Tour de Liege

I made it to the start of the Tour de Liege, but maybe not in the best shape.  My stomach still wasn't 100% and I hadn't been able to eat much the last several days.  I was excited to race though and wanted to give it a go.  There were 33 teams of 6 riders each making a 198 rider field.  That isn't just a big field, but also a lot of teams!

Bikes ready to go before the start. Note the new Instagram filter, I call it: TintedvanWindow

The race started off fast, very fast!  I tried my best to stay in the top half of the field, but during the first 20k I honestly felt like I'd never raced before.  There were guys passing everywhere; sidewalks, bike paths, roundabouts, speed bumps, etc.  It was insanity, or so I thought at the time.  I felt like I had settled into things after that initial shock and I even worked my way up to the front on the first climb of the day.  I followed some attacks over the top, but nothing notable stuck.  I thought I was even feeling pretty good so I tried to just ride towards the front in anticipation for the bigger climbs to come later in the stage.  We were still going through all sorts of roundabouts and navigating other traffic furniture, but I was already much more comfortable and learning a lot.

The short story is that more racing happened over the next 1.5hrs including one hard hill followed by a bit of cross wind over the top.  It was a little ways after this at about the 85k mark that I realized I was in big trouble.  My stomach was still bad and I hadn't been able to eat much at all in the first 2hrs of racing.  I got dropped on the smallest of rises, my body simply empty with nothing left to give.  I think I got down about 300 calories in 3hrs of racing.  I pedaled slowly for what seemed like an hour, still determined to make it to the finish.  Eventually a group of about 30 riders caught me as we were approaching the finishing circuits.  They'd been dropped earlier on that hard hill and crosswind section and I was glad to see them at this point.  We got to to the finish circuits just in time to see the leaders screaming by for their final laps.  The officials pulled us and gave us what races in the US would call a pro-rated time - meaning we were far down in the results, but allowed to start the next day.  

Right about now I'd like to put in a picture of me racing.  None exist that I know of.  So instead I'll just tell you about the shower here at the hotel outside of Liege.  See below.  There is Caesar.  He looks at you while you shower.

The second stage was to be fairly flat for the first 80k and then hit some real climbs.  Namely the Mur de Huy, as featured at the finish of Fleche Wallonne.  The race still started off fast though with lots of attacks and no breaks getting away until after about 65k.  There was one wicked crosswind section.  I was way too far back and ended up in the the third echelon.  I was surprised how long everyone just rode strung out in the gutter before deciding to form echelons.  I could see the end of this straight road only 3-4k away so I didn't panic much, even if I had panicked I wouldn't really have been able to have done anything about it.  I was too far back, ended up in the third group, and just took my turn riding in the group to get us back up to the front when things calmed down a few minutes later.  I learned more in those 10 minutes of bike racing than I've learned in a long time.

I'd been feeling pretty tired all throughout the first hour of racing and struggling to stay up front.  I knew I needed to move up around the 70km mark before we hit the Mur de Huy, but I just didn't have the legs.  I was on the back and swinging after only 75k of racing and when we hit the base of the Mur at 80k I was messed up.  I was passing guys going up the hill, but the guys I passed were going so slowly they must have had to stop and walk shortly after I passed them.  That hill is steep!!!  I can't imagine racing up that after 5 hours to finish a one-day classic as in Fleche Wallonne.  I made it to the top, but way off the back and empty again.  With the front of the race long gone I pulled out in the feedzone.  It's not a good feeling to just pull the plug, but I think my inadequate nutrition of the past few days had really caught up with me.

So here's to hoping that a couple days of rest and eating full meals again will have me back on my feet.  I promise to fix the picture to word ratio as well.