Zware benen

This has taken somewhat longer than expected to regurgitate due to events relating to Armstrong, L. this week. There have been a few angles to cover, put it that way.

Nevertheless, I've managed to race twice and spend a nice arvo with Christina and Briony, who passed through Gent during their in-depth three day tour of Belgium this week. I haven't seen either of them for ages, mainly because I live in Belgium/Australia, Christina lives in Boston, and Briony lives in Paris. I guess I did go to Paris for a day this year, but that was for another reason, alas.

Anyway, we hooked up at 3pm outside Sint Baaf's Cathedral and fortunately, they had already seen Het Lam Gods so I didn't have to do it again. Not that it's a bad drawing by any means, but I seen it already last week with Pa so I didn't have to seen it again. The photo reproduction is remarkably good though.

It wasn't raining at this stage of the afternoon so we could spend some quality time soaking up the great outdoors, as we did a circuit of the Gravensteen castle and took a few snaps at appropriate times. Each time I do this, I see a bit of Gent that I haven't seen before, or haven't noticed at any rate. So it's all good!

We settled at a cafe on Jan Breydelstraat, near the Korenlei, and had a warming hot chocolate and shared a cake between the three of us. Yes, it was that sort of a cake. Then some more touristy walking via an antique boot shop near the Vridagmarkt because Briony had to have those boots. Then it started to rain of course. But we didn't get too wet en route back to Gent Sint Pieters and I bid C+B farewell.

Christina and Briony on a bridge, near the Gravensteen. Note Panos sandwich.

Having hot choccy. Try to spot Panos sandwich.

Radsport

The weather was unkind again last week, with Friday and Saturday just over week ago being incredibly wet. "Violent rain showers" was the prediction, and it wasn't far wrong. This is actually fairly rare in Belgium, where normally it rains a lot, off and on, but not so hard. Anyway, on Friday I went on the Schelde ride and once the first drops of rain started to fall, everyone else piked and I was left with three others. We still did the full lap out to Oudenaarde and back and ended up going pretty quick. Coming back in the thunderstorm we were sitting on 40-43 km/h and it was strangely easy, even though there wasn't much wind. We didn't get struck by lightning, so that was a plus, I reckon.

On Saturday I didn't go out at 9 because it was raining, so instead waited until 12. That was enough time for it to stop raining and start again. Gentle at first, when I left, but then after about 2 km it was belting down. I thought I'd head northwest along the canal towards Brugge. I'd never been that far along it, and it was a lot different to what I expected. The whole route was lined with tall trees, which provided surprisingly little shelter from the storm. Could have been worse though. I got to km 45 and turned around and had a tailwind home. It eventually stopped raining with about 20 km to go.

On Monday I rocked up to Balegem to race. I think I've done it once before, or one like it. 13 x 9 km laps, with two hills per lap, including one past the start/finish, and 11 corners, some of which were absolute shockahs: cobbles, holes, mud, sand, narrow roads, etc. It took me until halfway through the race until I got the hang of all of them, but it wasn't good.

There were 52 starters and I knew it would be an elimination race, but I almost eliminated myself on lap 3 when I got dropped with a group of others. There were about 30 ahead, and we weren't coming back, so I followed another guy's move, and we bridged up to them in about 1.5 laps. We were the only ones to get across. That cost a bit of gas, so I tried to conserve it by sitting back as much as possible, but after about halfway, a break went on the flat and others gradually reacted, but I didn't. It was more a mental thing rather than physical, because I did have the legs to go. I ended up in a group of 10, but there were now 20 ahead and we didn't see them again.

We ended up doing 10 laps (90 km) before we were pulled out, and on the last lap there were a few attacks, including a couple by me. I went hard over the start/finish hill and got a gap, then Alexander Kareev from Flanders caught me on the next hill. I looked back and saw the group not too far off, so I sat up. I should have gone with him, because I ended up doing most of the work to chase him down! Then with about 4 km to go, he went again with a couple of others, and they started to catch another four who were dropped from the front. So I took off at 1.5 km to go and just got on the back of them as they hit the hill before the sprint. The others had chased back to me, but only two got past so I was a glorious 24th. It was actually a lot better than I expected, because I wasn't concentrating well. Legs were OK, and I wasn't close to blowing up this time (I think).

Goncaras won. Now there's a surprise.

