23 April 2007
Houffalize World Cup
Its been a super day for the team, with all four of us finishing in the top 8 of the first world cup. Roel was 4th, Fredrik 5th, Jacob 7th and me 8th. I've felt this form coming for a while, but I've done so few races it was really hard to know for sure where I was. Now its a nice feeling!
There must have been around 20 thousand spectators lining what is surely one of the best races on the circuit. The Belgian fans are so great! We started up a new super steep climb and here I could already feel the legs were good. After 1/2 lap I was in 23rd place, but I could feel I had lots in reserve. During the next lap I had the best feelings I've experienced in many years... I climbed with ease up till 6th place! Then I made a mistake and burped a lot of air out of my front tire. I filled it with a CO2, but lost 40sec and slipped back to 13th place again, very frustrating! I also lost my rhythm and was suddenly suffering a lot more. I decided to pace myself and ride conservative... passing just a few riders per lap. Overall, its the best I've felt for many years.
As a team, we are now leading the competition. After a really hard year last year, everyone was so happy and relieved. Roel was actually leading with Fredrik at the start, but punctured. Fredrik blew up a little, but top 5 is podium, which we didn't even achieve once last year! Jacob had his best ever world cup and started what looks to be a great battle with Nino Schurter for the U23 honors.
In the woman's race, it was a huge surprise to see Ren Chengyan from China take the win. She was the U23 world champ last year and it seems like shes come from no where! Rosara was 15th, Fiona 69th and Clinton Avery must have had some trouble as his result was 105th.
Its been a super day for the team, with all four of us finishing in the top 8 of the first world cup. Roel was 4th, Fredrik 5th, Jacob 7th and me 8th. I've felt this form coming for a while, but I've done so few races it was really hard to know for sure where I was. Now its a nice feeling!
There must have been around 20 thousand spectators lining what is surely one of the best races on the circuit. The Belgian fans are so great! We started up a new super steep climb and here I could already feel the legs were good. After 1/2 lap I was in 23rd place, but I could feel I had lots in reserve. During the next lap I had the best feelings I've experienced in many years... I climbed with ease up till 6th place! Then I made a mistake and burped a lot of air out of my front tire. I filled it with a CO2, but lost 40sec and slipped back to 13th place again, very frustrating! I also lost my rhythm and was suddenly suffering a lot more. I decided to pace myself and ride conservative... passing just a few riders per lap. Overall, its the best I've felt for many years. As a team, we are now leading the competition. After a really hard year last year, everyone was so happy and relieved. Roel was actually leading with Fredrik at the start, but punctured. Fredrik blew up a little, but top 5 is podium, which we didn't even achieve once last year! Jacob had his best ever world cup and started what looks to be a great battle with Nino Schurter for the U23 honors.
In the woman's race, it was a huge surprise to see Ren Chengyan from China take the win. She was the U23 world champ last year and it seems like shes come from no where! Rosara was 15th, Fiona 69th and Clinton Avery must have had some trouble as his result was 105th.
