Summer 2019

Waking up on my first morning in Belgium, I got a phone call from my friend Andreas, who was a teammate from 2018. Andreas was supposed to make the trip from France to Belgium the following day to share the apartment with me and to do three weeks on the Belgian Pro Kermesse circuit. He just had one more race in France before coming up. I got the call and he was in hospital with a broken collarbone.

Back in Oudenaarde

Not the best start to the trip. Andreas is a great guy and knew this would put me in a bind without a car to get to races. Andreas kindly lent me his car, I am super grateful to him for that. I started to settle back into my routine from the year before in Azegem, West Flanders. I loved being back in Belgium, that first ride I don’t think I even knew I was pedaling. It’s very easy to switch mindsets when getting on a long-haul flight. A lot of preparation had gone into this trip and I arrived with confidence and a sense of purpose. Time to get to work.

Two simple machines, mine might be worth more.

Some of these races were not new to me, which gave me good insight as to how they usually unfold. Some things were different though. For the first time I had the strength to really be involved in these races. The first one was a write off as I was still getting my legs switched from training to racing mode. I pushed through cramps for a few hours that day, and had trouble walking for a few days. After I recovered a little - it was smooth sailing.

Cornering at 50 kph

In the past I was able to position myself in these races filled with World Tour riders and occasionally make some big groups that would break away. This year I was able to launch attacks of my own. One of the highlights of the trip was the last race ( Izegem Koers) where I found myself on the start line with nine Deceuninck-Quickstep riders. I launched an attack about 20 km into the 160 km race. Initially it was just me and three others. I spent the whole day at the front of the race. I went through many mental phases during that race. The effort required to stay away from the peleton was enormous. I started to tell myself that I would just make it to 100 km mark, then we will all be caught and I could rest. But we made it 100 km and I was still there, roughly 45 seconds ahead of the pack. We never had more than a minute and I was pushing some personal best power numbers all day.

Make friends with the photographers, then the best shots are of you.

Eventually a charging Deceuninck-Quickstep team sent a few more riders across the gap, including Yves Lampaert (3rd Paris-Roubaix 2019). More were in pursuit and the front group swelled to 30 riders with over 130 still chasing. I was finally able to recover now but I needed to be careful with my remaining energy. I decided to pick one of the lesser known Deceuninck-Quickstep riders and follow him in the hopes that the group would be watching his more famous teammates. My plan nearly worked as I followed this rider as he attacked in the final 5 km. I gave him one pull and realized I didn’t have enough in the tank to follow it through any further. The chasers wasted no time in getting us back. After that I tried to recover as much as possible for the sprint, but I was pretty cooked at that point coming in for 17th.

Digging deep in Geraardsbergen

One way to make friends at these races is to do some epic/crazy moves in the races together. At another race I had missed the early breakaway. It consisted of five very strong riders; I figured the race might have been over, so I launched a bridging attempt. One rider was crazy enough to follow me. We spent 29 minutes at 370 watts helping each other get across. We did make it eventually and we were both talking about it for a few weeks.

Photo evidence of our bridging move

Overall, I was very happy with my trip. For someone racing solo, to make five winning breakaways in just seven races, was a ratio I was very pleased with. However; I was not able to finish any of them off with a result that I could boast about. Still got my name on the loudspeaker, and thoroughly emptied the tank every time.

Proof we made it across

The next destination on my calendar was in Ganzhou, China. Before re-uniting with my X-Speed team in China, I decided to book a little escape to Mallorca to take a break for a few days and visit my friend Hampus. He is from Sweden and moved to the Spanish island to open coffee roastery. I had never been to any kind of vacation destination during the summer and now I know why; it was crazy busy! I went for a few scorching rides and we played beach volleyball against some more Swedes that were on the island. Awesome trip and a perfect mental break before heading to the unknown in Asia.

Thanks for reading, Ill have a recap on the China trip very soon. I've also updated my photo album with more shots from the year.