Belgian classics

14 hours after waving goodbye to The Chainstay in Oudenaarde, I finally stepped inside my front door and took the next few steps to my bed! It's often the simple things in life that are the best and for me nothing beats kipping in my own bed!

The title of this blog "every day's a schoolday" certain sums up my first experience of racing in Belgium. I look back on those 12 days with some ace memories and maybe a mix of emotions. Definitely most of them positive, a few not so much but I definitely believe that you have to experience the lows to appreciate the highs even more! 

Here's a few things: 

Positioning is key! I know I've mentioned this one before, but in the Belgian crosswinds when the bunch is lined out and everyone around you seems intent on putting you in the gutter, getting in a good position and holding onto it will save you from gutter death and also save some beans for later in the race. Use your beans wisely!

Stay out of the seam of death! Even if the girl next to you tries to put you in it or the girl in front thinks it's a good idea to ride in it, don't! (N.B. the "seam of death" is a channel, just about wide enough but not quite to fit a wheel, separating the right and left sides of the road). 

Don't be afraid to mix it up! In order to improve you need to keep moving forward. That's both in a race and in training. In the bunch if you're not constantly moving forward then soon enough you'll be at the back! Trying new things is how you learn, every day's a school day after all!

So I spent most of the week after my crash assuming the horizontal position alternating between the sofa and bed, determined to line up with my Scotland teammates for the third and final race, Omloop van het Hageland Tielt Winge. Obviously I would've much preferred to have been racing Le Samyn des Dames but even I knew this was far too soon and kind of a crazy idea!

So what to do when you can't ride your bike? Watch classic bike races of course! And I watched a fair few, from World Champs from the '90s to famous one day classics. In a way though it was kind of like tormenting myself so when Wednesday came and I had the "ok" to get back on my bike I think my face muscles were more fatigued than any other part of me from smiling so much! This definitely helped soften the blow as the team left for the race, knowing I was off out into the Belgian sunshine for a spin along the canal. I was surprised how knackered I was after the wee recovery ride and just crashed out on the sofa the rest of the afternoon, watching the men's Le Samyn through my eyelids!!

Thursday and Friday and I was back riding with my teammates, good times! Friday's ride was ace, big thank you to Jane our navigator! We followed some of the Ronde van Vlaanderen parcours and took in another famous Belgian cobbled climb, The Muur, worth it for the amazing view at the top!! 

Race day arrived and having had an ace chat with Dave, my sports psych, the night before, I was feeling pretty positive about things and just really happy to be back racing again. The race started fairly steady, less twitchy and sketchy than the week before. It didn't take too long before I started to relax and feel confident to sit in the pocket and keep moving up in the bunch. As we neared the finishing circuit a big crash split the bunch. I got caught behind it and a chase ensued to get back to the group in front. A smaller group had pulled away in front but as we hit the cobbled climb it all came back together. My legs were starting to tire as we started the first of four laps on the circuit so when riders in front lost the wheel and a gap opened up it took a big effort to chase back on. I worked with a couple of other riders until the SC car came past and I could jump on the back to be pulled back up to the bunch. I used up the last of my beans in this chase until I popped and just had to roll back to the finish where my race ended, still 2 laps to go. If I'm giving an honest reflection of my race, then I achieved far more than I had thought I could when starting out that day, given what had happened that week. I was really disappointed not to have finished the race, but bike racing is all about the ups and downs and my learning curve continues. 

Even if my first experience of racing in Belgium and the Spring Classics wasn't exactly what I'd have hoped for, it was still an amazing experience. I definitely learnt from it and looking forward to racing there again soon!

Cheers,

Jools. 

Belgian spring classics, the racing begins...sort of...

After a really easy week with lots of rest it was time to head to Belgium with the Scottish Cycling team to race Omloop het Nieuwsblad (OhN). The first of the Belgian Spring Classics and my first race in Belgium, excited was an understatement! Let the racing begin!!

