Race report: RGT Eroica

The time to race and to face my opponents has come again. I have to say that i have already been training for two weeks and that last week i managed to won two stages of the amateur competition "Tour of Szekerland". Even if i`m still not well recovered after the surgery, the small distances allowed me to got on the top of the podium (a 6km climb in the morning and a 12 km circuit in the afternoon). I`ve met some pros from a Canadian team with wich i had lots of fun, but now, back to the business. This race-report it`s about "Eroica", a.k.a. "Hero", which is one of the Hell`s races : 91 kms with a total ascend of more than 3000 m, including a special category climb followed by a first category one. The maximum altitude of 2150 m was at the finish on the road called "Transalpina" (one of the most beautiful roads, standing next to Transfagarasan). But anyway, these are the data written on the paper `cause you will still have to sweat to get them in your legs. And God is my witness cause I did it. All began on a Saturday when,in theory at 5, but practically at 6, we leave the town. The trip wasn`t long, there was no traffic, so we managed to get at Brezoi at 10. I took my number, said "hi" to my friends and went to warm-up a little bit. The problem comes here when, even when i was pedalling at one of the lowest speeds i could mentain, a dog jump in front me, saying to me: "You will do a front-flip now.", which i did. It wasn`t one of the best front-flips, but it was a good one. I got up immediately and went to the start with a bit of blood dropping from my right knee. I knew that my luck has not been with my that morning so i could compensate during the race from my daily portion. I heard from my friend, Eugen, that the first 35-40 km were not so drastically inclined so the peloton will run at high speeds. I`ve realized the truth from what he spoke only when I looked on my watch and i`ve seen that after this distance I wasn`t able to pedal with my bigger chainring and there were only 20 men near me. Meanwhile two attacks were launched, one with the winner and one that was caught. The special climb has started. Men were left behind one by one, but my targets were in front of me. I can say about that climb that was long and steady, without too much "walls" to destroy your rhythm. We get on the top of it and, before descending, everyone grabbed a gel and some water, just to get a bit of energy. All except Babaita and a rider from Tusnad, which attacked on the descend. I said to myself "Fuck them" and i started chasing them only after i`ve finished my gel. I`ve went down the mountain risking a lot, together with Gerhard Dumitrescu, before we got caught by Tudor Oprea and another rider from his team. Our mini-peloton was going fast on the uphill, but we were still reached by another junior, something that made me doubt that he got here alone. Anyway, there was nothing to do, the show must have gone on. We pedal a bit more and we reach Frunzeanu and the junior that was chased.

A bit of slowly riding, the perfect moments to drink and to eat some Etixx, and we get on the Transalpina. The forest section was full of inclined coils that made me left a bit behind. I managed to get back to them but i was so tired that my pulse was not rising and my legs were just not there, they`ve gone. My only hope of winning stayed into thinking that everybody was feeling like me and i could have eaten a little more pain than them on the last couples of meters. Approaching the finish slowly, the climate changed into an alpine one, without trees, but full of lovely landscapes and a road on the middle. The road was going forward with some corners where you could have seen how steep it is how much you have to pedal.

I try with every power left to hold on onto the group, but, with 1.5 km, i give up. I just couldn`t push my pedal to carry my 25 teeth cassette. I was leaning myself on the right just to lean after on left to pedal one rotation. Looking in front of me, there was only the road continuing without carrying to the top. Even if i`m ashamed of admitting, i have to say that i got off the bike. I got on after a corner when the wind was blowing from behind. I was a coward. I gave up to quick in front of the hillocks for making something. I force myself and pedal until i`ve reached the finish line. I was exhausted. My back was stuck, my core was hurting, i was finished. I meet Alex Ciocan, the organizer of the race, and i had a small, but interesting conversation: "(me)- Damn, that was hard. (him)- If you knew it would be easy, would have i seen you racing here?" That got me thinking. I was looking at the fabulous landscape, at the road which continued down, at the sweat that was dropping from my helmet. I loved it. I loved to suffer, i loved to get crazy on the downhill. I know that i will come and race again and i will get a better result than a third place on the category and a twelve on the overall. Until then there are still hard trainings and thousands of km to pedal. But i`ll leave it like that for a while. Until the other race-report, Ceaustoc!