I took it easy on Tuesday and Wednesday and rocked up at the Cafe Flora on Thursday for the Wondelgem World's. The forecast had been for rain and when I was at home, it bucketed down for a bit at 1:30pm, which prompted me into changing wheels back to the "normal" Ksyriums. Also, the rear Zipp was goddamn flat! Bloody singles, I hate replacing them. Other than that, the Zipps are the best wheels I've ever ridden on. Anyway, I was late, but had enough time to sign on as the 31st and last rider. Amazingly, the roads were dry and it didn't rain until after the race.

It was a different circuit to normal, going in the reverse direction to what I'm used to and taking in some different streets. 21 x 5.5 km laps, with 14 corners, 2 sets of tram tracks and about 10 speed humps per lap. Not really my fave course, but it's a bit like Heffron in that I know bits of it fairly well. I had new shoes too, which weren't quite adjusted properly, so they felt wrong when I got out of the saddle. Incentive to corner better, which I did!

There was a team from Luxembourg there (UC Dippach), that had rolled up in a team van, with full matching kit and bikes, looking very pro, but who turned out to be a bit slow. That, combined with the mob of Kingsnorth International Wheelers, who practically live on the parcours, comprised nearly half of the bunch.

Tactics were fairly obvious. Fairly early on in the piece, a group of about four got away with two Kingsnorth guys in it (eventual winner Tomas Tareilis and Justin Kerr), Didier De Lannoy and Tomas Mice. We never saw them again. There were a lot of attacks in our little group with the Russian greyhound Andrei (Tcherviakov) being involved in most of them, as well as a token Luxembourgian and/or Kingsnorth. Somehow, every attack came back, and I still don't really know why. Afterwards, I asked Andrei how it was, and his simple reply was "Shit".

About halfway, Alexander Kareev just rode off the front and stayed there. He's strong when he wants to be. He caught one of the front guys and ended up fourth!

With about 5-6 laps left, I followed one of the Luxembourg riders through the corners, and we got a fairly decent gap. We just worked steadily and stayed away for a lap and a half until Andrei brought a few guys back to us. That was a bit of a relief, but then we were joined by a few more so we had 12, going for 6th spot. I was quite happy with the situation. They gave us the laatste ronde with 2 to go, and despite Peter Schoonjans attacking us a few times up the back, it was a group sprint.

Well it would have been except for a Luxembourg rider who attacked with about 1 km to go. I chased, but too late and instead of getting a great position for the (headwind) sprint, I ended up having to lead it out. Schoonjans won. I didn't have any power out of the saddle anyway, so I rolled in last of the group for 18th. Reasonably satisfied though, and I've since fixed the shoes.

Friday was going to be easy and I joined up with the Schelde bunch on the second lap. But for some reason everyone was attacking. I should have dropped off but I didn't, and paid the price on Saturday when my legs were still shot for the normal group ride. And Sunday, where I pretty much avoided the group ride and just did a slow 60 km to Oudenaarde and back. Same tomorrow, then race again on Tuesday in Zottegem-Erwetegem.

The increased activity on the racing front is because the Journo World's are in two weeks! They're in San Marino this year and, like last year, I have a decent chance to win. Possibly even better because I've heard that Agostini won't be there...

I'm flying to Italy this year.

Another visitor...

Stay a while. Stay Forever! (Impossible Mission opening line, not to be confused with Mission Impossible). Both Lucy and I used to play that game on the Commodore 64 quite some time ago.

Speaking of Lucy, she and Pete rocked up chez moi (sorry for the confusing French speak. Gotta practice) on Saturday arvo, Gent time, for a weekend of fun and games. Despite the rain - and there were showers aplenty, as there have been for the last three bloody weeks - we contrived to have a good time. Saturday was a tad busy pour moi because of Clasica San Sebastian, but we did meet up in town later for a beer or two and a cheap slap up meal. On Sunday arvo we met outside St Baaf's, where Lucy and Pete had of course checked out Het Lam Gods, and strolled around other bits of Gent. We have photographic evidence to prove it, as these pics show:

Pete 'n Luce in Gent

Me 'n Luce in Gent

Later on, we hit the Greek restaurant down the road and ate until we couldn't any more. Even I waived dessert, apart from a spot of chocolate ice cream when I got home. Now I know what a gorgosaurus feels like. Anyway, we all needed it because next day, Lucy and Pete borrowed a couple of my bikes and set off on a tour of Gent. It didn't go very far because one of the roads was blocked off so they ended up on the wrong side of the ring road. Alas.

