Last weekend I started my international season at the European cup in Caorle, Italy. I decided to drive there with two friends Pierre and Ludo as it was a 6h drive. the A/C broke down midway through our journey and it became very uncomfortable in the car, which is not the best before a race. Anyways we got there in the end. We stayed in an airbnb near the race. The atmosphere with the two guy was chilled but focused which was perfect before the race.
On Saturday, the race was pretty late in the afternoon (16h30), I actually enjoyed having spare time in the morning to sleep in and chill.
About the race. It was a beach start and I messed it up. I had number 28 so near the middle of the field so even though everyone went to the left side of the start line, I went right inorder to have more space to swin and not be in the washing machine in the middle. Well that didn’t work. When the gun went off I ran to the water but right at the beginning a girl fell right in front of me making me fall too… I had to start the swim at the back. As I was progressing towards the first buoy I was slowing down because of the mass of girls in around of me, It felt easy but I just wasn’t able to get past the big pack. I came out of the swim a 20odd seconds off the lead pack and after having a pretty quick transition a few girls form that second pack worked hard straight away to bridge to the first pack as we were only 15’’ away. It took us about one of the six laps to come back to the first pack. I actually threw up when we bridged but I think that might have been the salt water or maybe a side effects of the migraines I had had all week leading in. The rest of the bike was pretty easy although it was quite dangerous as some girls don’t know how to ride a technical course in a group and kept cutting right in front. There were some crashes next or in front of me but luckily I managed to dodge all of them. About 300m before the end of the bike I rode into a put hole and my rear tire blew. I had to be really carefull and couldn’t position myself optimally for t2. I got out of T2 in 12-13th position and made my way up to 7-8th on the first few hundred meters but I soon felt my legs weren’t too good and got caught up by a few girls. On the second lap my legs started feeling better and I could catch up 2 girls but it was already too late. I ended up in 13th at the end, not the result I came for but the season is still long.