Europe Report 3
March 25, 2004
by Michael Wolf
On March 13 I headed off alone to do a kermesse in Geluwe, a town about 15k southwest of Izegem. I left about 2hrs before the race for a ride that should have taken me 45 minutes, tops. It didn’t, and an hour and forty minutes later I finally arrived in Geluwe, spent from having gone nearly all out for the last 20 minutes. It turned out not to matter though, as I was caught in a crash less than 2km into the race. The pack took off at the sound of a crash, and nobody involved in the crash caught back up. I was fine though.
The next day I went to another kermesse in a hillier area of Flanders, near where a lot of the cobbled climbs are. It was super windy, there were about 140 riders starting. I showed up fairly late once again and within two minutes of finishing registering, the riders began to line up for start. I frantically pinned my number and got most of my clothes on. I put my bike together hastily, then walked to the front of the field, laid my bike in front of the start line, and finished getting dressed. I wasn’t about to miss the start of this race. Anyway I finished dressing and tucked myself neatly in the front row, ignoring yells in both Flemish and French, presumably to go to the back. Within moments the race started. This time I stayed up front to avoid any early crashes. The first of 15 laps of the 9km circuit were taken pretty fast, with lots of attacks that were quickly chased down. It was a good course with two long narrow roads, two open windy roads, and a 1km climb through the finish. The first real moved happened early in the fourth lap through the narrow roads. It built a big gap quickly, as the peleton seemed reluctant to chase. At the end of the fourth lap I attacked at the base of the climb and we got a group of 10 in pursuit. We chased really hard for 3 laps, but the peleton also chased hard and we were caught near the end of the eighth lap. I sat in for a lap to recover from my effort, at which point another group of about 8 must have gotten away. The pack seemed to be running out of steam on the windy day, so the next time up the climb I followed an attack. At the top we had a group of thirteen and a pretty good gap. We worked well together for the next lap and were soon out of sight of the peleton with 5 laps to go. We kept the pace high the and gradually reduced the break to 10 with a lap to go. On the last lap three guys got away in the early narrow section and got a big gap as the rest of us hesitated. Then we started attacking each other. Everything was chased down pretty quickly until with 4k to go, I bridged up to two others who had just attacked. We drilled it down a narrow descent then, till about 2k to go. We had a pretty good gap, but no one would work, so I attacked. They chased me down, and at the base of the hill to the finish, our group of seven came back together. Immediately someone attacked into the hill, but it was a long hill so I waited, knowing I would blow up if I followed him. I took the wheel of the first guy to respond and followed him as he chased. The guy who attacked slowly died off and was caught with 400 meters to go. I sat second wheel until about 150 meters to go then sprinted. I got passed by one guy and came in 22nd. I still felt strong when I finished and was happy with the result, especially considering the size of the field. I also got ten euros for my troubles (in these kermesses they sometimes pay 40 deep, usually 20 though). My form was coming along well, and I was looking forward to my first big race of the season, a 1.7.1(that’s the ranking, meaning it’s an espoir world cup) in Tours, France, called La Roue Troullangere the next weekend.
But it was not to be. On Tuesday morning I awoke with no appetite, and this soon turned into worse symptoms. I had a stomach bug. The next couple days weren’t any fun, and on Friday, though the worst was gone, I decided not to make the trip to France to race, as at that point I couldn’t ride over an hour without wanting to lie down and nap. By Sunday I was much better and did a two hour ride in unbelievable winds. Wind so bad that a junior superprestige race was cancelled 30 km in because too many riders were being blown into the canals. At one point I had such a strong tailwind that when I spat to my side, the spit floated next to me. But the next two days were gorgeous and I packed in the hours. Now it was Wednesday, the day of Waregem, another 1.7.1, but only twenty minutes by car from Izegem. I had not been considered as a possibility to start it cause of my sickness, but Cozza had a sore throat and so I jumped at the chance to race.
Waregem is a much bigger race than any of the Kermesses. Riders from all over Europe were there. It was something like 160km of pure Belgium, cobbled climbs and all. Before the start we got the warming cream on our legs and set up our radios. This was my first time using a radio. I started the race on the last row, but began moving up as soon as the neutral start began. The start was crazy because everyone was trying to get to the front, yet the pack couldn’t go past the official’s car in the front, which was moving at about 20 mph. I have never had so many close calls in such a small distance. But by the time the neutral start ended I had made it through the field into the second row. The first 40k or so were fairly fast, but the terrain and lack of strong wind made it pretty easy, the only hard thing being holding your position at the front. But soon we got word from Noel over the radios of the first cobbled climb approaching in 5k. As if everyone had just gotten the same message, the fighting to be in the front erupted. People (including myself) squeezed through non-existant gaps, moving up a couple spots in the race to get to the cobbled climb at the front. The main pack would be on the road and there would be riders flying up the sidewalks trying to make it to the front. I made it to the climb in the top 20, which was a pretty good spot. The climb itself was not too steep, but the cobbles add a whole new level of resistance. I stayed to the right, looking for a smoother spot, but there were none. I held my position and soon it was over. Next came a flat road with about 3 km of cobbles. Now that was cool. It felt like my feet had gone numb inside my shoes. My whole body vibrated like crazy. I’m not built for cobbles, and was getting bumped around a good bit, but I held my position fine. As the cobbles wore on me more and more, I looked to an extremely narrow section of dirt on the side of the road. I soon was in that dirt, riding along, passing those poor suckers on the cobbles. But the dirt soon ended, and I was back on the cobbles. I came out of the cobbled section still in the top 20. Soon after this my front derallieur began to give out, and after the next cobbled climb I couldn’t shift with the shifter and was forced to shift up from my 39 to my 53 with my hand. I successfully did this for another 20 or so kilometers. Then, just before the feed zone I was reaching down shifting to my 53 when the pack turn and I collided with another rider. I didn’t crash, but went off the road as my chain dropped. I got off my bike put the chain back on and began to chase to no avail. Pretty bad ending. I followed the course for a while till I came to a place I recognized and rode back to Izegem. I was extremely disappointed, but now I think I can ride the big races. I was able to be at the front for all the cobbled sections and that was an accomplishment in itself. The race ended up with about 12 guys off the front, none US riders. Sterling Magnell was the top finisher at 22nd, with Tyler Farrar at 26th.
Anyway, I feel all better now, and must have done something right because on Saturday I will start Harelbeke (UCI 1.5) a pretty big race that I was not originally supposed to do. After that I will (providing I get selected) do a stage race in Belgium from April 2nd to the 4th, and then a hilly stage race in Belgium from April 8th to the 11th.
So there’s plenty more to come.
Thanks for reading, Mike Wolf