On Saturday October 5, 2013, I took part in the Salbert climb
organized by the Belfortain ACTB club , the 6th and final Salbert Climb 2013 event of the
FSGT 2013 calendar. It was a short event of
3,850 km with 215 mD+.
For my last competition the weather
was not kind with heavy rain from the
start.
Too bad for this home event that I know by heart
from the many equipment tests this year! I hate the rain and Salbert Climb 2013 almost never ride
in it, but for today and as it only represents 10 minutes of effort,
I accept getting soaked. Moreover, and fortunately, it is special lead not too
cold (17°C).
Picture under the sun from previous years, it’s better!
2 days earlier I came to test myself with a
nice 9’38” on my test segment of 3,760 km @343w. A possible time of around 9’48
was therefore possible by giving everything since you have to add about ten
seconds and 100 m to get to the official line.
343w 9’38 in reco (No tube rims, supersonic + latex, total weight 69.2kg)
The weather is still dry when I pick up my bib and after
looking at the latest radar echoes, I decide to leave as soon as possible,
hoping to avoid the rain. But nothing doing, I’ve barely got to the car to
change when the first heavy downpour hits, soaking everything. In the
car, I had planned ahead and taken with me, in addition to the
No tube supersonic wheels my training neutrons
Equipped with GP4000s, certainly worn but under-inflated to 5 bars, they will be perfect for warming up on wet roads. I’m
dragging my feet to leave in this rain and so I have jeremy jensen only 30 minutes left before
the start… I warm up with a climb of Salbert to recognize that there is
a lot of debris on the road and at the
time I’m glad I didn’t leave with my more fragile supersonics. My
legs aren’t feeling so bad and I manage to motivate myself despite the clean email dreadful weather.
Back at the car I take off the bottle, the useless equipment… in short, I lighten myself as
much as possible and arrive just 1 minute from my departure. Only then,
in the rush, I forget to change my wheels.