MILES WATSON

24th sat June 7:15

Last Saturday I had a 90km crit, 2km a lap. I placed 14th which I was very pleased about; I got about 3rd or 4th in the bunch sprint. In every race about a 3rd of the way threw the race there is a break of about 6-10 riders which I’m soon going to get in. Yesterday I placed 6th, it was a 70km crit lap length 1.1km. I stared about 15th in the bunch and that was my mistake which I thought would be fine. The straights over here are so short that it is very hard to pase people most of the time, and in this race the break had been made and I was unable to get into it. In every race there are usually 4 bunches I was in the 4th and bridged it up to the 3rd by myself, road with them for awhile. In every race the attrition rate is huge and in this race people where popping every two laps or so. We then caught up to the 2nd bunch and this is the bunch I road most of the race in. It is very hard in these races to know how many laps there are left in the race or where you are in the race, because people are getting lapped all the time. We had about 10 laps to go, in by that stage I was keeping an eye on any attacks. I made an attack which has been one of my first as I am just starting to build up a little bit of strength now. Then there were 3, of us and then I made an attack with 4 to go with my team mate, but with two to go he hit the other guy’s wheel and ended up rolling off into the ditch. The bunch was coming so me and this other guy worked together for one lap, then I could see the bunch getting closer so I made and attack with one lap to go thinking pretty much I was winning the race. It was lucky because just going over the line I could see the other riders ahead. Having those kind of thoughts in your mind are really good sometimes not knowing where you are in the race can work for you as you push yourself harder. If you think you have like 10 laps to go instead of 20 which I thought we had left in the race than we makes you work a whole lot harder. I went with every break and was smashing the peelton to bits, man its great to know that you were the one who caused all of the carnage in the race. I’m getting used to understanding the racing, buts its still hard to keep track of how many laps and If your bunch is the front bunch or if there are riders out the front. Really need race com. Sometimes like yesterday you cant have to much strategy, but just race up the very front and race hard the whole time and not bother out being a pelleton parasite and seating backing and waited for the sprint, because if you are not right at the front you don’t know if riders are out the front or what. I know that you should try to stay up the front in all races but over it is the most important thing I think you can do. The racings is hard out from the word going all I can hear is my HR monitor going beep, beep and if I get the chance to look down I will see it at 190HPM plus for just about the whole race. The corners on all the courses are either tight or extremely tight with, usually lumps and bumps and bad seal. We go around 90 degree corners at 15km and reach 55km after about 3secs leaving the corner. Or if we get not such a tight corner we will take it around 50km and be sprinting hard out of the corner. With such an uneven road surface a lot of the time the wheel is half airborne and literally bouncing around the corning trying to keep traction and stay on the road. Over here people are a lot more skilled at riding there bikes and now I’m enjoying taking the corners in the bunch which is a big change from a lot of the riding back home, where people usually crawl around the corners. Today two team mates and I went for a 5hr training ride, went out to a climb called the Copinburg, I think that is how you spell it. The climb is where the tour of Flanders goes over, really steep, lots of cobles like you see in cycle mags, your wheels literally are riding not on the surface but in-between the cobbles. If you try to sprint which you can only do for about 7secs as the resistance on your legs is enormous. Its about 800m long, if your riding at about 85% you would b riding up at 5kmph, I was going full out and was just barley keeping the Speedo over 10kmph, I don’t want to brag but I’m not slouch on the climbs either so you can imagine what its like. When you sprint your back wheel bounces all over the roads it’s like riding up a creek on a MTB. It was lots of fun and a good experience.