Demolition Man

Things to do this year- Not blow up.

The first race of a new season is always the same. You never really know where you’re at, so you’re mad nervous on the line wondering if you’ve done enough work, if you’re fast enough, if you can pilot the corners alright. Hell, you don’t even know if you can make it to the end of the start straight without getting dropped.

Second row call-up, good. Slow to get into the pedal, bad. Running the 48 all the way down to the 12 before hitting the dirt, good. Riding in the lead group without breathing hard, good. Getting gapped off the top five by a Slovakian rider, bad. Chasing with Nijland and van Gils, good, then very, very bad.

All that to say the first 20 minutes were really good, next 20 so-so after I blew sky high trying to chase back to the lead group (but still in the top ten I think), last 20 minutes really slow as I had been caught and blown out the back of a couple of chase groups. So I kinda backed off on the throttle a bit in the hopes that conserving a little bit today means that I have some extra gas to give tomorrow and maybe hit the top ten. Here’s hoping the guys who killed themselves to get there today are a little cracked for tomorrow!

I ended up 14th, which is rather encouraging given the fact that I have little to no race form and essentially soft pedaled the last 3 laps. Considering I can hit the top fifteen in a Euro C2 without killing myself is a good sign for things to come this year. I used to need a stellar ride to make that kind of result.

More after tomorrow.
GReain