day 1 UCI NC

Stad Hasselt Belgium - Gerben De Knegt wins. Wellens 2nd and Nys 3rd. because of wellens 2nd place finish, that puts him ahead of Nys in the GVA Troffee. is Nys holding back for tomorrows Superprestige? Vanthourenhout was 4th.


so yeah we had beers last night and they were sooo good. these saturn chicks are hardcore and i'm having trouble keeping up. i made it through the evening and we woke up to a semi tasty breakfast with some hotel vouchers from the front desk. a lot of racers in there eating breakfast. afterwards we headed over to the park to get ready. its about 5 min away. pretty convenient with where we are staying. it couldn't have been a better day for cyclo-cross. sunny and about 55 or so.
kind of eary with no racers. the calm before the storm.

i watched the masters race finish up then made my way out for a test ride. the laps were long! i was checking were the fast parts were and of course where i might be strong. there was a lot of grass sections with a good section of pavement. some up hill steps and a wicked up hill. so i didn't have the best start. but i was sitting like top 10 on the first lap. on a straight section i looked up and saw a group of 3 and then saw myself with 2 others. so it was already in 2 groups and i was in the second. we came around and made our way into the pit section where the soft grass was. i could see the muddy lines and tried to take the least traveled area. i was behind the 2 others and they both crashed right in front of me. we all went down. i tried to jump up and just get going but quickly found out that the one rider had his crank arm caught in my front wheel. we both calmed ourselves and removed it to avoid further damage. back on the bike we had some work to do. i don't think very many people passed us if any but i'm certain gaps were closed. about 3/4 of a lap later while trying to get back to where i was i crashed again alone around a corner and cut my knee a little. blood flowed. it was a very mild fall but again i had to peg my heart rate to remain where i was. finally i settled in to a group with 3 others. we were all riding good together. we dropped 1 rider and the 3 of us lost organization for speed as the race progressed. they were thinking cat and mouse. i just rode smart and made sure to stay with them in case somebody made some stupid ass attack. on the last lap i thought about the sprint and felt pretty confident. the one guy had some weird pedaling issues so i thought i could take him and worry about the other rider. well we came into the finish chute and we all gave it what we had left. i guess i didn't have that much since they both took me to the line. i'm pretty happy with the 7th place considering the small mishaps. tomorrow they are running the course backwards so i'm hoping for something better. i think if i can stay away from the saturn chicks tonight i might be able to recover and put in a good ride. this place is really cool and its fun to be racing with some different people.

Superprestige tomorrow - go Vanthourenhout!