Hey there!
So, I ended up racing on Saturday at Sherman Park, a race that's organized by my team. I signed up to help out with the setup early in the morning before the first (my) race at 8:00 am. Helped set up barriers, spent 10 minutes trying to sweep off remains of a dead squirrel from the course. That thing was glued to the asphalt, yuck!
Warmed up with 20 mins to go before the race, lined up, had our rights read by the official and Randy, including the warning about not posting up in a case of a victory unless you're way ahead of everyone. Smart thinking, but I for sure wasnt gonna be making that decision today.
Whistle and off we went- a pack of 50 riders, almost half of whom were my xXx guys. I struggled in the past to stay with the pack, either because of fitness issues or turns and subsequent accelerations. This time around, due to the ease of Sherman Park course, I had an easy time riding with the bunch. I rode on the outside a number of laps, not taking advantage of a draft, to which a few teammates commented aloud. " Grab a wheel, don't waste energy!": they'd say, but I felt fine the whole time. Just before the final lap, I was in the middle of the pack when an ABD rider went down inches from me, and that killed any ambitions to take risks and move up on the final lap.
I simply rode it out and finished with the pack. I rushed off for course marshalling duties and didn't get a chance to see and verify the results. A few hours later, I went to check the results and saw no placing next to my name/number. Apparently, the camera couldn't catch my number as I crossed the finish line and since I wasn't there within 15 minutes to review the tape, I was not assigned a placing in the results. Talked to an official and they wrote in a "pack finish" but couldn't alter the posted results. Fine, I wasn't in the top 10 anyway so who cares. My guys went 1-2-3 and that is a great result.
Spent a few more hours marshalling, saw a couple crashes both of which were not supposed to happen if you ask me.
This EuroCup is turning out to be exciting, with Nederland, Portugal and Croatia being the most impressive teams so far. One more game left in the group of death with Italy, France and Romania still in play to go through to the Quarters. Turkey pulled of an amazing comeback Sunday to make the knockout stages, by scoring 2 goals in the final 3 minutes. Now who can say football is not exciting !? You should have watched this game.
I pick Dutch to win the whole thing, but you never know. We'll see.
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