Drongen

I need to go training this morning before I head out with the VWF team to be their mechanic in the team car for their race today, but its raining so I will blast of a quick post.
I raced on Thursday in Gent, an evening kermesse of 16 laps for 120 km on a windy course. With 78 riders it was on the small side compared to my last outing, but I knew this was my chance to get my name in the paper and get the good times rolling again. There was a huge contingent of foreigners on the start, mostly Brits and Aussies. Their is a house in Gent that puts up foreigners for a fee and puts a squad together. They occasionally do interclubs, but mainly its a case of brave individuals facing the harsh realities of trying to make it in cycling. The house is known to be somewhat corrupt with crammed and poor living conditions, every time I hear about it I am reminded of how incredibly fortunate I am to be in the situation I am in.
As for the race it was fast as usual. The wind and a couple of climbs made for none stop action and no let ups in pace. About half way through the peleton broke into two pieces, I made it in the front half and started jumping into breaks of which many seemed promising, but ultimately never made it. A few times I was caught on the wrong side a big splits and I could go across solo, but then within minutes things would come together again. I missed the only real move of the day that eventually put 11 riders up the road. In the final couple of kms I bridged a big gap solo over the last climb thinking that if I could stay in the front group of 8 I could nab my top 20. With two corners to go we still had a gap, but by the last corner the second group rolled onto us and then the last wide open sprint left me completely gutted as I had put a lot of effort in to bridge what I thought was going to be a crucial gap. In the end I was 27th, not pleased, but the legs feel good and tomorrow's race is a tough one so as long as I can still tap into some form I should be good to go for that result I have been chasing for so long.
It has stopped raining now. Time for a pre race spin and then its off to the races.