Spring Campaign Wrap, Part 2

The Monday after my big weekend was a day to try and recover a bit for Tuesday’s race, Adam and I went to our favorite coffee shop in the town of Arschot. The owner loves cyclists and every time we go there he always comes out to ask us about the races we have done since the last time we dropped by. I spent the rest of the day doing chores and getting caught up on some more homework, the day went by very quickly and before I knew it, it was time to start thinking about another race.

Tuesday morning was the usual routine, Eddie would come around noon, prepare race food and then we load the car and head to the race. It was a dark and rainy day, I was not super excited after I saw how many laps we had to do of the 6.5 km course to reach 118 km. The course had some tricky sections like cornering on cobblestones and nearly 180 degree turns. I did my 30 minute warm-up and got a good spot on the grid. Eddie gave me his jacket when I was on the start line as it started to rain quite hard, and then it turned to hail as it was only about 10 Celsius. Everyone was very calm when the race started, no one wanted to crash so we took it very easy in the first few laps while it was still raining. There were still lots of attacks and aggressive racing though. I covered the first few moves but nothing went in the first two laps and I had tired myself out a lot. I really wanted to leave the group as it was safer in the break away. I missed the break on this day, as about 20 riders went clear around 40 km into the race. I was feeling strong and thought I had nothing to lose by helping with the chase, I spent the next 30 km in the top 20 riders, helping to pull the break back. I was doing some good hard work. There were not many of us really wanting to pull it back so I didn’t think that it would come back. After a while though we could see them on the straightaways. With about 20 to go in the race the break was caught. This is pretty rare from what I’ve experienced. I, all of a sudden, had to start thinking about winning again, but I was completely wrecked. I did my best to hold position near the front in the final laps, but there were a lot of people who had been sitting on all day and were fresh now and it was hard to stay at the front. I did get to the front with about 5 km to go and I attacked out of a corner and got a small gap on the peloton. I fully committed, but to no end; I was caught about 1500 meters later and I had no interest in getting involved in the rainy tight bunch sprint. I finished down in the 80’s-90’s of about 110 starters.

I spent the rest of the week training and really looking forward to the final race weekend I had in Europe. Adam was now getting out on his bike daily and starting to get better. I would sometimes start my rides with him and then keep going. I got in two days of solid riding with some good intervals, which I did on some local cobbles and cobbled climbs as the races I had on the weekend had cobblestones as a main feature. Over the course of our trip here and doing some races on cobblestones, I have gained even more respect for ‘Classics’ riders in the pro ranks, those guys are as tough as nails. Riding cobblestones is hard to describe, it drops your cadence and messes with your form, riding cobbles smoothly is an art in itself. It was really motivating to do intervals on cobbles like I did.

Saturday’s race was hard one, I was misinformed about the cobblestones, there were none in this race, but there were two very different climbs. One was a two minute long climb with gradients of well over 10 percent, that one was quickly followed by a 300 metre long power climb which was not too hard, but just hard enough to open small gaps. I did the usual routine and again had a good starting spot. There were some pro riders in the field that were looking to narrow down the field on the longer climb, so the first laps I made sure I was up near the front going into it. Sure enough the third time up the climb the pace was enough to split the pack, half the field was left behind and I had made the front half. There were still 60 riders, but it made holding position a lot easier with less people around. The pace stayed high and a smaller break went up the road from our group. There were about 15 riders that went clear and I had missed it. I was feeling okay but I was not going to burn myself out trying to pull it back because I had no teammates. I did my fair share in my group and we rolled for most of the day. I had one BMC rider in my group who was doing some big turns to try and get to the break but it wasn’t to be for him. Going into the second last lap, I felt really good and set a hard rhythm the second last time up the longer climb, the group stayed together. On the next little climb I tried an actual attack and dragged 5 other riders with me. We worked together well over the next lap and got to within one minute of the break away. I was really looking to salvage my race so when the guys thought we were done and not going to catch the break, they started looking at each other. I attacked them immediately, we were 2 km from the finish and I was getting close to some of the breakaway riders who had been dropped, but I didn’t manage to catch them before the line. I came home for 19th that day, but I was pleased with my race, apart from missing the break away.

The following day was my last race, and I was really motivated to end it with a bang! It was a really nice circuit of about 8 km, with 600-700 meters of cobbles about half a kilometer from the finish line. It was a beautiful day for racing, 25 Celsius and sunny. There were not many starters, just over 60. I was determined to not miss the break this time, and I had to burn a lot of energy to ensure I didn’t miss it. I was up the road by about 20 seconds for nearly a full lap until about 15 riders came up to me and then we worked well to stay away. I was feeling the effects of a stomach bug I had picked up the night before, I was really hurting to just be in the group. I ate two gels over the course of the three hour race, which was really not good at all. This race overall was not very eventful. On the last few laps I tried to attack on the cobbles and in doing so got the group down to 12 riders going into the last lap. I had planned to wait till the cobbles, but I was drawn out a little earlier as there were a lot of attacks on the windy part of the coourse. I was able to stick with it and positioned myself at the back of the group going onto the cobbles. I let a gap go and then sprinted just before we hit the cobbles to hit them with as much speed as possible. I was going 5 km/h faster than everyone else and quickly was off the front of the group! It felt so cool to be the one attacking on the cobbles! I had a small gap of about 20 meters when we hit the road again, I got out of the saddle and tried desperately to regain all the speed that I had lost but 100 meters later the group caught me and with nothing left for the sprint, I came home in 12th. I was happy but I had promised myself if I didn’t podium that I would have to ride the 60 km home. So I told Eddie and I hopped on my bike and got to it. I didn’t get home until about 8:30 and did a total of 170 km for the day, I was completely destroyed.

That wraps up my 9 week stint in Europe, I am now on my way to Gran Prix Saguenay in Quebec with the NCCH team and really looking forward to it. Look forward to hearing about Saguenay!

#NextGenU23