As we drove off the train in Calais it was just like home from home, chucking it down with rain! This continued as we crossed over the border into Belgium, plus the wind! Trucks looked like they were being driven on an angle in the crosswinds! 

Thankfully by the afternoon it had cleared up so once we'd settled in to our digs at The Chainstay in Oudenaarde (this is one cool place by the way, thanks Greg and Holly!), we headed out for a recce of the OhN climbs. This first ride in Belgium was really special as it included the Paterberg, a famous Belgian cobbled climb, and some cobbled roads. Asked whether I enjoyed the cobbles my answer was "loved them...I think!". No amount of riding on the pothole ridden mud caked roads in Scotland can prepare you for your first cobbles experience. There's definitely a technique to riding them, other than just grinning and bearing it! 

Surprisingly I managed to get a decent enough night's sleep before what would be the biggest race of my life. I was actually pretty excited, although I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous too!! Arriving at the velodrome in Gent and seeing the team buses from Giant Shimano, Specialized Lululemon, Dolmans Boels, Orica AIS, Wiggle et al, it hits you just how big a race it is and who you'll be racing against, pretty cool feeling!

I tried to shut all that out though and just focus on going through my pre-race prep to get my head into race mode. Mark, Nick and Gary took care of everything, bikes, numbers, timings so all we had to do was get ourselves ready, eat and sign on. Standing on the podium in Scotland kit with my teammates was one very very proud moment! It definitely adds a wee bit extra motivation and drive to race hard, do the job you've been given and the best performance you possibly can!

The neutralised section was nice and steady on fairly wide roads with a few turns to negotiate before the flag was dropped and the race was on. I focused on holding my position and moving up when I could. See a gap, get in it. See a gap, get in it. A split second hesitation and it's gone so you always have to be on the ball, never switch off. It was a bit twitchy in the race to start with, not helped by the roads being a little bit damp and some unnecessary braking. And that's where my story of the racing ends...next thing I feel something swipe out my bike and I'm on the ground. The domino effect of a crash meant that girls behind were coming off on top of me and landing on my head. All I could think of was I wanted to get out of there so just remember getting to my feet and heading over to the gutter so that no one else could land on me! My next thought was "ok I'm out of the crash now, I should go get my bike and get back in the race". Then quickly realised it was a bit sore to do that so I lay down on the grass and that was it, race over. The feeling when the realisation hits you that it's race over is the worst ever. I was (and still am to be honest) totally totally gutted. The first race of the season, racing for Scotland, in Belgium, was over after only 5km. And knowing I could've done nothing about it is also pretty hard to take. My first get down, stay down. 

A big thank you to the race doctor and medics for looking after me. Not sure I was very comprehensible for most of the time between crashing and the hospital. I do remember Gary at one point on the journey to the hospital saying "I think we'll be here for a while" and thinking to myself we must've hit a traffic jam or something. But no, the ambulance had broken down! Only minutes from the hospital! Thankfully there was another one right there to take us the last wee bit of the journey. 

Some scans, dressings and neck brace later I was all patched up and ready to leave hospital only to go and faint as I was within touching distance of the outside. This meant a 24 hour stay in hospital for observation. Big thank you to Gary for chatting to me about his racing career, loved hearing about some of his highlights and definitely helped distract me. 

It's always good to find a positive in things so I guess this had to be arriving on the ward just in time to watch the last 20km of the men's Omloop het Nieuwsblad. The nurse looking after me was a cyclist too so he found it on tv for me and we watched Stannard take the win, legend!!

Next afternoon and I was breathing a big sigh of fresh air relief at being released from hospital when my personal escorts Gemma and Nick came to get me. I was really looking forward to getting back to the house to see my teammates Lucy, Kerry, Jane, Kayleigh and Claire and hear all about their race experience. It was ace to see them pretty buzzing about how the race had gone and I was super proud of them hearing their race stories. It's also quite hard with the "what if" and wondering what my race story would have been if I hadn't crashed...but that's bike racing. There are the highs and there are the lows and this is just one of the lows. I'll be back on the bike real soon!!!

Bye for now,

Jools.