Today we had the race in Pittem that we pre-rode the course for last wednesday. The weather wasn't too good with on and off rain and the wind coming just out of the right direction to give us crosswinds most of the way out and most of the way back to the finishing circuits. The crosswinds caused an early split in the field about 10k into the race, and I didn't make the front split. I saw some of the strong guys still in my group and started trying to move up and wait for them to try to ride across then jump on their wheels. The pace was still pretty high, making it tough to move up... I was able to get up there after some descent work and almost instantly a couple of the strong guys went. I jumped on a wheel, but so did the rest of the group. Those guys won't tow the field around, so they sat up. Then one guy attacked (I was guessing by the red, white and blue stripes around his sleeve that he was a previous French national champion at some point) and I hesitated just long enough to miss his wheel. I still made the move, but ended up soloing across the gap as I watched the guy solo across about 25 meters ahead of me... It was a rough 5 or so minutes, but I made it across. Beveren 2000 (the quickstep development team) still had a few guys back in that split, eventually they got organized and came across with whoever else could hang on. Heading into the climbing section, the group was already pretty widdled down. About 5k from the first climb, I was sitting around top 30 until a guy came into my front wheel nearly breaking a spoke and putting enough of a bend in my front wheel to give me a pretty bad dragging brake... I had to actually yank my brake caliper to one side to keep it from hitting the bent section of rim. Now, I'm at the back again just before a good 2.5k cobbled climb. Story of my life... I managed to move up a bit just before the climb started, then somehow some guys rode into eachother which made everyone stop, dismount, run in the grass around the crash and try to catch the front. We did it, but I think some guys pushed too hard in bridging back up that once the hill started to kick they started opening gaps. Sure enough, I was again about 5 guys bak from the split... But we still had a lot of guys and it seemed like we could close the gap. I didn't panick as we still had two more climbs and I still had plenty of time to try to bridge across as long as it didn't get too far up the road. The next climb was about 2k, steep, and on small farm roads with lots of gravel. I flatted about halfway up, leaving me to chase to get back on the last group... I caught them on the next climb which was wet from the rain... with the cobbles and the steepness, most of the guys were walking their bikes since it was so slick and tough keep any sort of traction. We caught a few more small groups on the way back to the finishing circuit, but I think we were still probably the fourth and last group on the road. Things totally blew apart, I was riding well but again wasn't able to put myself where I needed to be to get in the groups I should have been in. To top the day off, I got another flat with about 10k to go... I rode on the back of the pack on the flat till we hit the circuits then bowed out... The nuetral support and our team car were both up the road with the lead pack, so I was done once I got that flat. So, that was about it... I should be doing another race on Monday that is about 150k... Hope luck goes my way this time...
J signing off...
4 comments:
Keep your head up!
Love ya,
Tiff
You know... It feels good to have so much support... I was pretty down after yesterdays race (thanks for listening to me rant Tiff and still being so supportive!)... It's frustrating when you start to have the legs to get a result, you pre-ride the course so you know what to expect, you focus on all the small things, and you get going in the race and the bad luck seems to snowball and completley counter everything you did to prepare. Not just flatting, but flatting at the worst possible moment, not just crashing but crashing at the worst possible moment, etc... Yesterday was bad, because I was climbing well for the first time since I've been here and on every decisive climb got tangled up in crashes or flatted... I really have to say Thanks to Tiff for listening to me complain and everyone else who has given words of encouragment... Everyones support really helps! Thanks to all my readers!
J,
Don't lose heart! You're doing what only a select few even dare dream about! Your time will come!
Good Luck on Monday!
Watched 'Le Tour' today live ... was excited when they rolled through Pontivy ... I remembered that was the town where you lived while in France ... any recollections about climbing the Mur De Bretagne?
T
Yea, it was pretty cool to watch the Tour and be able to say "yea, I've raced that climb or trained on that road"... The Mur de Bretagne and I have a special relationship, she is my unicorn... I raced up it a few times and trained up it quite often... I have the fastest speed I have ever seen on my bike there too. We raced up the back side, then rode down the very steep side hitting over 70mph... That was the only time I made it over the top of that climb attached to the peleton and was so worked over from that effort, that I dropped on the next climb.
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