2011 Tour of New Braunfels Men’s Cat 2/3 Omloop
The best descriptive word for this race is frenetic. The energy and excitement of the two’s getting upgrade points without those pesky 1′s in the mix was palpable. Most of the 3′s were along for the bumpy ride.
The Omloop course was great , except for a couple of erosional potholes mostly on the left side of the road. These would occasionally come out of nowhere and try to lead unwary cyclists into the grass with their siren’s cry… After a couple of laps, the peloton would move to the right to avoid the pothole, which prompted other racers to sprint up the left side, thinking that the peloton must have moved to the right just so they could come to the front. Using their spoke as weedwackers to cut the grass encroaching on the pavement, these racers were the usual suspects ending up in the grass. I can’t blame them for trying to move up, but when the whole peloton moves over simultaneously, there is probably a reason. Potholes!
A few breaks went early and were caught. You could tell some of the bigger teams wanted a sprint finish, and as I learned earlier, the course is deceivingly unfriendly to breakaways. When you race 2 and above you have to really fight for your position. Everyone is much more aggressive and everyone is experienced enough to know to try to be at the front. Problem is there are only so many people that can be at the front. I was taking a couple of pulls to bring breaks back, working for Jon. It was a fun race, but I don’t have much to show for it. In the last lap I moved up around 30 places, but could not break into the top twenty. I tried a last ditch effort to go up the left side, yelling to keep people from running me off the road. I passed Jon, trying to get him on my wheel and take him to the front, but there was no room as racers were all across the road for the finish. There was no one driving hard enough at the front to string the field out as I expected. I didn’t sprint for the finish and coasted in for about 20th position.
Congrats to Austin Bikes for taking the sprint win!
Lovely write, great web page theme, maintain the great work
You are SO right, Becca!! He IS growing up way too fast! And as exietcd as we are to see him reach all of his new milestones, I wish there was a way to preserve some of his (for lack of a better word) “babyness”. Good girl for taking (and sharing) so many pics and videos…these are memories/moments in time that you will never get back, and you help make it a little more bearable being so far away!So happy you love the table and chairs. They ARE pretty and great bargain hunting!! :>)We love and miss you all!!!XXOOXXOOXXOOXXOO!!!
Thanks for stopping by and for your lovely comments! For sure we also have our fair share of strangely dressed cyclists, but 'normal' cyclists are most definitely in the ascendant. With 80% of journeys in the UK by car being under 5 miles there's just no need to get dressed up – cycling is the practical, cheap and often fastest option and you can do it in your ordinary clothes – I am hoping we are moving towards a more European model of cycling all the time.I'm touched you like the photos – until very recently it has been dark and grey in London and very hard to get decent 'action shots' that don't come out blurry. I've just got a new camera too, so this was me going out and exploring for the first time with it – hopefully there will be lots more to come.Do stop by again – it's always great to hear from a reader (especially from the other side of the world!)Mark