Finally a Good Result

Yesterday we headed to Belgium for a race that was 110K of 7.5K laps 17 times. Not to bad except there was a big climb that we had to do 17 times and there were 161 riders. Two other things I’ve noticed about racing out here is instead of 15 guys thinking they can take the win there are about 70 guys. The other thing is the race start out fast and only gets faster (that’s Belgium).

After trying to make it in a break for the past few races and the beginning of this race I finally got in one on lap 3. The break out here is usually a large group. We had about 25 guys in our group and we did not work well together but managed to stay away with one small group catching us with 2 laps to go. With 4 laps to go I almost fell off the group up the climb when someone attacked. On the last lap I was blown and went on a break with someone to give myself a chance since I knew I would have no sprint. We got caught but I stayed near the front. When someone went with 2K to go everyone watched and started to slow so I jumped and tried to get across to him. When I made it across the group was coming so I jumped him and berried it down a small hill and sprinted up a little hill with everything I had. My legs were screaming so bad and I just kept telling myself don’t sit down, keep sprinting, no pain, just a bit longer, come on! Two guys got across to me and sat on me down the hill and came around me with 200 meters to go. I gave it one last effort and didn’t have the pop or draft they had.

I came in 3rd with the only 10 to 20 meters behind us. I really thought they were going to come around the three of us because they were so strong. I was super excited after the race to have finished on the podium of a quality field with a few continental teams there.

James on our team was one of the guys who made it up to our group with two laps to go. He finished 8th on the day and some of the others rolled in with good results as others didn’t finish. Nathan who rides for us and used to ride for Motorola, Seven Eleven and other teams had a good race even though he showed up just the day before. A great guy from New Zealand who is 42 and has so much knowledge and stories. We’ve stayed up until 12 every night drinking wine and talking with him. We do more listening as he tells story after story about racing. Maybe drinking wine until 12 was what gave me the edge on the field. They may be able to tell on urine test I had to do. They’ll see that my drugs are wine, coffee, and chocolate. I don’t remember seeing them on the illegal substance list.

We head to Germany today for a crit and then back to Holland on Monday for a race. Today is a pro crit but not for show so it should be fun.

One thing I forgot was the fact that I almost wasn’t able to race because I forgot my shoes back at the house. I found a guy in line who had another pair but a bit smaller and different cleats. My teammate had an extra pair of cleats and pedals that I could use. I finished screwing the last cleat on 2 minutes before the start.

I went from being frustrated that I couldn’t even race to being happy I could at least race to stoked with finishing on the podium. What a day!