First race back...

So I kind of decided last minute to try this Kurmesse in Inglemunster last night... I was feeling like I was on the upswing from the Bronchitis and thought it would be a good idea to at least start the race and get the legs back into the swing of things. The race started a bit later than the posted start time (5:30 p.m.), so instead of finishing around 8:30, I expected us to finish the 117k's (72 miles) at around 9 or so... The race was so fast that we finished before 8:30... The first lap was insane and I wish looked at my computer to see what the speed was. For the rest of the race, we were still jamming... I think with the exception of the corners, I never saw anything less than 50k an hour (about 30 mph). We had two long stretches of road that were sheltered from the wind that we were consistently doing 55-60kph (about 33-36mph) through. I think that was the fastest Kurmesse I've done here... I ended up missing the split that went with about 3 laps to go. I bridged across to each and every other split before that, the second group never seemed to be closing the gap... So, I would try to ride across and made it every time but was pretty hammered by the time I got on. What was getting on my nerves though was that when I was in the second half of the split, nobody would work to bridge up to the group and if I tried to go up front to help, nobody would pull through after I took my rotation (hence my attacking and soloing across)... But, after I rode across, they would get some horsepower from somewhere and close the gap... When the deciding split went, it was so close to the finish that I didn't want to expend so much energy going across that I wouldn't recover for those final laps, thinking it would probably come back together anyways. Well.. it didn't... Some Belgian dude called me stupid when it split and I started sinking back after trying desperatley to close the gap that had formed a few guys in front of me... I closed it quite bit and the guy behind me should have been able to finish it off but didn't... This guy calling me stupid was pretty lame as he was sitting in line with everybody else who wouldn't pull through after I tried to close that gap... I ended up getting in a break from that group on the 2nd to last lap and got 4th or so in the sprint... The legs were pretty shot... I ended up 41st, but still walked away making a little money which was good... I was so ramped up after that race that I couldn't go to sleep till about 3 a.m... I went and got my first Frites since I've been here (French Fries, they are a staple here in Belgium) and had a beer with Guy from the national team house after to wind down a bit... Now I need to go do a little ride... till later...

J signing off...