I was waiting on the door step of the bike shop when it opened at what I thought was a very civilised 9.30am. Got a bit of the pursing of the lips but they took it on and undertook to try and get it done in time for me to race this afternoon, come back at 11.30 I was told. 11.30 was going to make the opportunity to race very slim.
I pitched back at 11.00! he was still working on my bike, called me through to show me what he had done, including the part of the lever housing that was cracked nearly right through, I think he took delight in informing me that one heavy application of the brake and it was going to let go!
Anyway he fitted a new (second hand) lever for 10 Euros which I was very grateful for, plus of course a few tiny Campagnolo spares, a cable, new handlebar tape and straighten the rear mech hanger. I was good to go.
Paying up and throwing my bike in the back of the car (not literally you understand) and speeding off to the race 40 minutes according to the GPS and I was speeding but not more than loads of other people. I get to the race with 5 minutes to spare, I am already dressed in my race kit, number pinned on, sign on very quickly and then wait, we were 10 minutes late in starting!
Big field today, 80 I'm guessing, lots of guys I had never seen before, I assumed that the good weather bought them out, it was 25c, with a light wind. I decided that as the 'extra's' were not regular racers they probably weren't going to feature and perhaps needed a bit of care. Having crashed in the last race, I was a bit concerned that I would be a bit 'windy' in my first races, especially as my 'road rash' is still fresh, however no problem.
I'm not very good at starting cold, never have been, but the first half lap seemed OK, then I had a stroke of luck, we ran up the back of the race in front, the younger guys, who for whatever reason had started really slowly, so we neutralised ourselves for 2/3 km's which was great for me.
Today's circuit was quite flowing, the difficulty was the sorry state of the home straight, it was an old cobbled road that at some stage in the dim and distant past it had been tarmac'ed over, so there were cobbled buts, a few smooth bits and the rest was mixed broken tarmac / cobbles. With people flicking about looking for smooth bits it was quite chaotic early on but I worked out how to prevent that later in the race.
The course was, about 400m into a 90 degree right hander that took us down a winding gentle down hill for about 1500m into a 90 degree right hander into another 1500m straight, 90 degree right hander for about 500m, 90 degree left for about 750m, 90 degree right, about 1500m with two sweeping right handers bought us to the last 90 degree right across cobbles onto the home straight that incline up at 2% for about 600m to the finish line.
The race sorted itself out after about 2 laps of 7, I moved to the top 20 before the end of the first lap, having started at the back, and right where I needed to be by the end of the second lap. There were a few false starts in that as any slowing bought a rush of 'new faces', I didn't want to be behind those that's for sure.
In the middle laps of the race I pulled strong turns up the home straight and was pleased to see lots of gaps in the line, I think we may have got rid of most of occaisional racers in this way, a combination of the gradient and cobbles.
The race settled into the usual pattern with the 'usual' faces making the race, me spending my efforts jumping across to likely looking breaks, I made two really big efforts, one with two to go which was succesful but the group was closed down, and again on the last lap which was unsuccesful, I just couldn't get across on my own. Unfortunately this was the winning group, only about 20 seconds off the front but nobody really doing anything about it. There were probably only about 20 still 'in' the race but I was so sore in a host of places I didn't fancy the physical style of the last couple of kilometres, so let my self slip to the back of the sprint for minor placings, the extra benefit was I didn't have to hang about for the extra hour to claim prizes!
My right hand was sore throughout the race, I have an open wound right on the heel of the palm, but that was just uncomfortable, my right thigh started to get really sore about half way and for the last couple of laps my rib area on both sides were really playing up, it was that mainly that made me give the finishing melee a miss.
Coming out of the shower I realised that my bruising has suddenly appeared, I now have some lovely multi coloured bruises! Oh Joy! hope fully a nice easy ride in the sun will help me move these through tomorrow, the forecast is 28c, looking forward to that.
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