Duo Normand - September 2001
Trois deux un allez…Zut allors! Que’squ’il ce pace?
Go on Mike! Go for it Peter! from the other side of the barriers a crowd was shouting for us! …by name!…Allez, allez, allez!
Minutes earlier our names were announced time after time over the tannoy, echoing around the town square, I could hear people mentioning our names everywhere..... We were in danger of missing our start! We’d never had to push our way through rapidly growing crowds before, but now we were off, attacking the first short sharp hill to send us on our way round the 54.3 km (33Miles) of the 20th Duo Normand two up time trial. Cresting the hill our support car came on to the road behind us, emblazoned with the sign "107 Peter Thorp-Hincks, Mike Brampton GBR". As we headed out into the Normandy countryside a motorcycle marshal came flying past us, this was it, we were living the very scenes we see every summer as we watch "Le Tour". Closed road, families eating picnics on their front door steps pausing every now and then to shout encouragement to the riders as they flash past, village squares cordoned off….. just for us.
It had been like this since we had arrived in the small town of Marigny, just an hours drive off the Portsmouth - Cherbourg ferry. It didn’t matter what your name was or how famous or fast you are, you are there to ride their race and that makes you special. For this one weekend every year the Duo is Marigny and Marigny is the Duo, everything and everyone is geared for the race, and you are a racer.
I knew we were racers because at 10.00am on the Friday morning our "songniuer" and fellow Excelsior member Fred Hodges had arrived in Worthing with the immortal words;" you don’t need a passport do you?" The next available ferry was at 14.30 PM! And so we raced. We actually raced all the way back to Southend and then… half way back to Portsmouth… we gave up, choosing instead to take the night ferry instead. Cancelling our hotel we boarded the long slow but smooth crossing to Cherbourg, what a luxurious way to travel.
After spending a couple of hours shopping at Decathlon (the ultimate French sports superstore) in Cherbourg we made our way to Marigny where the first group of people we met were English, come to think about it so were the second and third group as well!
After signing on and being told the address we were to stay at we got changed and set off for an exploratory ride round the course, out into the glorious Normandy countyside, across meandering meadows, through small villages and up a few hills. This is momentarily where I fall out with this course. This is not a GS19 / A24 dragstrip. In fairness its not got a Houghton Hill either, but there are a couple of Long Furlongs, this is a rolling/sporting countyside course. . Those of you who know the author will know, hills and he mix about as well as vinegar and oil, all seems well at first but it all ends up after shaking, lathered and slimy.
After an hours searching round single-track lanes we were able to ask directions and moments later after driving through a courtyard we were shown to our Gite. A beautiful farmhouse cottage provided free of charge by the townsfolk of Marigny and the race organisers.
"F…O..! Who the …..are you ?" greeted me as I walked through the door. Oops I thought this might be "fun"! Little did I know the fun was just beginning and the Antelope Cycling Club greets everyone this way, or so they claim. They were showering in preparation for the grand dinner being held at the town hall that evening, where amongst entertainers and food they were able to consume those critical fluid calories for the mornings race. "Vin rouge" or something. I personally hadn’t come across it before, Peter claimed he had heard about it but hadn’t dared to try it especially the night before a race but this turned out to be the bread and butter for the "Cantelopes" as they later became known. That said Glen Longland and crew provided us with plenty of entertainment the evening after the race including an invitation to Fred to join their "traditional" naked running race. That was until one of them remembered that they had earlier been talking about Fred’s marathon running and they might loose. They turned their attention to teasing "One Job", Glens father, who like Fred had been brought out to specifically drive the support car. He unfortunately had been one of the 5 man Antelope team who downed 9 bottles of the previously mentioned Vin rouge the night before. He missed their start and never found them during the race, he had one job to do all weekend, "One Job!"
Our job was done, we’d tried our best, we didn’t beat Jens Voigt and Johnathan Vaughters (the winners) but of the 450 starters in various categories our 176 overall, seems respectable. The wonderful memories keep returning…the friendly people we had met, the noise and encouragement as we went through the main square with 8 more miles to go, swooping round s bends at top speed on both sides of the road, "Trois, deux, un, allez!"
For more details on the Duo Normand visit there site www.duonormand.com/english/index2.htm