My Sunday on bike.

Waking up at five o'clock on a Sunday morning is not in everyone's mind, I guess. It was in mine, as it was the national road race.I had to, as I had opted to travel to Pori on the two race days from rather than staying there for the whole weekend. Being smart afterwards, I think it was a good choice for many reasons. Firstly, we had time to solve and manage the technical issues with my TT-bike and secondly, it was very much a stress free day and there was no such boredom nor intentions to go to watch others racing on the day between our races. Besides, there was a lot of food in our fridge.

To the race then. Total of 15 laps and 180 odd kilometres on a relatively easy course in sunny weather was ahead of the peloton. On a personal note: that's the longest race ever for me. I had my own targets set for the race and I took it pretty relaxed as the only message from my support (mum and dad) was to have fun, have a good training and stay safe. Actually, I would have wanted to get into some early break, but as it so often happens – I missed it. I was in the top 15 when it went after some three kilometres, but got stuck in the bunch and the it was too late. Gutted I was. Then it settled down for a while until the strong guys started to make their first moves. I managed to follow one and another, but when those both came down I simply had to the bunch to rest for a while as we had still some 140 to go. Somewhere there those guys went again and then we never saw them again in the bunch. Then again, it settled down for a longer time.

Coming to the last hour some guys from the early break had dropped back and apparently one of the teams, V8, wanted to start moving again in the bunch and the intensity picked up again. I felt okay and found myself in the front several times, but never got away. Then, just before the last lap, there were couple lone guys in between the top six and the bunch. I managed to get there for my surprise with some others coming up there a tad later. I feel that I did a fair share with some guys skipping their turn in the front in the, lets call it, middle group and had no legs going to the final sprint. Had I had some legs, I dare to reckon that the result would still be the same with my sprinting abilities, that are actually non-existent.

I was 14^th in the results and happy with that. It actually was a place better than in the time trial. I didn't expect that. I'm pretty happy with my ride yesterday, and I think it is safe to say it was my best road race this far. All in all, my road nationals were okay if not good, when I consider where I was a week or two ago and yes, leave alone the technical problems on Friday.

Now a week until U6 Cycle Tour. Training, resting and eating until that.