September 14, 2012

Zemst Laar

Sunday's race was horribly cobbled, from a Canadian's perspective. 120km with 4km of cobbles doesn't seem like much though. I felt really fast going over them, always near the front but all of team Canada made a fatal mistake before we even reached the first sector. Nigel and I were always in the top 50 but staying close and consistently holding a postition was nearly imposible on the technical course. A move went and I wasn't in a position to follow. By the time I got to the front they had 10 seconds and I tried to look and see if a Canadian was there. A Maple Leaf? Where's Nigel? I looked everywhere in the pack and couldn't see him so I just waited for a bridge move for me to latch on to. I lost some spots in a hard section and I missed an opportunity to bridge. Damn. No problem Nigel is there atleast. Then Brandon comes up and says "Nigel and Yohan flatted!". Crap. We then discover 23 riders are up the road, this is really embarassing for us at team Canada. We drove it and suddenly it was 30 riders chasing the 23 ahead. Nobody wanted to work as 4 Canucks were in Chase 1 and they figured we were strong enough to bring it back, obviously we weren't. We finished near the back of our group and I was bonked pretty bad. We didn't expect such a big move to come so early in a Interclub, its not how they normally play out. Maybe it was from the efforts the day before but in conclusion we made a lot of dumb mistakes and did not race well. Monday I am racing Time Trial Worlds and next Sunday the Worlds Road Race! Wish me luck!   

P.S. I have signed a contract for 2013 which will see me living in Europe for most of the racing season. I will do an update on it after this racing season is over!    

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