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This is the last stage of French Ghana. So you can see the GC ahead. I was like had lost yellow. We’ll make a video about me in yellow. But yeah, I had like one minute 20 on my teammate. We decided to just get amongst it, attack as much as possible, try and get the break. I kind of wanted to get it back. So I thought let’s let’s attack and see what can happen. Now this is probably the worst generational bowl job, generational fluff of a finish you’ve ever seen. So uh yeah, strap in. So the helicopter footage, plane footage wasn’t there straight away. So, this is the break I’m in with my teammate who’s in second, my teammate who’s in fifth, and also the guy in third, plus some other strong people. So, that was a really good break. It came back because I think Martinique missed it and they went nuclear. But anyway, I then launched again and then made the front group, which was good. So, then basically no pressure on the team, guaranteed win. Like, as soon as we had like this uh group going, I was like, “Okay, sorted.” We had a guy near the top 10 on GC or couple who wanted to work. And so I was pretty committed to working at the beginning to get a gap because I thought selfishly get a good result for myself, maybe try and win GC. So you can see here I do pull turns. I don’t pull turns for long, but I did do a turn there to try and get it away cuz ultimately I wanted to get away. It’s carnage behind 4020, but once you have a 30 second gap in this race, it’s if you’re working hard, people need to be good to get across uh because no one really works very well at all. So anyway, you can see like just kind of general chaos behind. But for us, all good at the front. Now, this was the gap at 1.130. I think it got out to 2 minutes. I never pulled. Once the gap was a minute, I never pulled because, and in hindsight, everyone says, “Oh, of course you should have pulled, Charlie.” By the time I was like, the car was like, “Don’t pull.” And I also thought for Bos who was in the leader jersey was obviously my friend. I coach him, whatever. I didn’t want to like flick him that badly. So, you can see behind there’s a lot of attacking. But this is where I messed up. So the Canada guy in the white jersey, his stem note said that he uh that it finished in like uh this lab. So what happened is people start attacking. I’m like what is going on? Uh but the group was not very cooperative obviously cuz I was just sitting on. They were like you’re one of the best in the bike race cuz second on GZ and refused to pull in hindsight. Not a good move. Anyway, the Canada guy launches here. I follow him. He obviously thinks it’s the win. So I launch. No one else follows. We get a gap. He rides flat out to the finish. Basically, almost celebrates because he thinks he’s won. He hasn’t. It’s two laps early. And so I follow him and then we get a group of four away. At this point, I got told from the side of the road that I need to work because the gap, like I’m not going to win GC now because the gap’s too small, but if you want to win this stage, you need to work. So, I actually start pulling through and there’s only four of us now. And to honest, I was just wasn’t on a good day. It was actually a really hard first 40 minutes. So, I didn’t feel great. I should have launched. Uh, but we’re going to watch the possibly the worst last kilometer and a half. Now, the reason it’s so bad is that I actually had a preview of what the Canada guy was going to do. Like I already knew he’d launch there. So, I don’t really know and he was strong. That was the other thing. So, you can see like I am pulling here cuz I’m like we want to keep it away. But also, I didn’t really realize the gap was coming down as much as it was. Uh, and as I said, I was pretty fried, so I wanted a good result for myself. Um, but we’re kind of working together. It’s not terrible. Uh now the reason I messed it up was just because I actually didn’t know what I was going to do. There was so much in my mind. So here there’s a lot of dividers. This is like one and a half 2k to go slight uphill. Now in my head this is always the place to go on the you attack on the left side of the road. People aren’t expecting because you always stay on the right because it’s the shorter line and then dart across just before the corner. And I bottled that because I don’t really know what I was thinking. I think I was just like in my head like I just want a podium because I knew that you’d get a good prize and I got like a phone or something. Uh yeah, I got a phone for coming third. So that’s pretty good. But I should have launched there. I didn’t. And then here I should have thought, what did the Canada guy do when we had a preview of the finish, which he thought was the finish. He launched from 1k to go. And I knew he was basically the strongest guy there. And so I should have just followed his wheel. And it was really possibly one of the worst decisions in a bike race I’ve made in the final, maybe ever. Uh so I’m on the bike guy. And like, yeah, he’s not bad, but like really, it was just so silly. Like, look how much he’s pulling compared to everyone else. Like, yes, he was trying to gain time in GC because he’s like top 10, I think. Uh, you know, whatever, whatever. Um, but like he actually was the strongest guy. So, we’re turning right here and it’s like probably one and a halfk to go. It’s like a headwind here, but also downhill. You can see like the bunch behind 40 seconds. It gets down to 20 in the end. People are kind of leading out, but I mean like it doesn’t I’m not very stressed, you know. Now we’re at the front again. So you can see I’m kind of at the back and actually I always think finessing here not that big of a deal. If you’re on the front 100 W is the the biggest issue. The issue is when people come from behind it’s really hard to attack. So 1k to go. We’re going to see the exact same thing. The guy in a white jersey. We’re going to go helicopter footage. So watch. I’m on no one’s wheel. I’m pulling through here. He looks behind white jersey. He launches. So I pull over. No worries. I’m actually about to get on the white jersey wheel. But I don’t think and I just follow him. So now I’m know on the guy who was abusing me the whole race for not pulling his wheel. The white jersey just mincing at the back. No worries. Like literally doing like has the perfect chance to launch. He now is going to go on the left hand side. And I just don’t know what I was thinking like here. Like why are you going straight into second wheel? I just was not using my brain at all. Like here I’m pulling which is fine but like there just wasn’t much brain cells. And when you watch it back it’s so furious. So he launches here and the and I just like full clown and the guy behind him looks like he’s going to close it here and then I’m on the like fourth wheel. So now I’m like actually cooked because I’m just relying on everyone else. And here the gaps are so close. So you’re like okay it’s all going to come back together. And I think because I didn’t pull the guy in pink purple absolutely hated me and he assumed I was the strongest in the bunch. Now he just lets this gap go. He just looks back and then here because I’m last wheel you’re like if I go people probably follow. So I just bottle it and go nah I’m not working because I only want podium which was so dumb cuz I either should have closed it straight away like and the thing is also in the time you know it’s not going to like be closed cuz like he’s just too strong like if I had to do 600 watts there I’m not going to win the sprint behind. So now we’re just in this stupid position where he literally did the same thing twice and I missed it on the second time for the win and like yeah okay I would have followed him but then it’s a sprint from two instead of three or four and so now he’s riding up the road. I mean like you know there was a split second where me or bike guy could have closed it. I don’t know why the other guy didn’t close him. He was literally on the wheel. I think it’s cuz he thought I was going to pump in a sprint. Little does he know at this time in the race I don’t do many watts. I think my sprint was 20 seconds 800 and like this guy fair play like he was mega strong you know deserve like deserved the win in terms of like he was probably stronger but in terms of my own tactics to optimize my own results it was not big brain this finale and it really really cracked me actually watching it back so he then wins like massive gap cuz we all just fluting around behind I the only goal was to come second or third and I came third so I did get you know a phone and like I got on the podium which was good I got my second on GC which was pretty good so it was in general like obviously good race, but just when you watch it back, it is pretty crack city to watch actually uh on how bad my tactics were. Um but anyway, leave the comments what should I have done differently. I mean, I think I explained what I think I should have done differently, but if you have any comments, let me know. And uh cheers for watching and I’ll see you in the next one, which will be probably about how I kept yellow for 4 days and then lost it. Yes, we are the winner of the cycling French GA tour 2025.
1 Comment
silly 🪿🪿🪿