Hi all
Sorry for the lack of posts but a serious lack of internet and a strong case of CBF has resulted in no recent postings so im going to try make up for it with this one. I should really be doing some massey but to lets be realistic im one to leave things to the last minute so im sure it can wait. I'll try to cover all the races ive done but to be honest I cant really remember the details of some of them so I might just have to make up some details so they sound abit more exciting.
I'll start with my latest race so at least the first couple of paragraphs are interesting because I can remember what happened and then by the time im making stuff up you will have gone to far and will read on. My latest race was Zelik-Galmarden. A UCI 1.12 170km Top comp. This is disputibly the toughest amatuer race of the season and with 9 cobbled climbs and 7 sealed ones I was about to find out why. A quick history on this race, 7 of the last 10 winners have become profesional and past winners included Tom Boonen and Kevin Ista. The race started off as normal and after 7 weeks I am finally able to ride the front of a 200 rider field. For the first 30k I was trying to make the early break but I was never able to break the grasp of the peleton and after a few attempts decided it was better to save my energy for the major difficulty of the day the Cote de Muur a cobbled climb about 2km in lenth 55km into the race.
5Km before the climb it became a shit fight for the front and I found myself continuosly moving backwards before the climb. Coming into the climb I was mid pack before things went from bad to worse 500m before the climb we had to make a 180 degree turn and due to 200 guys all trying to make there way round as fast as possible the inevitable happened and there was a crash holding up the back half of the field. I managed to make my way round but hit the climb in the last 10 wheels, not really the best place to be. I powered my way up the climb and made up a few wheels before rounding the steepest corner of the climb where it narrows to about 2m wide and being stopped in my tracks by a wall of riders, seems there had been another crash. There were guys falling off everywhere and most of us had dismounted and proceded to run up the climb, pity I hadnt put my running shoes on because cleats dont really create that much grip on slippery cobbles/pave. I ended up running for about 100m before remounting my bike and completing the climb.
I went over the top with a group of 30 or so and we preceded to chase the peleton, we had been chasing for about 1k when we hit another climb, we could see the peleton about 20secs ahead of us so I attacked the group and attempted to bridge up, I got to within 5secs before my legs decided to stop listening to my brain and as I crested the top I was about 15 secs down with the group of 30 10 secs behind me. On the descent they caught me and we chased for another 2k before hitting the Bosberg another cobbled climb. By this point we were about 40secs down and I had given up hope of catching the peleton, our group rode up the climb and we ended up riding to the finish where it was race over.
The previous race was a kermesse near Tienen. This race was 120k and is a step down from the interclub races I have been doing. Not to say this race was easy we still averged 44km/h and on some pretty average roads filled with rivets just wide enough for a wheel and a whole lot of potholes. The race was abit weird in the fact the break didnt go until 90ks due to one team bringing everything back regardless of whether they had team mates in the attacks or not. I tried a few times to get away but was un succesfull and pretty much rode the entire race mid pack just practising moving up the group as this is my major weakness. Apart from riding into a few rivets which scared the shit outta me and hitting a few potholes making me think my Velo will be lucky to survive a season in Belgium it was a pretty uneventful race and I finished mid pack not wanting to risk anything sprinting for 10th place. It is crazy to see some guys sprint for 80th place and the risks they take just to make up a few places .
The race before this was a criterium in germany. I manged to catch up with james which was cool and it was cool to be racing each other again after 7 weeks. The race was a good one for me it was 80k I think 40 or 50 laps of a circuit. I felt good but unluckly missed the break of about 10 guys and being the only VC Ardennes rider in the race there was no chance of bringing it back. I sat back for the middle part of the race and decided to see what I could do with 5 laps to go. I proceded to make my way to the front and put in a few digs. With 3 laps to go we could actually see the early break and there was a real chance of it coming back. I made a promising break of 7 riders but 3 of them had team mates already up the road and wouldnt lap so we were brought back 1k later. I had a few more digs but coming into a lap to go I was spent and just sat back and rolled in at the back of the pack abit dissapointed but satisfyed with my day.
I've now come to the point where I cant really remember any of the other races ive done. My memory is seriously bad thanks to a whole load of concussions. So I think ill just flag talking about them. I could make stuff up all day but ive been writing for 30mins and cant really be bothered writing more.
So instead I will try to update my blog more often, now that I have finally invested in some internet.
My next race is a kermesse on Saturday and possibly another on Sunday. The only problem is the professionals are racing Leige Bastonge Leige this sunday and the parcours are right on our doorstep so im thinking I would rather watch that up the famous Cote de La Redoute (a seriously steep climb 20k away) so ill see what happens. But come sunday I will most likely have a race update from saturday and a report on what its like watching the pros live. I will try put some pics of the pros up on sunday. We might even go as far as spray painting the road but we just have to find out how illegal it is first.
Anyway thats enough of me ranting.
Peace out
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