Thursday, May 22, 2008
Nikkis May 2008
Hi,
Lot’s has been happening in Belgium the last month, there has been quite a few races to get stuck into, the summer weather is here and I’m really enjoying being over here permanently.
As usual the racing over here is always up and down sometimes I go into a race feeling good and end up having a not so good day and other days I’ve felt like my legs are going to fall of and have ended up having a good ride.
At the end of April I had two big races with the team. Omloop van Borsele and Grote Prjs Roeselare both of these were uci races with a world class field, both were totally different race Borsele was pan flat and very windy and Roeselare was undulating. I didn’t have a great weekend there I struggled with the pace in both, they were very fast and I haven’t ridden hardly any of these big races this year so it was a bit of a shock to the system. Borsele I ended up in the 3rd group and Roeselare I was in the 2nd group. It was a good block of work however I was a bit disappointed with how I rode.
The past month I’ve had two punctures one was in the middle of a race in Wortel and the other was last Saturday at Sinaai Sint Niklaas with just 400m to go in the sprint! I’ve also had one crash last Friday at Begijendijk, I had only been racing one lap when i sprinted out of a corner and my cranks jammed as my back wheel fell out which wasn’t good ! I ended up hitting the deck really hard landing on my head and knocking myself out, I had cuts and bruises all down me, I was in a pretty bad way and after having a couple of fainting sessions I had to ring Matt to come and drive me home with concussion.
Ok that was the bad luck however before that happened I had a really good ride last Thursday in Bornem, the year before I had ridden and ended up with a 5th place this year I really wanted to improve on that, the course was fun and twisty and with the rain before hand it was going to be an interesting race. The race was fast right from the off, I felt really strong that day and just sat top 5 all race, the race had split completely from behind and with about 3 laps to go I looked round to find there were only about 10 of us left in the front group. A girl had attacked from Lotto after the first lap and she was away all race so we were left battling it out for 2nd place. There was a good class of riders there some of which were real good sprinters so I knew it was going to be important to position myself on the last corner I came out in third position then went for it I sprinted as hard as I could and ended up with the 2nd place ! I was really happy with that ride and was looking forward to the next two days which didn’t go to plan as in the previous paragraph tells!
On the 10th May I rode a kermesse at Burcht, I didn’t have a great race I did abit too much early on and ended up being in a few of the early breaks but nothing which stuck, then for the moves which did go I missed them and ended up being boxed in and not being able to get out to go with them, my own fault and I will learn. I came away with 20th place which I wasn’t happy with!
During the next month there are plenty more kermesses to get stuck into over here before I return home for a week at the end of June for the National road champs.
Nikki
Lot’s has been happening in Belgium the last month, there has been quite a few races to get stuck into, the summer weather is here and I’m really enjoying being over here permanently.
As usual the racing over here is always up and down sometimes I go into a race feeling good and end up having a not so good day and other days I’ve felt like my legs are going to fall of and have ended up having a good ride.
At the end of April I had two big races with the team. Omloop van Borsele and Grote Prjs Roeselare both of these were uci races with a world class field, both were totally different race Borsele was pan flat and very windy and Roeselare was undulating. I didn’t have a great weekend there I struggled with the pace in both, they were very fast and I haven’t ridden hardly any of these big races this year so it was a bit of a shock to the system. Borsele I ended up in the 3rd group and Roeselare I was in the 2nd group. It was a good block of work however I was a bit disappointed with how I rode.
The past month I’ve had two punctures one was in the middle of a race in Wortel and the other was last Saturday at Sinaai Sint Niklaas with just 400m to go in the sprint! I’ve also had one crash last Friday at Begijendijk, I had only been racing one lap when i sprinted out of a corner and my cranks jammed as my back wheel fell out which wasn’t good ! I ended up hitting the deck really hard landing on my head and knocking myself out, I had cuts and bruises all down me, I was in a pretty bad way and after having a couple of fainting sessions I had to ring Matt to come and drive me home with concussion.
Ok that was the bad luck however before that happened I had a really good ride last Thursday in Bornem, the year before I had ridden and ended up with a 5th place this year I really wanted to improve on that, the course was fun and twisty and with the rain before hand it was going to be an interesting race. The race was fast right from the off, I felt really strong that day and just sat top 5 all race, the race had split completely from behind and with about 3 laps to go I looked round to find there were only about 10 of us left in the front group. A girl had attacked from Lotto after the first lap and she was away all race so we were left battling it out for 2nd place. There was a good class of riders there some of which were real good sprinters so I knew it was going to be important to position myself on the last corner I came out in third position then went for it I sprinted as hard as I could and ended up with the 2nd place ! I was really happy with that ride and was looking forward to the next two days which didn’t go to plan as in the previous paragraph tells!
On the 10th May I rode a kermesse at Burcht, I didn’t have a great race I did abit too much early on and ended up being in a few of the early breaks but nothing which stuck, then for the moves which did go I missed them and ended up being boxed in and not being able to get out to go with them, my own fault and I will learn. I came away with 20th place which I wasn’t happy with!
During the next month there are plenty more kermesses to get stuck into over here before I return home for a week at the end of June for the National road champs.
Nikki
# posted by Nikki @ Thursday, May 22, 2008
