an up and down few days

This weekend we did 4 local one day races in Denmark, the first one on Friday was a time trial and then three road races each of the next 3 days. The TT was decent for me, I didn't set any records, but I placed in the money and was off the winner by 1:10. And that was after cracking slightly in the last 3 km. The power wasn't spectacular, but at least my position is good. After 3 years of working on it, I can finally say that I don't think I can really get into a position that is too much better. All it took was getting onto the smallest Cervelo they make, but hey, it works.

The first road race had 1300 meters of gravel each lap and we did 10 laps for a total of 157 km. It was pretty predicable: we went hard in the gravel each time, then there would be a ton of attacks on the roads after the gravel, then about half way through the race a good break went with all of the teams represented and we sat up. Then after it was obvious that the break wasn't coming back, we started attacking again until anyone who still felt like racing was off the front of the peleton. I was in a good group and we were catching a bunch of guys in front of us, but as we hit the gravel for the last time I started getting dropped a bit and instead of fighting it out for what I though was 25th place, I sat up and took it easy. Turns out we were racing for 13th and some decent money, so that was definitely my mistake. Next time I'll just go to the line, an extra 5 minutes of suffering won't kill me. We had Berling and Luthando in the break and Luthando went with the guy who won but couldn't get on when the winner attacked him and faded to 7th, but Berling won the sprint for 2nd.

Then Sunday was basically terrible. It was a flat, windy race with a lot of slow corners that we would sprint out of each lap. I felt like I was on the limit from the start and was basically useless all day. With 40 km to go I was actually getting dropped from the "peleton" which at this point was just all of the guys who weren't off the front. I'm going to put it down to dehydration cause I ended up drinking a lot during the race and a whole lot more afterwards. Our director, Michael Skelde, told me to go for an hour spin after I got home and had something to eat, so I did it and it seemed like it may have helped. It was hard to tell since I was completely cracked though.

Then yesterday was better, much better. I was a part of the race and set up our best sprinter to get into the break of the day. He easily could have won the race, but messed up the finish a bit by showing his strength too early so everyone was staring at him in the finale. Honestly the best way to picture these local races in Denmark is a mix between a collegiate crit and the aggie race ride, but for 3 hours, and with a 100 guys who are all pretty good. Basically its just attack after attack until they all get a bit tired, then they take it easy for 10 minutes, then they do it again. Repeat, repeat, until the break goes that all of the teams are basically happy with, then pause for 10 minutes, then repeat. Honestly its not a kind of racing that I am good at, all of those sprints basically fry my legs. My 850 watt max power is just not cutting it, and I end up having to spend some time in the wind closing gaps more slowly. I would really prefer if we could just go super hard for like 30 minutes and then I could actually have a shot of getting away. These races basically cater to my biggest weakness, so at least I'll get better because of it.

So far here in Denmark, I have been using an aluminum bike, but the team finally got the carbon frames that the rest of the guys use in the 58cm size so I spent the day moving my all of my parts over to it. I still need to cut the steerer tube down so that I don't have 3cm of spacers above my stem, but I'll take a picture and give you a rough weight tomorrow. Even with the SRM is should be right at 6.8 kg or maybe even a bit lighter with race wheels. Its pretty sweet. Who cares about brand names when the bike is super light and stiff. Only problem is that we've already broken 4 frames this season, so they don't exactly stand up well to shocks. But I'm tired of crashing, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Speaking of broken (and I appologize for this post getting increasingly rediculously long), we have managed to break 3 cars in the last week. First, at Mergelland our team car was rear ended in the caravan and needs a new bumper and rear door. Then Luthando got our team van stuck in a ditch, one of the sponsors was able to drive it out eventually, but not before doing some serious damage to the clutch. So although it made it to the TT on Friday, when we attempted to drive back it wouldn't get into gear and wouldn't move, luckily there was some extra space in some other cars and we all made it back home that night, but the van had to get towed back a day later. And then some really nice mechanic replace the clutch on Easter Sunday so that that van could go to France this week for the Tour de Loire. Then on the drive back from the race on Saturday, one of the backwards facing bikes on our second team car didn't have the rear wheel tied down and swung around on the highway and dented the roof and smashed the rear window. Because that car also had to go to France this week, they took the rear widow out of our first team car and just covered the hole with plastic. Now that first car is with the insurance people and the second car is in France doing the race and looking almost normal. Basically it hasn't been a lucky start to the season for me or the team. But what can you do other then just hope that it stops.

PS. Promise to have more photos on this blog soon. I am just bad at taking them.