On Thursday we got two do a one-day race called Reningelst. There were 26 teams of 6 riders each and the race was 14 laps of a circuit to make 170k in total. The weather was hot, the circuit was mostly flat and it wasn't too windy. The race started off pretty fast and I slipped into the first move of the day of about 10 guys. We were working alright together, but it wasn't the right group and didn't get far, getting caught within 10k. Not long after the real break of 12 guys went and we missed the move completely. They quickly got 1min and 30sec on the pack, but didn't seem to get much farther up than that for lap after lap. The pace was fast, but nothing crazy. Then halfway through the race a group of 21 guys just rolled off the front of the peloton on one of the narrow farm road sections. It wasn't windy and it wasn't a hard attack. Just the wrong 3-4 guys were in a row next to each other across the narrow road and I guess couldn't be bothered to match the slightly higher pace of those guys in front. The group quickly built a huge lead and was well out of sight. I was kicking myself pretty hard for missing that. I thought the race was at a fairly stable point, but if I've learned anything here there is no stable point in any of these races here. If you want to succeed you need to ride very close to the front, at all times. I was 3rd in the bunch sprint and I think that landed me in 36th place. That doesn't sound terrible, but I felt a little frustrated having missed out on the break and the split that followed. I'm wanting a lot more.
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| Greatness which I enjoyed today. |
Fast forward to today and let me tell you about an incredible bike ride! First of all, if you've got a Garmin Edge 500 and you've never used the feature that allows you to upload a route, do it. Now. Even if you are at home, make a route with roads you've never been on, it's great. This is my fifth trip to Belgium, but the first for road racing. My past trips were for cyclocross racing with minimal for training rides of any great length while here. Belgian cycling is most famous for the Spring classics and races like the Tour of Flanders. Today I had the chance to ride a few of the cobbled climbs from those famous races.
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| The view from the top of the Paterberg. I had to stop for snacks after this climb that is only 360m long, but cobbled with an average grade of 12.9%. As you can see the weather was beautiful in Belgium today. |
I rode 3 hrs total and did 3 cobbled climbs. The Tour of Flanders takes around 6 hours and includes upwards of 15 cobbled climbs. First we rode the Oude Kwaremont, next the Paterberg and then the Koppenberg. Each one on its own was completely shocking. I pedaled as hard as I could, to make it to the top. My body was rattled and my hands aching after hitting each of these climbs with only an hour in our legs. I cannot even begin to imagine actually racing anyone up these climbs, let a lone after 5 hours of racing. Seriously, I felt like I needed a full suspension mountain bike. Those things are rough!
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| Beautiful riding just outside of Oudenaarde. |
Next up I've got a few more days of training and maybe another kermesse before starting the Tour de Namur on August 1st.
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