Catchphrase from the weekend: ‘You know it is going to be a bloody hard race when the Belgian Champ Turns Up.’
Last Weekend, following my final GCSE examination, we finally headed out to Belgium after a long period away from what has become my second home. Throughout the exams, there were a few occasions where I couldn’t think of anything but racing in Belgium, due to the fantastic weather we experienced in Britain.
On Saturday, unfortunately the week before, (or longer as I had not checked the Cycling Vlaanderen website for a while), the race had been cancelled. Instead we went on a Pre-Race ride suggested by Trainsharp. Headed out to Kemmel to have a dig at some of the climbs out there, in the end it didn’t really turn out to be an easy ride.
Now on to the portion of the blog you want to see…
The Race on Sunday was located in Ingooigem, Anzegem. We originally believed to be a flat parcours, but turned out to be really rolling terrain. Two other factors made it a bloody hard race. #1 the Belgian Champ turned up. Leading up to the event I had discounted his presence at the race because I believed him to be on an off period, however he turned up and shocked me silly. #2 was the wind almost as brutal as Damme a couple years back, where the wind-speed was nigh on 45km/h, although not that fast equally as brutal as the racing was quicker.
I was far too attacking in the first hour of the race, and in contrast to my exams which seemed to fly by this race felt like a four hour ride, it just seemed to go on for ages. I knew Remco (Belgian Champ) was going to attack, it was just a matter of when. Indeed, around 40 minutes into the race, he went hard into the rolling section on the fast ‘N’ road (‘A’ road equivalent in Britain), I sensed it was coming and jumped on the train following his wheel. I am happy to inform you I was the last one standing, and produced some of my best power ever, unfortunately for you readers I have had to make the ride private on Strava due to the level of performance I was at. After he had gone up the road, I continued to follow as many breaks and tried to race with grit rather than hold back, shown in the high normalised power. Due to these significant efforts, it was a matter of doing my best to finish the race, because the efforts had continually put me deep into the ‘Red’ and left me swinging for the last 20 minutes of the race. I am happy with the 28th on the day, due to this being my first race back, and my tactics are lacking significantly. Results are just around the corner I can feel it. (Well I say round the corner more like 2 weeks away.)
Looking forward to GHS qualifier this weekend, Sam Henning I am coming for your time!
Keep you posted
Over ‘n’ Out.
