Cold, windy, a bit of rain, great cross weather! My sore throat that started a couple of nights ago is slowly getting worse and warranted a stop by a pharmacy on the way to the race course. Enthusiasm for the days activities was also appropriately low. I was thinking as we sped along the motorway out there, if I didn’t race today I am not really sure what I would do. If I was back in Copenhagen the choice would have been simple, nice cozy day at home 🙂
This is a picture of a completely random guy coming past and giving Bender a hand with holding the bike while he cleaned the chain. #belgianloveforcross
The course reminded me a lot of Hamme-Zogge, pretty flat with mud and a bunch of artificial obstacles, this time including a rhythm section that looked like it belonged on a bmx track.
Well my energy wasn’t great and it was going to be a demanding race. I held on ok for the first half of the first lap, though Bender said as I came past the pits I already wasn’t looking too hot. I slowly lost Christoph the rider in front of me who slowly lost Alex that was on front of him. Thankfully there were two riders even slower than me and they disappeared too so I was left to slog it out on my own. I just tried working on my technique and not suffering too much. I did learn a couple of things here though. People get the most behind you when you either go down and they are screaming at you to get up, or when you are stupid enough to try riding a really muddy section where most people are running. People really love someone that just won’t give up, especially in the face of adversity. The other phenomenon is the automatic sensor guys. At this race it was most noticeable going past the VIP/Beer tent. Cheering going past the beer tent is always a little special, but here the left hand side of the course had turned their backs to watch one of the many big screens they have at these races so specters can follow the action at the front. So, you come into the straight past the tent, a really sticky mud section that was hard to tell whether you should ride or run it. It is fairly quiet until one of the guys with his back turned catches a glimpse of you out of the corner of his eye and immediately turns and starts screaming ‘Come on!!!’ at the top of his lungs. This turns all the other guys in the area ‘on’ as well so as you ride through it is like a series of automatic sensor lights going off as you approach.
I was glad that I rode in spite of the crappy result. It is always an experience trying new courses. Today I am feeling a little worse than yesterday and my voice sounds like I smoked a pack of cigarettes last night, but I don’t want to miss out on trying a new track. So we have packed the car once more and are heading off to Bredene for more of the Belgian experience…