The racing is coming fast and furious now. I went to the kermis in Waardamme still feeling trashed from the race on Thursday. My arms still ached, shoulders, and chest were all still aching from yanking on the handlebars during almost three hours of sprints and my abdomen was still quite sore from the wipeout. My legs felt like lead and I went to the race with a little bit of dread, but fully caffeinated, and accompanied by some mates from JBCA (American Trevor Johnson, and Aussies Ben Juzwin, and Will Tehan).
At registration I started to recognize some of the stronger guys and definitely had picked out the teams to watch - an important first step in getting used to the racing over here. The course was super-exposed; the entire lap wound through narrow farm roads with little protection from the wind. There was a lot of wind. The laps were only 3.75 kilometers long. Essentially, the loop was a long triangle. The first long side was a heavy cross-wind, then a short head/cross-wind section, then a heavy tailwind back along the long finishing straight. The wind was vicious.
The race started with the line-up, with people jockeying for position and latecomers snagging prime spots in the front of the peloton and everyone inching up around them. The actual start line was a good 10 meters behind the first riders by the time the race actually began. I was in the second row. I made sure to start in a good spot given the brutal crosswind in the first couple km’s - I wasn’t sure there would even be a full peloton by the time we came through the start finish after one lap!
After how hard the last race was for me, I really wasn’t sure I would be able to finish. I suffered more than I ever have in a bike race on Thursday. I knew I didn’t have the mental/emotional energy to push that deep again only two days later.
Sure enough, there were attacks from the gun, but the racing was a bit anxious as everyone seemed a bit respectful of the course, so the pace was a bit timid. We came through the finish completely strung out at almost 60 km/hr in the tailwind and in true Euro-style jammed on the breaks to about 15 km/hr into turn one. The race became more animated each time through the crosswind with small groups surging forward, but they were reabsorbed through the headwind section.
About five laps in a small group established a bit of a gap on the field, maybe 15 seconds, that held for a little bit. I went with the next move to go - there were about 6 of us - as the pack seemed to be reluctant to chase for whatever reason. We stayed away for a lap, closing on the leaders to about five seconds. On the next lap we were caught by an absolutely decimated peloton that was completely strung out and broken in to several smaller groups. Immediately a counter-attack came past us, then another. I felt like it was a make-or-break moment the race (yes, only about 25 km into the race) and so I tried to go with the second counter-move. My acceleration was somewhat lacking as I was already pretty well on the rivet. I got clear of the field though and tried to power up to the riders bridging. For a bit I closed on them, but then they started to pull away. I looked back to see that the field was a ways back and not chasing hard, so I continued my effort. The bridging riders made it up to the group and so the carrot in front of me was no moving slightly more slowly as the larger group began to get into a rhythm. I knew I had one last chance to bridge.
I didn’t make it. I came within maybe five seconds, but couldn’t close it. I was totally toasted. A group of about 10 riders was trying to bridge behind me and caught me. In short order our group was then caught by the peloton, at which point I searched for a comfortable draft to catch my breath. Reintegrating into a pack is very hard here. You have to immediately start matching accelerations or you open a gap - hard to do when you have gone into the red.
A couple smaller groups escaped during this time, leaving about 30 riders up the road. The selection of the day was done.
The rest of the race was bo-ring. About 30 riders ahead, 30 riders behind, and the rest were dropped. We didn’t really cooperate at all so the race wasn’t about to come back together. With about 18 laps left, there was a crash that split the field. Will and I were ahead of this crash and worked with a group of 10-12 riders to stay clear of the rest, which we did. The only problem was that the leaders were starting to catch up to us on such a short course, so we knew it would only be a matter of time before we got pulled. It was a funny situation - there was no real motivation to work for the group, but nobody knew when the race would end. There were a lot of little attacks and counter-attacks for a few laps as guys gambled, essentially trying to guess the finishing lap.
We got the bell at 13 laps to go to clear the course for the lead group. I attacked through a small gap at the front with 2 km to go and gave it full gas through the crosswind along the gutter. Nobody followed and Will helped disrupt the chase like a champ. I held on to the finish, which was good for 30th place, and 10 Euro! Will took third from the rest of the group for 33rd.
The biggest thing I took from today was confidence in getting a prize as well as being so close to the winning move. And maybe even more important than that I saw that the race at Gistel was an exceptionally hard kermis for various reasons (field, crash, course, etc) and that I won’t have to suffer through living hell each time I do one! Awesome.
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