C'est fini

Well, the first part of the trip is over. We finished racing today and Brian took off to stay closer to the airport for his flight tomorrow, and I'm still with Florent until my early morning train to Nice tomorrow. Things went pretty well for us today. Brian was second in his first ever derny race, though he actually won (according to the commisaires as well) because a swiss rider took a lap when the race was still neutral. They ended up sticking to the result though... for some reason... I was fourth in my derny race and can now give my solemn word that they actually are extremely difficult. As simple as it sounds, it feels exactly like motorpacing on the track alone except it never seems to end and you never quite know how fast you'll be going.

My points race heat went well, though again I was only fourth. But I took a lap and placed in a lot of sprints, but it was really tough racing in general today because the swiss riders started to work against us. The last madison was actually extremely boring except for another attack during the neutral lap. We didn't know going in but there were no sprints, so it was essentially a "chase" to see if anyone could take any laps. Swiss teams held the top three spots though so we all just rode tempo and looked at each other. We ended up 5th overall, tied at something like 192 points and on even laps with 4th place, who happen to be Jackie Simes and David Wiswell. After three days of racing and a ton of events, it came down to the final sprint placing in the final race. Pretty nuts.

For our efforts we came home with 300 francs and some leftover cokes from the concession stand. Actually we've been bumming food from the organizers the whole time, who for some reason took pitty on us above the other racers. Maybe it's because everytime I saw them and there was food within about 30 meters I grinned and said something like "you looking to get rid of that?" In any case, we ended up getting clandestine free meals the whole race.

I am also once again sold on couchsurfing. Though it's a great way to find a place to sleep, it's even more incredible socially when one is welcomed into another, random person's life. What I'm finding is that it's quite a self-selecting group of people who sign up, so whomever accepts your request is super welcoming, open, and of course curious about what you're up to as well. Every night when I go to bed I've completely forgotten about the racing because it's so engaging to spend time with our hosts. If you ever have a bad day and run into too many jerks, just go couchsurfing for a few days and it will restore your faith in humanity.

So tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my winter. Now that I start thinking about it is somewhat intimidating to be moving to a new city where I don't know the language, don't know anyone, and don't even have the key to the apartment where I'll supposedly be staying. Hmm. It's time to go nose to the grindstone on French and finding buddies becuase otherwise I'm in for some alone time. Maybe if I just find a nice French girl that would solve both problems.....