Did I mention that out of all the races I put sunscreen on, which is all of them, 60% of the time it gets washed off in the first 20 minutes? I know I talked about the wide dichotomy of weather conditions before, and after about 1.5 months here, I now take a rain jacket out on every ride; but this was something else.
Being over here in Europe, it's a bit difficult sometimes to keep up with the news happening in the States. Yes, we get BBC and the CCN World Edition, but other than that, with the new 20 article limit on the NYT website, my main source of news has been The Daily Show and my daily endeavors of comprehending a French Belgium newspaper. I just heard news of(and saw a video) of the Indiana State Fair disaster. Holy #$*U*#@O!
A similar event happened over here in Belgium on Thursday. I was actually thinking about going to this music festival but the tickets were sold out. This video sufficed(notice a band was still playing, at least initially, while the stormed rolled through). Instead, I had a bike race.
Now, I don't have any photos but you have to take my word that it was beyond surreal. I have never experienced a bike race, or any outside event for that matter, where the weather abruptly shifts from two extremes in a matter of minutes. Before the race, it was hot; I was sweating while putting on sunscreen. No undershirt, plenty of electrolytes, adequate bottles in the feed zone.
Within 20 minutes, it went from sun, hot, clear skies---to hail, wind, and absolute darkness. It was dark as night! Seriously. The news report from the concert said that the concert grounds experienced winds up to 90km/hr. I couldn't tell; I was more focused on making sure my sunglasses were secure, behind my helmet. Oh yeah, given that the pouring rain was hammering everyone in the face, no one bothered to look up, understandably. For about 3-4 laps, all I could see(barely) was the wheel in front of me. And then, out of no where, the sun appeared. This is summer in Belgium; I think I still have a lot to learn.
Oh yeah, and the race- a break went in the first 5 minutes and that was it! But there was so much more to it than that!
And then today....
Nice weather, hot, and dry. Or at least it seemed dry. Maybe because after the race was done, everyone was not only tired, but was peeling off all the caked on cow shit that accumulated over the race. It was only for a couple of short downhill sections though and by the 5th lap, I didn't see it anymore. I wonder where it all went.
The course today had an uphill Pavé section, which was a bit interesting. It actually wasn't too bad. Unless you run into someone.
I felt pretty good today and went with a few moves in the beginning and middle but after those were brought back, I was a bit tired and sat in the rest of the race. On the last lap up the hill, I had my head angled down at the road in front of me when suddenly out of nowhere, a wheel, then a seat post, and finally a complete bicycle frame appeared in my vision. I went right into a guy's wheel and rear derailer who was drifting backwards, killing all of my momentum. And, as I learned, it's very very difficult to get back up to speed on a hill with cobblestones. I lost major ground in the blink of an eye, but still finished, in the back, but finished.
112 riders started the race and only 63 arrived at the end so I'm content. Luc told me that not many Belgiums would be in the race today because they are preparing for the championship tomorrow, which hopefully would make the race a little easier. But it's never easy here. There were around 70 riders from Belgium today. So much for a mellow day before the Nationals!
That's about it for now. If I can find pictures from the race in the cyclone, I will definitely post those.
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