Todays Race Report: See last week’s.

Okay, my goal after xmas was to improve positioning during the race. Earlier in the season, I found myself with the strength but I wasn’t in a position to use it. So my aim was to be up near the front when it counted. This means working hard to chase breaks and to ensure I remained at the business end of the field.

I was very satisfied with last week’s race – I fought and maintained a good position all through the race and it was only with 1/3 of a lap remaining that I simply couldn’t hold onto the wheel in front and, hence, failed to figure in the sprint.

The same thing happened this week! Damn! I’m not so happy about it happening twice. I probably did a better job with positioning (even managing to factor in the wind direction) and stayed up front. But, again, on the final lap the pace was too high for me to contest the sprint.

Two corners remained and my newly created “pain is nothing, victory is everything” mantra turned into “why the fsck am I going backwards?!”. I was suffering hard and I felt like, mentally, I was pushing myself harder than usual but I simply couldn’t put more power into the pedals and finally I watched, disheartened, as ‘others’ took the places that count.

I guess it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. My legs were feeling like shit from the start – probably due to sprint training the day before, followed by “holding” all day in the cold wearing only knicks and no shoes. I also managed to miss lunch and ended the day very dehydrated. Didn’t sleep well either, which is unusual for me.

There’s always next week…