Mitch's bad luck streak continues...
Raced outside of Gent yesterday at a kermesse. One of the big doper teams showed up with their two best guys, so we knew it was goign to be hard, that and the 120+ other guys at the start line.
The circuit if only 3.7 miles and flat with a good amount of wind and nice flowing corners, so I really liked it.
One thing about Belgians is that they're not used to pedalign through corners; they sprint out of them, wasting more energy than they need to. This is where I come in.
By the first turn, I shot from the middle to the front to make up a ****-load of positions. I was riding on the extreme right of the road when I hear "Links!". I make a little room and I see the black, red and yellow helmet of one of the heavy-hitting dopers, who used to be a Belgian nat'l champion, with his teammate on his wheel flying up the side of the peloton.
That was the last I saw of them.
Anyways, lots of fighting for position, a few stupid moves and lots of yelling...yadda, yadda, yadda.
There was a backstretch into the wind with a bunch of right hand 90* turns. I found that if I drilled it through the outside of turn #2 ont he stretch, it set me up perfect for turns 3-4 and I gained tons of room there, the only thing was that I was coming mm from pedal striking, so it was a big risk, but worth it, IMO.
At one point, on a wooded part of the course, I was on the extreme left, with a hard-right turn 150m up, there was a car parked on my side up ahead; I knew that I wouldn't hit it, but some asshat comes barreling through on my left and squeezes in between the car and myself. He pushes into my left hand and I in turn push into the guy on my right.
The guy then proceeds to brake hard in the turn and makes us all lose ground on everyone else.
What did I do? I open-handed him on his helmet and called him a "sh*t-for-brains". I became Belgian today.
A few laps later, I hit a pothole with some force and pinch flatted. I rode the rim into the ditch and proceeded to cry.
Average W: 253W , Average speed: 26.7mph