After taking a few days of rest following the 3 Days of West
Flanders so that my legs could really soak up the racing, it was back to work.
With some big racing on the horizon and limited opportunities for training, my
coach and I agreed that it was best to use my next race, Nokere Koerse, as a
training race to help build form. So in the week preceding the race, I slowly
built up the miles. I racked up 600km in the 6 days before Nokere, but really
wasn’t feeling fatigued at all.
Upon arrival at our hotel in Belgium, the first thing I
noticed was the size and decoration of the dining room. Such a room must have a
piano, and a quick look to my left confirmed it. You must understand that my
piano radar is always running. It was a nice old baby-grand piano, and I
casually walked over and found that the lid was not locked.
Before I decide to break the rules (“Please do not touch the
piano” signs merely enhance the adrenaline rush), I always ask permission.
Pleased to hear that I was welcome to play anytime, my excitement was dampened
when I discovered that the pedal wasn’t functioning. Unable to find the cause
of the malfunction because of all the decorative candles atop the lid, I had to
settle for a lackluster sound. Even though I only played for a short while, you’d
be surprised to know just what effect it can have on an already positive
morale.
Breakfast before the race was the usual affair, except for
one notable event: I had Speculoos (analagous to the American Cookie Butter) for the first time. I’d heard plenty of
warnings from teammates about how dangerous this stuff is, and after having
some, I must ask you all to never allow me to buy a jar. In the world of
spreads, the hierarchy is as follows: peanut butter in third place, Nutella in
second, and Speculoos running away with the gold medal. It’s basically
spread-able toffee. Candy in paste form. Very dangerous stuff!
The race was only a few hundred meters shy of 200km(123mi).
It would feature fewer climbs and cobbled sections than Driedaagse, but
promised to be a tough race nonetheless. This so-called “semi-classic” race
started off with 2 short climbs in the first 5km, a fast cobbles section in the
middle, and concluding with 8 laps of a 15km circuit. The final 250m to the
finish each lap was a cobbled climb that got steeper as you neared the line.
With only 1km neutral section and the climbs so soon after
the start, I made doubly sure to be at the start line 20 minutes early. No
warmup, but at least I was starting at the front!
The start was very frantic, and I just surfed the wheels
waiting for the climbs. I didn’t want to kill myself following moves before it
actually got hard, and this proved to be a smart choice. On reaching the bottom
of the first climb, attacks started flying immediately. I wanted to wait until
halfway up before following anything because we were going ridiculously hard.
Patience paid off, because the guys that attacked from the bottom soon faded
and I found myself tagging a strong move.
The agony filling my legs was incredible. We came over the
top of the climb and traded a few pulls on the short flat section before the
next kicker. When the group caught us on the next hill and more attacks started
going, I finally hit the wall and had to drift back. The first 9 minutes of the
race after a completely cold start were an average of 425watts (454
normalized). I set a 3-minute power record on the climb of 550w, the beginning
of my 5:30 spent in the move, averaging 470w (490 normalized). For those who
don’t understand the numbers, the translation: it was very very hard.
While I recovered, I drifted a bit too far back. I wish I
had suffered a little bit more and fought to stay closer to the front, because
by the time I was recovered again, I was stuck mid-pack and unable to help with
following moves. I could see a couple of small groups had gotten away. Cheng
was in one of them, which was good for us. Unfortunately, as the two groups
merged into one very dangerous move, Cheng suffered some serious stomach cramps
and came back to the field. Without anyone in a group of 17, we had screwed up.
The good news was that other teams had missed it as well, and we “settled in”
for a long day of chasing. By the time we reached the local laps the gap was
holding steady in the 2-3minutes range. There were 17 strong riders up ahead,
but the field had as many rotating hard on the front with plenty more available
when they started to fade.
It was a windy day, but there were not many places on the
lap where it was a direct crosswind. As the laps ticked by, I was learning the
best places to move up easily and where I needed to be at the front. I was
doing my best to keep an eye on Luka before the crosswind sections to help him
move up and stay out of the wind. He was our best bet in the finish and he
needed to be fresh. Up in front, Tom and Loh were wearing themselves out in the
rotation to bring back the break. The gap steadily dropped. In the closing
laps, a few riders started falling back to the field from the break as they
cracked.
Back in the field, we started putting together our leadout
plan. We would be a bit short-staffed, but we would do our best. Lawson and I
needed to get Jonas and Luka in a good position before the road bottle-necked
at 1.5km to go.
On the final lap, the pace continued to pick up as all the
leadout trains started fighting for position. Lawson helped the 3 of us stay
near the front, but was separated from us after a series of turns. As the
crucial moment neared, I did my best to keep Jonas and Luka out of the wind and
out of trouble as we came up over a hill. I finally cracked as we got over the
top. They were in a good spot, but after the fast downhill and hectic
roundabout, they were stuck too far back. With just that short rest I was ready
to go again, but once again had drifted too far back and could not get back to
them. The lesson that I learned for the second time yesterday was to fight just
a tiny bit longer when there is a brief rest coming up. Had I managed to just
stay a bit closer to them, I could have a made a difference in the outcome.
Part of the problem is that I’m still adjusting to making the intense
end-of-race efforts. I’m used to these efforts after 3.5 hours, but now they
are an hour and 1000kJ later. It makes a big difference!
As it was, Luka and Jonas were pinned to the edge of the
road on the downwind side of the field. They had plenty of draft but no ability
to move up and could not contest the field sprint. It was certainly a
disappointing day for us, but once again I will come out of it with better legs
and some lessons learned. The race finished at just under 4.5 hours. I averaged
290w (330 normalized), for a bit over 4500kJ.
I now have a few days to recover before heading to Spain for
my first WorldTour race, the Volta a Catalunya. It will be my first mass-start
race with race radios, and the new experiences keep coming!
