Sunday, December 28, 2008

A Belgie Christmas

With the Zolder World Cup race on Boxing day we didnt really celebrate much of Christmas on the day. Stefan and Helen, sporting her "I HEART CHRISTMAS" pin, woke up early to open presents but the rest of us rolled out of bed much later and all that was left was ripped paper and a few things under the tree. I got some yummy Belgian chocolate and a heart shaped frying pan for my eggs! (I had cracked last trip and bought the house a couple of new frying pans so my eggs wouldnt taste like burnt bacon). A preride on the course and race prep was about as festive as we got after that. Ok maybe I had some of my Xmas chocolate...

The Zolder course was super fun. A lot of the girls were surprised at what they had put together but I thought it was a great course. Twisting in and around a formula 1 race track, it used the sandy banks and woods to make a short fast loop that on the day, was pretty frozen as it hovered around zero.

As I looked around on the start line I realized that I was one of the few gals that did not have legs or knees on. Hmm. Usually I use Georgia Gould as my litmus paper as she is always wearing fewer clothes than me. Not today. No time to reconsider. The light turned green and we were off down the loooong paved straightaway. Unfortunately the stretch pinched at the finish banner and as a result I got pushed back further than normal. And then things got chaotic. Every second corner we turned had bodies on the ground or piled up in the corner. I am not sure what the hell happened but I do know someone tried to ride OVER me as I have tire burn marks up my calf. I stayed pretty calm and passed girls here and there. I made my way up to the chase group and could see the lead group but as things got more technical it was harder to make up time. Frozen descents. Brick wall run ups. Sandy corners. When Maryline Salvetat came by me with a few gals on the start of the second lap  I knew it was now or never for the bridge. Apparently I had the 2nd fastest lap but never quite made the jump to the lead group. Salvetat did.

So that left me "drafting" off a wee Czech girl. I was trying to race smart but I the 5ft-er was doing nothing for me and a few girls were closing in so I decided to push on. The wee one drafting off me the whole time. Once she realized where I was making time on her, she starting to CHOP me.  I got pissed off and started to chop back. two can play at that game. Unfortunately we started to focus too much on each other instead of the overall picture and lost a couple spots out of stupid passes. On the last lap, after my battle with the wee one was over and I was spent, I saw Luna colours charging hard. What the hell? I just assumed Georgia was ahead of me. She passed me and then proceeded to fly head first over her bars and eat shit on the last sandy corner. I had to scramble around here and run scared up the finish chute to stay ahead for 9th place. 

We celebrated Christmas last night (27th) with a big feast. Stefan spent all day in the kitchen roasting chickens, veggies, making custard and nutroast. It was so yummy it did not last long. But we will need the fuel as we have hit a cold snap here in Belgium and its hard to stay warm. Next race Azencross Dec 30th. 


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woof. Norm does not give me enough treats. He makes me run all the time......please come home.....Woof!

MArty

Anonymous said...

A heart f-pan...and chocolate.... there must be a christmas god out there. And a kicker of a race to boot! rock on rock star.

Richard said...

You can't go wrong using Georgia Gould as my litmus paper. :)
... sounds like a brutal race. Congratulations on a hard fought 9th.