North Germany

This weekend we drove an hour and a half south to northern Germany where we did the Rund um Ascheffel on Saturday and the Giro Nortorf on Sunday. The races were pretty small and were basically dominated by 3 Danish teams and 1 German team. So although there were 100 guys on the start both days, the race was really about 30. The first day the weather was pretty terrible, it was about 40 degrees (5* C) and raining pretty hard. The course was a bit rolling and had a good hill right after the finish line, we did a total of 7 laps. The first half was pretty hard with non stop attacks. I put in a few good efforts and followed countless others but all that really happened was that we dropped 70% of the field in that first hour. Then eventually a 9 man break did go and we had Luthando and Nicolai there, so we were pretty happy at first. However, Luthando had a wheel problem and had to stop to fix so he was out of the break. Back in the field we started to ride a false tempo to try and stay warm and to give our guy in the break a reason to sit on so that he could say we were riding behind. Regardless, I froze solid and for the last 45 minutes I was having a hard time peddaling my bike. I was dressed well for NorCal rain, but this was significantly colder so once the race slowed down, it was definitely not enough. At least I learned for next time. Anyway, the break stayed away, but Nicolai cracked a bit and only managed 7th.

The Giro Nortorf was held on a super flat course. I mean Davis flat, there were two overpasses per lap over the freeway and that was the only elevation change on the whole course. We did 11 laps that were 11km each. At least the weather was better, it was a few degrees warmer and dry, the sun would even poke through every now and again. Basically it was a bit of a repeat of the day before, with countless attacks in the first hour and a half untill a break of 7 went and we had Ricky Enø in it who is one of our better sprinters so we were pretty happy. Once that happened we focused on following any attacks that went from the peleton and trying to go off in small groups to give our guy up the road more excuses to do less work. In the end the break stayed away, but only by about 5 seconds on the line and Ricky got 2nd. Berling tried his hand in the sprint and finished up there, but I am not sure exactly where. I rolled in mid pack for like 30th place.

Overall it was a pretty good weekend, but I was hurting a bit on Sunday. I think freezing on Saturday definitely hurt my body a bit for the next day. That and I felt like I swallowed a gallon of muddy water, which may not be far from the truth, so my stomach was feeling a bit wierd for the rest of the weekend. This is a much needed rest week so I will chill for a while, but then this weekend I am doing Mergelland which is going to be quite wickedly hard. Probably the hardest race of my life so far. Its going to be sweet.