Once again the sands of time have slipped through my fingers and my battle to get everything done in my set timeline was simply unattainable. Well that is what I would like to think, mostly I tend to procrastinate and get distracted, a bit like now.... When I said I would do another update in a few hours (a Few days ago) I was very optimistic. So I'll give you a more up to date account of my recent road racing from the weekend :-).
On Saturday I was informed of a road criterium near to Freiburg from James Mowatt (Fellow Aussie battler of the skinny tyre variety). Mowatt wasn't racing as it wasn't a big race and he has his bigest race of the calendar starting on Tuesday, the tour of Alsace. So with very little information I went with my housemate Eric to a GPS location translated off the 'rad-net' webpage. To our surprise there was a race on and the organisers were closing the road and setting up. For once in my life I was almost too early and had some time to kill.
At 7pm the gun went and the field of around 40-50 riders rolled out onto the 1.5km street circuit that had roughly 0 meters of flat road. It was a sort of square loop with a steep 10%+ gradient short climb up to the finish and a few fast and tight corners. It was brutal! Eric said that the first intermediate sprint was at 38 laps, so I thought that it would be a fairly relaxed pace...I was wrong!
From the first clip in there were attacks and breaks forming and getting chased back. With only a few laps done I was wondering what was happening as it was a 42 lap race of 60km. With 38 laps to go the bell rang and I realised that their was a sprint, but a group was already up the road (which I stupidly missed). In the next few laps I followed riders as they attacked on the climb trying to cross the gap. When a rider from Mowatts team launched an attack I decided to go with him and see if we could work together to bridge the gap. After one lap I had dropped the other guy and was left solo in 'no mans land' exactly where I didn't want to be.
After a few laps i had to sit up as it was a hopeless effort and I wanted to save energy if the group behind chased back to the front group. When I was caught by the main bunch a rider came past who was going really strong so I bridged onto his wheel, he gapped the group and I was a little confused. He was also from Mowatt's French road team and I talked with him pre race. So I asked him if he had lapped us?!?! He said yes and by the pace he was setting I realised it was definitely true (I found out today that he was a pro rider last season). I then asked if it was OK for me to hold his wheel? He replied with a very happy french accent "It is no problem for me". So for the next 5 to 10 laps I was hitching a ride with the mad Frenchman.
This turned out to be an awesome decision, because he was so strong that he managed to catch the bunch of riders that included 2nd place on the road (obviously he was first after lapping everyone). So after getting totally caught out at the start I somehow got lucky and was literally towed back into the race. I thanked the Cedric the French strong man and apologised that I couldn't help. It didn't phase him as he just seemed to love smashing it!
From this point I was back in the race and for the intermediate sprints I had a few cracks and got 2nd in one and 3rd in another, but didn't want to destroy myself for the final bunch sprint for 2nd. Before I knew it we only had 5 laps to go and my legs were feeling it. The short steep climb every lap took a little bit more energy out and the extra sprints also added to the fatigue. Coming into the last lap I was unsure if I had anything left in the tank. There was also confusion if the bunch had to do 1 more lap than the crazy French man and if other riders had to do 2 more laps?!?!?!
So I was caught out a little coming through the tight corner into the fina climb and finish line. I decided to sprint early as I was about 10th or 12th wheel. I had good power and speed and managed sprint past everyone but Cedric (Fenchie). So crossing the line in 2nd ment the best possible result as Cedric was a whole lap in front. I was happy and my legs were finished. Eric came up to me at the end of the race and told me that the intermediate sprints and final sprint were part of a point system for the overall. The final sprint counted for double but didn't determine the podium! I was a little confused (due to being crossed up from the race) and didn't believe that this crazy points score race was every used outside of the velodrome! It turns out that it does and most criteriums are points based in Germany.... would have been good to know before the start. haha
In the end it didn't matter. Cedric also had no idea about the points system, but he clearly won after being a lap in front! In my mind I was 2nd in the only sprint that normally counts in a criterium, but for the official results I was 4th only 1 point off 3rd. the race took just over 1.5hrs for 60km with around 1100m of vertical climbing! No wunder I was in the box at the end.
It was a really fun experience and I will know for next time how it works and I look forward to actually racing for points. Getting on the road bike and turning the pedals in anger with the narrow tyres was a welcome change and hopefully I can sneak in another event before I leave Germany.
The Croatian adventure update is elusive due to the enormity of stories and potential tales to be told. I need a few hours to really nut it out and plan my attack on how to write it. So sorry for people who have been holding their breath for it. It will come hopefully this week when I'm killing time in the hotel before the world cup final in Val D'Isaire, France.
Thanks for reading and pretty pictures are not available for this one. I will make up for it with Juliette's awesome shots from Croatia :-)
cheers.
