Dobele, Latvia 9.9.2012

Hello,

I'm a late again with updating this blog, maybe I need a secretary ;-). Dobele was already the last race of this season for us. The weekend before we should have been riding in Vaabina, Estonia, but Mikael had to move to an other apartment suddenly and we had to blow the trip of. Instead of riding gear we had furniture in the van that weekend.

We took the midday ferry to Tallinn accompanied by Maria who wanted to make some pictures of this last event. Our hotel was located in Jelgava and when driving through this city we saw this huge palace, the Jelgava Palace. It's dimensions are an enormous contrast with the surrounding buildings. It's huge!
During the night I woke up due to some noise outside and when I looked out of the window, we had the van on the parking lot, I saw a car with its front wheels hanging in a pit made during construction work at the road in front of the hotel. The streetlights are not always in working order and the markers of this pit were good as non-existing. A taxi helped them back on the road again.

In the morning we continued with the last 30 kilometers to Dobele. In spite of the many rain showers we had the last weeks, the track was in a very good condition. It was hard packed clay and the surface damp so that dust wouldn't be a problem. It was a fast and technical track, choosing good lines and really hanging on was the message. I thought we did very bad during practice but still had the 12th position with 15 entries.

Our start didn't work out as planned and by crossing the lines from behind to the inside of the first corner we still could pass 2 teams in the first corners.The first laps weren't bad and at the 13th position we tried to get the team in front of us. But then I already started to get tired and with a fast track that means loosing ground rapidly. Last place was the result.
The start of the 2nd heat was the same but now I pushed more and at the 3rd lap we were on the 10th position. But again I became tired and we saw our competitors passing one by one. When I'm not able to ride regularly I'm always having difficulties to get my rhythm back quickly and without rhythm it's like a fight against odds.

2 last places was not the way I would have ended our season but it was what it was. We stayed overnight at Baltezers and I was so exhausted that I slept the same moment I saw my bed. The next day I had fever rising and had to stay in bed for the rest of the week. With the 16:30 ferry back to Helsinki.

A link to Maria's pictures: http://crossiacrossia.blogspot.fi/

Till soon,
Stephan

Trip to Dobele: map
Results: Mylaps (BV = sidecars)