Last race of the year

2016-11-22

Some days I think it would be better to just stay in bed instead of waking up at 4am to go to a bike race! Saturday was one of those days! I was looking forward to the last race of the season since it was in Wellington, on my favourite trails at Welvenpas, but when the small ladies bunch left the start 10 minutes after the guys I immediately felt that my legs did not feel as good as last weekend! After about 10 kilometres I went in first on a single track but at the end of the trail in a sharp corner my front wheel just disappeared under me and I hit the deck very hard! I think I was lucky not to break anything! My handle bar was completely twisted, my bottles and garmin spread all over, my break leaver straight down etc. The other girls showed incredible sportsmanship and waited and helped me until I got everything in order and could get back on the bike! Thank you for that!! It was not nice to see the blood dripping from my elbow down on my shoes and I think the fall took a bit of my racing edge for the day. I just tried to sit with Ariane as long as possible. It was difficult since we had to pass guys on the single tracks all the time. Eventually Ariane got a bit of a gap and I could not really close it. When I almost crashed again (I hit a tree with my handle bar, lost balance and hit a tree on the other side with the other side of the handle bar and got thrown off the bike, but stayed on my feet) and I could see that Ariane was going further and further away I must admit that I gave up. I just wanted to get to the finish in one piece! The last climbs were really hard in the heat and I was happy when I got to the top of the last climb and could cruise down the last long downhill to the finish and take second place on a not so good day.

Now I have 2 weeks of much needed rest on the program before the training starts for next year with Cape Epic as the biggest goal. I am looking forward to this rest but I also can’t wait to start all over again with all the training, there is a lot to be done!