Rough Day at the Office

Ouch. You know what it's like to have not had a bad race in while and you kinda forget what it feels like, then you get totally worked and you're like "oh, yeah, that's what it feels like"? Right. I had one of those days today. It looks like my run of form has come to a bit of a lull, so it's probably a good thing I'm coming back to Canada on Tuesday. Take a week to recharge and then get it rolling again for Nationals (after getting spanked around in Gloucester MA for two days).

The course today actually really reminded me of an Ontario course of old (further to the whole course design thing). Gently rolling trails in a pine forest, lots of singletrack and fast sweeping corners. There was one good CX section around the soccer field though, so that was cool. I just didn't get a good vibe out of it in practice and my legs really weren't responding the way they should have, so I wasn't feeling great at the start line.

Got the first row call-up, right on, and then threw it out the window cause I blew out of my pedal almost right away. I had to chase pretty hard for two laps to make the lead group, where I was just starting to feel OK after about a lap when someone attacked and that's when I cracked. Just started going backwards, blowing lines all over the place and generally looking ridiculous. So after awhile I just throttled right back, regained some composure and managed to pick it up a bit near the end to finish 6th. Not bad, but then again this was only a Deutschland Cup race, no UCI points, and on the same day as Kalmthout WC so not a super-strong field. My roommate Johannes killed it to take the win and Finn Heitmann (who hasn't been seen since Beauce, where he was the youngest and only finisher from the mighty Stevens Racing squad) came back from a summer of logging serious couch time to take 5th.

I've been saying my goodbyes to all my various support personel, friends and training partners over the last few days, but I'll be back here in a little while so it's not like we're all crying and shit. Looking forward to a fun day of packing up my 2 bikes and 1 gear bag tomorrow for my (argh) 5 am wakeup on Tuesday morning. Think about it - I'll be waking up to a day of 15hrs of travelling at about the same time you're going to bed! Hamburg -> Frankfurt -> Montreal -> Ottawa. Fun times!

See y'all in Ottawa,
GReain