Crit in A'dam North

We had a national holiday today so there were some races organised. One of them was nearby in Amsterdam North in one of the old neighbourhoods. It turned out to be a very short course of just 900 meters (just over half a mile) which we had to do for 40km (just below 25 miles). Two more or less straight lines and 2 180degr. curves. I hate those courses, since I am (or thought :o ) terrible at riding curves.

Before the start the officials started to protest, it appeared that the organisation forgot the supply what we call daylicenses (you are licensed by the cycling union for just that race at a small fee of 4 euros) so they had to sign a paper. But the officials declared that unsuitable since it would not give official insurance coverage. Those girls were not allowed start, which s*cks when you drove a long distance to compete :( .

There were about 30 cat 3&4 riders, I started in front (2nd row) to be sure that I wouldn't have to play catchup due to inexperienced riders. Because the race before us got delayed I didn't have the oppertunity to learn the course, which made me a bit nervous. The race was on after some delay due to the above. When we hit the first laps I already notice that I wasn't doing so bad at the curves, in fact I was suprises that I was able to ride through them harder then most women. My teammate (we were the only 2 from our club) and me got a gap each time we went through the most difficult curve. I think it must be our home club course which is technical and where we race weekly which learned us to do those curves so well. She decided early on that she want to go for the leader price (the price for the person that passes the finish line first the most times). So I helped her as much as I could by occasionally pulling the pack towards the finish line so she could jump over me and cross the line first or jamming the group when she made a break (which of course gave a lot of shouting from the other women .... ;) ). I also tried a break for myself which I placed by pure luck the lap before a price sprint and I managed to stay away that lap so that was easy money.

I didn't manage to get in the position (4 or 5th going into the last corner) I wanted to be in the last lap. So I was to far back to make a go for the podium and came in 7th. For the first time I felt bummed since I wanted to be higher up, I felt stronger but somehow messed up my position the last lap :mad: . Ah well, still things to learn :rolleyes: . My teammate did win the race, she did get the good position in the last corner and her curve technique made the difference to keep a lead to the finishline. She won both the leaderprice and the race.