A race to forget!

After the race in Abreschweiler, the toothache I already had for weeks gradually became unbearable (my dentist being on holiday there was at first nothing I could do about it...), so I that I had to go to the doctor, who detected a badly inflamed nerve. I went to another dentist who opened it the day before the race. In the morning, I didn’t feel any pain, so I decided to start anyway. But it turned out not so good...

On our way to Loenhout, we were caught it a massive traffic jam, so that I couldn’t train on the course (because of the U23 who were already racing) and only caught glimpses of it from the outside. Which again, turned out being a bad idea, because once we’d managed to get back to the car (with the mass of people being there it wasn’t easy!) there was only 15 minutes left to do warm-up...so yeah: try and start a cold diesel engine!

I had a very bad first lap and when I finally began to find a rhythm at the end of lap 2 and got familiar with the circuit, I entered the pits to switch bikes, but unfortunatly, my daugther changed bikes (after a fall, her switching-handle was twisted) at exactly the same moment on the other side, so that I had to wait for my mechanics to rush over. I lost contact to a big group and my moral dropped to a freezing point.

But we hadn’t done all that way just for a lap or two in the mud, so I fought and got back some riders, trying not to be lapped by the winning trio Hanka Kupfernagel, Marianne Vos and Daphny van den Brandt. But even if I wasn’t lapped, they took me and the other 5 riders in my group out before the finish line. I wasn’t happy about that at all, from lap to lap I had begun to feel better.

The course had been partially frozen and the mud was really deep, which made it very hard to stay on the bike some times (even the winner of the men’s race fell down!).

Next race, I’ll make sure to arrive in time and to do a proper warm-up before starting. First of all however, I’ll be going to the dentist again tomorrow to solve the problem with my teeth (which I hope, won’t compromise the next races in Petange and Tervuren, or the nationals the week after).