On the last climb of the day, with about five kilometres to go, the time had come. The time to decide between win or loss, glory or failure. I gave it all I had on the short, but steep hill. The few people that had found their way to the race were shouting me on, and I could see the other riders being further and further behind me. As I reached the top of the hill, I had a gap of about fifteen to twenty seconds, and I was as worn out as I have ever been on a bike, but I was still absolutely determined to take this chance, and to show the world, or rather anybody who bothered to watch, what I was made of. They say when you play the game of thrones, or should I say wins, there can only be winners or losers, and I was not going to be one of the latter.

@Shonak Just finished book one, and i had that quote in my head all the time, so i felt like i had to put it in at some point

@Welker He sure is, let's see if he can keep that gap.

@Sutty It would be quite a nice victory.

@Ian What makes you so sure?

@Mvhoogdalem You can ask Ian on that one.

@Admir Thanks

As I said, it was one exhausted fourteen year old against a bunch of fresh sixteen year olds, but I had the advantage that there were only another four kilometres to ride, and that I had been descending all my life. I could see the pack inching closer, taking a meter, then another meter, then another meter. But with every meter they took, I was getting a few meters closer to the finish line. In the end I took the win with just about five seconds to spare, but I wouldn't have been happier even if it would have been five hours. The joy in my mothers eyes as she came running up to congratulate me, the pride on the face of my dad as he came walking up to congratulate me too, and of course getting the trophy and the flowers and the kisses from the podium girls I can all still remember as vividly as on the journey home, where my dad had promised to give me a big bottle of beer, to celebrate the occasion.

Shonak wrote:
New layout is better.

Ian Butler wrote:


Send TMM a box of chocolates, Dippofix

@Sutty He sure did.

@Shonak Oh, he loved that part.

@Ian 'Nuff said.

@Admir Yeah, the new style is indeed better imo.

@Welker I hope that's a good sign.

After the win, I took a few days to get back to the ground. To me, the win had been the best moment I could remember, but except for my parents and the guys from the club, nobody seemed to care. My classmates only shrugged it away, and, not that I was really expecting it, no scout from anywhere approached me. None of that really surprised me, but it would have been nice to get at least a bit of recognition for what I had done. All that together just made me train harder for the Irish U-16's Championships in the following spring, for which I had qualified through winning Dublin's County Championships. The course was a quite flat lap through Clonmel, in the South of County Tipperary. It was the same course as the Elite Championships, but not as long. That meant I had to train something I had hardly focused on before: Sprinting...