For the strong ONLY

April 4, 2010 13:04 by Matt Lipscomb

Yesterday was a very rough day on the bike. starting the day with Lawson Craddock in yellow we had our work cut out for us. I started near the front wich takes alot of stress out of the begining of the stage, however 8 minutes in I heared a loud "bing" I knew instantly what it was.....broken spoke! so I moved to the back of pack and raised my left hand (front wheel) and waited for the team car. Quick change thaks to Greggory our mechanic and I started to work my way through the caravan. I moved up pretty fast and caught back at the first of two 1k long stretches of cabbles, That where wet of course. I hit the cobbles and start moving up and then...... yeah you guessed it I went down HARD! Broke my shoe, my lever was all twisted, and mt bottle cage was broken, and of course my skin was all over the rain soaked cobbles. But thats bike racing so I poped up and jumped back into the caravan. Now depending on what team your on a director in the car will either help you or just completely screw you. I was lucky enough not to have to worry about that to much because our mechanic Geggory is well know for throwing full water battles through widows of cars that do that. But anyways The time I got back to the group I had spent the first hour and a half of the race in the caravan. Oh and it you where wondering it was 49 degrees and raining the entire race with mud and cow crap on the road. After catching I went to the front and did work or Lawson not to much was going on some small breaks went up the road but we brought them all back with our "tempo" on the front. We hit some hard climbs in the way to the finishing circuits, narrow 19% climbs with no cobbles. Nxt we hit the finishing loops where we had another crash and flat on the team with Ryan Eastman hitting the deck and Peter taylor having a flat. At this point we had every one but Juan Camona came back to the car to get a wheel or bike. This was not only one of the hardest days on the bike I have ever had it was one of the most misserable. Yet at the end of the day you have to admit it was kinda fun. So for those of you who have a future racing in Belgium there it is. Oh and im going to update you again on stage 2 day 3 in alittle but on stage 2 today it hailed for a solid 20mins but we had a much better day.