On the roll

It was a nice evening flight to Brussels. It felt a bit strange arriving at that airport so late since I usually am arriving at that airport at about 8:00 in the morning on some inter-continental flight from the states. After grabbing our bikes from baggage claim we headed out and met one of our directors, Hendrik Redant, and drove to the hotel in Ghent.

Hendrik was a successful professional in the '80s and '90s and is originally from Belgium. This experience he has now gives us the opportunity to learn a lot about the nature of how the races we were about to compete in would play out.

Our first day in Belgium was designated as a day for reconnaissance of the circuit at Nokere Koerse. The lap was more or less split into two sections. There was the main road that went along the backside of the course and the small hilly cobbled roads that carried the peloton through the finish. After a couple times around the circuit, we learned what sort of things to look for and where we wanted to be in the group going into each cobbled sector of the course. It seemed that there was the opportunity to relax and regroup on that big road along the backside so that when we were within a few kilometers of the first cobblestone sector, we could shoot up into position and try to hold onto it across the cobbles.

In the race, my job was to try and make the initial breakaway and later in the day, help the rest of the team move around the group. The race went out pretty fast until the first climb through Oudenaarde. After that, the group sat up and let the breakaway have some time. Robin Carpenter, my teammate, ended up making it into that break. This pause did not last long. The gap between the breakaway and the pack really never went much over two minutes before the group would begin to get anxious about the narrow roads that lead to the circuit. It only took one lap of the circuit to catch the breakaway and for things to reset.

Throughout these laps, I did my best to stay near the team and give a good effort in making sure they were near the front every time we would hit the cobbles. As we got closer to the end, my lack of racing and some bad luck resulted in me being shuffled back and eventually getting dropped. After the final cars passed me, I began to ride directly to the finish as I was completely out of the race. The day ended with a DNF (did not finish), but I do not think that means that it was not successful. I was pretty happy with my first race.

One of the things I have been very impressed by that comes with riding on a team of this level is the care for the athletes at the race. After rolling back to the team parking area, I climbed back on the team bus to find, a Thorne bottle full of recovery mix, a bowl of warm food prepared for me just moments before the finish, and a hot shower on board. In the past, occasionally I have received a recovery bottle and occasionally some food but always had to sit in the van on the way back to the hotel feeling the grit of the road still on my legs. It felt amazing to be treated so well after a race.

On this block, we had a day off between each of the races. I really enjoyed this style because it gave us a chance to have both a physical and mental reset. During our days off, we would often get up a little later and get riding just after breakfast. The two rides we did on our off-days were just a little over an hour. Mostly, we would stick to the canal, but during the second day's ride, we did visit a coffee shop in Ghent. It is always nice to get to see a new city amidst all the commotion of traveling for a race.

The second race was named the Bredene Koksijde Classic. Both of the towns for which the race is named are towns that I have competed in on the cyclocross bike. I thought it was pretty cool to revisit these places at a different time of year and under some different circumstances. That day the race was characterized by some pretty heavy wind. The course would leave the coast and head inland for a while to a small climb called the Kemmelberg. We ascended that climb twice before heading back towards the sea. On both passages of the Kemmelberg, the field split up quite a bit as the descent was tight and fast and would drop out into some heavier crosswinds. My job was to try and make sure the guys could be in a good position for the climb and to help them chase on after the climb was over. Once we were safely through that portion of the course and heading back to the coast, the wind picked up and created some longer periods of hard riding in the gutter. The crosswinds would pin the entire group to one shoulder or the other, but it was never hard enough to split. In the end, a few riders from the team ended up a few places outside the top ten in a field sprint.

I have found in recent years that it is becoming more challenging to work through the mental hurdles that it takes to remain competitive in field sprints. I am not sure whether or not it is past injuries causing me to be hesitant of taking the required risks or if the general average risk tolerance of the competitors in the field has gone up substantially. It may be a bit of both. It is something I would have liked to have been more helpful in this race, but need to work on a bit before I am able to benefit the team more.

In our final race, Grand Prix Criquielion, we were the only Pro-Continental team registered. This meant that, on paper, we were the highest rank group at the start. Despite this fact, there are a lot of strong riders in Belgium and we knew that it would be a hard day. Everyone seemed to be nervous to let us get into a break of any sort which meant that it would take much longer than usual for any sort of rhythm to be established. It was not until about two and a half to three hours into the race when rider’s legs could no longer keep up the pace of chasing down attacks and the group split. We put four of the five riders on the team in the split group which gave us a big leg up.

Since then, I have gotten a bit more time to walk around town here in Girona. A few days ago I got to go check out the Girona History museum and time to walk the Medieval wall around the town. Having a city so dense, geographically speaking, has allowed me to explore a lot within just a few minutes walk from my front door. I am excited to continue to do this throughout my time here.