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Sprint, Turn, Sprint, Turn... |
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Location: Blogs Todd's Blog |
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| Posted by: telenz |
6/15/2007 |
| When I first came to Belgium in 2005, I was a terrible bike handler and a terrible sprinter. Three summers later, I’m still a terrible handler, but my sprinting has been upgraded to “bad.” The improvement is partially thanks to my inept corning ability. When you lose 3 or 4 meters through every turn and the guy in front winds it up to 30 or 35 mph, it takes quite a sprint to close the gap. Yesterday’s 72 mile race had 144 ninety degree turns. We sprinted out of each and every one of them. It rained the first two hours of the race, meaning we were forced to a near standstill through the turns, making the accelerations even more violent.
My legs were heavy from Monday’s race in Ursel, where I was 12th, so I sat in last position and counted down laps. I had even convinced myself I would drop out “In one more lap,” to save some energy for the two interclubs coming up in a few days. In fact, I was dropped a few times (144 to be exact) and each time I barely made it back on.
In the rarest of occasions, with a lap and a half to go (6 miles) there wasn’t a breakaway yet. The stars must have been with me because I made one move off the front all day and that was the breakaway that stuck. With 11 riders in the front group, I realized my chances of getting top 10 were pretty slim. Niels attacked with a mile and a half to go and I jumped in third wheel as he was chased down. I accelerated a mile out and for about 15 seconds I had that tingling feeling “I’m in the lead!”
I was counting on a little luck that the others would just look at each other expecting someone else to chase. Some guy from the Kentucky Team (weird name for a Belgian team, huh?) decided he should chase me down and drag the whole breakaway up to me. He got last in the sprint, so he probably feels pretty dumb now. I was caught 500 meters from the finish, and held on for second to last in the sprint, meaning I got my first top ten in Belgium. After every race you think, “What if I did this instead of that?” You inevitably have regrets about some of the tactics you make. Winning races is all about how good your judgment is in split second decisions. Attacking so close to the finish almost always fails. When the sprinters in your group can smell the finish approaching, there’s not much to hold them back. Using the same tactics, the odds will eventually work in my favor. All I need is a little hesitation behind.
Todd
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