As I sit here typing these words the realization of exactly how hard European racing is becomes quite clear to me. I am thinking about the race yesterday, memories of pleasure and pain fill my mind, while the typing of each letter sends aches through my hands and reminds me of the soreness still in my body. I am tired, aching, and flat out drained of energy, yet this has to be my best day in Europe. Why? Because I finally finished a race and that simple fact makes any and all pain of the race quite bearable.

    The last couple of weeks here have been quite tough on me. When I broke my collarbone 8 weeks ago I was going very well. I could feel the power in my legs getting stronger and the ability to finish a race wasn't far off. So naturally when I returned back to the bike I thought I would be back where I left off, wrong!

    I had been having moderate success in the last three weeks, but no race finishes. I decided that was it! I was going to finish the race, forget all pain and give it a real go.

    The race was a tough one. A 1.12 UCI race in Liedekerke, Belgium; with 11 laps over 148 kilometers (92 miles). The team decided to pre-ride the course, and I am glad we did. The course featured the first 4 kilometers over a wide rolling road into a headwind, then with a left-hand turn you were onto the hardest part of the course. The next 2 kilometers were filled with cobbles with the first kilometer relatively flat and the last kilometer climbing. After that you had some technical rolling roads followed by a long downhill stretch and finished off with a weaving road through a small town. A quick right-hand turn and you were at the finish.

    I went into the race with one plan, conserve energy and finish the race. Three kilometers into the race I found my way into the top 40 of the field and buried myself into the pack. The cobbled section turned out to be easier than planned because after about 400 meters a sidewalk started on the left hand side of the road. I followed the lead of the other riders and rode along in a long single file pack.

    The main problem was you could only go as fast as the lead rider, so you usually lost some places, but you were able to conserve energy. The next problem was other riders, cars and the gardens built on the sidewalk. One lap a rider slammed into a post placed in a garden and I had to perform some quick trials style moves to get out of the way.

    As long as I survived the cobble section each lap I knew I was going to be fine. The rest of the course was technical and I was able to keep my speed trough the corners while resting on the downhill descents. I even felt good enough to start making some attacks about 8 laps into the race with another rider. We made up some time on the group ahead of ours, but really didn't get anywhere in the end.

    The last two laps of the race were so hard. Riders were making last ditch efforts to make it to the groups ahead while guys were just giving up and quitting from the speed. I just gritted my teeth and told my brain to tell my legs there were OK, that the pain sensation they felt was a good thing.

    The end finally came, after 3 hours and 51 minutes, with my teammate Jed and I sprinting in at 49th and 50th place. I was surprised to find out we placed in the last two paying spots in a race, usually I would end up in 51st if a race paid 50 deep. Actually the whole ABC-AITOS team rode well with all our finishers in the top 50 out of 152 starters.

    With this race finish I've been able to pass up one of the bigger steps on the ladder from becoming a pro from an amateur. Unfortunately there are a lot more steps to go up, but I have a good support around me to help me along the way.

    -Gregg Germer-