last two races

not much going on here right now. my computer broke so my internet time has been limited.

Last Saturday I did the uci 1.12 Belsele race, which was 12 laps of a 12k circuit for 144 ks total. As our director said, "it is not a nice race," it was urban roads with lots of turns and 200 starters. I shredded it at the front the first two laps before my attention span faded and I hung out towards the back, moving ahead of riders who were obviously soon to be dropped before I had to waste energy to close gaps. Unfortunately, 8 laps in it began to rain and get really cold, at least for this guy. My body seized up just like at haut savoie and I couldn't close a small gap to save my life. I got popped and wasn't too happy about it. Apparently I need to wear an undershirt, we'll see next time.

Tuesday we did Romsee-Stavelot-Romsee down in the hills around Liege in southern belgium. This race went better but I had a bit of bad luck. On the third climb of the day, 75ks in, the race blew apart. I missed the small front group due to being incompetent and starting at the very back of 180 rider field. I passsed a shit ton of people to make a second group. A bunch of guys caught on the descent but we immediately hit the 4th climb and things were super strung out again. Unfortunately, I flatted. The cars were way back due to the shredded field and the golf-cart sized roads but I eventually got back onto the second group. Unfortunately, eight or so riders had split off the front of the group. I'm sure I would have made it had I not been changing a wheel as they went but I missed it and the group I was in chilled out a bit and just road into the finish. Still a good race and I'm confident I can make the front group in races like that if I can learn to position better at the base of climbs.