Belgium race 2 10/9/16

My second race abroad and third time this year in Belgium. My race was on the Saturday so we went on Friday and came back on Sunday, the race was just outside Ghent. On the Saturday morning we got up reasonably early to have some breakfast. We set of at about 8:30am local time because my race was at 12:30 pm and it took just under 2 hours to get there, we got to the race and there wasn't many people there so we went for a few laps but the circuit wasn't closed yet so there was still cars on it so we had to be careful, when I was warming up I looked out of the norm because I was on my rollers and others were just riding around steadily. On the start line I got gridded first so I got a good start, the style of racing is different in Belgium because if someone attacks they really go full on to get away. The race split a lot of times and most of the time I was hanging on to the back of the front group but the one time I got caught out was the one that it actually split on so I was chasing in a group and halfway up the hill an attack in my group went just as I'd done a big turn so I couldn't respond and they bridged across but I was on my own 10 metres of the back and when an attack went in the front group I knew I would have to work hard to even hold the gap. I finished 9th and I said before the start that I'd be happy with a top 10 and that's what I got but I would have liked to finish in the bunch.

       After the race we went into Ghent for something to eat and a look around. It was really good fun in Ghent just walking around and having a laugh one of the good things was a t-shirt canon which was on a boat and a lot of people where crowding round just trying to grab a t-shirt. For my the best bit about this weekend has been the either the atmosphere for the race, walking around Ghent or just the general experience of racing away from home.