Today was a race with the WAOD at Beveren Waas which is north of Ghent near Antwerp, 4pm start.
According to the weather forecast it was 36c, according to my powermeter it was 45c! too bloody hot,
I was very lucky to find a nice shady parking spot up a side alley close to the race HQ, the ubiquitous village bar or pub. It certainly helped to keep the car a bit cooler since it got very hot very quick once I turned the aircon off.
Having signed on I went off to look at the circuit. From the finish line it meandered through the corn field for maybe 2k, then turned left through a 110 degree turn which led uphill for maybe 3k, the gradient was probably only about 2/3% but it was straight into the wind, the road twisted and turned a bit but without any shelter since it was predominately through fields. A 90 degree left turn onto a fast run back into town, watching out for the 'traffic calming' features! staying up the front important along this road, then into a fast 90 degree turn with 200m to the finish line.
One lap was enough of a warm up, the rest of my preparation consisted of finding a shady spot and staying there until start time, to be honest I was not feeling that special, a combination I think of still getting over Wednesday's race and the heat, I know I'm not good over 35c, today was 10 degrees warmer.
We started quite sedately, well nobody attacked off the line anyway. First time up the hill I went through and put the hammer down, I didn't think about it, it just sort of happened and I was away on my own hoping that some riders would come across, nobody did so I let myself get brought back in and wait for other opportunities. From there for the next three or four laps it was business as usual, attack chase, attack chase, my particular plan was to cross a gap on my own and for the break to go away. One thing I am very good at is crossing gaps quickly with nobody on my wheel, I'm pretty quick at that. But no joy in that department.
There was an interesting phenomena in this race, the attrition rate was particularly serious, every time I looked back we seemed to have lost another couple of riders, I think it was the heat, it was making the race a real grind. With three laps to go we were probably only a dozen riders left and it was getting very hard, two laps to go we were down to nine riders it got a bit serious then. I guess the guys know I can sprint a little and a section of the remaining bunch decide to work me over, attacking in turn, everybody else leaving the chasing to me, by now my heart rate is sitting on 172 bpm, my maximum being 175 bpm, it was really hurting now.
Coming round to the bell I think we were now at eight left, it was a bit like a 'miss and out' on the track. I got dropped three times on the last lap. I'd like to say I was trying to save energy but the truth was I just couldn't make those violent big power efforts at this point, so I was having to time trial my way back to the attacker(s), still not easy but I just about managed it, I managed to still be there as we came out onto the fast road into the finish, we were now down to seven. Then it got really exciting but I was trying to cover every move quickly rather than chase. I missed one, two guys slipped away and I was then on the front trying to chase hard enough to contain them but not hard enough to blow out my sprint, I attacked into the last corner not even going near the brakes and was hunting down the two guys out front. I ran out of road, I probably needed another 20 metres as it was I failed to get up by a wheel!
They at least bought me a couple beers after the race whilst telling their mates how they'd worked over the 'Englishman'. well almost right anyway.
I am now officially very stuffed, two hard races in a row plus a very hot day. It is forecast to cool,to the mid twenties over the weekend, I'm looking foward to that.
There is a big UCI 1.2 race in the village tomorrow, all the top teams riding. The BIGLA ladies team is in the hotel, mainly Swiss but Emma Pooley rides for them, but I don't know if she is here. My plan for tomorrow is a short ride, then to sit outside the hotel and watch a few laps of the race. What should be interesting is that the VIP centre with 160 guests is based at the hotel, could get quite noisy I suspect especially since they are running a helicopter out of the garden to take the VIP's up to show them the race from the air,
Sunday I need to get up at 6am to get to Ledegem and the ICF world championships.
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