So day two in Maine was a little warmer, well alot warmer, but the mud was even thincker, like oatmeal that's been in the microwave for too long.
It was good. The start was kind of crazy with a downhill mud section that was super wide and some dude put his bike into me and then someone ran over my head. That hurt. I grabbed the wrong bike then found my bike, went from bout 25th to 3rd in a few laps and broke my derail er hanger with 1/2 lap to go. Ran through the mud for 8th. That's cross. But something definetly clicked as I found myself riding really fast in the mud, I found how I could use my skill/strength to attack parts of the mud and use every once of energy into momentum. So I have to say that this was perhaps the most beneficial two races of my career. Crazy.
A huge thanks to our host family this weekend Chris and Phil for taking us in and feeding us some wicked chilli Saturday night.
Tasha rode consistent, but was a little under fired for the mud as she had also but in a big week of training and this was supposed to be a "b" race for us. It was supposed to be low key, but that's pretty impossible with the conditions, but hey you win some, you loose some.
This brings me to my next issue. WE are planning our European Campaign and we need some help. Basically we want to take a different approach then last year. We want to find a family that will host us, or maybe even a few different people who will take us in for a few weeks. SO if anyone who reads this has any family in Belgium/Holland and would like to take us in for a bit let us know, we would really appreciate it. We have had a alot of luck doing this in North America and the people we have met have been great so figure we will try to repeat the recipe in Europe and yield a similar outcome.
Ok, that's about it for today..see the local crew out in Kanata on Sunday.
1 comment:
Hi Derrick and Natasha.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to meet you at the Kanata Race on November 1st (I'm Greg Douglas). You may have found me a little awkward at first, but I've been wanting to meet you at an Ottawa event for some time, and I guess I may have been intimidated when the opportunity came. You certainly displayed your genuine warmth and ease at conversation. Thank you again for this wonderful blog, it's a great insight in elite level racing. Derrick, I'll also try your advice on the tires (Mavic tubular + Challenge), and thanks for the info on the Garneau bike. I'm really impressed with how light it is. Good luck with the rest of your already successful season...I'll be following.
Greg
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