Saturday, January 14, 2006

Another race in the books.

Today we traveled to France for a C1 in Roubaix. The race was on the infamous velodrome that the Paris - Roubaix finish on. It was a different course without any real flow to it. They had 3 death drops that you had to be on you brakes all the way down the thing to make a 90 degree right turn at the bottom. It was pointless. There was also 2 sand pits and a side hill that we snaked along for about 200 meters. The grass was really slick which lead countless low speed spin outs. My day was an adventure from the start. As of last night the plan was that we would all race the elite race but I was awoken at 9 by Jesse telling me and the Danimal that we had a separate U-23 race at 1:15. At this point the program for the day turned to eating and breakfast and leaving right for the course. Once we arrived at the course we headed to registration only to be told by some French guy "no U-23 race you should be happy you get to race with the world champ". Great we woke up and rushed to the race only to find out we don't race until 3. At this point I decide to sit in the car for about 1 hour and just watch little Sven Nys ride around the parking lot on his 12 inch bike. He was getting crazy doing dismounts and remounts I think everyone in the parking lot was watching the little kid he mite have a larger supporters club than his dad. I only saw him take one digger but he was back on his bike quick. After all this caous it was time to get ready to race. I was little scared of the start on the velodrome especially after seeing a couple of riders hit the deck just spinning around the velodrom right before our start. The start went off with out any problems and I was off with an okay start. This good positing didn't last long as I was just going backwards after about half a lap. I was thinking to myself that this was going to be a long day. On the 3rd lap my day continued to go down hill as I flip right over the bars coming out of the sand pit right by the pit. It was a dumb crash and one where I got up and was laughing at myself because it was just one of those days. At this point my mishap in the sand pit got me pissed off and I became fired up and once I got on a different bike my race turned around for me. I was able to move forward and begin racing my bike again as before I could had just been out for a nice Sunday family ride. I ended up catching up with Jesse as his back was going out. He was actually making some weird noises I knew at that point his back was gone. Jesse ended up finishing 24th and I was 25th. Treefarm and Wicks ended up 14th and 15th. Jeremy is still under the weather and the Danimal had a bad day on the bike. Hey at least I didn't get lapped today. Tomorrow we head back to France for a World Cup. I think it will be a better day for all. For some dumb reason I told Proctor I would race with the elites tomorrow so hopefully I'm not just racing not to get lapped. Jesse, Danimal, and Newt will be on the line for the U-23 race. The house is back running 6 deep so there is a lot more going on around here now. 2 weeks and 3 races till worlds.

No comments:


TEAM CLIF BAR is working to fight climate change