Last Sunday I spent just over 24 hours in
Latvia, somewhere I had to look at a map while sat on the plane to see where it
was. Just above Lithuania and next
to Russia it turned out to be as I expected, very different from the rest of
Europe and full of pickled food!!
I was well looked after by the organiser as arriving in a non-English
speaking country armed only with a big bike and lycra on my own was a little
daunting. She came round to the hotel
organized for me with a map and information about the race so I headed back out
on the bike to look at the first section.
The only bit I really found was the beach section, not that useful
really, even I can’t get lost down a beach! It was so surreal riding along there with the locals with
kids riding into the sea, I bet the bike shops do well out here! I found a local restaurant for
dinner and had some baked fish, a pile of rice and veg which turned out to be
picked gherkins and a bread roll which I found full of lardons when I bit into
it, good job I’m not a veggie!
Breakfast was also a bit different… the
table was covered in tapas style snacks, prawns on toast, pate, potato salad
and lots of strong smelling fish.
Luckily I found the cereal and toast!
The elite woman’s race started at 10am on
the beach in the sun. The group stuck together down the beach then it got
pretty hectic running over the sand dunes and through some single track
forest. One girl in front flew
over a tree stump and making sure she was in one piece I chased back the lead
group that was soon reduced down to 5. Into the next wooded section I stayed
near the front and with some steep sandy climbs and descents and some fun
narrow tracks (where I regretted having bar ends on as I nearly wrapped myself
round a few trees), I came out with just one other girl. We rode hard but soon the girls behind
had chased back. I soon learned
that one of the local girls wasn’t very good on the technical tracks but was a
strong time trialist and she was pulling everyone along. This happened a few times until we hit
half way and the route became a flat open road. For the rest of the race the route was on open flat windy
tracks and farm roads. The five of
us rode together and took turns in the wind but it was very uneventful.
10km to go we turned into the single tracks
again but the markings weren’t so clear and a few of us rode straight on and
had to turn round. Leide Ardave
got away and out again on the tracks I started chasing losing the others on my
wheel. 7km left and the time
trialist, Dana Rozlapa caught me up and we worked together to catch Leide,
which was pretty hectic as we were on the last forest single track with loads
of fun riders in front. Along the
beach for the last 5km it felt like a South African road race, zig zagging in
and out of fun riders while trying to keep contact with each other. In 3rd place I started
sprinting at 500m on the left not realizing how much deeper the sand was on
that side but at least clear of traffic.
I came over the line 2nd with a photo finish to 3rd
with Dana taking the win.
Though it was a close finish and I made a
few mistakes I was pleased with 2nd place on such a flat course and
the presentation with podium, champagne and flowers made it feel like a real
international event. The post race
food was cold purple soup and pasta with sausage, surprisingly tasty! I had time to kill before my taxi back
to Riga airport so planned a walk around until the rain started and instead I
found a pub with a large screen showing Plouay World Cup and a large plate of
chips, avoiding more pickle surprises!
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