Tim ReinhartDiary of a U23 Rider
in Europe
5/2/02
The race was a 174 Kilometer long and was relatively all flat except
for the last 50 Kilometers when we reached a finishing circuit. There were
two climbs that we had to do there twice, and they were both about a
kilometer long. It was a great race for our team because it included cross
wind sections, and climbs, both areas in which we are strong in. The race
went pretty smoothly for us except for the very first crash of the day. It
was in the first 5 kilometers of the race, and about 15 riders went down. At
first I didn't even realize that any of us went down, but after a while of
looking around in the race, and wondering where Jon Retseck was I realized
that something had happened to him. We later found out that Jon had to go to
the hospital because he had a nasty gash in his knee, and he needed to get
some stitches in it. Luckily its not that bad and he is allowed to start
riding again in a couple of days.
During the race Mark Fitzgerald, Walker Ferguson, and myself were in a break
away for about 90 kilometers, but we were eventually brought back when we
reached the circuits. The Domo team was so insanely fast at the front that
it was so hard to sit in. When I came back to the pack I couldn't believe
how hard I had to fight to just hang on. Those guys make it look so easy.
The race eventually broke up with Patrick McCarty placing the highest in our
team coming in at 8th. With this result, and the 9th placing Pat received in
Liege he now sits in the top 15 in the world cup rankings for the U23's.
Yeah he's good.
On another note...Sterling Magnell went for a training ride from our
house the other day wanting to do a 6 hour ride, but he ended up getting lost
and riding for 10 1/2 hours. Luckily he was smart and bought a map, and he
only ended up riding past Brussels, which is almost half way across Belgium.
Oh well!
Timmy
This race was located on the northern coast of France. In fact our hotel was right
on the beach, and it would have been a really nice time except for the fact that we
were racing and not on vacation. When we arrived the day before we were all really
impressed with the view, and how clear and nice it was out. That all changed over
night. What was scheduled to be a nice sunny day with a high of about 20, turned
into a cloudy, foggy, mess with a temp creeping at about 10 degrees. The funny side
of this is that we later found out that inland about 20 Kilometers away it was about
10 degrees warmer, and Sunny all day long.
copyright © 2002 by Everette Carr. All rights reserved.
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