Lines like ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ and ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ are often used to motivate people in times when the chips are down and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. This has been the type of approach I’ve had to take in the last couple of weeks. Poor form coupled with a splattering of DNF’s had been doing little for my motivation, but you have to take the rough with the smooth…even if my rough patch had been like a sector of Belgian pave!
Mid-week rides with our neighbour Brecht have become somewhat of a highlight for me and my room-mate Mike. Brecht teaches us new roads every week as well as having an uncanny ability to do almost the whole ride with a tailwind. This week’s ride took in two glimpses of ‘Scheldeprijs’, a semi classic for Professional riders. With unbroken sunshine and good company 150 kilometres flew by. The day almost took a turn for the worst when I was cut up by a van but a bit of cyclo cross and a lot of leaning against the van allowed me to just keep myself upright. Once the driver had got out I decided that the six foot scratch down the side of his van compared to my slight friction burn meant that we could call the incident a draw….difficult to communicate in Flemish but I wasn’t hanging around in case he noticed his side door and decided not to call it a draw! The evening was capped off in gourmet style with Brecht’s wife Nele treating us to three courses of luxury food and a champagne toast at the start. This was not only a welcome break from the monotonous diet of pasta and potatoes but also a chance to catch the champions league live on T.V. since our television broke 3 weeks ago and is no nearer to being replaced.
On Friday morning I was awoken rather rudely by the cobbles being dug up outside my front window, now i'm not a suspicous person but this is surely retribution from Belgians road minister for my critiscism of his lazy employees in my last blog... I didn't know I had fans so high up! Friday night came around soon enough and with west Flanders basking in a setting sun it was time to see if I could turn my poor fortune around. The race was a glorified criterium, 110km on a 5.5 kilometre pan flat circuit. A strong British contingent on the start line was a welcome sight. The race went off at a fast pace. Within seconds the 230 rider field could be seen lined out across the Flemish countryside, for once a welcome sight as I had positioned myself in the top 30 and my legs were feeling comfortable. Just 4 laps in and a good move from a rider in our team called ‘Stijn Eneckens’ dragged a select group of around 12 riders away. The group seemed to work well as they disappeared through the town streets. With no carrot to dangle out in front of the peloton the move looked destined to succeed and with 2 team mates in the group I was obliged to sit tight and let them ride away. A special mention at this point to Dan McLay who surely did the ride of the day, crossing the gap of near enough a minute solo to join these riders up front. Stijn is a rider held in the highest regard in our team, many a night I have been lectured on how many times he dies in races and comes back from the brink to take victory, so with this in mind I followed the dangerous moves and allowed the gap to grow out to 2 minutes. I launched a couple of speculative attacks late on in the race but never gained more than 15 seconds and was left looking for willing riders to help me pull away from the peloton. The final result was a well-timed victory for a rider from the local Tremelo team. I came across the line just over 2 minutes behind taking around 10th in the bunch sprint. A couple of groups slipped away late on meaning I eventually came away with a placing around 50th but having felt strong all race and finished comfortably my confidence had been boosted. I was later told that I had merely had a training ride just sitting in the bunch by our team manager which was disheartening but, it’s almost impossible to put down a rider with endorphins coursing through his veins!
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