Archive for the ‘Race Reports’ Category

The first 2 stages of the UCI Nations Cup have taken place over the last few days, with the U23 Tour of Flanders on Saturday, and La Cote Picarde yesterday.  Each race features the top 6 riders from about 25 different countries, battling it out through  the cobbles, wind, rain, and hail of Northern Europe.

These two races, as well as this Saturday’s ZLM Tour which finishes off the week, were my first big goals of the year and I found myself excited and somewhat nervous in the days prior to the opening Tour of Flanders.  It reminded me of my early years racing, where all you dream about is the racing for weeks in advance, have butterflies in your stomach and are twitching with excitement.  Flanders especially is a race that I love…a true test of just about every aspect of cycling – handling, positioning, climbing, “bordures”, cobbles, the list goes on.  After my best ever preparation this winter and spring, I was feeling ready to rock against the best in the world.

Unfortunately the first two of these races have been marked by misfortune for me and I find myself finishing each race in frustration.  Flanders was going very well on Saturday for the first few hours of racing – the climbs seemed to have flattened out from how I remember them last year as I spun up them with ease.  I knew I had the legs to compete on the tough circuits.  However, on the run in to the Molenberg – where the race truly starts to pick up, I had my rear derailleur ripped off by another rider as he crashed in the feed zone.  By the time I could get a spare bike from the stretched out caravan, the race was long gone and my day was done.

The bad luck of Flanders had me even more motivated for Wednesday’s Cote Picarde and again the start was going well.  Wired on copious amounts of caffeine my legs were turning over with ease.  This day, even more so than Flanders, we were tested my extreme weather.  The skies opened up mid race with a downpour of rain, which would soon turn to hail as temperatures plummeted.  I think this is the coldest I have ever raced in and the weather certainly took it’s toll.  The group got smaller and smaller as riders pulled in to the warmth of a team bus, but eventually the sun returned and those remaining warmed back up again.  So the day managed to go well for a lot longer than Saturday, but once again a mechanical – this time a flat on the finishing circuit ended any hopes of a good result.

I guess I can’t really complain – others had their days ruined by similar issues and some ended up much worse than me from the numerous crashes throughout both days.  The legs are ready this year, and although mishaps can always happen they don’t last forever – so now I just have to stay focused on what I can control for Saturday’s ZLM Tour.

Yesterday was my last race in France before joining the National Team in Belgium for a string of Nations Cup races.  We were near Clermont-Ferrand for a pretty flat race called Vertaizon-Cournon, which consisted of 5 laps of 22km, followed by 4 laps of a tougher finishing circuit of 7kms, with a nasty 300m climb for the finish.

Things got going early again this week with me and 4 others getting a small gap after 20kms.  We sat about 15 seconds ahead for what seemed like an eternity as the other teams who missed the move tried to bring things back.  I was going through agony at this point and thinking there was simply no way I could keep up this effort…it was going to be a long day if things continued!

Finally the right combination of guys bridged up to us so that the peloton would let us go, and with the added horse power to the break I came down from the red zone just a bit.  Quickly our gap increased and we soon found ourselves with a nice lead of 2 minutes.  Things rolled along smoothly for the entirety of the bigger circuits and thankfully my legs continually improved as the day went on.  From feeling horrible at the start of the race, I was starting to see that I was actually one of the fresher riders in our 18-man group.  With that realization I started to think about how I should go about winning this race, and knew I had to get into a smaller group to have any chance.

An attack over a short but steep climb allowed me to get away with 2 others as we came into the final 30kms.  We slowly increased our lead and soon found ourselves with 25 seconds over the remaining escapees.  At this point the classic game of cat and mouse definitely started, but I was in the best position with 2 teammates in the group just behind.  With 5kms to go our tactical games got the better of us, and we were joined by the chasing group.  Instantly Anthony countered and would later be joined by Jerome, for them to take a beautiful 1-2 victory for the team.  3^rd place would come from an attack with 1km to go, and I surprised myself to win the uphill sprint to take 4^th.

So all in all it was a great day for the team which saw us take our first win of the year.  Everyone was pretty excited to say the least and I certainly gained a bit more confidence going into this weekend’s Tour of Flanders.  It feels great to be racing for the win again after spending a lot of last year just trying to keep up!

Well after last weekend’s race being cancelled due to snow, the sun decided to make an appearance this weekend to make for a pleasant couple days of racing. We were lining up at back to back one day races – the GP St. Etienne and La Moutade. Having not raced at all last weekend, my roommate Mihkel and I were especially motivated to get out there and shred things up a little.

St. Etienne is one of the bigger races of the year for us, as it is so close to home and many of our riders actually live there. It is a bit of a strange race – when you look at the profile you think it’s made for the chicken-armed, 60km climbers with it’s 4 laps of 36kms…consisting of nothing but a big climb and big descent. However, both years I have done it the break has had a hard time truly forming. Riders drop off the back constantly, but a lot of sprinters manage to hang on and it often comes down to a large group finish…very rare for French racing.

For this edition, the first two laps were in fact quite calm (again very rare!) before thing started to really heat up. I was feeling good and the long, steady climb suits me well. When the big hitters started putting their cards out to play I did what I could to follow, and with about 50kms to go found myself it what I thought would surely be the winning move. I had one teammate and it seemed like the right combination of teams/individuals in our group to stay away. Unfortunately, it didn’t ever get all that organized and we were brought back at the start of the last lap. My legs started to fall apart on me at this point, but I managed to get over the climb once more, always telling myself I had no choice but to stay since I could be a big help to our sprinters in the finale. It’s funny how much more you can push yourself when you have a job to do.

At this point riders were taking huge risks though as everyone battled for position. On the descent back into town, two riders in front of me got tangled and went down hard at about 70km/h. Seeing bikes flying through the air and riders everywhere, I luckily managed to maneuver my way through the mine field unscathed. However having to stop behind this crash meant the front group was now long gone on their charge to the finish. The other riders caught behind and I chased hard for the final 15kms, but really had no chance of catching back at that point. I was pretty gutted at the finish…during the race I really felt like this would be a big day for me.

So after finishing Saturday on a low note, I was again motivated for a big race on Sunday. This time things got going right from the gun, with attacks left and right along the flat but very windy circuit. It didn’t take long for small groups to form and after the first 20kms I found myself in the lead group. We were 3 riders from the team out of around 20 or 25. The group seemed to get along well and everyone was doing their share, so we decided to try to keep it together as long as possible before getting rid of the weaker riders. Our gap steadily grew and mid-race it was very clear that nobody else was going to catch us. At this point it was time to make another selection to improve our chances even more. With the cross winds, it didn’t take very much hard riding to whittle the group down to only 13. Happy with that combination, we again rode steadily until the last 20kms where the race truly started. We had a great card to play with Mihkel in the sprint, so Ivan and I covered the many attacks and tried to get away on our own, but it was clear that nobody could ride in the wind alone and survive to the finish. We kept things in check and launched Mihkel to do his thing in the sprint. When all was said and done, he ended up getting jumped on the line, but still took home 2nd place after a long day in the break. I rolled across in 9th, and Ivan 12th. Although it isn’t a win for the team, I think we raced a really good race and it feels good to be competing for the win at the end. Definitely a positive weekend for me as I come into the final two weeks before the Tour of Flanders, Cote Picarde, and ZLM Tour with the National Team.