Race Report 5, UCI 1.2 Ronde van Overijssel - 5/8/05, and UCI 1.2 Omloop der Kempen - 5/9/05 (The US National Team experience)
This was the first time I have been in Holland and lets just say I have some impressions that beat out Belgium, especially in the weather department. At Overijssel it was rain, rain, and….oh yeah, more rain, and did I mention it was cold. At Kempen I got to see all four seasons and more, hail included. Yes, that stung a bit, and of course it had to be on the cobbled sections.
Hmmm….so what else do I want to say about these races?? Well, I was rollin’ with a little bit different of a crew than usual. I got a chance to start with the US National Team. I am very grateful to have gotten the opportunity. Overijssel started out pretty good from the gun, there was a crash before the one and only climb on the whole course, and a couple of random crashes on the climb. It then proceeded to shatter to pieces just after the top of the climb.
I’m going to focus on one of the races. So as to kindly keep all of your eyes from falling out of their sockets, and save my delicate little fingers.
Kempen was similar to Overijssel, but rolled out a bit slower and more nervous. Most of the starters had been at Overihisel as well. For future reference, when I say rolled out I mean somewhat comfortably sitting in your 53/16 or harder. Oh yeah, there was no climb, just two really long cobbled sections. I feel the need to mention that in Holland they like to allow 200 or so riders to start these races. That is a lot of bikes and people to cram through some of these small sections of road! Up until now, the UCI races I have done in Belgium had around 150 starters. Another 50 guys makes for a really nervous field…and did I mention that in Holland there seems to be even more random obstacles in the road, although the surface quality seems to be a bit better.
Riding at the front was a battle in itself. Man, I was ready to start throwing fists a number of times! Usually when you are in the top 30 or 40 there is a bit of rotation/flow going on, but it seemed that the million-and-one road obstacles kept disrupting this and adding to the nervousness of the field. So, I chilled a little further back until we got into Belgium. I then got closer to the front, and ended up sticking my nose in the wind a bit more than I wanted to, but it seemed to get me close to where I wanted to be. About 15 min after crossing the boarder the sh#! hit the fan. The shattering happened just before the cobbles in some crosswind sections. I was crying for a 54 or 55 tooth chainring while I was damn near spinning out my 53, ahhh!! My positioning had not been good enough and I got to cling to the sh!# end of the second echelon, until the couple of us that were in the gutter got shot into the third echelon and then into the caravan. I worked my way out of the caravan and got into a group that ended up catching a few other small groups that were ahead of it, but never getting close enough to the lead group. Frustrating because there was NO physical reason I should not have been in that front group.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2005/may05/kempen05http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2005/may05/overijssel05Above, are links to the results of each of the races. Both were 200 km long. Note: no US rider finished. Not something I’m proud to say. It does bring some points to mind that I would like to make about racing in Europe vs. the US.
- The difficulty of many of the courses. You just wouldn’t see a race allowed to take place on some of these courses back home. One, there would be too many insurance problems. Two, racers would really hurt themselves. If the majority of the field was not used to these types of courses, I couldn’t imagine the carnage.
- There seems to be no such thing as a “mass sprint.” Maybe, a “bunch sprint” in some cases. There is just not that much left of the field at the end of these races. Everyone means business and is going to race aggressively from the beginning to end.
- Only a select few of the races in the US are 4 or more hours long, try naming a few…its pretty hard.
- Physical contact, who said cycling isn’t a contact sport??
- They actually know how to organize a road race here. I know most of you have at least seen a stage or two of the Tour de France. These interclub, or UCI races are not too far off in organization level. The caravan is there in full force. Support vehicles, team cars, motorcycles, etc. Sure there isn’t as much sponsorship money and advertisements associated, but all the basic workings are all there.
- Director sportif…not sure if most US teams actually know what this is, much less all of the behind the scenes stuff that should go on before/during a race.
- If you or the group you are with is 5 minutes back you get yanked. None of this “oh they paid the entry fee bla bla bla” so they should be allowed to finish…or they might catch the group…yeah right. 5 minutes is being extreamly generous. Its more likely to be on the order of a 1 maybe 2 minutes.
Alright, enough. That was longer than I had intended but I hope it was at least somewhat interesting for those of you who have been tuning in.