Friday, March 29, 2024

Dooley’s RT at the Tour Nivernais Morvan – Day 4

-

HomeDiariesDooley's RT at the Tour Nivernais Morvan - Day 4

On the home straight now! 80 something miles and 3 category three climbs today! Not too hard we hoped, especially after the last few days. But boy were we in for a surprise, here at the Tour Nivernais Morvan!

– Reported by Paul Coats –

Tour Nivernais Morvan
What’s left of the bunch in full flight with 20km to go.

Stage 5, LA CHARITE-SUR-LOIRE – COSNE-COURS-SUR-LOIRE 136.6 km

We thought they’d take it, easy last day and all that, plus the GC was a done deal by now.

No way. 46km in the first hour, 45km in the second hour, jings – it’s gonna be a quick stage. Who needs the TGV?

The roads were twisty and narrow, like a stage of the Girvan, seriously single track, twisty with gravel, but at least it was dry and not too windy.

The first cat three climb was a bit of a shocker – only 3kms long but it was carnage, and Michael and Graham got their collars felt.

Michael knew from the off that he was in trouble. All week he had been close to the front but today he was near the back, and when the gaps opened there was no way back.

Both he and Graham climbed off at the feed.

No question they could have ridden round and finished, but we had a tight schedule for Paris and had to be off asap after the finish.

Tour Nivernais Morvan
Dooley’s in the mix, mid-way through the stage.

Personally I think it was the couscous! Last night we were joined for dinner by the local couscous appreciation society. I thought it was a wind-up but when I got a monster plate of couscous for dinner I wasn’t smiling so much. Only in France.

I don’t think anyone finished their scran, and with no MacDonalds in sight it was cereal and noodles for dinner. Again.

The stage finished with 4 laps of 3km circuit around Cosne-Cours-Sur-Loire. It was hammer time; 11,12, and 13 sprockets around the town.

The crowds were phenomenal and were given a great sprint finish to end the race.

Alastair and Paul finished with the winner, Stuart just a little bit behind.

Poor Stuart, not the most gifted when it comes to the vertical ascension, made it over the final categorised climb where we turned left onto another unclassified climb which caused major splits in the bunch.

Stuart and a few others just missed out on getting back on while there was a regrouping at the front.

Tour Nivernais Morvan
Laurent Bourgeois takes the last stage.

1 BOURGEOIS Laurent 03H08’55″00  CLUB CYCLISTE ETUPES
2 MARTINEZ Yannick m.t.  CREUSOT CYCLISME
3 BOUTEILLE Thomas m.t.  CLUB CYCLISTE ETUPES
4 NIEUWDORP Nick m.t.  VAN HERMET GROEP
5 TEILLET Gwenael m.t.  U. C. NANTES ATLANTIQUE
6 DERANGERE Jérémie m.t.  SPRINTER CLUB OLYMPIQUE DIJON

25 KAY Alastair m.t.  DOOLEYS CYCLES RT
53 COATS Paul m.t.  DOOLEYS CYCLES RT
72 MC GREGOR Stuart @ 8.01 DOOLEYS CYCLES RT

Final GC

1 BOURDILLAT Nicolas 14H02’17  CREUSOT CYCLISME
2 MARTINEZ Yannick 14H02’39 @ 22sec CREUSOT CYCLISME
3 TEVENOT Anthony 14H03’15 @ 57sec SPRINTER CLUB OLYMPIQUE DIJON
4 PAIANI Jean-Lou 14H03’24 @ 1.07 VELO CLUB LYON VAULX EN VELIN
5 DERANGERE Jérémie 14H03’26 @ 1.08SPRINTER CLUB OLYMPIQUE DIJON
6 LE HYARIC Steven 14H03’32 @ 01.15 VELO CLUB LYON VAULX EN VELIN

48 KAY Alastair 14H09’17 @ 6.59 DOOLEYS CYCLES RT
64 COATS Paul 14H31’27 @ 29.09 DOOLEYS CYCLES RT
73 MC GREGOR Stuart 15H32’44 @ 01.30.26DOOLEYS CYCLES RT

Tour Nivernais Morvan
The final GC podium. Spot J-F Bernard? He’s one of the organisers of this race.

Overall then, this was a superb race; a great atmosphere, wonderful service in the hotel (other than the couscous).

