Tuesday - Zottegem, Senior Race
Seen as this was my first race over here it was going to be pretty tough with the seniors! We'd driven round the course and it was looking quite good but then we discovered some nasty downhill cobbles, ouch. The cobbles weren't nice, you could hardly brake at the bottom of them because you couldn't feel your hands! It wasn't flat at all either, plenty of short climbs and downhills, so it wasn't going to be easy.
We turned up at the start line just at the right time, and i was pushed to the front, which i normally wouldn't mind, but it just didn't seem right today, a little bit nervous i think. Anyway the race started and i quickly realized that i needed to be well positioned as it was harder to move up on the narrower roads. Then Katie came past me and i followed her up to the front (maybe not the best idea at the time!) and ended up doing a turn on the front up one of the hills. What was i doing! It was the second lap and we still had 9 more to go, oops. In the end though i don't think that mattered at all, i had a bit of a mechanical problem after going down the cobbles a few laps in, involving my back break locking on, not cool. By the time i figured out what was wrong and started to sort it out i was being dropped. After the 5th lap or so i was pulled out, not going to lie i wasn't too happy with being dropped, but i had a good go anyway!
Wednesday, Maarkedal, Junior Race
(i don't like this picture, but the only other one is of Steffi thrashing me at the finish!)
Well today’s race start was pretty interesting! I’d managed to get on the front row again but then, after a few minutes of race briefing in dutch, we all had to turn round, walk down the road and get geared checked one by one (although at the time I didn’t have a clue what was going on..). Anyway, that meant I was stuck down the side in the gutter for the COBBLED start. Basically I almost decked it on the cobbles and it was complete carnage!
The first few laps were a bit all over the place, some bad positioning from me and the narrow roads making it impossible to move up and also getting stuck behind a few fat ones up the hill. After the 4th lap prime though, I attacked. I caught up the girl who won the prime, going straight past her, but about half a lap later she caught back with me and from then on we distanced ourselves from the bunch. We attempted to communicate too, she knew a little English and I knew a bit of German, so we sort of understood each other. I knew she was a good sprinter too, so as we got to the last couple of laps I tried to lose her on the hill, but it wasn’t working :( I kicked early for the finish, but then she kicked straight past me and unfortunately I didn’t catch her. But I was definitely happy with the result, seen as the bunch didn’t come in for another 2 minutes.
I definitely had a really good time in Belgium though, and hopefully will be going back in a few weeks! It’s brilliant having closed roads too, I loved smashing down the descents and round the corners :)
Also, after forgetting to put on sun cream on on the first day, I have very bad tan lines on my arms :( oops.
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