Ah, The Smell of Skin on Pavement

My goal didn't get accomplished, not by lack of energy or anything else. I crashed out on the second lap. This race was a bit scetchier, there was a lot of hard braking today, not loke normal. The last race was very go, go, go; this one was very relax, hit the brakes, sprint, hit the brakes. The one that did me on was after the corner on the second lap.

The course was a triangle shape. There was a long 2 km straight with a head/cross wind, then a right hand turn to a tail wind section with gutters on both sides of the roads, thurn three took you onto an open town road with a couple of speed bumps and a few sections of bricks, then onto turn 3-4 (which were really 1 and a half turns) which spit you back out onto the straight for the finish line.

The pace wasn't that bad starting out, quite a bit slower than I thought. My HR was sitting comfortably at 150, and I wasn't having to work too hard. I was just starting to move up toward the front, weaving my way through the peloton. We hit the corner, slowed, then took off again. We sprinted for 10 seconds then steadied, and I started to sneak back through again when someone slammed on the breaks. At that point I don't remember a whole lot, I saw a mass of bikes coming at me the wrong way and then a wave behind me choking me out. I don't know I caused it by getting tangled with a guy (his scewer went in to my spokes) or the wave behind me, but we all went down. There were about 12 of us down. All I could think about was getting my bottles and getting back on the bike. I tried so hard to chase, I could see the chase car, but it kept creeping away. I tried to incorporate a couple of riders into my chase, and I exhausted one guy, then I was working on killing another, but they pulled me out.

The rest of the day, 2 and a half hours worth, I spent rolling around the area. I needed to get more training in , and I didn't want to be near the race because I would just get angry that I wasn't there. I went and explored the Brugge area by bike. I rode a canal road, around the city center area, and then I did laps around the area. Nothing hard, nice and easy nothing over 140 bpm. That's how we train here. I just wanted to race today, that's all.

The team didn't do anything spectacular today. The race actually finished in a group sprint, very uncommon for kermeses, I hear. Out of 9 guys only 2 didn't finish, and one wasn't because they quit. So all in all not a bad day, not a great day either, but not bad. The next goal is to put someone on the podium, very doable if we can pull our heads out and race.

Tomorrow will probably be a spin for a few hours type of day. I need to make sure my legs don't get too stiff, I already feel pretty beaten up. I have some road rash on my arms, my right hip, my left elbow is bruised up, and my rib is bruised (I think someone hit me there). I just feel like I got into a fight with the road and lost. At least nothing is broken and the bike is in one piece. I need to true the front wheel, but nothing is in several pieces. Now my quota for crashes has been fulfilled for the season, no more crashes for this kid.

It's time for bed, so I'll write about my trip to Brugge tomorrow.