Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Last 10days

Hey

Well last time I wrote I think I was off to another race!! That was a Kermese race about 45min from here!!..

Well, what can I say, today I felt slightly better, even the thunderstorms and lightning before the strart couldnt put me off! I was determined to give it a good crack and see what happens…..  The course must have been designed by randoms pulling pieces of paper out of a hat ….  left, right, cobbles…left, left right cobbles.. etc… It was through one of the main cities Anthwerp… pretty insane really a 6.5km course with at least 15 corners and 2 sections of cobbles… about 1km per lap and we had 13 laps to do!! 

Anyway I would love to say I had a solo breakaway for 12 laps and won, but the truth is I punctured on lap 3 and that was it!!  In these kermise races if you have a mechanical like that, its game over!!  So I was stuck on the other side of the course with no one to give me a lift back so made my way back on the rim… slightly lost from all the random roads, this old dude about 70 stopped and asked if I needed help to the finish and I was like yeah sure mate! So he’s like follow me, and off he goes on his bike, I was like sweet, then I got a little nervous we went through this park, and it was like gravel, covered with trees and bush, and I was like…. ummmmm no worries if he turned out to be some dodgy guy I could take him on!!!  Yeah!! bring it on old man….. anyway couple minutes later and we were nearing the light and the busy streets so it was all good!!  In fact we turned out right where the drunks from the local pub were standing cheering everyone on middle of a Sunday afternoon!!  NICE

Anyhow, the week was spent hanging out in Tielt!! resting up and a few trips to the supermarket always brightens up the day!!

Thursday we were off to Holland for a 3 day tour!! Now, Dutch racing aint exactly my specialty yet, but it is something I’d like to get get much better at. So I was determined to give it shit and take 1 day at a time!!

Day 1 = 7.9km TT.  what can you say, go hard, and dont think about the pain!!  We werent on any special TT bikes or anything, so times were pretty average compared to the locals…

Day 2 =  109km Road stage!!  Flat, hard, fast, windy!! what can you add to that, oh yeah 150 girls… narrow roads… think we averaged just under 41km/hr… well they did, to be honest I was pretty much just stoked to actually feel my legs today and feel good on the bike!! for the first time in 4 weeks!! yay!! So I finished, my first Dutch road race!!

Day 3 =  111km Road stage….. Flat, hard, fast, windy!! Excepet today I was caught behind a pretty big pile up where my team mate was pretty hurt…  took a while to get through the riders and bikes everywhere, and ended up chasing for a wee while… needless to say I was pretty stuffed once I got back to the bunch, and managed to hang on then another incident with riders that caused gaps in the field, and then that was it, lights out for me!! A group of us got pulled out on the finishing circuits… stink one!!

So although I didnt quite finish the tour, it was a good  blow out and wicked experience and I finally started to feel a bit better on the bike!!!

So thats it for now, We did race on the Sunday as well, here in the local Tiel-Winge world champs…… but I will write abou that next time as my battery’s about to die………

Have fun !!
Marina :)

Although I didnt finish the tour

Posted by Duv Duv in 07:25:08 | Permalink | No Comments »

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Hey

Hey there!!

Man this is pretty bad huh!! Long time now hear…

Well since the tour, there really hasn’t been too much happening to be honest but I’m sure I can spend half hour typing about something…. you guys gotta have something to read and kill time right…. 

So we arrrived back on the Monday (13hrs in the back of the van eeeekkk..)  I had a few days easy/off, the following weekend was spent doing absolutely nothing, there was no racing on, and we were too lazy to even venture out of the house let alone go do something exciting, well actually the 2 trips to the supermarket were pretty darn cool… but it was more of a necessity than a pure fun activity!!  Gotta eat sometime!!

Right, we did 2 races in Holland last weekend, UCI races so I knew they were going to be full on!! First day.. well right now is a blur, and to be honest I really cant rememebr much of it (thats what happens when you dont update sooner).. pretty much the norm though… windy, strung out… gap went and bunch split and about 30 of us got pulled out…….  stink one au!!

Next day… lets see… it is Holland right, some of the most amazingly smooth flat roads you can imagine.. So hey why not find the shittiest, cobbles,pavers and bike paths to have a race on with 170women….. yeah…lets do that!!!! And lets put in little loops that even the organizers have no clue where they actaully lead to!! oh and lets name them A,B,C,D2 and D1, and lets make the riders go from loop A, to B to C then D2 then D1, then B then C then make them do loop D1 without actually going through D2 which is the only road that connects D1and C….. you guys following????? yeah thats exactly what we thought!!!!  Ohhhh the great scars I have after that day!!!!!  Anyway the team had a bit of bad luck today either mechanicals or wrong spot wrong time… and had an early exit… But it was a nice day and we got a lovely tan!! oh and out of 170 or so starters about 50 finishesr with the last 30  over 5 min behind and should have been pulled….. as we did when we were 1 min behind…. grrrrr

Today is Sunday, so this weekend we have  2 more races and this time here in Belgium, uuuuuhh soooo excited I really like these races!! A national cup (yesterday) and a kermise (today).  So yesterday started off good…. in the warm up…. I felt pretty good!! Stared off in the race  (14laps x 6km)  I felt that smashed I wa soooooo close to pulling the pin at like lap 2… I have no idea why I feel so lousy, but I couldnt pedal to save myself!! So frustrating… I feel like Im riding like a complete hubbard to be honest..and i know Im not that shit really, so I hung on for a few more laps to see if things would come right, there were a fair few attacks up the front but nothing that actually stuck so lap 9 ish… I took a massive flyer got a wee gap with 1 other just on the climb, well it didnt stick but I think it did tire out a few riders, so while I went backwards 300000 miles per hour…. my team mate got into the next break that stayed away and she got 3rd!!!  Nice….

Anyway, today is another day and I’m racing at 3pm, so even thought things are not going as good as I’d like them to be… I’m prtty excited and know that things will come right soon!!!!! They better!!

Righto…..I’m off to get ready… thanks for your comments guys its pretty cool!! Always get pretty excited when people write in!!  Cheers

Over….
Marina :)

Posted by Duv Duv in 09:46:03 | Permalink | Comments (2)