The Abbreviated Conclusion to Ronde Van Vlaams Brabant

The highlighted result of the week was Aaron's 6th place in the individual time trial. The team raced especially hard on Saturday. We were aggressive the entire race and tried to make it into a breakaway. Unfortunately we burnt a few too many matches in the early part of the race and could not contest the field sprint. (If we had only known it would have come down to a sprint... but alas that's bike racing.) Sunday was the final stage, a 160km circuit race with 2 climbs and no fewer than thirty 90 degree turns per lap. Oh, by the way there were 6 laps. We counted the turns from the race book and I estimate that I made at least 200 turns during the race. Racing at the back of the peloton on a day like this was suicide. On the first lap I flexed my legs on the climbs and got into a small break. I really wanted to race in the early break and go for all or nothing on the last day. The peloton didn't give us much time and we were absorbed within a few kilometers. Another break formed but was brought back before the finish and the finale came down to a 70 man sprint. I "contested" that 70ish man sprint but didn't have the legs to pull off a result. So overall the Tour of V.B. was a bit disappointing. No good result. I think that my crash in Willowbroek stole a good deal of my racing form. The one good thing about V.B. is that instead of getting tired or weaker throughout the race I felt that I got stronger each day. So on to the next race (but not before I recover) and the next opportunity.