Yesterday Friday was another day for exploring, the weather was perfect 26c with a light wind, a really nice day. My plan was a bit ambitious, a big loop of predominately country lanes, enjoying the scenery and fresh air. Well it went Ok for two thirds of the ride but then it came unstuck quite quickly. The problem is that you ride into a small hamlet expecting to stay on the road through that's taking you in the right direction then you are faced with a T junction with no signs at all! So I was making guesses whether it was going to be right or left but when I started to ride into Geraardsbergen (home of the Mur de Grammont) I knew I was so far wrong it wasn't funny. I once raced a kermesse in Geraardsbergen that went 10 times up through the town just turning right before the last cobbled section past the church, I wouldn't have lasted long except that I followed another rider up the footpath to avoid the cobbles through the town, no big crowds for a local race back in the day, so the footpath was available every lap.
Anyway I was heading in completely the wrong direction, I actually had a map with me this time, a detailed small scale? map, but I was encountering signs with names that weren't on my map! Back track was the only option, so 2 hours in the country achieved.
Today I raced in Vogelwaarde, Holland. What a brilliant race, You can't have as much fun as I had today with your clothes on it was great, wind, cobbles, in the gutter racing, echelons, high speed it had everything you could want in a race held on a brilliant sunny day, which got pretty warm. Because the race was n Holland we had a lot of Dutch riders signing up too so it was a bigger field today. There was a 300m cobbled section about 500m from the start/finish line. I think the Paris Roubaix categorises cobbles as difficulty one, two or three, I estimate these were category two, lumpy and difficult but they could be worse, with no bail out on the side either, we hit the them hard and fast each time so they were over pretty soon, some riders struggled but the section was so short that most were able to rejoin.
Start of the B Race
There was a very long cross headwind straight that had everybody either in an echelon or in the gutter, awesome, first lap we were down to 10 riders coming out of that section and we actually had a pace line going for the rest of the lap to cement the gap, which we achieved, it was game over for most of the field. Normal tactic is for a group to not really work and then one or two riders to take a flyer off the front.
One lap later the race is in pieces - welcome to Belgium
Later on in the second half of the race it got a lot more confused since they insist on sending the oldest race off two minutes ahead of a younger race, which tends to mess up our race but today I just treated it as one race and I was good in that race too towards the end, I'm good at groveling in the gutter, much better these days than continually jumping out of corners.
So in the money again today, much happier with my performance, raced it all the way to the line, aggressively, not sure of the exact place yet but according to the pay out I was well up. Satisfied with that.
Recovering on my bed watching the Tour now,
Today I raced in Vogelwaarde, Holland. What a brilliant race, You can't have as much fun as I had today with your clothes on it was great, wind, cobbles, in the gutter racing, echelons, high speed it had everything you could want in a race held on a brilliant sunny day, which got pretty warm. Because the race was n Holland we had a lot of Dutch riders signing up too so it was a bigger field today. There was a 300m cobbled section about 500m from the start/finish line. I think the Paris Roubaix categorises cobbles as difficulty one, two or three, I estimate these were category two, lumpy and difficult but they could be worse, with no bail out on the side either, we hit the them hard and fast each time so they were over pretty soon, some riders struggled but the section was so short that most were able to rejoin.
Start of the B Race
There was a very long cross headwind straight that had everybody either in an echelon or in the gutter, awesome, first lap we were down to 10 riders coming out of that section and we actually had a pace line going for the rest of the lap to cement the gap, which we achieved, it was game over for most of the field. Normal tactic is for a group to not really work and then one or two riders to take a flyer off the front.
One lap later the race is in pieces - welcome to Belgium
Later on in the second half of the race it got a lot more confused since they insist on sending the oldest race off two minutes ahead of a younger race, which tends to mess up our race but today I just treated it as one race and I was good in that race too towards the end, I'm good at groveling in the gutter, much better these days than continually jumping out of corners.
So in the money again today, much happier with my performance, raced it all the way to the line, aggressively, not sure of the exact place yet but according to the pay out I was well up. Satisfied with that.
Recovering on my bed watching the Tour now,
No comments:
Post a Comment