Last Danish races

Weekend summary: flat, crosswind fun!

This past weekend we did the last two races of the Danish season, both in the southern part of Denmark, right on the German border.

On Saturday we raced in Tønder on a pretty exposed 28km course for a total of 140km. 12km into the lap we made a right turn from a headwind into a cross tailwind and after about 2km of that the peleton exploded. I came around the turn back in about 40th wheel but realizing the danger I managed to get to the front when there was still a bit of shelter from some houses and made the split. I had a team mate right next to me when we came through the corner and I told him to get on my wheel when I moved up on the windy side of the group, but once the split happened he was no where to be found. However, Berling and Jacob both used their experience to make the group, so that we had three riders out of 18. Concordia had 4 riders as well as Capinordic. Once the split happened everyone put their heads down and worked to make sure the gap stuck. The peleton was chasing behind and got back to about 25 seconds 30 km later, but then they cracked and the race was over for them. Still, because of the wind, our break kept the pressure on and it wasn't easy. We worked pretty well together until the start of the last lap when the attacks started. A group of 7 ended up getting away and I missed it because of a bad hesitation.

Me hesitating instead of following Morten from Blue Water

I attacked on my own a few km later to try to get back up to them, but I only got to within 10 seconds of them and 40 seconds in front of the rest of the group before I cracked. I ended up getting caught by the rest of the group again. I still wanted to race a bit so I attacked again with 1.5 km to go and took two riders with me who sat on my wheel and then sprinted around me so I got 10th. Jacob couldn't get away from the front 7 and finished 6th.

Loosing the sprint for 8th

That night most of the guys from Concordia, Energi Fyn, and Capinordic, as well as Berling, Linde and I went to the German border city of Flensbourg and partied. It was a good time, but probably not the best thing to do before another race on Sunday morning. I didn't feel too bad about it though since all of the good guys in the peleton were out doing it too. Still I got home at 3am and had to wake up at 7 for a 10 am start which was a bit rough. Its just practice for Boggs later in the winter....

The legs were definitely a bit heavy the next morning, but I still managed to make the 12 rider break that went after 15 km. Only me and one other rider from Concordia who had been in the front group on Saturday made that group on Sunday. It was pretty obvious that the peleton didn't want to race and we soon had a 4 minute gap without working too hard for it. The attacks didn't start until the last lap with 25km to go, but once they did it was full on. I tried to keep pretty cool for a while but then I got away with one other rider with 12km to go. We got a 1o second gap and I was killing myself trying to make it bigger. The other guy wasn't as strong so I was doing most of the work. Sadly we got caught after 4 or 5km but my legs were starting to get a bit cooked. I tried again a few times, once coming from the back before a turn with one rider on my wheel, but I drilled the corner so hard that he got dropped and ended up just towing the group back up to my wheel. By the time the actual finish came up I was completely cooked and couldn't even contest the sprint so I got 12th. The rider from Concordia who had been in the group yesterday finished 11th, so I think Tønder took a good edge off both our legs.

Still it was a spirited end to my season in Denmark. This coming Saturday we are racing the UCI 1.1 ranked Münsterland Giro in western Germany. Its a big race with lots of Pro teams so its going to be pretty hard. Still, its the last race of the season and I don't have much to loose so I'll go what I can to get off the front. Last year Griepel won in a field sprint so I'm not expecting much, but I can't go to a race and not even try to win, what would be the point?