Team work = Win!!
Hey
So, right now I’m in the team van 10 hours into our 12.5hrs trip from Belgium to southern France, Limoux to be exact. This will be my home for the next 2 weeks where we are racing in the prestigious Tour de’l Aude starting on Friday. 10days…
I’ve managed to take over the whole back seat of the van and actually sleep most of the way only to wake up for lunch and the essential pee stops…. So time is flying by!!
I thought I’d better update this thing and let you guys know how the last 2 races have gone for the team.
On Saturday we raced a kermese, 16 laps of a 6.5km circuit. This time we had 5 riders in the race and things went pretty well…. As a team we are starting to get more and more control of these races to make sure we are either attacking the crap out of the bunch to create breaks and are making sure that at least one of us is in each one!!! Today started off pretty good, I got a little too excited and straight up managed to create small breakaways they never quite stuck…. But it did set up my team mate Ina who got in the 1st group and ended up 5th , Tones covered the 2nd group and got 10th, Helen, Lein and myself did a bit of a lead out for the bunch sprint (my first one ever yay!!!) and we did pretty well with Lein winning it and I ended up 3rd!! Nice…. 4 in the top 20!
Sunday was a pretty easy 2 hrs with compulsory coffee stop!
Monday was a holiday and of course there is a bike race on, another kermese, this time just outside of Ghent, little town called De Pinte. 13 laps of 7.4km circuit. Same 5 team mates!! Today I was taking is easy and took my time getting to the front… by the 2nd lap Helen had managed to get into a breakaway of 5 that in the end stayed away for the whole race!! We pretty much took over the race today, AA drinks and Lotto had a few riders up the road too which meant they were not gonna chase, so we had to make sure no one else got away and a few time randoms would start a chase but nothing that actually stuck. The gap kept going from 1.5 min to 2min and in the last lap a mere 20 seconds and by the time the bunch sprinted in it was down to 12 seconds…. How cool is it though when you find out your team mate out sprinted 2 AA girls who clearly had the upper hand on Helen but couldn’t organize a piss up in t a brewery let alone a leadout for one another….. Ha ha… suckers!!! So there ya go a win for the team and our biggest payout so for a whopping $24 EACH!!!!!The milky bars are on me!!
Righto so back to reality, we are now 2.5 hrs from our final destination today and I’m starting to feel a tad sick from looking at the screen…. Will keep you guys posted!!
Have fun!!
Marina J
