Yes! I am indeed very protected!
God has indeed been holding my handlebar with me! (:
many near misses: rear skidding, taking the corner too fast that I almost went up the curb, leaning on the guy next to me cos he attempted to come into my line. crashing during the race and landing on my BUTT without any injuries except 1/2 the size of a 1cent coin abrasions on the butt .... and many more!
so done and dusted with 3 races last week:
1. Houpline (Saturday) - 90km (18 x 5km): Weather was AWESOME. 30 deg, hot hot hot! Got dropped by the pelaton due to BAD positioning. It was just like a thomson ride with many turns, pretty managable, BUT once you are behind, your head would be on your handlebar, biting it. That's what happened to me, TWICE, all because I wanted to stay safe and take the corners slowly. Races here are nice because they don't ask you to get off the circuit even when you are lapped. Finished the 1st out of 3 women (the other 2 were recreational cyclists) and got 10euros from this race! Twas a good interval/waking up of legs session, although I only completed 80km (got lapped twice).
2. Belgium (Sunday) - 102km (14 x 7km): It was chilly and I was so afraid at the start. Then it got a lil warmer... The ladies were very friendly! Have never raced with so many lean and mean looking females before! Some of them spoke with me at the start line. Course was a rolling one and very bumpy (the usual with the roads here) and I was soooo afraid of crashing! There was this downhill which was full of holes and bumps, your bike sounds like its going to break apart when you go down! I was holding the shifters and "BAM!" my handlebar shifted cos if was SO BUMPY! thank God it was not much, so I just held my drops most of the way in the race and it was comfortable. Corners were taken really slowly and carefully and obstacles were pointed out, just like in a group ride! very friendly peloton. Accelerations were also not very fast! Thanks to the warm up the day before with the Cat 3 guys, the females' accelerations are just ---------- like that, no major wham-bam-help-i-cannot-catch-the-guy-in-front kinda accelerations. All was going nice and dandy..............then, it POURED. BIG HUGE DROPS FROM THE SKY. My body FROZE. Literally. My leg muslces, fingers, chest, EVERYTHING! Couldn't move, couldn't breathe. The peloton got broken up into 3 parts and I got dropped from the main peloton just because I couldn't breathe even when pedalling at a mere 150W!!!! Then as quickly as the strom came, it went away! Praise God! and despite having x10000 million billion thoughts of giving up, I was still pedalling, and somehow, the peloton became 1 and I got back in. The breakaway went at about halfway through the race and we never got them back. Bonked at the last 500m due to not enough gels, no electrolyte in the bottle, and stupidly not taking the bottle of coke that Luke ran to get for me when I requested for gels at the last round. Good race though, at least I know I am there! (: Lesson of the day: Gels, electrolyte + carbo in bottle are VERY important.
3. Chocques (pronounced shioks) - 102km (13 x 8km): wet and rainy day, were were all so unwilling to ride to due the fear of the cold + bike handling in the rain. POURED a 15mins before the start and we just sat in the car and whined. hahaha. Then the rain stopped 5mins before the start and we rollled around a bit before heading to the start line. I had another strong looking female at the start line with me and we were allowed to go first. Right, left, right left, left, left, turns. Thank God the peloton took the turns pretty slowlly (compared to the houpline race) and if you position yourself high up in the peloton, it's a breeze. Unfortunately, I did not, and I almost got dropped at the 4th or 5th round. Thank God for the strength and that the peloton slowed down, so I managed to hang on. The female was really good at positioning herself in the peloton, alwasy moving herself up when there was a chance, so I started sucking her wheel and just following when ever she moved. Really learnt a lot from her that day. The break went about halfway through the race and so the speed of the peloton was very easy after they left. Positioning is SO very important, it really saves so much energy! and so we ended up with a sprint finish. Marcus and Luke were not in the breakaway and so they were 'protecting' me towards the finish. Feels nice to have teammates around 'protecting' you. Although they didn't really help me with the sprint finish, just by having them around me must have given the other female some pressure...the last few meters to the finish was very messy and I sat behind her wheel all the way till the last 200m and then saw a gap, squeezed through and won w/o much effort. Praise be to God! We won 5euros each, plus a medal for me. Good day at the office.
The boys are out racing now, but I am sick so rest day it is! We have been sick since about a week ago....due to some virus flying around in our house from a frog.. must have passed it to us :( Marcus got it, then me, then Luke. Marcus has more or less recovered, but me and Luke are still suffering. Coughing like crazy and finding hard to breathe and my Heartrate is a whopping 15beats higher than usual. As a result, I DNF-ed a race yesterday after a crash (the crash where I landed on my butt), wheel change, and wheezing through a few rounds. Should have rested and not even started cos yesterday's exertion made it worse. This morning's ride was ok, but the HR was sky high.... So I'm on the bed slacking away! (:
Hi Daniao! I updated! :p
pix are kinda slow to be uploaded, dunno why, so I will do it another day, perhaps on my livejournal! (:
au voir!
