Tübingen (updated)

i woke up this morning with kinda tired legs. that is never a good thing on a race day...but i did not let it deter me and went and made my french toast. got all my stuff ready. and was off to catch my ride to the race.
Tübingen is about an hour or so away i think, so not to bad at all. i was hoping the weather would be different there then here (which is cold and windy) but it was the same, actually now that i think about it, even windier. luckily the race today was another criterium (laps with sprints basically) so it was sheltered by buildings and such for a little bit.
during the warm up we (the other two konstanz guys and i) took a wrong turn and ended up biking on the autobahn for a bit. so that was interesting. the we were finally able to ride the course, and did so. it had 6 corners. an uphill! which was nothing big, maybe 300 meters long at 6%, but it was the first hill i have raced on here. haha. the rest of the corse was flat. oh the hill was into the wind as well. so that made it a bit harder. the start/finish was in the middle of the hill.
soon the 71 riders were off. i was having a lot of trouble the first 12 or so (out of 30, 45 km race. do the math) laps, just working my butt off to hang on and that kinda thing. it seems to be a recent theme. at one point when i was in the middle of the group near the start going around a corner my front wheel hit a little rock and i nearly went down taking some others with me. but i managed to pull in together and stay up thankfully. eventually i got my legs under me and decided to see what i could do. i attacked a little and got a little bit away, but no attacks at all were getting away today. so i lasted about 3/4 of a lap and was back in the pack. a little bit later one of the other konstanz guys got in a small breakaway and i did a bit of blocking. but others got fed up with that and pulled them back. which caused a counter attack. which i pulled back without feeling to tired after. by this time the race had 3 or so laps to go so i moved back a bit and rested up. on the last lap with about 3/4 to go i attacked and got a little gap. i just have to try every race! cant let the sprinters just have it. and i made it quite a ways i got caught probably 30 meters from the finish and crossed the line in 6th i think. unfourtunatley since it was a crit. i did not get 6th place. i did not get enough points. sad. oh well.
after the race i froze. then we took off back to konstanz. now i am off for a beer with the other bikers. hopefully i can find the place.

i rode in the team car today.

i forgot about a few things i was going to say.
first, one the second lap some guy blew a tire or broke a rim which in turn blew the tire. at home both times a tired has blown near me massive crashes have resulted. this time not a single person went down. not even the guy with the tire. this proves to me that races here are not only faster and harder. but also much safer.
the other thing was that my max HR was only up to 195 today. i am getting in better shape!
also the cookies dad made yesterday, well i brought a bunch along. and they were a huge, i mean huge hit. both the other guys asked for the reciepe and were still talking about them tonight! haha