Serskamp 1.14.3 Juniores - Saturday 25th June:
My dad had arrived on the Friday after I had a few days living on my own. He had rented a car which was excellent for travelling to the races. We got to Serskamp early on Saturday had a coffee and I was one of the first to sign-on. Although the car was excellent, you'd miss the Hymer - especially for getting washed afterwards! The field was the biggest I've been to in Belgium (84) as the Juniors were now finished exams.
The course was good, 6.5km with 9 corners and mostly good road surface with a few bits of road furniture. We had 90km altogether (14 laps). Of course it started fast, don't need to write that down as it's common in Belgium! Since the peleton was bigger you could afford to make some minor mistakes as you could hide a small bit more. I was feeling quite good throughout, except for the last 2 laps where I was fighting off a bit of cramp! Coming to the finish I played it safe as there was a few pile-ups. So I just held my position and rolled in 44th, Although the riders 10 meters ahead were sprinting for top 10 placings, so that just shows the numbers! I was happy with my performance, especially knowing I could have done a lot better in the finish if I had not been such a little girl!
Schelderode-Merelbeke 1.14.3 Juniores - Sunday 26th June:
After a tough days racing the day before, I had doubts on how my legs would be on Sunday but when I woke my legs felt surprisingly good, very good! It was a bit harder to find the sign-on, as the sat-nav directed us into some corn fields! But luckily we left in plenty of time to find the small village and had hours to get prepared. We had parked up, watched some "Nieuwelingen" racing which was on previous to the Juniores, and had the usual pre-race coffee.
A field of 60 Junior riders had turned up today and 6 ASFRA riders so I was excited to race with some of my new team-mates. The course was brilliant, 6.1km nice rolling roads with a small drag, and we had 13 laps. The weather was excellent +30deg, so that could have been a factor as the weather is not like this here in Ireland!
The race was brilliant, it was definitely my most enjoyable while being in Belgium! A break went after 5 laps or so and 15 guys were up the road, which until after the race I didn't know about as the lead cars drove behind the break, I thought that I was at the front of the race! So when I made a jump across to (what I thought was the break) in the last lap, I thought I was after pulling a genius move! Although I was very happy that at that point in the race after being active and involved throughout I had good legs to make any sort of move. At the finish I thought I was after getting 9th place, but minutes later found out there was 15 up the road and I ended up 23rd! but regardless I was still happy as I had a good race and massive progression had been made.
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| Cooked! |
It was definitely a great experience, and I have so many stories to tell but obviously cannot write them all down here.
Now since I am home, the plan is to ride the "Junior Tour of Ireland" before I head back to Belgium for some more fun, and I'll probably stay there for most of the remainder of my season. I may be doing some big races but I'm going to keep my head on my shoulders for the moment and I'll see what happens! So I hope this blog was informative and to the point, until next time stay tuned! Please excuse any bad grammer..
Eoin
Link to the Junior ASFRA Racing Team's website:
http://juniorenasfra.webs.com/leden.htm
Also, another big thank you to Lazer helmets for their continued support and for this new lid :
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