Photo: © Roth

The Ellen Plas Diary 2003

Welcome to the Ellen Plas Diary. Ellen is a soigneur with the top German women's team Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung, a job that's 20 percent masseur, 20 percent gofer, 20 percent morale-booster, 20 percent den momma, 20 percent chef and 20 percent organisational wiz... and 120 percent busy.

Ellen Plas interview: Taking care of business with Equipe Nürnberger

Tour de l'Aude: Recovering, waiting - and 20 hour days

Stage 2 - May 18: Rieux Minervois - Rieux Minervois, 115km

The breakfast room opened its doors at 7h30, which meant you didn't really want to come any later, as yesterday we almost missed out on the food. French breakfast, it really isn't a big deal, but still better than getting none. Our solution is to keep a breakfast box which contains the missing essentials, like cereals, honey, marmalade...

Two very important additions in this tour have been the "Oglio di Oliva" (olive oil, which I had already bought at Milan-San Remo, so it's the real thing!), and tomato ketchup, to cover up the very fine French cuisine. Pesto is also a very welcome extra to give our food some taste.

We can't really complain, though. Tour de l'Aude is really well organised, and this is the best food that I've ever had in a French tour. They even (finally!) learned how to cook pasta "al dente" - usually it's just a mashed blubber.

My hat off is off to Anne-Marie Thomas. She's the driving force behind this race, and has all my respect.

Today I was supposed to do the hotel as I'm still sick and that would be the only way for me to get some rest. The drive wasn't too far, and as I drove up the parking lot, I saw Stef already coming out. Boy was I lucky! He helped me carrying the bags to the rooms.

I had this really cool idea, as we'd be staying in this hotel for the rest of the tour, to set up a coffee/tea corner, so the girls would have everything at reach whenever they would want something, plus some fruit, bread to make sandwiches... everything to still a midnight hunger.

I wanted to get back into giving massages, looking after my riders properly. But just two to start with - it wouldn't be good to overdo it immediately. It was good to feel muscles running through my hands again.

I hope I will get better soon, cause I hate to not be at the maximum of my abilities. Maybe if I get a good night's sleep? I'll try that.

Stage 3 - May 19: Lezignan Corbières - Lezignan Corbières, 121km

I had a wonderful night's sleep, I even spontaneously woke up half an hour earlier than I meant to get up. Breakfast was only at 9, so an "easy" morning.

We went grocery shopping straight after breakfast, as we had worked our way through all the supplies. I got plenty of water, and - to my surprise - found some good ingredients to make my special muesli. The girls don't know it yet, it'll be a surprise in the morning. I also bought nice sandwich stuff. Today I want to spoil them rotten.

As soon as we got back, I started on the sandwiches while I had Thomas cleaning up the cars.

After lunch we left for the race. It wasn't really far, 35km or so. I remembered this place from last year. Ina won here. I tried to catch a ride with another team to go to the feed zone, because making it back in time for the finish would be a close call. The plan was that Thomas would stay at the finish and have everything prepared by the time they'd arrive. Gabrielle and Tammy from the Australian national team were kind enough to take me along. I'd be the navigator - that's an ok deal!

The weather was beautiful and we saw some amazing scenery. All the old French people came out of their houses to watch the race. Really cute. There even were quite some spectators on the climbs. I guess France really is cycling-crazy. Which is a good thing, of course.

On the top of this narrow climb (the third one, and last of the day) we would feed. We still had about an hour and a half to kill before they'd arrive, so we pulled out a blanket to lay in the sun… or rather, the shade as the sun turned out to be to hot.

At last the first 'gendarmerie' came through. It wouldn't be long now for the riders to arrive. I got my bottles out, put on my feeding vest and nothing to do but wait.

I was amazed by how quickly they crossed the GPM line (most of the soigneurs were feeding on the climb, but normally by UCI rules you are not allowed to feed before a GPM, only after), but no problems for me, I have a steady hand, and so do my girls. I just didn't recognize Petra in her green jersey. I heard her scream my name, which definitely meant she wanted a bottle, but she was too close to another of our girls and because I hadn't recognized her soon enough I wasn't in time to pass her the bottle.

And as they passed, weather hell broke loose. As we had been waiting for them to pass, we had seen the dark clouds coming closer and closer. I don't know what we had been thinking, that it would pass? DOH! In only a few seconds, we were wet to the bone! I ran for my rain jacket, and helped the Aussie girls in theirs. Wouldn't want them to get sick too.

Tammy did a really good job of piloting us back to the finish, through the storm and over the hills, that only a few hours before had been so sunny.

