Luxembourg Festival- Nicholas Frants UCI road race

Today was a day noting about- that's for sure! Just like every other day, we woke up and ate a huge breakfast first thing, and then two hours later we tried to consume lunch. If I have to look at one more grain of rice or noodle on my plate i'm going to flip. I ate so much bread, as it was delicious, and helps that it is easily digested before a race, dipped in balsamic vinegar and a little bit of oil. YUM! We arrived early at the race this morning once again, but it was great to be able to sign in and then we were able to re ride the big climb in the finishing circuits. The race got off to a very fast start today. The first 52km circuit was the exact same as yesterdays circuit, except we started about half way through. The finishing circuits were completely different however, being 7km each with a 1.5km or longer climb at 20% grade. The start of the race was fast, and I was up front in the wind. I knew that I either had to sacrifice energy, or sacrifice being at the back of the pack. With it being the last race, and having the plan Denise gave me, I knew that it was the day where I was going to be riding a lot in the wind and sacrificing some energy. Denise told me this morning that I was to attack off the front today, and she wanted me to get a gap so that my name, number and country would be heard all over the race radios. When I first heard this I laughed a little, until I looked over at her serious face. I didn't see that coming at all. I have been having the hardest time getting right to the front, in fact, I had not seen the very very front of the pack past 5km into any race here yet. I knew however it being my last race, I could lay everything down on the line, so I told myself I mise well give it a chance. The ultimate plan today for me wasn't just to finish, as we knew in advance with the steep climb and only a handful of riders finishing this course last year that it would be tough to finish. I was upfront, circulating in the "washing machine" of riders in the front part of the peleton for the first 20km. I had been leading at one point, maybe 2 seconds, before I was swamped with riders. I had my hands on the hoods, and by the time it took to move my hands to the drops to attacked, I was already back in 20th wheel and stuck in the middle. It is THE hardest thing to get out to the side of the peleton when the roads are narrow and there are cars parked every 100 meters on the side of the road. I eventually did, and I made my journey back up to the front. This time, without any hesitation, I attacked! I sprinted as hard as I could away from the peleton. I got about a 10 second gap, and was bridged up by two other riders. I had chosen a very good part of the course to attack at this point. There was a huge construction site that caused some crashed yesterday, and I was able to lead through it today out in front of the group, escaping the mess and smells of burning rubber. I had no idea that I was at the point with construction when I had attacked, but it worked out to be pretty darn lucky! I was caught very soon after, but I was able to gather back up into the pack and stay up front. The race was very fast, flowing through the forest on great roads. About 15km later, I attacked again. I came from being in the draft of 15 riders, and when I was in front, I noticed that I had attacked into a head wind- not the best idea for me at this point with burning legs. I got a fairly big gap this time, and no one had came with me. I was up with the cameras and the motorcycles. Man, it was SO much fun- crazy and hard- but totally mind blowing to know I had just attacked and raced off the front of a peleton with world champions, Olympic champions etc...and I was by myself. (I hope someone got a picture of it, I was looking around for one when I was off the front hahah!) . The group got very strung out and they started chasing me back. There were a few HTC girls and a Netherland Bloeit on the front. It was very exciting to get chased down by them, as bad as that sounds haha! I was so exstatic that I had strung the group out! I was caught and I was trying to stay up front once again. I didn't know if I had one more attack in me left, but the steep climbs and circuit was approaching very fast, and I knew I had to be at the front at this point. I spent almost the entire rest of the large loop riding a cm away from the edge of the road on the side. I was being pushed around a lot by girls, but I knew that if I went back into the middle of the pack for draft, I would be pushed back about 50 spots within ten seconds. A Hitech Product girl crashed right in front of me, and clipped the back end of Amelia from HTC's wheel. I hit the HTC girl and slammed into a guard rail, crushing my finger. Everything else was good, except I had lost about 100 wheels, and I had a lot of ground to make up. Within the next 15 minutes I was able to move up to about 15th wheel- an excellent position to start the first climb. The first climb was tough! I don't have the same fitness or experience yet of all these professional riders. I was lucky to had started the climb at the front, as I finished the climb at the back of the group-allowing me to climb about 1-2 km slower than everyone else. It was really smart, but I had to try to move my way back up again. This climb shattered almost half the peleton. Up the next climb, I saw leah's chain come off, and her wheel was jamming, and every time she pedalled, it wasn't pushing her bike forwards. I jumped off my bike and handed her my bike. I gave her a push up the hill and went to the side of the road to wait for Denise and the mechanic in the follow car (luckily we were #1 car- how lucky to get it twice in one trip!- it NEVER happens!). I figured that I going to struggle to get up the next 4 steep climbs, and I knew that what I had accomplished in this race already with attacking solo off the front was amazing for me, and I knew that Leah had a better chance than I did for the finishing circuits to stay up there. The mechanic jumped out of the car when I flagged the Canada car down, and they had trouble with what had happened to her bike. We unfortunately didn't have a spare bike today either. I jumped on leah's bike and started chasing, it was strange as her seat post was a solid few inches lower than mine, to find her turned around up the hill. We had different pedal systems, but we have almost identical cleats and pedals. We thought they were the same, but we guessed wrong. Ritchie and Look Keo must be cousins, definitely not brother products. We started chasing really hard, each of us pulling through, and then Denise drove up and we hopped on the back. We were motor pacing so fast, we had no more gears left and couldn't go any faster even though we could have gone faster. We were talking about funny stuff like motor pacing with Marian back a few years. It was hard to see, being an inch away from the back bumper, and trying to be low enough down to see the mechanic pointing through the back windshield which way to turn at 60km/hr. It was a little terrifying, but after all these races- I'm really not scared of anything anymore ahha. We never were able to catch back up to the main peleton, and we were both eventually time cut. Only Leah G was able to finish today. Its a strange, but rewarding feeling giving up a bike to help out a teammate. I always want someone on my team to make it as far as they can, making sacrifices is just part of racing. After the race we went and ate a home made waffle in a festival tent that was covered in icing sugar mmm. We had won 29 euros for coming 19th in the TTT on Friday! HAH! So we put it towards waffles. The Aussie national team ,Garmin Cervelo came up to Denise after and was impressed and excited that he heard my name and Team Canada solo attack on all the race radios and caravan cars. It made me so excited. I want to stay here and race so much. I feel like I am progressing so fast, two more weeks here I would be right up there. Hopefully next year I can show even more of what I can do with some good winter training and a good 2011 racing season under my belt. OH YAH> I SAW FRANK SCHLECK TODAY!. I got his picture too. I had scopped him out in the awards presentation tent, but I was embarassed to go ask him for a photo, so my coach went to ask him to come talk to the Canadian Gang so I could get my picture haha! We talked to him for a while, I feel that if i poked him he would crumble though. He's SO skinny. I always thought he was super skinny on tv, but it was crazy seeing him in person- no wonder why he is SUCH an amazing climber. He made fun of us for staying/living in Belgium. It really is crap compared to Luxembourg. I accidently stepped on his foot when we went to get a picture- it was embarrassing hahah. I was so excited to meet him! The picture is uploaded to facebook- but I am back to crappy internet- and I don't feel like waiting 6.5 hours for it to upload here. Its worse than dial up almost!

Tomorrow is a holiday here- so I am hoping that grocery stores will be open to buy chocolate and speculoos. If not ill probably cry. I have a lot of packing to do which will take most of the day, and we might go out for dinner.

Last blog probably tomorrow or the next day until my next races!

Time for sleep- I'm so cracked and exhausted from a crazy weekend of climbing and racing.

KArlee