12/15/12
Cat 3
It's raining, it's cold and I'm about to race my bike...this is everything I signed up for, a classic Belgian setting. There were several things I needed to work on from Montrose and before the race I was really honing in on working through these. Really quickly getting on and off the bike, working with clipping in quickly, carrying the bike properly, etc.
I started off in the back out of respect for everyone else. I knew it would instantly be a detriment in putting up any respectable placing, but again, I'm here to learn and have fun. The course was friggin awesome: slippery, muddy, wet, rainy - a lot of turns and twists, a really neat setup. I started off way behind everyone else as I was having issues clipping in from the gun, but after that, I was able to pick it up a bit. I'd eye someone up the road and pick them off on the nearest straightaway as I quickly came to recognize that my road speed from years past proved helpful. As each lap went by, the course became more and more slippery and it tested my bike handling skills to an extreme. Even though I crashed about 5x, I think by the end of the day, I learned a ton about how to handle it in sketchy situations, which was the biggest takeaway from the day. That and having a ton of fun. I spent a solid 2.5 hours Sunday morning cleaning the bike off...and its still pretty dirty. Great day, great race, I did much better than two weeks ago, and I look forward to doing it again and doing it well here next year. Definately among the most fun days I've had on a bike in recent memory.
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