Belgium Racing with NextGenU23

Two weeks ago we finished up our training camp in Spain, and headed to Cycling Canada’s European base in Tielt-Winge, Belgium. It was a big change to come from 30 degree weather back to around 10 degrees every day. Personally I like racing in the cold, and that is what we are here to do. We were doing some big volume training in Spain, and not a whole lot of speed work, so our first race was a bit of a death march. Our first race was a Kermesse about one hour from our base. We got our club colors on, this being Oakley Atlantic for me, and we headed to the start line. There were 150 guys in this race and it was 12 laps of 9.8 km, with lots of windy sections and traffic islands. The race was hard, really hard. Riders from the Lotto Soudal development team, Telenet Fidea cyclocross team, and three Aussies from the BMC development team really animated the race. We ended up with no results to show for our efforts, but this race was really a leg opener and an opportunity to get our heads back in the game for racing. I personally was not taking any risks all day, I wanted to see how the form was, and stay upright, and if I felt good near the end maybe try a move. I was pretty happy with how I felt in the first half of the race. I was not working very hard despite the average speed being nearly 50 kph. The second half however things quickly deteriorated, I could definitely still feel the training camp in my legs as the fatigue set in deeper. We were all in high spirits though after the race, we all know that we have many more opportunities.

After a few more days of training, it was time for the first big test of the year, the Tour of Flanders U23 Nations Cup. We were joined by Ben Perry, who along with Sean would captain the team for the race. This race is so iconic to me, and racing it and finishing it are on my bucket list; this year I was lucky enough to get selected to do it, but not smart enough to complete it. Having only one race in my legs and no interval work to speak of, my legs were feeling pretty heavy when the pace went up early in the race. It was a fast start and quite windy as well, I had not enough time to get my confidence back to move freely through the peloton and I paid a hefty price for that. Having got caught out in multiple cross wind sections, I was really suffering to hold on. It was about 60 km into the race where I was getting worn down as the peloton was lined out in the wind, and I was at the back of it. I managed to get myself back up to the group on every occasion, but that was when the climbs were about to start. At 73 km into the race we hit the first of the real climbs, the Guilleminlaan. The climb was not steep but it was nearly 3 km long and we rolled up it very well, no splits. After the climb we hit more open fields on a highway, I was not very careful with my positioning and found myself just 10 riders from the back as the cross winds hit. It was after a few minutes of being lined out that small gaps started appearing. I saw one open two wheels in front of me and I jumped out of line to move up and fill it. We were now 88 km into the race and still we were lined out, I was suffering way too much this early in the race. When I saw another gap form just one rider in front of me, I had no energy to close it, or respond in any way, I was finished. I watched the peloton roll away from me and a small group of riders. After about 45 seconds I realized what had just happened and I tried to right my mistake, I left the group with one other rider, but it was hopeless, we got tailed off and when the convoy of cars came through we were not allowed to use them to move back up. I rode as hard as I could right up until the gap between me and the peloton was 10 minutes, and I was told to stop. Sadly my race ended at the 96 km mark, just a little over half way, I was devastated. I try not to dwell on bad races, it can be hard sometimes but it is better for the motivation to put it behind you and focus on the next goal.

Since my Flanders was cut short, I lined up the next day at a Kermesse with Alec, Aiden, and Eric. The Kermesse was more like a crit, with 26 laps of a 5.3 km circuit. I was now getting my skills back in terms of positioning, but it was not until 4 laps to go that I started to use them to full effect. I felt terrible all day, Flanders had clearly left its mark on me, but I soldiered on. The race was again very fast, average speed of 44 for a 120 km race. With no hills or long sections of cross wind, the pack stayed together, and with about 20 km to go, I saw a breakaway go, I was not in a position to go with it, but at this point I moved to the front, while I was doing that, a group of four riders attacked and was looking to bridge the gap to the break which was about 35 seconds up the road. I missed the initial move but I managed to Bridge up to it solo. I was pretty gassed after that 3-4 minute effort, but about two minutes later the peloton wheeled us back in. Once the bridging group was brought back the pace dropped and the breaks gap increased. The 7 man group went on to contest the win and Alec and Eric tried to feature in the bunch kick, but to no end, we all came home as pack fill. Sadly Aiden took a hard tumble about half way through the race as he went off the road on a tight corner.

