The course in Nove Mesto was pretty cool! The forest and the ground is the kind, I love the most. Dry, soft pine forest. In Nove Mesto it was spiced up with a lot of rocks – and unfortunately one of those rocks flatted my tire after the first 500 meters. Bummer!..
Well, at least I got to practice my “riding-a-flat-tire-skills” Honestly, how often do you get to to that?.. Luckily I didn’t have to ride that far before I reached the tech-zone in order to change my rear wheel, but since the race just started, it led to the fact, that the entire field passed me by and disappeared out of my sight, before I started my lonely ride. At the tech-zone, I couldn’t see my own soigneurs, so a big thank to the Specialized Racing Team for helping me with a fresh wheel.
Everyone, who has been racing, knows how discouraging such a mechanical can be, especially when it happens almost before the race even has started. I did my best to change my perspective from “I wan’t to stick with the front” to “how many people can you overtake.” I tried to focus on every single battle and taking one step at a time. At the end I ended up crossing in 22nd position. Not what I hoped for, but then there’s a new chance the next race..
