Belgium Life with NextGenU23

It has been an exciting and tiring past couple of weeks for me here in Tielt-Winge, Belgium. The guys got back from the ZLM Tour and were in a tired state, Will and I had just finished two races of our own. The first race was a good one, an eight kilometer circuit with much wider roads than we have had in all the other kermesses. The race started fast, as they all do, but just 3-4 kilometers into the race the pack makes a wrong turn and goes off course. Half the pack is mid intersection and is quick to make the turn, including myself and Will, but the guys who were on the front were delayed quite a lot. There were a few minutes of confusion as riders like those on the BMC, and Lotto development teams were trying to right their error and get back to the front of the race. I didn’t have good legs during this period of the race, I was not able to cover break aways. Will however was up in the action, he made it into a move that formed just a few kilometers into the second lap, and many of the big riders missed the break. I spent the first ¾ of the race practicing my positioning skills and reading the wind all to save energy. It was in the final few laps that I moved to the front and started covering moves that were trying to bridge to the established break, which Will was still part of. I was feeling amazing going into the final lap, and about half way around it, with the break going for the win, I thought I would try my legs and try for a 9th place behind the break. I went for it on the cross wind section and stayed away for three kilometers, getting caught in the final kilometer, I was completely drained and rolled in just inside the top 80, it was a narrow twisty final km and crashes happened so I stayed well clear. Will managed a 5th place after riding the break for over 100 km.

Racing back to back days in Belgium is a tall order considering that you can go and race with 150+ guys on one day, and 150+ new guys the next. Racing back to back also makes you stronger, so that is exactly what we did. Sunday's race however, was not very good for Will or myself. After some rain was falling and we couldn’t decide what to wear, we rolled to start line after a quick warm-up. This race was 13 laps of 9 Km, with one decently sized hill in it for once, which I was really looking forward too after I pre rode the course. The races started, and I found myself on Will’s wheel very fast, we were pretty far back in the peloton because the pace was high and our starting position was not the best, and as always it was fast. Just a few km’s into the race, we were feeling the effects of the previous days racing and suffering at the back. The first time up the hill I was caught behind a small tumble, we were going very slow so I wouldn’t call it a crash, but some guys fell and I unclipped and put my foot down, upon re-clipping and trying to reaccelerate I didn’t realize my chain had fallen off, I had pedaled it and wedged it in my bike (Rookie Mistake) but I was left for about half a minute fixing the problem. I was now quite angry with myself for not putting in the little effort to move up a few places before we turned onto the climb, but anyway, I now had to deal with the consequences of that mistake. I quickly caught the guys who had fallen, and passed them as it looked they were not putting in much of an effort to catch back in. I spent a total of 7 km with the pack and raced a total of 42 km before being caught by the broom wagon. I was getting more and more angry as I was chasing because the more I rode the better I was feeling, I had such good legs once I really got moving, but my 35 km time trial was an awesome effort, I was always catching people who were getting dropped on the hill, but the pace in the peloton was just to much for me, the closest I got was a few hundred meters. Super depressing day for myself as I was really looking forward to racing this Kermesse, but it was my fault and I’m not going to dwell on it. Shortly after I rolled to the team car and found Eddie (Souigner) and pulled off my race number, Will rolls around the corner, he wasn’t having the best day either and called it quits the lap after me. All in all, not the best day for the two of us.

The rest of the team returned from the Alkamar track training camp in the middle of the week and we all did some training rides together. The coaches said that after the next race we would be entering a block of training because they were saying that we are all getting run down a little bit by the racing, but before that we had a real opportunity at next race, Echebon-Frankfurt in Germany. We drove the five hours to the race hotel and we were all looking forward to it, the course suited us and the competition was not going to be way over our heads, we could really do well here. Echebon-Frankfurt is a professional race and only in the past few years have they added a U23 version, so it was cool to be staying with the pros in the same hotel, the pro teams also had all their buses and vans parked next to ours. We just happened to be staying in the same hotel as AG2R Procycling, Who has Canadian rider Hugo Houle, one of Canada’s very few WorldTour riders. Luc was good friends with Hugo so he arranged a meeting for us all just before dinner. Hugo came down and we all had a good chat about the race and life in the pro ranks and how he progressed as a rider from U23, it was an awesome conversation and to conclude it we were talking about what he had seen on the teams course recon earlier that day. Hugo was riding the course that morning when he came around one of the corners and found a police blockade, he asked what was going on and was told it was an investigation and that there may not be a race the following day, Hugo brushed it off and continued to ride with his teammates. Upon returning to the hotel, he saw the T.V. in the lobby and there was a big investigation into a possible terrorist attack on the race. The suspects had been caught but they were still unaware of possible dangers to the riders and spectators. We sat down to dinner that night with a big question mark over the whole race, everyone was frustrated and we heard nothing until about 9:30, when Ian called a race meeting and told us the race was off and we would instead be doing a big training ride the next day. I was for sure upset, but there is nothing you can do, and it was the first time this had ever happened.

The next day we woke up early and left the race hotel, we were about 370 km from home so that plan was to drive about 210 km to Liege and ride home from there. What a day it turned out to be, awesome rolling hills in the most beautiful part of Belgium and on the way home we stopped by the Mur De Huy again, we did the climb twice, it is such a hard climb, I have more and more respect for the pros every time we go and see a famous climb or cobble section. We rolled home from the Mur and the roads got flatter and flatter as we approached Tielt, it was now time to settle into some good training and try to relax a little and keep chipping away at that school work that is piling up around me. We have a few days of training now before we head to Normandie for the Tour de La Manche, a four day five stage race in Northern France, look forward to an update after the race.

In other news, congrats to Norco Factory team rider Andrew Lesprance on winning an Ontario-cup, and Oakley teammate Jon Burgess for winning the first race back home in Nova Scotia.

#NextGenU23

-Edward Walsh