This past Monday I raced in a UCI called Schaal Schoeters, which was one of my first UCIs I did last year. It was a good reminder of how far I've come in the last year. When I did it last year I was struggling at the back the entire race and didn't even make it to the front of the peloton to go with attacks. I remember that it was a very wet day and that I was just racing to survive and hopefully make it to the local laps. This year I raced like an entirely different person. Instead of hiding at the back I was constantly in the top 30 and followed acceleration after acceleration without much problem. I felt very strong and maybe was a bit too aggressive in the first 80km. When the peloton reached the local laps there was a small breakaway up the road and the race basically turned into a kermis. There were constant attacks and attempts to bridge the gap to the leaders. After just a few laps the entire race was broken apart into many small groups with the CC team having Bret Blembocki and Yarden Gazit in good positions. I was in a group just behind Yarden and was hurting pretty bad towards the end of the race. I wasn't too happy with my result, which was just inside the top 50, but felt pretty good about the way I raced and how deep I dug near the end of the race.
I've come a long way in the past year and with my current fitness I am really looking forward to the stage races that start in just a few weeks. I've been in Belgium for 4 months now and am planning on making the most of my final 2. Time is definitely not standing still so I really have to go after each and every race. My next chance is another UCI this weekend, wish me luck.
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