first race

frustrating day.

We raced the Klein-Brabant Classic UCI 1.12 today. There were some good teams there including topsport-vlaanderen, Davitamon Lotto's development team. But the course was flat and the wind didn't come out the way it could have so it looked to be not so hard.

We started and I wasn't too far forward after a nervous neutral section. For the first 30 k I slotted in the first third of the 200 starters, except for one section where I let myself get too far back and had to work a bit through a town. After that I began to feel better with my pack skills and moved up to where I could actually see what was going on and tried to spend my time in the front 30 or so guys. when it slowed down and went gutter-to-gutter I'd get shuffled back but I made sure to jump back up to the front as soon as it opened up to stay up there. I felt great and it just felt like we were riding tempo.

About 60 k in I flatted and went back to the car to make a routine wheel change. Coming back through the cars I was absolutely dying and cursing myself for not knowing how to ride in the cars. then I made it back on, and two pedal strokes later was dropped. I was done and was now cursing myself for sucking at bikes. I road like 60k back towards the start, got lost, and found a guy who offered me a ride after I asked him for directions.

Putting my bike into his car I spun the rear wheel. It went maybe half a turn and stopped. I could have cried in relief as I stared at the misadjusted break pad rubbing against the wheel. It may suck to not finish, but I felt a lot better after learning that my fitness is so shitty I can't draft off a car.

Anyway, it sucks, but the good news is I felt good and my skills in the pack were pretty good, at least for me. Not sure what I'm doing now for a while, roubaix is next sunday and i'm just going to see how long I can hang on. I'd kind of like to race a kermesse before then but we'll see.