CLIF BAR DEVELOPMENT CYCLOCROSS TEAM: 2013-12-29

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Bredene

The Day before Diegem Cormac and I raced in Bredene right next to the sea. Before the race my legs felt pretty good and opened up after racing in Loenhout the day before. After wasting 25 minutes trying to find inscription(registration) we went and pre-rode the course. It suited me well, it didn't have all the heavy mud that the Belgian races typically had. I was super excited for the race because of the course and because I was looking for redemption after a late race crash in Loenhout. I got called up almost last because I only have a few Belgian race points. By the first corner I had moved up to about 20th out of 40, and Cormac had moved up to 5th. I spent the majority of the race moving up and chasing down the lead group. With 2 laps to go I had moved up to 6th and was closing in on the lead group of riders. I was riding through one of the mud pits with a big Belgian kid when I got muscled into the course tape and was flipped over. The tape had had hooked my bar and flipped my bike out from under me. The cloth tape in combination with a wood post had tangled my bike to a point where i couldn't get my bike free. After a minute of struggling to get my bike free my race was over but I still wanted to finish. My bike was so stuck that a helpful spectator had to cut the tape to get my bike free. I then spent an additional few minutes fixing my bike. I rode a moderate pace to the finish. I was pretty disappointed after the race because I felt that i had a good chance of placing top 3 in a big race if everything had gone alright, but that's bike racing for you. We raced Diegem the next day. check back in for a blog post from one of the other riders. Next up, the last race of the trip, Baal.