Gent-Iepers UCI 1.2
Race Report 1:
UCI 1.2 Gent-Iepers, 3/13/05
I have been here at the Cycling Center in Belgium for just under a week now and found out only the other day that my first race here would be a UCI 1.2. This was a bit unexpected. I had anticipated my first couple of races to be kermeses and then hopefully later on be selected for some UCI races, so as you can imagine I was stoked to be selected, but quite anxious as well.
For those of you who may not know, a kermese is race that is somewhat comparable to a local race, and a UCI race is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union. I am not by any means saying that a kermese is easier, especially seeing as I have not even done one yet.
Alright, back to the race. We arrived a little under two hours early and it was an impressive spectacle. There was more support here for an amateur race than I have ever seen for any race in the US.
The race layout was a flat jaunt (about 70 km) out of Gent to a loop near Iepers that was done twice. The section out of Gent included a couple of cobbled sections and for the most part was into a solid head wind. The loop included 3 short steep climbs and after doing it a second time it went up a cobbled climb called the Kemmelberg, and then 30 km into Iepers to the finish. 196 lined up to start, and a beautiful 35-38 degrees Fahrenheit.
So, right now you are probably asking; what about YOUR race Bret, come on lets hear the details! Out of Gent things started out pretty fast and intense, but nothing unmanageable. Things seemed to be staying together, especially since it was a head wind most of the way. I was working on just getting comfortable and moving about in the field, dealing with the five thousand roundabouts, dodging the millions of random objects/medians, and trying to get near the front for the cobbled sections. O.K. so open your eyes as wide as you can and then open them and inch or two wider…that’s how I felt at the beginning. “Bright eyed and bushy tailed,” I think is how the saying goes, then mix in a bit of adrenaline. Aside from the course itself, the riders showed a level of aggression that was entirely new to me, and having the stars and stripes all over your back didn’t help much, either.
By the time we got 50 km or so into the race, I noticeably started to relax a bit and have to say that I liked the level of aggression, when people were making a move or doing something they did it, they didn’t hesitate, balk, or any of that stuff. The cobbled sections weren’t too bad. I made it out of most of them in alright, but not great, position.
Things are going alright, made it to the loop section and the first feed zone is coming up. Good I’m getting a bit low on water, the road is pretty wide right now, nothing too much going on at the front, so I slide up a bit more. The guys in front of me start slowing, and I’m thinking why are we breaking…were almost completely stopped now…oh, were turning onto a farm road with a cross wind, hmm this is going to sting a bit. Made it through that fairly unscathed, and here is the feed zone, awesome! Only problem, I had to drop back to the near tail end of the field to get a feed, no problem relax, and ease my way back up the field. I look ahead and all I can see is wide (2 + lanes) road in front of me. The outside of the field starts moving up pretty aggressively, hmm what’s going on? Oh, and guys in front of me are locking rear tires up, time for another farm road into a cross head wind. On a side note, these farm roads are one lane wide, and I mean one SMALL lane, your big SUV would probably have trouble with a good deal of them. This doesn’t look so good right now, I along with all the guys in front of me, have a foot down and are standing still (or attempting to ride through the farm field next to us). Yeah, race tactics and knowledge about the race seem to go a long way here. So, after closing about a million gaps that opened up in the single file line that formed on that tiny farm road, Bret’s huge and powerful legs cried out (ha!)!! So goes my first UCI race.
Afterward, I didn’t feel as bad as I did at first, seeing as this section cut the field in half. Unfortunately, none of the other Cycling Center guys finished either. Still. It would have been nice to see at least some of us do well, but supposedly this is a pretty tough race among races.
All the guys from the Cycling Center that did the race had all been here before and done UCI races in the past. They were ALL extremely kind in terms of offering advice before, and after the race. For example, taking the time to explain to me that if you have a bad moment or are dropping back to the car for a feed in the race, to take your time moving back up through the cars, and not try to plow through them all at once like I (stupidly) was trying to do. Other small bits of advice pertaining to things like reading the field etc. should prove to be priceless in the future.
Bret Glembocki
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