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This weekend just passed was brilliant. Super. Awesome. Whatever you want to call it, I loved it... On saturday morning i got to sleep in til about 8am, then crawl out of bed and straight to the kitchen for a coffee or three. Then it was breakfast, and back to bed to relax after a hard nights' sleep!The reason for all the relaxing was because I was going to be doing a criterium that afternoon.
The course was about 600m long, and it was a lot of fun, even if I did get shelled after 5 laps! The pace was on from the neutral lap, as riders fought for a good position in the bunch. Then the whistle went and it was on; for half an hour plus one lap. I havent' been put into the red this quickly probably since my U15men days in good old Thredbo XC MTB races. The course went around a slippery pave' corner, then a sharp right and into a tunnel followed by a power climb. Then it was the part where I hurt most... The back straight, about 300m long with 3 speed bumps. It was then into a fast left hander and into the main straight to start another lap. Konica Minolta team manager, John Robertson pulled me out once I clearly started to lose contact with the field and just started to hurt myself for no real reason. After all.... I had a 103km road race the next day as well! The road race on the following day went quite well for me even though the race itself was uneventful, and quite boring. The bunch stayed together for most of the race and only a few riders tried their luck in an attack. But the attacks I was involved in simply didn't go anywhere. They seemed more like an attempt to be on TV, than to try win a race, but anyway; at least I'll be on TV. There was a minor fall on a climb, when two riders touched wheels and fell over. This did two things; it made me laugh, and also made me lose contact with the field as I was directly behind the fall. I ended up drafting cars in the convoy to try get back into the bunch. Once back in the bunch, it was back to the same old flat race mentality. Everyone just cruised along on flat, fast roads and waited for the finish. The field crested the last 200m climb and went from 35km/h to about 70km/h in 5 seconds flat as we all flew down a hill and across the line. As is with all flat races, a sprinter won, and the field followed. I think last placed rider finished a mere 20 seconds adrift, so it was a boring race. A well organised event but no real gutsy racing. But I still had fun, since I was in 3 breakaways, on TV and riding my new Bianchi frame! I've added some new pictures to my gallery from todays coffee ride. I'm wearing my new kit courtesy of FiT Sports Supplements. And do email me through the site and let me know what you are all up to. This isn't a one way street; I'm also curious to hear what you're doing and how life is treating you. Yes... that means YOU! |