I sent a text message to Thomas to go find a dry spot to set up our chairs and arrange for some hot tea, which he did wonderfully.

As soon as the girls were ready, we jumped in the car and hurried back to the hotel, where I got my first washer started and got on with massage. My time to 'relax'. I had the time to do one before dinner, the other two after. I really enjoy the massage time, it's the most relaxing time of day, and not just for me.

As for now, it's half past midnight, and I'm waiting for my last load of laundry to be washed so I can dry it. Tomorrow we have a double stage, which means getting up early, so I'm calling it a night. Cheers folks!

Stage 4a - May 20: Thezan des Corbières - Saint Laurent de la Cabrerisse, 45km

Stage 4b - May 20: Saint Laurent de la Cabrerisse - Durban Corbières, 49km

Boy was I mistaken when I thought that last night I would just get my laundry out of the washer and be able to go to bed. As I came in to my kitchen , I saw the light of the washer blinking, which means no water! I went to check the tap, and somebody had closed it. Which meant I had to start all over again. I started another machine, which finished at 2 am.

And then getting up at 6am. If anyone out there is looking for a job where you have 20 hour working days, don't hesitate to apply - and remember we all do this out of love for the sport.

Luckily it wasn't too hard for me to get out of bed (that was a surprise to me too). I went to get the muesli, that I made last night, out of the fridge. It looked yummy. Special recipe! I always have to be careful which muesli I use. It can not contain any almonds or hazelnuts, as Petra is allergic to them. I haven't seen her have a seizure yet, but I have worked with another rider - Anna Millward who's also allergic and in her case, one nut is life threatening. So I'd rather be very careful with what I buy. Apart from the muesli and oats, I added milk rice, yoghurt and Yop (French drink yoghurt with fruit flavour). After breakfast, that whole bowl was empty!

I was pretty much ready to leave for the race, as I had prepared everything the previous day. We left for the race at 8. Start scheduled for 9h30.

Today was a double stage day. Very annoying actually. It means a lot of waiting and sitting around.

We got the girls ready for the start and then left for the finish, where we still had time for a 'café au lait'. Then we got everything ready (usual swing) and waited for them to come. After the stage and the clean up, we had lunch in the town hall after which we had to sit around for about three hours before the start of the next stage.

At first everybody headed for the local bar, but after a while those wooden chairs get so uncomfortable, so we looked for a spot outside, preferably in an alley out of the wind. There we hung out and relaxed in our cool camping chairs. I pulled out my laptop and started rewriting what had happened two days ago as I unfortunately had overwritten my file. Useful time filling. At the same time I let the music play… you always have to have music!

Time passed quickly though. We got the girls race-prepared - again - and then took off for the next finish. Very, very windy! We found a good spot though. Had time for a 'café au lait' - again...

I bought post cards to send to my mom and dad, although I'd made it perfectly clear that I am not a post card writer. I haven't done that since I was 12 and went on camp with the girl scouts. This is and will stay a one time occasion.

I also made a quick stop at a bakery. It looked like a really good one! Very 'home made'. I chose a fine bread and a local honey (okay, to be honest that was all they had), so that I could make some after-race sandwiches.

We set up for the finish - again. Chairs, cooler, towels, drinks... Thomas prepared their protein shakes, as I made the sandwiches, and I had to keep an eye on everything the whole time, as that wind was brutal!

The big clean up and back to the hotel. There looked to be a big traffic jam on the highway, so we decided to follow the RN (Route Nationale). Well, don't know if it really was RN, as we saw a lot of teeny tiny little RD signs (Route Departementale) which means crappy little roads, very narrow and with a lot of turns. But at least we got to enjoy some amazing landscapes.

Finally we hit the big RN which would take us straight back to our hotel. As soon as we got there after our little detour, I got the washer started and found my first rider for massage. I figured it was really important that Judith would come to me as tomorrow is TT (time trial) and that is one of her specialities. She won the TT here last year, in the pouring rain. I will never forget that day, as then I knew practically nothing about women's cycling, so nothing about their abilities or specialities. I made the mistake of taking Judith up on a bet. If she won the TT, then I would put my hair up straight with loads of hair gel and come to dinner with it. You can already guess... I'm not making that same mistake again. I'm staying far away from bets.

As for now, it's 23h30, I'm lying in bed. I've just finished the last washing, checked on my sweet mechanic who is working way too hard, called my boyfriend and am dying to fall asleep now.

Breakfast is at 9, and I'm not really planning on getting up any earlier than that. I can call myself lucky that I don't have get through traffic jams at 7am just make it to the office in time for a 9 o'clock meeting…

Night folks!
Ellen

Results