Whenever I come to start line of a race, be it a Nations Cup, a small Kermesse or local race in Nova Scotia, I always want to have an impact on how the race develops. Nothing makes me more disappointed with myself when I finish a race, than to look back on it and think, ‘at no point did I influence how the race unfolded.’ I was not covering moves, I was not helping my teammates, I was not there to contest the final, etc. It is the worst feeling in the world. Up until now, this is the feeling I have had after all three races, but I was keen to change that at my next race, La Cote Picarde U23 Nations Cup.

La Cote Picarde is a famous race on the Northern French coast. We were put up in a hotel that looks over the ocean just 10 minutes from the start line. This race is known for rain and wind in recent years, with cross winds blowing apart the pack on nearly every occasion, but we were having none of it, 35 degrees in the sun, and no wind to speak of. The race started with the usual nervousness as the break was trying to be established, only two of our riders were near the front and covering moves as the roads got very narrow and moving up was particularly difficult. I was however on my game today, I had got my moves back and I was able to sail through the pack with ease. I was never caught out when the wind did hit and never really found myself pushing unnecessary watts. After the first hour had passed with a one man break gone, the pack settled in for what was the longest one day race for U23’s on the calendar, being 185 km.

Once I saw that there was a calm atmosphere, I did a water run to the car. I managed 9 bottles in one go, enough to clean out the car, as the soigneur had the rest in the feed zone. I rode my way from the back to the front distributing bottles to everyone on the team. The race rolled on for about 75 km at a steady pace, not many riders were being distanced during this time. Approaching the 65 km mark the pace started to build again. As we passed through a small town, I had positioned myself behind our team leader Ben. A few moments later Ben was forced to take a bad line and punctured. I saw what happened and just shouted to get to the side of the road. We both stopped, I gave my front wheel to him gave him a push and he was rolling again just as the back of the peloton was coming by. I had to wait for the team car for about a minute as we were car 19 out of 24, not the best spot. I had to use more energy than I would have liked to get back to the pack, but I was able to do so with no problems. The race was really heating up now, the race had not been as naturally selective as in previous years, so it was up to the strong teams to line things out. There were many crashes in the final 44 km of the race, and we had a number of our guys go down, but luckily no major injuries. The final 40 km had four climbs and the last 3 km had four roundabouts. I was fighting for position all the time on the circuits, I had no more bottles at this point and was starting to feel the dryness in my mouth which was not good. I fought hard to get over as many climbs as possible, I made it over the second climb in a decent position, and going into the third I began to really suffer and started losing ground to the peloton. Once over the top a number of riders and I were chasing hard to close the gap before the pack hit the final climb. The 10-15 man group I was in got to within 10 seconds but then we hit the final climb. The front of the pack accelerated and our group swelled a little as more people were dropped to us, but we never again made contact with the front of the race. I rolled home with the group and finished 96th place, not a result to be proud of, but overall, a day to finally be happy with.

One thing I learned is that having good bike handling skills is a necessity for racing in Europe. I can now get some very good air on Aquila Equipe-R, and having a ultralight bike with bulletproof RealSpeed wheels and tires makes it easier for sure to jump traffic islands and through roundabouts. For the team it was a near miss of a day. Ben was in an awesome position with 2 km to go, thanks to Sean who did his work and pulled off with 1500 meters to go, Ben was in the top 10 going into the sprint of about 60 riders, when there was a touch of wheels and a crash. Ben was amazingly uninjured but quite disappointed to miss out like that.

Since our NextGenU23 team has eight riders, and Nations Cups only allow six starters, It is now my turn to sit it out and recover for the next block of racing. The other guys are off to race the next Nations Cup in the Netherlands, the ZLM Roompot Tour. Stay tuned to our NextgenU23 Twitter and Canadian Cyclist for results.

-Edward Walsh