A good start is’nt always half the job!
Dear friends, as I told you earlier I have planned to update my blog i bit more often, so that is what I am doing right now. I am still in training-camp in Cyprus, which I of course enjoy. Last weekend I did a small stage-race here in Cyprus, or rather, I did some of a stage race. First stage was a time-trial of apx 25 minutes. On race-day rain was pooring down, and temperature was dropped to about degrees. Normally i do a lot of warming-up, but in this weather it would be more like cooling-down, so I decided to stay in the car, with the heater on for 2 hours before the start, watching the other guys outside, trying to warm up. Normally I hate starting out with cold legs, but I thought, hey it is only 20 minutes of pain!
2 minutes before my start I made my move and jumpe don the bike and dropped the hammer. Boy I felt terrible, slow and heavy legs. I was pretty sure I had done a time in the heavy end of the results list, so I was surprised when I saw I did 11th best time. Well, back to the car. This day I only had 23 minutes of training, but I was a wreck in the evening anyway. Next stage was a point to point race, in freezing cold again, but the course made a bit up for it, it was really cool. I got dropped after 40 minutes in the front group, and thought that I would be alone the rest of the day. Later on I got cought by young-gun Thomas litcher, and we teamed up and started to catch some of the riders from the frontgroup. On the highest point of the course i dropped Thomas, and since it was downhill almost to the fininshline I thought I was homesafe. But this guy is furious, I have never seen anything like this on hardtail, he just past me like I was parked in a parking lot. I must admit that I was really impressed of this guys riding technique.
I ended up in 18th spot. The day after was i typical xc race, on a cool course. Only problem was that I fucked up my head the day before, and did not get any sleep, could not concentrate, and abandoned the race midway. Alway keep your mind on what you are doing. So now I will try and do my best to make up for it in the upcoming weekend.