Cycling: Stéphane Lenoir at the Big Sugar Gravel

Last weekend, Stéphane Lenoir was in Bentonville, northwest Arkansas (USA), cheering on the start of the Life Time Big Sugar Gravel, a 170-kilometer (105.3-mile) off-road race that closes the U.S. cycling season. The Big Sugar presents some formidable challenges, with highly technical gravel roads, dangerous descents and bends, and the need to control one's bike. Stéphane Lenoir looks back on his race: "I managed to keep up with the leading group despite the accelerations of the strong men, and in a bend at the halfway point I crashed, but not seriously. The leading group had gone, but I managed to catch them after 20 minutes of intense effort. I've lost far too much energy and I'm going to pay for it an hour later. I let the leading group go with yet another acceleration at km 100 and found myself alone for around 10km. It's hard in the head, I can't hang on to the second group behind, and finally hang on to a third group. I manage to finish the race. Satisfied! "
After 5h 59min 36sec of racing, out of 645 amateur competitors, Stéphane Lenoir crossed the finish line in a superb 30th place and 11th place in his category (M40-49).