Rain rain go away

Last week was a rough week for weather. It rained almost everyday, at least a little bit. I'm not comlaining about that, I don't mind the rain, but when you have a recon ride for a UCI race, it makes it miserable.

This particular ride was meant to look at the course, ride it out a couple of times, pay special attention to the dangerous sections, and most importantly to get a good team ride in. Mother nature decided to play a cruel little trick on us. It stayed somewhat clear right before we rolled out, then it started raining. Nothing bad, just a little rain, until we got to about 30 minutes from the course, then the heavens opened up. I have only seen this kind of rain in a huricane. The wind was blowing it so hard it felt like a thousand little kids throwing rocks at us!! Needless to say there wasn't a whole lot of positive team riding going on at that moment. Finally it let up just before we rolled onto the course, so that was dry.

The course itself wasn't incredibly hard, per se, it was just unforgiving. If you made a single mistake you would pay for it ten fold. The section right before the cobbles was a farm road that was maybe 2 meters across and when you have to fir 174 riders on it, that asking for a crash. The cobbles were very rough, rougher than most, and then the next hill came with a kilometer and a half, and that one had a cross wind to boot. After that whole section we went into a wide open area with lots of wind, a couple of over passes, and then more wind. Very hard when you're redlined.

Race day went not ideal. Most of us were near the front for the cobbles, we had one guy go down in the crash that was at the pinch point, so not too bad. I made my damning error on the hill after the cobbles. I was redlined, full out, and I wanted to see what was going on, if the peloton was bunching or what, and I snuck a peek into the wind. That was all it took to give me a meter gap from the guy in front of me, and I never got it closed. I was bleeding out my eyes trying to close it, but they kept inching away. I eventually finished in the 4th group on the road, placing 54th of 174. I'm mad at myself for that mistake, but I learned from it. Now I can move on to the next UCI with that new knowledge.

A few more weeks of Europe before I have to come home. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disapointed to have to leave. I know I have so much more to gain this year, and I badly want to stay, but I do need to spend some time with Heather (and yes I am excited to see her in fact it would be better if she came out here!!), plus I have Elite National championships to do. So at least I have a couple of good reasons for coming home.

I'll update more often, I promise. I know I haven't been the best at it lately, and I would love to say I've been ultra busy, but I really haven't. I read a lot and take a lot of naps, so I suppose I could get a few more posts in a week. I promise to be better about that this week.