Rob Partridge - Welsh Colours

Rob Partridge - Deeside Colours

Le Ruban Granitier Breton

Monday 26th April – Sunday 2 May 2004

I rode Le Ruban Granitier Breton for Wales on 26th April – 2 May.

The team was Huw Pritchard, Anthony Malaczyk, Paul Sheppard, Steven Roach, Jamie Nolfolk, and myself.

This is one of the biggest French amateur races, with 150 riders, but there were still 5 pro teams riding including HSBC, Wurth and Team Deschacht Eddy Merckx.

The race started at Cesson Sevigne near Rennes. After the 4km prologue, there were another 965kms of racing left. Every stage was very fast, with average speeds of about 26mph! The longest stage was 190km,which turned out to be the fastest at 27mph!

There were circuit finishes on every stage which made it even harder, especially on the final day which had a circuit that included 5 times up a
2km 20% cobbled climb up to the finish!

I was 83rd on GC, with the highest placed Welsh rider, Huw, at 21st.

Thanks to Rob Partridge for this report

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