Sunday/Monday recap

Sunday
After Saturday had a pretty sour taste in my mouth after what was yet another close call to getting a win. I knew that this day was going to have to be a hard race and that I would need to make the race happen rather than sit back and wait for others to take action. I spent much of the day trying to be aggressive and go off the front. I finally got up the road with 5 other riders with 50 km to finish. Myself, 2 others from same team and 2 other riders. Knowing these odds are not great trying to race against a teammates I was able to spit 2 of the riders out on a hill with 40 km to finish. Here I am thinking that this is alright, even though I have this little shit french racer with me who never decides to work, only attack. This is the 4th time I have ended up in this situation with this guy and he is an absolute ass hole racer, a typical french racer. With 30 km to the finish, once again this guy attacks me and he and I end up off the front of the race and instead of working together to build a gap over the field, he decides that he is going to attack me as much as he can and alas, people are able to bridge up to us. But, with 7 km to the finish, I attack and this guy and one other try to come with, but are at around 20 seconds behind me all the way to the finish. Yes, thats right, I WON SOLO! This was quite possibly one of the best tasting victories, not just because I won off the front but I was able to control the situation. After the race, that little shit french racer, well he had 2nd place locked up with me off the front, right, well he ended up 3rd and all I could do was laugh at him for that. I mentioned to him that had he worked with me instead of attacking me for the final hour he could have had a chance at the win. Funny part all he can come back with is that Americans are dopers and that is why we win. Once again an ass hole and will take every chance I have to stick it to them. Unfortunately, do not have a photo from finish just yet, trying to track those down, not sure which photographer was at the line.



Monday
I should have known that today was going to be difficult. The start of the race was about a mile away from the Atlantic coast and as we drove closer to the start, I began to see more and more wind turbine farms. We ended up having a smaller field yesterday at only 150 but with a day that had all the big french teams there, plus a few of the Belgian outfits, the day was going to be a hard one. The race starts at the bottom of a hill, awesome, legs love that and after the hill is 100 km/hr winds and tiny farm roads wide enough for 5 riders. Echelons were the name of the game and a breakaway went up the road fairly quickly. Not making the break, I decided that I would try to chill out in the field on this day and was working out until the caravan cars needed to go up to the break. As the cars were racing alongside the field a driver misjudged and ended up driving into the peloton and causing a crash, one of the gnarlier ones I have seen. The rule is that when you hear a wreck, hit it even harder and well that gap caused by wreck meant I never saw front of race again, bummer. For awhile I thought that I might be able to, but alas, the concept of just pacing our efforts in group and slowly pulling the front group back was out the door and all the little frenchies decide to attack as hard as they can, blow up, come back and try again. So, rolled in for something like 30th place, nothing to be excited about but had a good 4:30 hour workout.

Now just a bit of recovery for a few days before I do it all over again. Sorry for the length on that, been away for a bit. Leave early in the morning for races, and get home late.