Back from Holland

I was without internet for the past three days because I was out racing in Holland at the brand new track in Apeldoorn. We drove up to the track and were simply astonished by how amazing the facility was. Inside there is cafe and as you look to the left there was the 5000 seat velodrome and to the left there was a volleyball area. Also underneath the track there was a running track complete with a long jump pit.

We stayed at a vintage looking hotel near the velodrome Friday Night and were surprised to see an American Muscle car that the owner had bought on Ebay from Texas. He was super proud. After a nice breakfast we went to the track for the first day of racing. As a team we almost were in every single race with far less people than some of the other national teams (Dutch, Belgium, Great Britain, Czech, and US). My first race was the team sprint with Ian Moir and Juan Carmona. We did a time of 50 seconds which was only a second slower than the winning GB team. Then I did my first Kilo ever which was just as painful as I have heard. The first two laps were not terrible but then the third was really hard and on the fourth my legs came off! I have never experienced pain like that before. The last even I had for the day was the Keirin which was very different from the US. They were far faster than any keirin I have done in the United States, and I finished 6th.

On Sunday I woke up with really heavy legs and was never able to shake it, but I still went for it. I only had the sprints but doing all out efforts really take a toll. My 200 wasn't as good as I was hoping for, but I heard from a GB sprinter that his 200 time was much slower because of the track. I had a few good moves in the sprints but I just didn't have much and finished 7th.

Now I am just relaxing back in Izegem. I took the day off because my legs were feeling really heavy, but I did enjoy a nice ride to the square with Kit and Russel, who just arrived today, to have some coffee. Tomorrow the group of us who are racing Axel are going to preride the course to get a feel for how horrible the cobbles are.

Post later.