Written by 09:47 Pro Cycling Story

I could write a book about Tour of Flanders

Ronde van Vlaanderen is the biggest race of the year in Belgium. At breakfast, you can feel the tension. You know what lies ahead – you’re preparing for war.

I like to listen to music to calm myself down and avoid some of the stress. Any kind of music that’s happy and upbeat. Dutch, English, pop-rock, R&B, I listen to everything.

This year, we knew we had a strong team for the race with Marianne Vos and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio as leaders. That adds even more pressure to a very stressful race. Of course, as a team helper, you get used to doing almost every race with Marianne and Ashleigh but the pressure is still there.

The most important thing in Flanders is to know all the cobble sections and the climbs. There are hardly any rest periods.

There’s always something happening so you have to be aware of what’s coming next.  The cobble sections come at 10km, 35, 37, 60, …It comes quickly so you have to pay attention all the time.

Everything was going ok for me until we did the second lap past Oudenaarde. I had a mechanical on the climb and had to push my bike. That was the first challenge of the race for me. Luckily at this moment there wasn’t much happening in the bunch so I could get back to the front pretty quickly.

Then, towards the Kanarieberg, two people crashed in front of me and I had nowhere to go. I went straight over them. Second stress point of the day! It happened just before the downhill to the Kanarieberg where everyone wants to be in the front which means the pace was fast in the front.

I didn’t make it back in time before the Kanarieberg which wasn’t ideal because the race exploded there.

Photo by Sean Robinson/velofocus.com

When you’re chasing back in a moment like this, the first thing you’re thinking is, “Shit! I have to get back.” Marianne and Ashleigh have a real chance of winning and you need to be there for them.

After thinking, “Shit,” experienced riders focus on staying calm and not blowing up. The risk in such crazy moments in the big races is trying to get back to the bunch too quickly and blowing up.

I heard the sports director on the radio informing the team that I crashed and am trying to come back.

At that moment, I didn’t know my race was practically over. You keep on pushing in the hope that the pace in the peloton slows down for a period.

I was catching riders who were in one long line and made up a lot of places. I was feeling really good but still, at this point, to get to the front is almost impossible. Hope started disappearing.

Ashleigh crashed on a downhill out of the first group. The second group passed her before she could get back up. I saw her getting on her bike and tried to pull as hard as possible to get her to the group in front.

But this was just not our day. We didn’t manage to get anywhere near the front group.

Our last hope was Marianne who was still in the front group.

Then going over the Oude Kwaremont, she punctured.

Race over. 

After the race, I tweeted that we could write a book about that day because one thing after the other went wrong for us.

In the first 30 minutes after a race like that. there’s not much conversation between the riders. Everyone just deals with the disappointments quietly in their way. 

Then as time goes on, we start doing some debriefs and talk about what went wrong because you have to bounce back and start resetting for the race.

The next war awaits. 

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Tags: , , , Last modified: Jan 17, 2020
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