World-Cup #6 KALMTHOUT (BEL) 20/12/2009
Written by Marc   

Wintersport-conditions and a race to forget as fast as possible!

I had looked forward to this race as I like this course a lot and even the winterly conditions didn’t frighten me, but it turned out to be a real no-race! 

 

For the first time in this season I got a good start and could win some positions before entering the single track part, but that was the only positive moment for me. I had made the bad choice to start with glasses, but they fogged up because of the heavy snowfall and I was completely blind after 500m, so I lost all the places I won and even more. As I am an economic person I wouldn’t throw the glasses away anywhere, so I struggled blindly until I could throw them to someone I could recognize after the race.
 

 Start from the last row

 
After this misadventure my concentration was not as good as it should have been  in those difficult conditions, I had some slower riders in front of me and on the snow-covered track there was no way to double.
I tried to accelerate, taking too much risk and finished head-over in the deep snow.


It took me some time to fix my chain and get back on the bike, I had snow everywhere and my fingers were frozen stiff, my moral was down and the last bit of concentration had vanished!
I accumulated mistake after mistake , lost a lot more time and was just glad as it was over!
I finished very far behind people i can compete with easily under normal conditions. I think today it wasn’t me riding, but a bad copy of mine!!

 
Now I hope to get my mind fixed again to afford the race in Zolder in better mental shape as the physical shape is ok, on the race in Kalmthout I was never at my maximum, didn’t even feel tired after the race just terribly disappointed!

 

 Impressions from the mens race (Vathourenhout leads the winner Nijs)

Have a peaceful Christmas and hope to see you in Zolder if possible without snow otherwise I’ll bring my skies instead of the bike. (lol)

Suzie