Les 3 Ballons: Surprising myself

LA PLANCHE DES BELLES FILLES - I'll remember my fourth participation in the classic French cyclo Les 3 Ballons for a long time. In fact, it was probably my best ride ever in a granfondo or long-distance event of this kind. After 205km and 4300Hm I crossed the finish line as 32nd in 6:58:06, an improvement of 41 minutes compared to 2005!

As it happened, I actually lost 13 places in the final 4 kilometres climbing up to La Planche des Belles Filles, a steep climb that ends the very scenic tour through the Vosges mountains. Defenceless, no juice left in the legs. That didn't really surprise me after pure racing for 200km, given the German races are basically at most 130 km long. What did surprise me was that I was still there up front at the end. I know now for sure that this is what I will focus on increasingly more as of next season.

I positioned myself towards the front of the pack on the way to the Ballon de Servance. As usual the pace was high on the first difficulty of the day. After the dangerous descent there were a few playful attempts by some of the circa 30 riders in the leading group. When we hit the Col d'Oderen I pedalled away from the group together with a French rider. To be honest it did feel good to be leading the 3 Ballons race after already having done the Ballon de Servance :-) A while later I would actually lead the group to the summit of that climb. Next was the Col du Bramont, which led us via le Markstein eventually to the famous Route des Crêtes. Race favourites Jens Volkmann and Michel Snel set the pace with myself in their wheel. After a short descent, the road went further up towards le Markstein. Snel accelerated and rode slowly away with six other riders. Their pace was slightly too fast for me and I had to let them go. I settled in a second group with seven others and the eight of us would race together for the next 60km until the Ballon d'Alsace.

On that climb I was initially able to ride away from the group, but just over halfway I suddenly got a knock of the hammer. The final 2 kilometres were just endless! I took another gel and drank my bidon empty, hoping I would regain some strength. Six guys of my group were gone, but one I caught back in the descent. Being just two in the 40km rollercoaster back to Champagney and the foot of La Planche is not enough, and we were caught by four riders who were pushing hard. I was in total survival mode but could hang on until 5 km before Champagney. There I had to make a brief stop to refill my bidon, which cost about a minute, and then I rode the 12 km to the foot of the mountain by myself. The first kilometre is the steepest, with a stretch of 17%, and as I was struggling my way up, a group of over a dozen riders caught up with me. For the remainder of the climb, I was overtaken by several and had to settle for 32nd spot.

Hanging over my handlebar, I could not remember the last time I had been so dead after a race. But the experience of racing inside the top 20 for as long as 200km gave me a big psychological boost. My first goal for the 2009 season is therefore set: staying in there for 205 km !

Jens Volkmann edged out Snel for the win in 6:28:24. Number 10 had a time of 6:50, number 20 - a known Belgian cyclo rider from Bruges - had 6:56.

Rebecca enjoyed a great introduction to this type of racing, finishing 11th out of 47 women in 4:55:37 on the 109km distance.

There were over 2000 participants in this year's edition of Les 3 Ballons, with 1031 completing the granfondo.

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