The Superprestige series has been opened by the race in Gieten for the last four or five years and, I think, it fits this slot a lot better than later in November, when we had to drive up here all the way from Koksijde overnight. The earlier date mostly means dry and sunny races, but not today.
It was warm all right, but it wasn’t dry at all and that was great. Another muddy race, another ‘proper cross’ race is in the book. It was interesting how I fell into an old trap today. Early on, in my first or second full year, I sometimes found myself way to invested in a spot. What used to happen was that I saw something somewhere along the course and I had this ‘amazing’ idea in my mind.
Sadly, after the first passage of the race, I didn’t manage to capture that photo I had in my mind. No worries, the men’s race is long, there will be plenty more laps to do that. Then, they are coming again, and it still doesn’t quite click. It’s almost perfect, but something is still missing. Let’s wait another lap. And so on, and so on. It’s an easy trap, because it’s easy to convince yourself that you just need one more lap. The perfect photo is just one lap away.
Alas, most of the time it isn’t and I made this rule, that if I couldn’t get the shot I wanted after two laps. I have to move on. No ifs, no buts and it’s worked quite well in the last few years.
Today, I somehow ended up being in the very same spot for almost four laps. I manage to take the shot that matched the one in my mind straightaway, just not with the riders I wanted/needed in it. Three laps later, I still wasn’t 100% with my shots and I knew I had to move on, or otherwise I’ll spend the rest of the day here.
After today’s quick re-introduction to European cyclocross, next week will be a busy week, first up is Boom on Saturday, then a frantic trip to Bern for the third round of the World Cup. It was a terrific race last year, so I’m really looking forward to it. The eight hour long, overnight train trip? Not so much, but it was my choice, so I’ll just have to suck it up. #carbonneutralcxseason
