Meigem

After 4 months of training; it was time that I kind of knew were I was in regards to my colleagues of the Elite category in Belgium. I decided to start racing a little ahead of schedule, so I went to Meigem today close to Ghent to participate in the first race of the season for me. It promises to be a pretty hard race with the wind and the number of participants: 131. I get chased by a guy making a documentary when I get dressed before the race; I get media attention right away :) Cool!

In the race itself; it's pretty nerve racking and dangerous with 131 people on very narrow streets. I tried staying in the head of the group but the pushing and pulling of people get's my heart rate up to the 170 zone and I decide to make use of my pretty extensive developed skills; riding in the back of the group. This gets my hart rate down to about 145 in some zone's. After 4 minutes race I look down and my speedometer says 60. Welcome in Belgium! After 25% of the race is done; I need a miracle it seems to be able to finish today. All these 40 minutes my heart rate does not drop under 170; and science is never wrong. I have only a limited amount of time left with this heart rate. Luckily for me the pace seems to have dropped just that little but; so I can recuperate on some zones of the loop we are doing. The rest of the race is pretty uneventful, although; for countless times I had to touch other people and push them; yell at people; bridge gaps that people could not bridge anymore; I lost a drinking bottle on the 300m cobble stone stretch that was in the race today. So only with 1 bottle I started to get dehydrated. Around half race I nearly got involved in a super crash with around 15 people, but I manage to lean against some riders and to jump over a wheel and whoofff...my tires are still down. Close call again. The loop has a tailwind stretch where we always make around 55 km/h; and right after that a sharp right turn. This corner was really bad!

Anyway; with 2 laps to go and from the 131 riders we are left with around 60 I believe. After having spend all this time in the peleton; I decide it's time to break away. Bad Idea! I get in a short brake away of 15 in the tailwind stretch and a little later with around 10 people. However; It is unclear to me how people can break away when the peleton always keeps averages of 44 km/h.
Having said all this; At this point in the race I feel really satisfied about my performance; after 10 years of no Belgian competition; with my first race; this proves that my base shape is really huge. However; with a little more than 1 lap to go; I pay cash for my breakaway attempt. On a side wind stretch I look over my shoulder...nobody. Before me a line of riders going 47 km/h with a side wind. I have to let the peleton go; and decide to not ride the last lap anymore. After all, I am satisfied. Racing for a few months will have to get my to the level I have in mind.

Euer,
Joris