Well I have to say the course in Nove Mesto na Morave is one of my favorite race courses now. With 4.5 km filled with roots, rocks, jumps, drops, berms and a heinous amount of climbing in between the downhills your constantly thinking "This is fun, except for feeling while climbing.."
First off shout out to my roommate Evan "Shoes" Mcneely for a solid 29th.
I started in 42nd, of the 118 riders, which in my books was pretty solid. But after loosing a bunch of spots in the start loop due to the non-responsive stump like feeling legs I was in for a tough race. Battling it out, shredding the downhill and trying to rest up for the climbs worked out alright but not as I had hoped. I made up positions but not enough to satisfy my hunger for a better finish. The course was constantly up and down which meant even minimal recovery was tough to find. I had a full on battle with some Belgium dude who was climbing, like a "cougar" would when chasing her prey at the bar, but descended about as a slow as the average 104 year old person walks. One time he decided try and yell at me for passing him while he was off his bike, while racing a on bike bike race, and I was riding past him. His Belgium accent with an attempt of some possible English came out something like "ayyyaachzzayy" with a super serious unsafe arm throwing hand gesture. From then on it it was really on. It was now my mission to beat him no matter what. I ended up passing him on a uphill just before the finish and never looked back. There were lots of riders coming and going through the race whether it be me passing or me getting passed or other riders passing me or me passing other riders..Hopefully you get the gist of it. That passing and getting passed turned into a 48th for me.
I will post a video of the lap soon here, which will show full details of how unreal the course is. Also racing with the many Czech fans that were out made things a little better, getting cheers through the jumps and downhills made me feel a little better. Luckily no one was cheering on the uphills..that usually just means I'm riding really really slow and they feeling bad.
Today was a fun filled day watching the elite men and women. Always feel very fortunate to be able to cheer on our Canadian riders in person, on the course. Awesome rides by them today, Max Plaxton with a solid 14th for the men and Catharine Pendral with a 6th for the women.
Just finished consuming my last Czech dinner for the very appealing price $8.00 CAN. It's unbelievable how much food you get for so cheap here. I think my full on super upper class meal of lamb the other day was the first to make it over 10 bucks.. Our hotel also has the continental breakfast, not american style with a muffin and orange juice, but with eggs, granola, coffee, pastries, buns, meat and cheese. Which means the possibility of us sneaking out sandwiches for lunch is pretty high.
Off to Prague for some touristy sight seeing tomorrow with the main goal of locating a starbucks for Coach Dan. There could be some awesome photos up for that or there could be none if I'm having way too good of a time.
Check out more of Rob Jones Photo's
Here is a full video recap of the elite men's race. Click this Link.
Photo by: Rob Jones @ www.canadiancyclist.com
Over and out,
Gossip Girl
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