The Ronde Van Provincie Antwerpen
After my success in Roosendaal I was feeling great, which was promising going into the coming weekends Junior Tour the Ronde van provincie antwerpen. After a couple of days of easy kms Wouter and I caught the train to Bunnik to be picked up by Mark the team manager, we stayed the night at his house and travelled the 1.5hrs to Antwerp the following day.
One of the hardest things you can do is to get out of a warm, comfortable car, into pouring rain, knowing that within the next hour you will be sitting at the startline in that same horrible weather, one of 180 riders, hoping like hell you aren’t going to crash. Luckily I coped all right as I had practiced earlier in the year at the Canberra tour, the first day of which I will never forget!!
The gun went and the Ronde van provincie Antwerp was off. Despite the rain the speeds were no different to that if It had been dry, coming into the 2nd of the 8 laps I knew it was time to move forward, putting the odds of falling behind me, I was gradually making my way up through the bunch (Gradually being the only way you can move up in a bunch of 180 travelling 55km/h, jumping 1 or 2 spots at a time.
The course was set through the centre and then around the outskirts of a small town called vorselaar in the province of Antwerp, and as such had many traffic islands and hazards which became even more hazardous in the rain with 180 cyclists travelling at speeds way too fast for the conditions, and as such there were many, many crashes, unfortunately I was involved in one of them.
As I was moving up a rider in front of me swerved suddenly to dodge a traffic island that had suddenly popped up and took out the rider behind hims wheel, the caused a domino effect and sure enough I came down, I was lucky enough to land on someone, and my bike also did, I slid for 10 or 20ms before coming to a stop, surprisingly unhurt, I grabbed my bike, checked the wheels and away I went, after weaving in and out of riders, dodging the remains of other crashes, and jumping from car to car in the convoy I made my way back to the pack.
This time I was not going to let anything stop me from getting to the front and at the first opportunity I made my way through and that is where I stayed, in the last 2 laps a break of 5 went, which had a teammate of mine in it, with 5kms to the finish another rider jumped trying to make the junction up the slight rise out the back of the course, I waited until he was spent and then made the junction myself leaving him behind, we now had 2 riders in the break and were in the optimum position for me to set up Ruben the team sprinter for the win and give myself an early boost in the overall.
With 400ms Ruben gave me the nod to start the lead out, and that is what I did, I went as hard and as fast as I could until I couldn’t go any more, I rolled in at the end of the breakaway watching Ruben celebrate his win in the first stage.
We now had the Green jersey, a stage, and the yellow jersey and I was sitting 7th overall, 11 ahead of the peleton at 0 seconds.
Luckily the weather improved for stage 2 in Kasterlee, but again, with the huge bunch and small roads and many traffic obstacles the stage was again marred by crashes, I was unfortunate enough to make it 2 in 2 days when an overzealous American decided that there was room to fit through a gap in front of me and brought down about 15 riders including myself, I now had a big chunk out of my backside but got back up, chased back on and finished in the pack, I moved down to 11th though, as a break had been a few seconds ahead of the peleton.
Stage 3 was by far my favourite, 120kms with large roads and lots of wind, rough surfaces and a slightly smaller bunch as over the first 2 days 30 riders had abandoned, we completed the course and in the last round of 10kms I got away with 3 others, there were 2 riders already up the road and we got within 10 seconds of them at one stage but then lost time again, I finished 2nd in my bunch making 4th overall in the stage, 26 on the peleton and found myself sitting 3rd overall on GC 19 back, a good position going into the last stage.
Stage 4 was 95kms long, 10 rounds of 9.5kms with 2 sections of cobbles in each round, I was watching every break and was being watched myself, we seemed to be going faster and faster every round.
If I have one weakness in this sport it is cobbles, where others seem to float over the top of them I feel every bump there is to feel and bounce all over the place in an extremely inefficient manner. Because of this, I found it hard to keep my bunch position and lost 10 or 15 places every cobbled section.
In the final 2 laps a break got away which included Ruben, my teams sprinter, the teams of the other racers were chasing hard and I was still struggling with the cobbles, with 1km to go they still had 8 seconds, I was sitting 25th wheel and hoping that they would come back, I was holding my position well as the speed lifted and lifted, when a sudden jolt in the pack sent the riders 2 places in front of me flying off their bikes and sliding along the road.
In a moment like that, all you can think is Here we go again there is nowhere to go but over the top, maybe I used up all my good luck at Roosendaal.
And over I went, again, this time it was serious crash, about 30 riders came down at speeds nearing 60km/h, I bounced off the side of the road and cut my already bloodied backside and back on one of the locals garden rock feature before finally coming to a stop in the grass by the side of the road, my whole body wracked with pain, I opened my eyes and looked around, I sat up and almost vomited, I was not in a good way, I was checked out by the paramedics and then told by my team manager that I had to finish to get a finish time, I was within the last 3kms when the crash happened and therefore was entitled to bunch time.
One of my teammates had broken a chain earlier I the stage and his chainless bike was on the roof, my bike lay metres from where I had ended up, completely destroyed, tears streamed from my eyes and stung the cuts on my cheeks, Mark walked me the whole last km to the finish pushed me across the line and took me to the medic, Ruben had taken out this stage also making it 2 stage wins, and 11th overall for him.
Luckily everything was fine and there was nothing serious, needless to say ill be growing some more skin on my backside and sleeping on my front for a while though!! I ended up 5th In the tour, a result in hindsight I realise was quite good, considering the competition and the number of riders I had to contend with, but on the day, loosing 3rd was the end of the world.
As for my bike, well it is totalled, a friend I have made over here is lending me a frame for the time being which is awesome of him, but I still am to make arrangements for a new bike for myself, hopefully everything will work out, Hey, Cycling is a dangerous sport, I realise that everytime I throw my leg over a bike, all we can go is try to make it as safe as we can by avoiding trying to go through gaps that are way too small and realise that doing these things can not only end up hurting yourself, but endangering the lives of others also, weigh this up when you decide that sprinting for 59th place is worth it.
A couple of days later I was back on the bike, sore yes, but in no way discouraged, my next race is on Tuesday in De leir, it is a criterium and the following weekend I travel to Germany to compete in the junior 2.1 Tour of munsterland.
Till next time
Rubber side down.
Joe
Oakley M Frames
Sidi Ergo 2 Shoes
