Thursday, August 23, 2007
I just thought i'd go a little more in depth about the last couple races.
We did 1 day races in Britannia, France. We were told going in these would be very aggressive and very fast races. The best finish last year was Nick Reistad in 30th last year. The first race of the 4 was pretty rolling 16 laps of 9k a break of 5 got off in the first lap then a group of 15 bridged to it. I got off in a chase group of 20 riders and we never really worked together we just attacked eachother trying to trim the group down. Finally with 4 laps to i got in a break of 3 and we rode so hard I was about to get popped so I handed them one of my cokes to get them to slow down for a second. I was able to stay with them but I couldn't make anything happen in the 3 up sprint. I ended up 27th a group of 24 stayed off the front.
Day 2
28 laps of 5k with a long cross wind section and 2 good uphill sections. It stayed together forever we were going hard but it never split up just 1 or 2 riders popping off now and then. with 8 laps to go. It split into 3 groups I made the seconds group and we eventually caught the front group and it all came back together, but the race was blown only 50 riders were left. It went hard again and it split I got kind of spit out and ended up in a small group racing for 30 something spot. One of the riders in our group kept riding at 550 watts up the hill every lap. So the groups split in half I ended up in a group of 3 and we suffered our way to the finish I ended up 44th.
I got sick the 3rd day was forced to dnf.
We have been on a week break right now. A week break doesn't mean completely off of racing. We went to a local kermess a circuit race 11 laps of 10.5k. Usually these are smaller local races but this ended up being a pretty big one with 121 starters. The entire Splendid team showed up, they've been dominating almost every race they've done. It was definatly going to be a fast one. We were going on our first loop and we turn a corner and we hit a 18% wall about half a kilometer long the we made a right turn along a false flat then it kicked up for about another k at 8-10%. By the end it was split up pretty good 9 riders in front with a few groups behind that I found myself in a group of 5 that got caught by the peleton 2k from the finish, what was left of it anyway the most it could of been was 25 riders. We ended up sprinting out of the group for 18th spot. It was a straight on 1k stretch slightly uphill and into the wind. I timed my sprint really well and came from 10th spot to came 2nd in the field sprint. Coming in 19th on the day. They are pretty cool about paying out here. The top 3 get big money and 4th place through 50th get 10 euro each and 3 euro entry fees so 1/3 of the field gets there money back and enough to grab some dinner.
Tommarow we start Port Ocean a Uci 2.12 stage race 4 stages 3 days. This will be my last big race here. So hopefully it will go well.
We did 1 day races in Britannia, France. We were told going in these would be very aggressive and very fast races. The best finish last year was Nick Reistad in 30th last year. The first race of the 4 was pretty rolling 16 laps of 9k a break of 5 got off in the first lap then a group of 15 bridged to it. I got off in a chase group of 20 riders and we never really worked together we just attacked eachother trying to trim the group down. Finally with 4 laps to i got in a break of 3 and we rode so hard I was about to get popped so I handed them one of my cokes to get them to slow down for a second. I was able to stay with them but I couldn't make anything happen in the 3 up sprint. I ended up 27th a group of 24 stayed off the front.
Day 2
28 laps of 5k with a long cross wind section and 2 good uphill sections. It stayed together forever we were going hard but it never split up just 1 or 2 riders popping off now and then. with 8 laps to go. It split into 3 groups I made the seconds group and we eventually caught the front group and it all came back together, but the race was blown only 50 riders were left. It went hard again and it split I got kind of spit out and ended up in a small group racing for 30 something spot. One of the riders in our group kept riding at 550 watts up the hill every lap. So the groups split in half I ended up in a group of 3 and we suffered our way to the finish I ended up 44th.
I got sick the 3rd day was forced to dnf.
We have been on a week break right now. A week break doesn't mean completely off of racing. We went to a local kermess a circuit race 11 laps of 10.5k. Usually these are smaller local races but this ended up being a pretty big one with 121 starters. The entire Splendid team showed up, they've been dominating almost every race they've done. It was definatly going to be a fast one. We were going on our first loop and we turn a corner and we hit a 18% wall about half a kilometer long the we made a right turn along a false flat then it kicked up for about another k at 8-10%. By the end it was split up pretty good 9 riders in front with a few groups behind that I found myself in a group of 5 that got caught by the peleton 2k from the finish, what was left of it anyway the most it could of been was 25 riders. We ended up sprinting out of the group for 18th spot. It was a straight on 1k stretch slightly uphill and into the wind. I timed my sprint really well and came from 10th spot to came 2nd in the field sprint. Coming in 19th on the day. They are pretty cool about paying out here. The top 3 get big money and 4th place through 50th get 10 euro each and 3 euro entry fees so 1/3 of the field gets there money back and enough to grab some dinner.
Tommarow we start Port Ocean a Uci 2.12 stage race 4 stages 3 days. This will be my last big race here. So hopefully it will go well.
# posted by Matt Brandt @ 4:51 AM 
