Right back at it!

Oh man, does it feel good to get the first race over with!

No more nerves, just good feelings all around. OK, well I probably wouldn't feel this good if I didn't have an awesome ride, so I'll kill the suspense now and tell you how it went.

Quick recap - Today was a UCI C2 race in Harderwijk, Netherlands. Just to beat yesterdays dead horse, again, when was the last time you saw Sven Nijs, Groenendaal, Vannopen and a bunch more at a C2 race in NorAm? Right. Does not happen. Needless to say things were a little quick. The course was super-compact, all corners, lots of grass, 1 short stair runup and strangely enough very dry. This in itself was odd given that we drove through pounding rain for 4 hours to get there.

Got a so-so third row call up today, but managed in true euro-style to weasel my way through the second row and halfway into the first. I also nailed the start for the first time in recent history, found all the right holes and through the first corner and into the barriers I was hanging out with Groenendaal somewhere near the back of the top ten. I was all like "whoa this is a new experience." So I just had to murder myself to try and hang with that group but it worked out since I was able to stay in contact for the better part of two laps before someone (probably you-know-who) punched the gas and blew the whole thing up. There were a couple of laps of confusion, with guys going backwards and coming up, but I ended up in a 5 man group with Vannopen and Dariusz Gil at about the midway point. From there I tried a lame 1/2 lap attack that for obvious reasons didn't work out, then just sat in since I had a couple of team mates pretty close up the road. And that was about it. I was sitting in 3rd in our little group, 15th on the race, so I had to try something. On the last lap I attempted a somewhat less than sensible pass, but got pushed into a barrier (with just cause) and went to the back after recovering. Made it home in 17th, which ain't too bad!

Rundown on the top names- 1) Nijs 2) de Kneght 3) Groenendaal 5) CvdB (stevens) 6) Heule (stevens) 9) Schwedler (stevens) 11) Urban (stevens) 13) Vannopen 17) me.

Good day for the boys in white, apparently.

Rest day (and PR ops) tomorrow, another (slightly less fast?) C2 race in Berlin Monday.

Tchüss,
GReain