. At this stage, Thursday and Friday were forecast to be dry, sunny and warm, Saturday heavy rain and Sunday light rain. Back at the house, we settled in, got the bikes sorted, had lunch and popped out for a quick spin round the Duo Normand course. This was quite revealing, as Gerry really wasn't firing on all cylinders - while our changeovers were working like the well-oiled machine that is the Team Grumpy 2-up team, Gerry was finding hard cycling rather an effort, and kept having to ease off with severe bouts of coughing. Through all this we tried to keep a brave face on the upcoming race. For my part, I was feeling great with no sign of impending illness. The evening was spent entertaining ourselves with a modest quantity of official Team Grumpy energy drink and some of the videos available in the house. For Friday, we decided to do a local ride to check out Gerry's replacement of a chain and a cassette. Oh, and check his health, though on first appearance he did seem to be recovering. Alas, his ability to churn out the power on the time trial bike was still somewhat diminished. In the evening, we discovered a hornet in the kitchen. This was despatched with the flyswat. Unfortunately we then discovered ourselves to be under siege by quite a swarm of the beasts, in scenes reminiscent of a Hitchcock classic. The hornets appeared to be massing outside the kitchen window, and were making quite a racket as they headbutted the glass! (This was probably the noise I heard the night before in my bedroom.) Saturday dawned dry but unpromising. We nipped out for a very short ride to make final checks on gear indexing, then went out to replenish our supplies of energy drink. We also needed some zip ties to attach the frame numbers that we anticipated receiving at signing on. Being completely ignorant of the French for "zip tie", we were unable to ask for assistance, but searched in vain in a major supermarket and a sports store before I suggested the garden store. Thus satisfied, we returned to the house for lunch before heading over to Marigny to sign on for Sunday's race. While all this was going on, the heavens had opened, with absolutely torrential rain. By the time we returned to Marigny for signing on, things were a bit drier. I don't suppose that was much comfort to the riders we'd seen checking out the course who were looking rather bedraggled. Signing on was the usual tedious process of queuing. At least these days it's out in a marquee in the square. Back in 2003, this involved queuing along the street then up several flights of stairs in the Mairie. This done we beetled off home via the Marigny Carrefour (and used the Wifi router in the car park there). We attached the frame numbers to the bikes, made final decisions about the skinsuit choice and loaded the car up ready for heading off to Marigny in the morning. Fortunately the hornets chose not to make a reappearance, and we had a quiet evenign contemplating our likely performance. Frankly we were doubtful we'd pull off anything spectacular - the team we expected to win had UK domestic performances this year that considerably exceeded ours, and it was quite clear Gerry was still under the weather. Sunday dawned. It wasn't raining, though it clearly had done so during the night, and quite heavily. It was however pretty foggy, which can't have been too great for the early starters. The first team started 8:01, we were due to start at 10:15. We arrived in Marigny and parked in our usual spot quite close to the start area. We wandered down to look at the unlicensed category starters. And to see if UCI regs were being applied - they weren't, which was a relief as this would have required some last minute modifications to our bikes. The roads were wet but it wasn't raining, just rather misty. Back to the car and, to a rising sensation of butterflies in our stomachs, we got the bikes out. Tyres pumped, and last minute checks completed, we sorted out our race 'uniform' (this year, white Assos skinsuits) and set out to warm up. By the time we lined up at the start ramp, we had both become quite relaxed. The team in from of us, 266, had not appeared, so we started our computers when team 267 started, two minutes before us. [caption id="attachment_2370" align="alignleft" width="474"]
All too soon the start guy did that odd 'finger countdown' gesture and we were off, slipping once again into the tried and trusted routine where Gerry leads up the rather steep starting lane, with me passing the front once we crested the top. Unfortunately, this is when the Team Grumpy problems first surfaced. Gerry's cold had clearly left after effects, and it wasn't until a few kilometres had passed that he could even hold my wheel. We managed to get this kind of sorted out as we descended into the misty bocage lanes. It was fortunate that we had a motorcycle rider in fluo yellow ahead of us, because we really couldn't see where we were going through the mist with any degree of confidence. All of a sudden, we reached the sharp left turn onto the D900, and we were flying, pounding along the main road as though all our troubles were gone! This state of affairs continued as we raced down the lanes, across another main road at Les Champs de Losque, through Tribehou and across the marshes. Unfortunately, we became a bit more ragged as we turned towards Feugeres. I was taking long pulls on the front, and could hear some severe coughing from behind. As we'd worried, the cold hadn't completely cleared, and Gerry was suffering. This really could only end badly, and I did my best to accommodate the situation. It's a mark of how practiced a 2-up team is in these circumstances, and I think we handled this pretty well. We communicated well without speaking, though I suppose the coughing was quite effective in that regard! The climbs through Le Mesnilbus and up to Montcuit were particularly hard for Gerry, and quite frankly I was surprised he just didn't just give up. Of course 2-ups are different from solo events in this regard. On the climbs, we were falling apart somewhat, but astonishingly were better than usual on the curving descents, even on the wet roads. We were particularly pleased with how we handled the infamous 'Ghoul corner', which we took at >37mph.
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