European Championships

Well I was told that I could'nt win the championship on my AVCC licence and I didn't.

Its a shame in some in some ways since the course today was really to my liking, had some real hills in it and was generally pretty fast and I seem to prefer it when its fast rather than just plain 'gutty'. Still I was in the 'money' yet again and I beat the two guys that squeezed me out yesterday.

More of that later. I was a little surprised at how big deal the event was today and the VWF really did a great job, but then I think they are probably the most organised of all the bodies in Belgium. So it was almost a mini world champioship really, guys from all over on the start line, well all over Europe and me anyway.

There were some things that amused me before the start, not the least my friendly 'jury' lady telling me that she had told all the other riders as they signed on that they can ignore me for the championship. Yeh right!

I was flagged down by a group of ladies as I was rolling around a few minutes before the start because they wanted to take a close look at my jersey. So fellow GVCA'ers our jersey is officially a babe magnet, well maybe not babe's!

What was more ego building was the number of people who said to me before the start that they thought I was the best sprinter in the field and they thought that I should have won yesterday, well I agreed with should have won yesterday but I don't have a handle on being the best but I do think that certain riders are now very wary of me, which is probably not a good thing.

The start / finish area was a classic Belgian race environment, cigar smoke, beer, hot dogs, hamburgers, onions, frites it was great, cos there was a pretty decent crowd as well. I have soem photo's but lack the means to get them onto my PC here.

The course started with 90 degree right 50m after the start, straight up a hill about 4/5% for 1km, then a fast slightly down hill run, the road twisting right and left but mostly fast corners, then 90 degree left straight into a savage block headwind ( I really didn't like this bit) for about 700m, then 90 degree left into a cross headwind for about 1km that turned into a fast downhill into a 90 degree left, still slightly down hill for maybe 500m, then a 90 degree right down a steep ramp and then immediately up an equally steep ramp, 90 degree left the wrong way through a roundabout (shade of Le Tour) then a 1km straight cross wind into a 90 degree left for 300m with a tailwind, 90 degree right for 100m into a 90 degree left (wrong side of a roundabout) then up a 200m ramp (about 6%), 90 degree left onto the home straight (straight into the block headwind), 300m to the line.

So I generally enjoyed the long uphill, I was able to move up quite easily there most laps, I enjoyed the fast stretches, but I'm not as strong as the top guys into the wind but I can do it, I cornered as quickly as any body, better than most and on this course there were no corners that I didn't do well.

The race started in the rain and the boys were very respectful of the corners in the wet, more so than I wanted to be especially the fast downhill left hander which we were approaching at about 60 clicks basically I flew down the outside every time into that, it was a good test of carbon rims and swisstop brake blocks, they work fine absolutely no qualms.

For the first 4 laps (of 8) I concentrated on just staying near the front but not getting too involved, if I'm honest I had set myself to go 4 laps and call it a day but at 4 laps down I was OK and rolled down my arm warmers since the rain has stopped. With 4 laps down the race pace started going up a notch as more and more groups tried to get away.

At this point I should mention that all the top guns were there from the day before, plus a few others, one guy that I remembered from my last visit, a total maniac on hilly course but can't sprint plus a whole host of visiting dutch riders so there were quite a few fresh legs in the race.

My two protaganist from yesterday were there, one was easy to spot he's the Belgian champion, so no mug, and a very strong bike rider but not as quick in a straightline as me, I was getting some respect from him, the other guy turned out to be a bit of a mongrel, three times he tried to ride me into a wall at 50 clicks, the first time I thought he had not seen me but after that....

Coming up to two to go there were four away, I was busting my b.... to across this guy was on my wheel, attacked me at the top of the downhill, but then started braking he seemed to be happier at 50/55kph, I moved around him very happy to go into the corner at 60kph, he tried to push me into the wall of the terrace houses whipping past my right ear, he got shoved out of the way, I dropped him going through the corner and chased the break almost to the finish line when a group of six came up with my 'mate' in tow, he immediately attacked and I managed one 'last' effort to latch on the back. At this point we are 50m off the back of the front group, then we got into the usual nonsense where we aren't going to work together we are going to attack each other to get across on our own. Well I didn't I was just hanging on for awhile, I really had tried very hard to get across.

Anyway we are going nowhere but the front group wasn't either, moving ahead again just about 20 second away, very frustrating. We came into the last lap still jumping about but making no progress. Coming up the last ramp before turning onto the home straight I moved onto my 'mates' wheel, he launched out of the corner with me on his wheel, I went past him, he sat up, I went 10m futher the sat up myself turning to indicate to him that it was just to easy. I think that situation might run through the next few races.

I'm not sure but I think I may have done better than anybody else that raced on Saturday, not that counts over much when you are finishing 8th!

I'm definitely having a few easy days now.