Left this a little late. Got back from the race at about 7.30 and then had dinner and then Andrew came round with a few beers so she might be a short and sharp blog toady with a few spelling errors.
The first few days of this week were really average. It was just pissing down with rain for most of the day and it was hard to get out for riding.
On Tuesday I had to go on the rollers cause it was thundering and lightning. Wednesday was supposed to be a bit nicer of the day so I planned to do a decent ride and do a few hills. As I left the house it was looking like a fairly nice day but the more I rode the crappier it got. Temperature dropped and it started raining again. Whoopy... Soldiered through the rain and cold though.
Thursday was meant to be a lot nicer and it was. 20 degrees and fairly clear skies. It was too nice of a day to spend inside so again, I went for a decent sized ride.
I hadn't got my new riding kit yet so on Friday I decided I would ride up and get it. It was up at Hans's house who lives about 75km away from where I am so I decided to make a day of it. Just chucked my bag on my back and headed off. She was a bit nippy outside in the morning so I had roll out with arm warmers on. Han's wasn't home when I arrived so I went to the little house connected to Han's house where some of the riders from last year live. It was the first time I had seen them since last year so it was good to catch up with them again. Once Han's got home he invited me in for lunch with his wife Ingrid who also helps out with the team behind the scenes. It was the first time I had seen Han's and Ingrid since last year too so it was nice to catch up with them again and they are both very supportive to me which is nice. But yea he gave me a feed and we just talked for about 1.5 hours and he gave me my kit that I just stuffed in my bag and I dawdled on home. Had to take my arm warmers off it was so warm. It was a nice day out on the bike. Took up most of the day which was good cause there is nothing to do at home.
Yea Saturday = Nice day + cruisey ride.
Today we had a team kermesse that we had to do to be selected for the upcoming Interclub race for next weekend. I was really eager to do well at this race because I really want to do this Interclub next race. But I don't think it was meant to be... I was getting all mentally prepared this morning and getting my bike and gear all organised, feeling good. Once we got to the race we have to go enter and hand over our bike licenses and what not. As I'm handing my licence to the commissair he then asks me where is your race insurance papers. I then ask him what insurance papers? I have none? I never had to show this paper before at any race. "No insurance paper, no race." You kidding me!? I was so hungry to race and now I can't race because I don't have a stupid piece of paper. So I was discussing about it with the other guys and they had there papers with them and I thought with BikeNZ you have to get race insurance when you buy your international licence or something. So I was really angry and confused and panicking. Then one of the Aussie boys who's living at one of the other houses went and signed on and came back and said he didn't have to show his insurance papers and he got entry but he had said that he rides for a Belgium team. So I went back down and said I ride for a Belgium team and that it says it on my bike license and straight away they were like "Ohhhhhhhh why didn't you say so?" Kidding me! It says right there that I ride for a Belgium team on my license and you didn't even check that! So then I had no trouble signing in... Munters. Bit of excitement to start the race. Ah well. But yea I had a really good race. Again a little bit disappointed with how I raced but I felt super strong that I didn't really regret my decisions that I made. Even though I said to myself that nothing will really go in the first half an hour, I got into a break within the first half an hour. It kind of just happened. It was a pretty big break with maybe 25 - 30 riders which really isn't good. It was much too big of a group to stay away for the whole race because a lot of people were missing a lot of turns on the front and then people who were doing lots of turns on the front would get grumpy and then pretty much just slam the brakes on and go to the back of the group because 'why should I work hard on the front and give everyone else a free lift and then have them come past me at the line' is what they think. We still managed to spend 60km out the front which is a lot longer than I expected us to be out there for. I did spend a bit too much time working hard but I prefer to be in a breakaway group rather than be in the peleton; a lot safer in a break. (Finally starting to down buzz from my race. Getting tired now.) Once we got caught I decided to save my energy in the bunch and maybe have a crack later on. I wanted to stay up the front so I can keep out of trouble and watch for any breaks but the only bad thing about sticking round the front is that you often have to ride on the front so that sort of took it out of me. But when my legs were hurting it was a good sort of hurt. It was a hurt that I could easily dig deep and get through it. Sometimes last year I would just give up in those situations. They training and mental prep has really payed off. I fairly big group rode off the front of the bunch and I thought with the way this race had played out so far, I really do think that this breakaway will be chased down and caught. I was wrong... They rode away with about 4 laps to go and stayed away. I ended up in 39th place overall out of I think over 150 riders and managed to score 5euro prize money! Stoked! Didn't make any money but I didn't loose money from my entry. I was also the first rider from our team so am really happy with that and I'm sure that should be enough to get me selected for the Interclub race next weekend. But yea really happy with how was feeling throughout the race. Was able to recover quite quickly, able to dig really deep like at the top of the climb that we had to do 15 times, feeling super strong and being able to ride off the front, not just riding in the bunch all day.
But yea I've hit the wall now so that's it for me. I was buzzing about 45mins ago and felt wired as but now I'm gone. Adrenaline has finally worn off.
So yea bring it on.
Thanks for reading. Sorry about the errors too, sure there's a few.
Nick
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