80 percent race but 100 percent fun

Kalmthout should have been “my” race, as I love the racetrack, especially because this year, the organizers added some nice loops, and the freshly fallen snow making it simply great! The only negative point was the icy and muddy bath-tub midst the trees, where most of us had to step off in a brownish broth. Icy water is apparently said to be good for your blood-flow. I don’t know, but after the first steps I didn’t notice I had feet anymore (which did hurt afterwards in the shower!).

Everything was ok until the evening before the race, when a very soar throat made itself know to me, reminding me, that I had (unconsciously) shared a bottle of coke with my son, who had had a bad cold! I got some pastilles for my throat from the national coach, however I still woke up with headache, a congested nose and a soar throat. Having done all the way up to Kalmthout and especially it being my favorite circuit, I decided nevertheless to take a chance and start anyway.

At the warmup, my pulse wouldn’t rise normally. I started from the very last position, but then again I was in brilliant company (between world-champ Marianne Vos and Olympic MTB-champ Sabine Spitz). The long road-part after the start wasn’t my speciality, so I entered the terrain at the end of the bunch. I gained some positions, but still made a very bad time in this lap. I improved in 2nd, coming in contact with a big group, which I lost again in 3rd lap, when I crashed in the stairs before the mud-hole, tripped again in the mud, adding other little errors, which then made me definitely loose contact to those riders. As I didn’t feel at my best, I finished the last laps at my rhythm, just keeping an eye on time-limits. All in all a correct result for an 80 percent race.

The return home turned out to be more tricky than the race, since we had to do the trip in two days as the motorway was just a huge ice-rink and completely blocked.

This week i’ll do some easy Indoor-training ( there is no way to cycle in deep snow), to get rid of that cold.

Cheers,