Hard day on the bike...

2012-08-26

Today was a bad day at work… I felt very amped for the race today since it felt like my home ground, it was very close to where I grew up and that race was, in 2003, the first ever cycling race that I did! So it was where my cycling career started.

It had rained during the night before so the roads and tracks were very wet. I got a bad start through town during the neutral start so on the word go I had to chase up to the other girls, the 4 top girls were all together. At the 10km mark we were 3, me, Ann and Emmy. After a while Ann just rode away slowly but surely, I had no legs to go with! So it was going to be about the 2^nd place today between me and Emmy. She crashed on a single track and I got a gap, but she came back with some strong guys. Then after 40km my chain got stuck between the frame and chain ring and I had to stop and fight with it for a while before I could get it loose, I thought I would have to stop the race…

I finally got going again and after a while I saw the bunch with Emmy, they were about 15 and I could see them and kept the same speed for about 20km!!!! It was making me very tired, and a bit frustrated! Finally I got back to them and we rode on and off together till the end. With 3km to go it was only me and Emmy and on the tar 2km from the finish she basically stopped and refused to pull, I did all the work and went on to the last single track first. With 800 meters to go we crossed a little bridge, I did not see it and slipped on it, my front wheel went off the bridge but I got back up again. Only thing was that my chain came off!!! Emmy got a good gap while I put the chain back on! I was chasing her and was closing the gap but needed a few hundred meters more to be able to catch her. So after all that I was a few seconds from second….

Usually I am happy with podiums but I cant help being disappointed by the way I got 3^rd today. The good thing is that I was riding the single tracks very well today, it was thanks to them that I eventually came back to the bunch when I was chasing.

Better luck next time… hopefully…