Last week was a big week for me. Managed to squeeze in a race before the big U23 Rhonda van Vlaanderen, also known as Tour of Flanders. On the Wednesday I had my first team race with Pro Race at the 1.12 Scheldeprijs which is a smallish race and good place to warm the legs up for Saturday. Scheldeprijs is also a professional race held at the same time so while we were racing, the pros were out on a different course nearby and then race the final few laps on the same course we just did 6x so there was a big crowd at the finish line which was cool to see. I got in the break with 2 strong Lotto riders and two weaker riders who could hardly roll through. The Lotto riders and I were pulling some pretty hard strong turns but we only got in front by just over 30 seconds and then after a hard 40km of riding the peleton caught us which sucked. I was kinda swinging for the rest of the race and I was just hanging on the back of the bunch for the rest of the race cause I was pretty knackered but it was good to blow some of the cob webs out of my legs.
Now with Flanders. I was pretty damn nervous the morning of the race. I had heard some scary strories about the race being really hectic and one of my roommates last year had raced it and he broke his wrist and was out of action for 2 months so that's why I was nervous. Once I got to the meeting place and met up with the rest of the boys my nerves eased off. It was a pretty cold day and it had been raining in the morning so the cobbles will be nice and slippery. As the flag dropped the war began. It was a massive battle to stay up the front and everyone wanted to be in the break away because it was the safest place to be. My job for the day was to try and get into the break so I had a few digs. Zeno attacked off the front with one other guy and I was at the very front of the race so I sat up expecting people to attack or try and chase him down and the plan was when he got caught then I would counter attack and hopefully start a break but surprisingly no one chased him down. Zeno dropped the one other guy he was his so Zeno was by himself for a couple hours. I just stayed in the bunch, helped out Hayden who was the team leader and tried holding my position at the front which was still a battle. I've never had so many elbow and shoulder battles with riders in a race before but you had to do it to stay at the front. Take no prisoners. You have to do everything you can to stay up the front and out of trouble. The race route was one big lap and then two smaller laps. The smaller laps had all the cobble sections and climbs in it so that's where the race really starts and the war steps up a level. There was a feed station not long before we started the small laps so I grabbed a feed bag and filled my pockets up and tried eating as much as I could but in doing this I was at the back of the race and not long after it started to piss with rain. I couldn't move up because we were on a narrow road for ages and the bunch was riding quite slow so we were all bunched up across the road so I couldn't get to the front. We then came out on a big road, into a cross headwind and uphill and everyone was fisting it because at the top of the hill we would hook a left on to a 2km cobble section. I was still at the back here trying to move up going up this climb but I was really struggling. We hit the cobbles and I had moved up a bit but not enough and I basically lost contact with the front guys there. It was all strung out and everyone was letting the wheel go in front of them. Came around a corner on the cobble section and my teammate and friend James Judd was on the ground and not in good shape and just up ahead was Hayden who had binned it as well so I pulled over thinking he might have had a flat tyre so I would've give him my wheel but his whole pedal had busted so he just told me to go. I was really suffering and we still had the Koppenburg to come which is a famously steep cobble climb. We got to it and everyone got off there bikes and walked cause your back wheel would just spin out on the wet cobbles.Then near the top where it wasn't as steep you would have spectators helping you back on your bike and giving you a push to get you going again. Zeno, Hayden and a few other guys managed to bridge across to the small group I was in and then Zeno and I started feeding it to try and get Hayden back up to the front guys but I was pretty rooted and we still had one more small lap to go. I got dropped up one of the cobble climbs but I continued on cause I just wanted to finish and I did which I'm happy about. Came 3rd to last out of the finishers but less than half of the field finished so I'm happy. I wasn't at my best on the day after travelling over here just a little over a week before the race and taking a few days to get settled in and do some decent rides but I think I could have lasted a bit longer if I had hit that 2km cobble section with the front guys. I know the roads out there quite well so I know how to ride the cobbles and how tight the corners are and what not so I did have bit of an advantage over some of the riders but yea I couldn't quite get there so I am gutted about that.
To sum up the race; I would say it was a terrifyingly shitty epicly awesome race. Terrifying because of the amount of crashes and near misses. Shitty because of the weather, the cobbles, the steep climbs, the sore ass, fingers and legs. Epic because it felt like the pro race you see on tv with the cold rain, the mud all over you and in your mouth and racing the same roads as them. And awesome because I got to cross the line while wearing the Sliver Fern.
So yea, I best wrap this up cause she's bit of a long one.
I'll put some pictures up of the race next week. My phone isn't corroborating so I can't upload them
Thanks for reading
Nick
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