Well I'm pleased to say that the weather forecast in Belgium is no better than it is for Gippsland, the forecast said rain all day (again) and we had sun all day and 20c. It was hellishly windy again which always makes the racing interesting but does tend to neutralise it somewhat.
With my new SatNav finding my way to Beveren for today's race with the OVWF was a piece of cake, just whizz along the E40 freeway to Ghent then hang a left down the E17 freeway and so on. Sign on today was in a huge barn converted into the village 'Feestent' complete with a bar, snack bar and barbecue with monster sausages cooking plus plenty of seating.
As with the last race with the OWVF I signed on for the 60+ race and went to get myself organised, the benefit of being in the first race of the day is that you get the pick of the best parking spots. So having got ready I headed off to check out the circuit, we have 13 laps of 4.7km to today, I should point out that my 'info' was that there was a hill on the course, no chance, it was pan flat all the way round. A tricky course with what seemed to be very little tailwind, a lot of crosswind and one straight of about a kilometer and a half block headwind, absolutely full into it.
On the second of my warm up laps, I was flagged down at the finish line by an official who using a combination of Flemish, French and pidgeon English informed me that from the next race on I was 'promoted' to the 50+ race! To be fair I think its probably right but maybe a bit precipitate after only one race, but on the other hand in terms of the championships its probably better to do a couple of races where I'm really being drawn out, it seemed to work OK last year.
Anyway into the race which had a similar if slightly larger field today and from the briefing I understood that there were some 'premies' up for grabs, I wasn't going to bother with them again today but they do always present a chance to counter attack. To be honest I wasn't sure how my legs where at the start of the race so I just went with it for a couple of laps to see if they would come to life. Of course once you are into the race you find yourself responding and making moves as the good old 'redmist' comes down down, so after a promising looking group had clawed a couple of hundred metres I jumped across, closing the gap very quickly and going straight to the front and pulling a turn, swinging over they all snaked across after me! Unfortunately that set the tone for the race, nobody, absolutely nobody would work with me in a break. To be honest at this point I was a bit fed up, well a lot fed up really, if it hadn't been so bloody windy I would have given it a lap at full gas just to break the race up but in the wind that would have been suicide.
So I just continued sitting 4th/5th wheel jumping across to every move and just sitting on it, to be fair the field was whittling down all the time but I still wasn't sure how good my legs actually where. We got the 5 laps to go board, I put in a big attack down the home straight and through the first couple of corners, the field was split as a I swung over to let the lead group pass me, they still had some momentum but weren't opening the gap anymore but where holding the gap, so I went straight back to the front and pulled half a lap, I made sure that my power output was at threshold and held it. I knew that I could cope with that without burying myself and it should open the gap even more, hopefully for good, round to the finish straight again it was definitely job done and whilst the others weren't actually giving it full gas they were starting to pull, all except the former World Champion who was doing nothing! I recognised all the guys that were with me from the previous race, they included the ex WC and the strong guy (who it turned out was 50 yr old) who I deemed to be the big threat.
From there on it got really interesting, they basically attacked me one by one, all except the ex WC who was childishly trying block me and take me out the back? I chased each one, what choice did I have, but basically I did it on my terms. I just kept it at my power threshold and pulled them back slowly making sure I had everybody in the gutter in the crosswind and in the headwind I tried to close it quickly cos I knew that they wouldn't attack me on that straight.
Anyway just after the bell the last guy went away and I pulled the last lap trying to chase and save something? I knew that if I caught to soon, I'd be chasing somebody else who was even fresher. I was trying to keep the escapee close enough where the finish sprint would bring him back. I pretty much knew that the strong guy with the 'legs' was going to go long just as he did earlier in the week, so here we were one guy 50m off the front, me towing 4 others as we start the finish straight, maybe 1km. I started to pick it up, I know I don't have a great 'jump' as such but can accelerate OK of a bit of speed, we got closer and closer, then at 400m my man went, I hadn't changed my gear up at this point, preferring to do it on the fly after I had got the wheel.
My man had 2/3 lengths and was levering his bigger gear, I put my legs into buzz mode and doing 130+rpm closed on his wheel, everybody else was already out of it. Here I made my mistake as I changed up to the gear that I wanted to sprint on I hesitated on the wheel a fraction before launching my own sprint. When I did go I put the watts over 1100, not exactly Mark Cavendish but reviewing it after I was pretty pleased particularly at the end of a race, so I blew past my 'lead out man' but failed to get the break away by one length. Bugger again!! Double bugger in fact.
At least I kept up my record of getting to kiss the "Ronde Miss" again today and a gift wrapped bowl of fruit along with my Euros. Chatting with one of the 'final selection', who happened to be parked next to me, after the race I asked him why he wouldn't work with me and his response was well he had a 'friend' up the road!!!! In other words they all wanted anybody to win except me. I suspect that won't be a problem in the next race, I'll be to busy hanging on.
I have to say something about the drive to and from the race. This is the week that Europe goes on holiday, schools are closed, the building trades down tools for 3 weeks and lots of factories close too. The effect on the freeways is that everybody with a caravan, trailer, top box or just a car loaded to the gunnel's is heading south. So streaming south were cars mostly from Holland, but augmented by Germans and of course Belgians, it is a truly remarkable sight. Fortunately the usual heavy loaded mass of lorries was missing, probably the drivers were towing caravans!
Finished the day with a very nice Chinese meal and two! glasses of red wine.
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