Belgium - Weeks 3 and 4

A lot has happened in the last two weeks and I've learnt so much about my self, racing and training.

The third week in Belgium started like the two weeks before with two days of hard training then a kermesse on Wednesday night. The race was 124kms long with 14 laps of the town and surrounding farms with the roads being small and tight. The race started with rain falling making the loop that little bit more challenging. I stayed in the front twenty wheels looking to make it into the break and hopefully get a result and stay out of trouble. This was all going to plan until I came down on a muddy corner smashing into a fence post. Unfortunately that was the end of my race with 50kms still to race.

Thursday was straight back into training with my next race being on Sunday. There was hard training to be done and we turned it into a five day block including the race on Sunday. This was my best race to date, everything went to plan apart from missing the early break which went on the first lap. This was not a huge problem as a group of twenty riders rode across the gap catching the second half of the early break only leaving a few riders out front. I crossed the line in 32nd position in the second bunch.

Monday was a recovery day with a light spin and a chance to get into town and drink coffee and taste some of the fine Belgium Chocolate that was on offer. Tuesday and Wednesday were both big training days doing a five hour ride in to Holland on Wednesday. Thursday was warming up into the weekend of racing. I raced Friday night and got to use my new wheelset that were built for better handling of the roads in Belgium and the style of racing. They performed well but I had a mechanical with five laps to go and again that was my race over. But being Belgium there is always another race and I was back racing the next afternoon. The circuit was so much fun to ride, in an 8km lap there was about 4kms of cobbles and not all smooth ones either. With a thin cement gutter down

one side and a small bike path on the other in sections it made the racing interesting and became all about position and placement into the corners.

I rode an aggressive race from lap one following the moves and making a few but never getting a break away to form. It took twelve laps for the break to finally ride away and I missed the break again. I hate that this may be becoming a trend! With only four laps to go I tried to ride across but got reeled back in by the charging peloton and finished in the main peloton.

Sunday was a slow endurance with a few riders from the local villages. We rode up into Holland taking in some amazing architecture and a stunning landscape. The ride was six hours long and we covered about 190kms. This was a great way to end my first month in Belgium.

With only a few more weeks before I travel back home Melbourne I really want to get a result on the board. So I can build on them next year.