In a typical Scottish manner we showed our gratitude to the hotel owner by giving her a bouquet of flowers, a gesture with which no previous team had ever done.

Special thanks to Alistair Forbes, Cammy Fisher (if you need advice on fitting tubulars Cammy is the man) and Graeme Ward for supporting the riders.

Thanks also to Paul Rennie who helped out after Stage 2.

More info can be found at the official race site.

Martin Williamson
Martin Williamson
Martin is our Editor and web site Designer/Manager. He concentrates on photography. He's been involved in cycle racing for over four decades and raced for much of that time, having a varied career which included time trials, road and track racing - and triathlons. Martin has been the Scottish 25 Mile TT and 100 Mile TT Champion, the British Points Race League Champion on the track, and he won a few time trials in his day, particularly hilly ones like the Tour de Trossachs and the Meldons MTT.

Related Articles

Tour of Britain 2006 – Stage 1, Glasgow to Castle Douglas

The Tour of Britain 2006 kicked-off in Glasgow on Tuesday morning with a 101.1 mile haul from Glasgow to Castle Douglas. Last year Evan Oliphant (Recycling) grabbed an excellent second place on a stage behind Russian champion Sergei Ivanov (T-Mobile). This year he'll be talking to VeloVeritas every day after the stage, we caught-up with him before the stage whilst he was stocking-up on victuals for the stage and receiving a light massage.

Giro d’Italia 2016 – Stage 16; Not a good day for Esteban Chaves

It wasn't a good day for Chaves on Tuesday's Stage 16, he lost time to Kruijswijk and Valverde. With three minutes in hand over the Colombian, the Dutchman is going to take a bit of shifting; and there's a danger that Valverde might leapfrog Chaves, too - he's now just 23 seconds in arrears. Nibali lost time, too.

Copenhagen Six Day 2012 – Day Three

Danny Clark; in a world where the word ‘legend’ is used too often, it’s wholly appropriate in the case of the Australian. He holds the record for the number of six day starts at 236 and he’s second in the all time winner ranks with 74 — unsurprisingly he’s ‘double Recordman’ here at the Copenhagen Six Day with eight wins off 21 starts.

Zürich Four Day 2011 – Days Three & Four

It's 11:29 on Sunday, somewhere on an autobahn in Bavaria. The race finished at 02:30 but it was around 03:45 before we got away from the track. We parked up at 05:00 at a motorway services and rose at 10:15; we're en route Düsseldorf, which will take us the best part of the day. It's all part of the game.

At Random

Steve Cummings – the Pro’s Pro

When Steve Cummings rode for Discovery Channel in 2007, he was in the service of Alberto Contador. 'Bert' told the Disco mechanic Allan Butler; "when you ask Cummings to ride on the front-he rides, I'd have him on my team any time!" Praise doesn't come much higher. We caught up with Steve just before he jetted off to the Far East for the new Beijing WorldTour race, to talk Cav, his move from Sky to BMC and-Liverpool FC.

Berlin Six Days 2016 – Photo WrapUp

This year saw edition 105 of the Six Days of Berlin, VeloVeritas had the good fortune to be there helping soigneur Kris look after Messrs. Germain Burton (GB), Daniel Holloway (USA), Mathias Krigbaum (Denmark) and Mark Stewart (Scotland). Here’s a selection of images from under the largest unsupported steel roof in Europe on the site of what used to be the Berlin STASI Headquarters.

Giacomo Nizzolo – Strong Start to 2020 Before Lockdown

The Giro, the final Stage 21 into Torino, Trek’s Giacomo Nizzolo avoids the late crash and takes the stage – the judges think differently though and declasse him to 12th with German, Niklas Arndt given the victory. Dave and I were ‘barrier hanging’ in the finish straight and it looked like a sound win to us – but those UCI guys...

Giro d’Italia 2008 – Day 4: Stage 16, San Vigilio di Marebbe – Plan de Corones (Individual Time Trial)

The balcony from our digs has the most perfect views you can imagine. It was a hassle to find, but now that we're here it's simply magnificent, it's like looking out of a plane, we're so high and the view across the valley is so spectacular. The Plan de Corones stage made for great TV and if we'd had mountain bikes with us and no deadlines to worry about it would have been great to be up there on the dirt section.