Haribo & Haut Var

Hello to all, last week was a great week for AG2R as they won Haribo Classic and it was Kirrsipu’s 100th win as a pro (never won a stage in the Gorey though??). Fakta were there for the kill but they are still lacking the killer punch. I spoke with Mark Scanlon before the start the day before in Haut Var. He was under instructions to get to the feed zone and look after himself from there in. It was a hilly race and he feels he needs to lose 5 kgs to get into proper shape to compete at full gas (jaysus help them when he does!). The south of France is a beautiful region. The sun was shining and it was freezing but the food is good and the rooms are warm, so no complaints there. Fakta were given 2 new camping cars for the year. We picked them up the day before the race, and after Haut Var we had 200kms to drive to Rimes, so our French soigneur decided it would be nice to get a massive scratch up the side of it and make us wait for 20 mins with some black pissed off French dude who wanted to tear him a new asshole as he took his mirror clean of it’s hinges. Kim Andersen came along (our manager) and donated the guy 100 euros for the inconvenience, but our soigneur swore to Kim that it wasn’t his fault. Tough shit. Stepfan, I was behind you dude…. it was your fault ok? If you know any French people, they never admit of being in the wrong? Well we got to the hotel at 8pm and we cleaned the bikes, controlled them 8 in all, and washed the reserve bikes and the race car in 1 and a half hours. Arrived for dinner and the menu of the day was chicken and chips, not a great end to a hard days graft but its basically get it into you go to sleep for the next days start. The start was pretty fast in Haribo and they took of in the gutter trying to soften up the boys who got their ass kicked the day before,…. and it worked!! Bodies everywhere. Pros have a great knack of going out the back early but on a descent they will give it all and get back on.the race was pretty much a group got away early and then basically got caught with 70 kms to go. Then Lotto went to the front and drilled it for McEwen. They did a super job too right up until he punctured with 3kms to go as they were touching 70 kms per hour. Needless to say the Domo boys were pissed as I was going by in the car one of them hit the handlebars a few whacks in anger. Scanlon finished 5 minutes in arrears, but he had done his work for his sprinter and they deservedly won the race. Haribo sponsors the race and every member of a team on the race gets 2 big boxes of sweets to bring home to the loved ones. That was the race in a nutshell. This weekend I go to Lugano in Switzerland for 2 races. It’s nice because its only 2 hours drive from my apartment. Get home in nice time to enjoy the following week. Then I go to Belgium for a 3 day race.

Talk to you soon B