The end of exams and time for a weekend away with the team, with a very early start getting up at 5am on the Saturday for the morning tunnel to Calais. Upon arrival we worked out the course by following some random people with numbers on, as there was no course info anywhere, and then did a few more laps to loosen up the legs after the long drive to Belgium. The course was flat and narrow with a couple of technical corners.
After the recce we sat back and relaxed and made sure to hydrate as well as watching the race before ours to see how the race would roughly pan out.
We went to gear check and then lined up for the start; it was important to get a good start as the first left hander could’ve split up or strung out the bunch. The whistle sounded and away we went.
Disaster: my chain had dropped off just as we started accelerating to full speed. Quickly, I stopped and put it back on but there was already over a 30s gap. Full gas chase on and I managed to make it back within the first lap. Spent the rest of the race trying to recover from that hard effort at the beginning but didn’t have the pace for the finish. Luckily Oscar and Alex were up front flying the flag for the team.
After the race we rode another lap as a cool down and to recover for tomorrow, then quickly went back to the hotel for a shower and then out for dinner at an Italian. Also, we went looking for a supermarket for the next day, which turned out to be a gigantic vending machine, so we’d have to wait for the next day. Back to the hotel for a reasonably early night before another day’s racing tomorrow.
Day two and another hot day with 32 degrees and sunshine. Quick breakfast at the hotel then off to the shop to get a lot of water and some lunch before heading to the race in Oostkamp. This course was far more technical, like a town centre crit back home but with a 5km lap. A quick course recce (which we did by following the race before us as it was even harder to find out the route today than yesterday) then back to the cars for some lunch and more water, as well as watching some of the National Champs. The race took me a couple laps to really get into after yesterday’s madness off the start, after that it was full gas racing in the heat. From about halfway in, it was a fresh water bottle every single lap with Oscar also dumping water on everyone’s heads from early in the race. Legs were feeling good, and we had Alex in the break so Oscar and I tried disrupting the chase for as long as we could. With one to go it was clear the break was staying away, and Oscar said he was confident in his sprint so lead out duties it was. For the last part of the lap, I pressed on to stop any other counter attacks and to keep Oscar up at the front. In the end we finished with Alex 7th, Oscar p2 in the bunch sprint and me hanging on for 40th after the lead out. A good weekend racing in Belgium for my first international races and we even made it onto an earlier train home to top it off.
Tom Adby 