by Maghalie Rochette

It was fast and furious. Vin Diesel would have enjoyed it. The only problem is that I wasn't that fast, and that made me a bit furious... Actually, I wasn't slow either, but I certainty wasn't fast enough to hold on to the leaders. Now, knowing why I wasn't fast enough... that is the difficult part!

Was I not fast enough because I am tired? Or was it because I need to train more?

Those are interesting questions, because they are both at completely opposite end of the spectrum. If you pick the wrong problem, its solution could make the situation even worse.

I guess that is one interesting thing about cycling! There is not one solution, or one recipe. Things are constantly moving and changing, and you have to adapt and adjust your strategy accordingly.

At this point in the season, there is only about 5 weeks left before the World Championships, so we figured we have nothing to lose. I don't feel tired mentally, so we will go towards the hypothesis that I need to train more (or at least more of the high end speed) until the World Championships in the hopes of finding my early season speed back!

I ended up 30th in Zolder, which is nothing to write home about, but I gave myself the commitment to send one of these newsletter after every big races. So here I am, writing home about it... In the opening laps, I was in the top 20 with everyone being fairly close to each other. I had a little tumble, which caused my brake hose to explode, which had me running a couple of steep descents and loosing many spots. After that, I rode as fast as I could to get back to 30th. The course was super fun, so that made it easy to keep pushing hard and stay positive. I did have fun even if my result wasn't good.

On the other hand, my mom, dad and sister were at the race. It was my sister's first cyclocross World Cup and I think she enjoyed it, so that's a win! Plus, it gave me extra energy every lap when I rode by them and heard them cheer for me!

We are back at Hof Ter Kammen (the house we rented) for the day, and tomorrow we start a 3 days racing streak! So technically, I have 3 more chances, in the next 3 days, to finally have a good race :)

Hope everyone had a good Christmas at home!

Cheers,

Maghalie

« What the hell just happened? »
photo : Gergely Schoff

MECHANIC'S TIP

Using rain water to wash bikes
Here, in Belgium, it rains a lot. At the Hof Ter Kammen, where we are staying, they recuperate the raining water to wash the bikes. What they do is that they re-direct the gutters inside of gigantic reservoirs. Then, when it's time to wash bikes, they use that water to do so.

They have a water outlet at the bottom of the reservoir where they plug the pressure washer, and off they go! David did the same thing at home and it's really nice for many reasons...you save water, and you do something useful with that water running down from the gutters, rather than have it flood your grass!

In Quebec, we don't pay for water, but here in Blegium they do, so that's one more reason to use that system!

IDEA WORTH SHARING

Discussion starters
Last year, I went on a frenzy where I wrote hundreds of conversation starter questions. David and I had a business idea, and those questions were a part of it. Turns out the business hasn't happened yet, but maybe one day!

The point is, I had these questions in a word document in my computer and we decided to use them during our Christmas dinner with the family. We had a lot of fun with them, so I thought I'd share a couple with you in case you have a Holiday dinner coming up and you are looking for ways to spice up the conversation, or to know your guests a bit more.

10 Conversation Starters
. What will you remember the most about the past year?
. One concert you absolutely need to see before you die?
. What’s your favorite moment of the day?
. If you could change your career, what would you do?
. Which decade do you wish you could have been alive for?
. Who do you wish you could see more often?
. What is one thing did your parents do that you are most grateful for?
. What is a book you really enjoyed this year?
. What cool company have you discovered recently?
. What is one thing you are really proud of?

WHAT'S NEXT?

Azencross, Loehnout : December 28th
Bredene Cyclocross: December 29th
Diegem Cyclocross: December 30th

Page mise en ligne par

Consultez notre ENCYCLOPÉDIE sportive

veloptimum.net

.

.

.