This month sees me target one of the biggest stage races available to our team, Ronde Vlaams Brabant, it’s a 5 day tour held in the Brabant region. The race starts on Wednesday 25th July to the Sunday 29th July.
The month of July will see me racing 2 interclubs at the start of the month, Kermesses leading up to the Tour and some strong training blocks inbetween to get in those specific efforts and longer rides.
Racing:
To start the month off though we took part in 2 interclubs. One of them being the TTT on Sunday 1st July. I was excited for this race because I like a good TT.
The circuit was 2 laps of a lumpy 25km course and open to the elements so teamwork and riding in the correct format through the wind sections is key!
We started extremely strong but just after 10minutes we lost 2 guys. They said they were on a bad day but this was a big loss to the team as 4 had to finish and only 4 were left with just under 50Km to go! It makes it hard due to little recovery time between your effort on the front, But we had to make the most of the situation!
Through lap one we were 4th fastest on course and by the time we finished 2nd fastest on course but with quite a few teams to finish.
Overall we finished 13th in the league and not far off the podium and we know if we had more guys it would of been a better day out and different story to tell, but Team time trials are hard to ride smoothly and with only a few sessions together we were not overally surprised.
2nd July:
Day after the TTT the legs were opened up and again excited for a good outing. Today was 160km on a dead flat course with lots of dead turns. Once again open to the wind and without a doubt going to be a day in the gutter!
The race started well for me and I was in some early moves and thought they could stick but the peleton was not settled with this and didn’t let anything go for the first 2 hours!
We got to the local laps after 2 big loops of a 35km course which featured a 1 KM sector of rough cobble stones and crash fest area!
Once in the local laps the break went and it was very technical and narrow roads so when the break did go I was too far back to get to the front and chase anything down.
My early efforts gave me satisfaction though and I rode strong which was positive.
After missing the break it was a case of following any counter moves but nothing materialised meaning we were fighting for a top 10 in the bunch sprint which I knew did not match my skills. I ended up just in the bunch with no result.
Time for some bad luck:
After these 2 interclubs luck has not been on my side for the first time this year.
For the next 2 Kermesses I punctured.
My third race was 140km of a hilly course and I got in the breakaway for the first 30km until it got pulled back on the climb. A counter then went and that was the winning break. Unfortunately the chasing group and peloton never got organised and the gap went to 3 minutes which for a Kermesse is normally the limit to pull the peloton out. This happened after 90 km so another race not finished.
Now it’s only 4 days until Vlaams Brabant stage race so this will feature a rest up before it all kicks off.
Although it’s not been going well in racing due to some bad luck the training has been, numbers during specific sessions are increased and this gives me great motivation and confidence.
I will be giving a Vlaams Brabant blog once we finish, day by day.
Thank you for taking he time to read and fingers crossed that luck is on my side!
George Clark
@pedalpotential
The month of July will see me racing 2 interclubs at the start of the month, Kermesses leading up to the Tour and some strong training blocks inbetween to get in those specific efforts and longer rides.
Racing:
To start the month off though we took part in 2 interclubs. One of them being the TTT on Sunday 1st July. I was excited for this race because I like a good TT.
The circuit was 2 laps of a lumpy 25km course and open to the elements so teamwork and riding in the correct format through the wind sections is key!
We started extremely strong but just after 10minutes we lost 2 guys. They said they were on a bad day but this was a big loss to the team as 4 had to finish and only 4 were left with just under 50Km to go! It makes it hard due to little recovery time between your effort on the front, But we had to make the most of the situation!
Through lap one we were 4th fastest on course and by the time we finished 2nd fastest on course but with quite a few teams to finish.
Overall we finished 13th in the league and not far off the podium and we know if we had more guys it would of been a better day out and different story to tell, but Team time trials are hard to ride smoothly and with only a few sessions together we were not overally surprised.
2nd July:
Day after the TTT the legs were opened up and again excited for a good outing. Today was 160km on a dead flat course with lots of dead turns. Once again open to the wind and without a doubt going to be a day in the gutter!
The race started well for me and I was in some early moves and thought they could stick but the peleton was not settled with this and didn’t let anything go for the first 2 hours!
We got to the local laps after 2 big loops of a 35km course which featured a 1 KM sector of rough cobble stones and crash fest area!
Once in the local laps the break went and it was very technical and narrow roads so when the break did go I was too far back to get to the front and chase anything down.
My early efforts gave me satisfaction though and I rode strong which was positive.
After missing the break it was a case of following any counter moves but nothing materialised meaning we were fighting for a top 10 in the bunch sprint which I knew did not match my skills. I ended up just in the bunch with no result.
Time for some bad luck:
After these 2 interclubs luck has not been on my side for the first time this year.
For the next 2 Kermesses I punctured.
My third race was 140km of a hilly course and I got in the breakaway for the first 30km until it got pulled back on the climb. A counter then went and that was the winning break. Unfortunately the chasing group and peloton never got organised and the gap went to 3 minutes which for a Kermesse is normally the limit to pull the peloton out. This happened after 90 km so another race not finished.
Now it’s only 4 days until Vlaams Brabant stage race so this will feature a rest up before it all kicks off.
Although it’s not been going well in racing due to some bad luck the training has been, numbers during specific sessions are increased and this gives me great motivation and confidence.
I will be giving a Vlaams Brabant blog once we finish, day by day.
Thank you for taking he time to read and fingers crossed that luck is on my side!
George Clark
@pedalpotential