Nokere Koerse

Deep and dark times I tell ya.
Yesterday we raced the miniclassic Nokere-Koerse, 200K, 186 starters, 23 finishers. Hmm good times. I got to a point in the race where I was definitely in a bit of a rage. So I'm definitely glad that I waited a day before I wrote about the race. Because durring the race, I was the Prince of Darkness to be sure. Thankfully I'd done this race before so I knew what to expect, but having done it only once before, I still have plenty to learn about the race. The race starts with a big loop of 50K then finishes the last 150K on 15k circuits. Well the wind was a blow'n mighty hard on this day and it got ugly pretty darn quick. After only abut 40K, we hit the open country fields and the entire field blew to pieces instantly. It's pretty amazing to watch and I always wonder what the team directors are thinking at these times when they are sitting back in the cars. Next to the race officials, they have the best seat in the house to watch as the race is decided within a matter of minutes. As a racer, it's pretty hard to fully realize what going on untill is way too late. I still don't know exactly how close to the front I was when all this went down. All I do knw is that we took a right turn and instantly everyone was pegged in the gutter. Because there is a cross wind everyone is trying to stay in the draft of the rider in front of him, but with a crosswind that draft is behind and to the side of the rider in front of you. So Everyone is trying to get just a bit more to the side of the rider in front of them and the result is everyone is riding in a single file line, full gas, at the very very edge of the road. Ahh yes and since we're usually in the country side that means you'll have about three feet of grass next to you then certain doom. This certain doom is the 4 foot deep trench the farmers use to drain all the water ut of the fields. So all I know is that I WAS relatively close to the front of the bunch, fighting it out in the gutter and thinking for once I just might make this one. Next thing I know the road makes a slight bender to the left, and at the same time a serious gust of wind hits me and whoosh! Next hing I know I've been blown off the road and into the grass. Now keep in mind it's been raining so it's no good firm grass, it's thick mud that I'm hoping doesn't catch my frontwheel and really put a sour note to end my day. I'm not sinking in the mud so that's good, I'm trying as hard as I can to make sure I also don't fall into the ditch that is now only about a foot away from me. All the while, at least 80% of the field is just absolutle flying past me at Mach 2. Now I'm pissed and despite my better hindsights judgement, once I regain control of the bike I just swing right back into that line of riders that's going WAY WAY fater than I'm going. Ahh well nobody rearended me, which is good, a few guys tried to, but they managed to miss me by a milimeter or two at the last moment. Well once I get back up and running again I'm feeling ok so now I'm trying my best to make my way back twards the frant and see what's happening. Well it took me only a minute to see that there was already a big split in the field and plenty of guys were trying unsuccesfully to bridge across. I've lerned from first hand experience that attempting the solo bridge, when everyone is going full gas, just ain't happening so you might as well bide your time and wait to see what happens, from there you can try to improve your situation. Well like I said earlier, only 23 guys finished so nobody outside of that initial split were ever given the oportunity to try and improve their situation. The group I was in definitely kept riding, but the time gap just continued to hover around a minute for the next 50K, the next time check we got was at a time gap of 1'30" and that's when everyone realized that the day was over for us. Now a minute thirty sure doesn't sound like much at all, but in Belgium it's all anyone needs. The group was out of sight and you can be sure that all 23 riders were plenty motivated to stay away so they weren't going to need a second oportunity. For us back in the main group we continued to ride, and on two separate occasions a team hit the front with a few of their guys and just gassed it for about a lap. This really began to piss me off because they were going so hard that everybody was strugeling to hang on, including their teamates (Unibet) back in the group not working fro some odd reason. They'd give it some real gas for a lap, then just sit up and give up. I was just about to have a "help me Tom Cruise" moment (It's the code I came up with for my teammates. If I'm hollering that, they need to get away from me cuz I'm about three seconds from blowing a gasket) when thankfully they his is when I started getting realy really dark. It's just stoopid race tactics to start with. If a team is going to chase, then the way to do it is put all the guys on the front and set a tempo they can hold for the next 40k or so. Not this crap of just throttling it for 15K, dropping half the bunch, and then sitting up when nothing has been acomplished. The reason I was getting so dark was because I was hurting something fierce and almost blew up on several different occasions. Well that's racing I know, but I'm pretty sure I have some good fitness right now, and I trained mighty hard this winter. So to still be strugling just to finish the race, is pretty frustrating. I knew what to expect this year, in terms of how hard the racing is out here, and that kept me plenty motivated durring the winter to keep training harder and harder. As a result I'm probably the fittest I've ever been at this point in the season. So to still be strugling just to finish is madening. I had all this time durring the race to start thining about my situation. I feel like I'm begening to realize or acept the fact that maybe I'm just not well suited to this type of racing. I was thinking what the racing and weather is like back home in Cali, it was hailing on us in Belgium while it's 80 degrees in Cali. BUt then I emidiately think about the fac that the racing going on right now in the states, just ain't racing. If a 'Pro' race has a whopping two teams show up, and those two teams take all top ten placings, well then that's hard to consider a race. So what to do? The scene just isn't enough in the states, well not yet at least. Once the season really picks up and all the teams are there, then there will be some good racing. But here in Belgium it still seems WAY over my head. I think you need a little positive reinforcement to keep your head on straight. So then I began to wonder what the racing was like in other parts of Europe. Everyone I've talked to says that this is the hardest stuff to deal with as a whole. No doubt there are plenty of hard races elsewhere in Europe, but the fighting, the cold, the road jewlery we constantly fear for our lives from, all really make this just hellish racing conditions.
Well by the end of the our race I was begining to feel a bit better, especially when I realized that my group was onlyabout 50 riders strong, meaning that there were already 100+ guys out of the race. So I guess no matter how bad my day was, I guess I still did better than most. But then again with 30K to go, the time gap had blown up to 2'30" and that's an eon in Belgium. Right after we got that time split, the race officials came up to the front of the group and kindly said thank you for showing up, you can stop riding at the end of this circuit. Now this isn't a pack of jokers riding around. Half of Quicksteps and Lotto's teams were there, most of Unibet and just about all of Chocolate Jaques. Oh and sans one Ausi, the entire Navigators squad, but I guess whether we're jokers or not is a matter of opinion. Bleauh! That Ausi, Hilton, made the split and finished 12th I think. Hey I would been extatic with that result if it were mine. Sheesh at least he's gett'n a good sense of the where's and when of these races and begining to consistently do well. The bit of hope I have is still comming from guys like him who continue to tell me that it takes a few years before you can expect to do ok out here.