Petange Luxembourg-Tasha 5th DSJ 25th

We had an early start to our day today as we drove through the early morning smog into the hills of France and Luxembourg. Wendy said this course was comprised of a huge climb, then a descent, couple turns in a field and voila. Well she wasn't lying. The course just went up and up and up and then up again and then down through muddy single track roller coaster like trails. Not really your typical Cross race that's for sure.

I didn't really get to see Natasha's race as she finished up 5th, Wendy was 4th. For the ladies the top spots were pretty competitive and it was a good way for Natasha to realize that she belongs racing against the best in the World. I think she was content with her performance and she is returning to form and all the pieces are starting to come together for her. We recieved an email that she has been nominated for an award, but it has not been confirmed yet, so we won't let the cat out of the bag...or the rabbit out of the hat or however tht goes.
Also you can check out her interview on Pedal mag: http://www.pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=14900

When I signed in for my race, I asked if they had my points, as I havn't been getting a call up.."yah yah, we have the list, pas de problem". If only it was that easy. No call up for Tasha either, but I just said something to the commisaire and made my way forward, they said ahhhh ok, 160 points "pas de problem". So today I had told myself that I was just going to go all out and see what happened. I knew if ever there was a day to squeeze out a better result it was today. So the gun goes off and it was just balisitc, and I just kept the pressure on for as long as I could. I have to say that today I think I learnt to go pass the limits. I was top 15 or so, maybe even better for the first two laps. I couldn't hold it to the end as I was loosing a little ground on some of the descents as I'm just not used to that style of racing. It was really hard, I think I went a little too hard when I was battling with a couple guys for 17th place or so and I attacked them on the climb, full out attack. In retrospect that was a little too hard cause i was so buggered i couldn't go through the technical corners as well mainly cause I couldn't see and had trouble focusing. And then the last lap I just fell apart as my bike had about 50 pounds of mud on it and it just felt so heavy. So I ended up 25th. And I got the last bit of prize money. I bought a coke, a rice pie and a magnum ice cream and now I am broke again. I was completly spent after the race, like never before.

I'd like to think my fitness is better, but Ken would say that it takes months to make physiological changes, so I'll chalk it up to learning how to suffer a little more "Euro Cross Styles". I'm pretty happy about this as usually I start off slow and just play catch up, but this actually felt more like racing, but I go a little too excited, next time I just need to relax a little more to also finish strong. But it was a good day at the office in one sense, since to know your limits you have to go pass them every now and then.

DSJ