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Permalink Reply by Rob Bell on September 29, 2009 at 6:47pm

This was my first 100k. I really thought it would be right up my alley since I've been racing long distances on the bike all year. I was wrong. Cycling can only take you so far in skating...I've learned that first hand the past two weeks.

We hit the climb hard pretty much every lap. The field would dwindle down tot about 13 guys each lap, but then the pace would slow down on the decent and the the pack would double in size. I'd say about 10 laps into the 19 lap race was when the French and Colombians started hitting it as hard on the decent as they were on the climb. There were 11 of us hanging on for a few laps. With 4 laps to go I was behind a little gap going up the climb. We caught back on, but the speed on the flats was more than I could recover from, and I threw in the towel.

Getting dropped is never fun. That's two weeks in a row for me now. It's a little less bothersome knowing the caliber of skaters in that pack, but it's disappointing either way. It makes me realize that one day of skating a week just isn't enough to compete at the level I want to compete at. It's definitely good motivation

After I dropped back, the pace slowed down. If I would have just hung on a few more seconds I probably would have lasted another lap. Oh well...

I knew I couldn't just quit, especially with NROC points on the line. I caught one of the Colombian guys and he said there were 9 guys in the lead group. On the final climb he dropped back and I was able to secure a top 10 spot. I'm happy with a top 10 in a big international field, but I'd trade it in for a 25th place if it meant not getting dropped.

On a side note, my feet were killing me at the end of the race. I think the red bonts were a tad too hard for that course and that distance. Usually I like hard wheels, but next time I do this race I will be on something softer.

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