MILES WATSON

07/08/06

Halo as they would say from Belgium

It’s been raining here for the past week now, on and off and the temp is now bearable. For the first time in my life I was actually glad to have a few days of rain, & listen to the pit pata of rain as I went to sleep. The locals say this summer has been a lot hotter than previous summers. On sat 29th of July, I raced a crit in Holland, where I managed to get in a break of 13 riders. We all worked pretty well together and only stared attacking each other on the last lap. Just as I had gone to the back bunch an attack came with 700m to go. It was a technical part of the course and I was unable to jump on a wheel. The road was cobbled so we all ended up sitting down and time trialing to the finish in ones & twos. I placed 9th and the bunch came in 40secs later. There were about 100 riders in the race that day. My next race was on 3rd of August which our team only just made it to the start of the race. It took an hour and a half to bike to the race, and we got to the start line with 1:30min to go. There were 163 starters & when we came to line up we were came from the front which was sweat ha-ha. I had had a good rest since my last race so I was ready to give this one death. Half a lap in I went off the front with three other riders for a lap, which didn’t last long as we soon got consumed by the bunch. I was blown for a few laps, so I was now just cruising in the middle of the bunch. The weather had been looking crap all day & then it started to down pour. I quickly started to move up to the front of the bunch to get out of crashes, which literally took 15km kms as the pace is so fast, and the course so technical, with weather conditions making for harder work. Once I was up near the front I went off the front to try and make a break, wow scary. With all the adrenaline and trying to speed around the corners with cm’s of rain on the road causes sums serious aqua planning. I almost went off the road which was the case for a lot of the other riders in the bunch trying to nail it. I had been feeling good for the whole race, with 20 mins left in the race I blew. I had forgotten to bring gels, & we were only being feed water. With two laps to go I was now trying to conserve as much energy as possible & make sure I didn’t drop any wheels or I’d be screwed. As I had nothing left in the legs. In the last lap there were attacks going left right & center. I was now just trying to minimize how much I was dropping back in placing as I could do nothing else. I placed about 6th in my bunch sprint & placed 45th in the race which isn’t too bad. Made 17 euro, 10 euro I was given to start & 10 euro for my place, & 3 euro for entry. I had been taking it easy after that race as I knew I would have done some serious damage to body racing with no food. I really wanted to do well in my next race which was a U/23 race, which had a climb. I felt good from the start covering every break & making breaks. Quite suddenly after about 40mins I just started to feel really bad with no energy left in the legs, very high heart rate, & a dizzy head so I pulled out. I’m now having a couple of days off as; I think my race with no food really took it out of me more than I had first thought. I’m now coming backing well with good spirits & higher energy level & will be racing on Friday the 11th July, & then racing at the inter club on the 17th which is a race where I should do really well. Some of the guys & I on the team & have been watching the Junior World Track champs, which has been so cool to see some more kiwis I know, & to see them race has been awesome to. The Junior World Road Champs are happening on the 20th of July in Spa in Belgium, I & some of the guys in the team are planning on going over. Go Kiwis Go.

Cya

Miles.