Roller Girl: Nicole Begg: French Inline Cup, Nimes

Yesterday the first race of the French Inline Cup took place in Nimes. The French weather didn't disappoint this week. Nimes had one of the highest temperatures in France yesterday with a high of around 23 degrees. The marathon was held around a 2.6 km circuit, so we completed 16 laps in total. This was the first time I have every raced in Nimes but I really enjoyed the course. It was raced around 4 roundabouts so there were a lot of corners, a couple of small climbs over bridges but also long straight stretches. The road surface was a mixture of smooth and rough and the wind made it just a little bit tougher.

Tamara Llorens and myself were the only skaters present from the Bont Wheels Team, Alexandra and Kelly are still in Colombia and will arrive at the end of next week.

There wasn't a large ladies field but the pace was pretty fast from the start because I started attacking two laps into the race. I made numerous attacks throughout the race to test myself and the new Bont Wheels. Nathalie Barbotin came with me on most occasions. Tamara only arrived in Europe a few days ago so she stayed with the main group for most of the race and helped chase down any attacks that looked serious.

With the men and women racing on the course at the same time it was hard to make the breakaways stick. There were groups of men always passing women so some skaters were able to gain assistance. It was hard to control as the course was small and not very wide in certain areas. After seeing this I decided to change my tactics and just wait until the end sprint. Laetitia Lebihan made a couple of attacks with about three laps to go but she was quickly chased down by Tamara and Lucie.

On the last lap Lucie Peruzzetto was in the lead until about 300 meters to go when I made my move and passed her. There was a small rise, a left hand corner and then slightly down hill to the finish line. I wanted to be in front by the corner because the finish line was only about 100 meters after it. When I passed Lucie I accelerated and my eyes were set on making it first to the corner. I ended up winning the race with a few meters to spare. Tamara couldn't quiet stick on me when I accelerated but came 3rd, with Nathalie Barbotin just getting her on the line. Laetitia Lebihan came in for 4th and Lucie Peruzzetto 5th.

I found some good pictures from Nimes taken from a member of the SAMerignac Team, you can view more images on their Picasa Web Album by clicking here.