Monday, May 11, 2009, 07:14 AM
Posted by Coryn Rivera
It's really happening. All that I've been dreaming of, racing in Europe. It's here. It didn't hit me until I walked into registration, looking at all the other Belgian girls thinking, "Sweet, I get to race these euro chicks and show 'em what's up."
After going through an intimidating registration we kitted up in the USA National Team kits and rode one lap of the kermesse. 1 lap was about 6.5km long and we did 9 laps. The start was a bit of a mess with people running all over the place. The start was pretty fast, a break of 15 went off the front immediately, but they eventually got caught on the first lap. I attacked a few times and went with some moves, but none stuck...they either got closed down or some people weren't cooperating. But on the last lap it was all together. Everyone was just looking at each other. I was a little cramped up in the gutter. Then during the last 1/3 of the course I attacked in the gutter and hammered to the finish line solo! I couldn't believe it!! I WON my first European race!