I needed the foodage because I went to race in Langerbrugge in the arvo. I've done it quite a few times now, and it's always a hard race, even though the course is fairly easy. On a cold and windy day, we only had 38 starters but Willems and Cocquyt were there, along with a contingent from Jartazi. I chatted with Danny Massouras in the kleedkamers and we were wondering whether W + C would attack on lap 1 and leave the rest of us in the dust. But amazingly, they didn't. Or whenever they did attack, they were marked, especially by Vilcinskas from Jartazi.

This continued for about 7 laps and I was feeling fairly good, able to go with any move I so desired. But on this course it's always a trap because nearly all the breaks fail as everyone likes to attack, but not to work. And if you didn't have one of the big guns in your break, then you could forget it. But after about halfway, the pace increased a bit and I got onto the back of a split of about 20. I thought this was a good place to be, and it was, because all of a sudden we started working a bit and not attacking so much.

Alas, after a few laps, the pace dropped off and we were caught by the bunch behind with 5 laps (40 km) to go. Immediately, it blew to bits. Willems and Cocquyt attacked and got away with Vilcinskas and a couple of others, and that was the top five gone. Fine by me, as I didn't expect to be able to hang with them for that long.

Over the next few laps, the bunch totally disintegrated into groups of four or five, and I simply ran out of gas and couldn't go with any of them. A bit more training/racing would probably help, as a top 10 (or at least top 20) was tantalisingly close. I pretty much emptied the tank with 2 laps to go and grovelled around with Danny and a couple of others to end up 27th. I was eating energy tablets almost every 2 km just to get me home. My HR dropped 15 beats, my legs were turning around, but my mind was on autopilot. I think I hit the wall every year in this race.

On a positive note, I didn't run out of water and my new Zipp 404s were fantastic. Even good in crosswinds!

Finally, commiserations to Guido, who was geklopt on Sunday in the Schelde TT by 4 measly seconds. Don't worry Guido, he was about 25 years younger than you anyway! Next year...

Lokeren

It had to be done. The first race back is always hard and it was harder because the circuit in Lokeren is not particularly gentle: 13 x 8.6 km laps with two sections of cobbles/lap. I've done this race every year since it started in 2003 (what a legacy!) and Wednesday was the first time it hasn't been 30+ degrees. In fact, the weather was OK for racing - 20, but a bit windy.

To cut a long story short, the aim was to hang on as long as poss. and try to get to halfway without tanking. I managed that OK, but didn't quite have the grunt to get onto the front bit of the peloton when it split at the end of lap 7. I got across to one group, which promptly disintegrated, then chased with two others. One guy did a turn, then me, then the third...and he was the only one to get on. We were "bijna thuis" according to the first guy, but I wasn't. I ended up in a group of five but we were pulled at the end of lap 9, so it was all over. That was sufficient for a first race back.

Saw Don Gamble there, but he flatted after an hour, alas. We rode back to Gent via the north circular with another guy, who said that he knew a different way that was the same distance but quieter. Fine by us, but it was actually the same distance for him only because he lived in Laarne. Anyway, I suppose we needed the extra training.

Unfortunately this bloody sinusitus has come back and I can't seem to get rid of it. I was coughing a bit after the race and my throat was sore again today. I'm totally sick of it! I'm getting a fair bit of sleep and eating reasonably well, but that doesn't seem to be helping.

Lucy and Pete are coming to visit on the weekend, so that'll be good.

Yeah

The Eneco Tour's fourth stage was a farce, but stage 3 was a bit better. Go Alby.

In other happenings on two wheels (what other happenings are there?), it has come to my attention that our regular Schelde rides are under threat from the P'lice. Sarge. Due to complaints filed by certain worthy burghers out walking their dogs on a Wednesday evening, the wielertoeristen have been renamed the wielerterroristen. OK, so maybe 100 guys on a Wednesday evening at 7pm is a little scary, but the morning rides aren't quite as insane. However, there has been a distinct Police Presence as we roll along the Schelde of a morning for a pre-prandial (or post-prandial, if you've had brekky).

Clearly the local cops have nothing better to do, as the incidence rate of the heinous crime of dumping used bikes in the canals must have fallen to an all-time low. Instead, they have seen fit to disturb the solitude of the toeristen. We shall not be beaten! There are plans to form a People's Front of Zwijnaarde and Surrounds that will go underground (figuratively, at least) and ride at strange hours in order to throw the Police off our scent. And when they invade with their tanks, we will be ready. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall never surrender!

Thus, it has been desirous to keep up my training in case of an anti-terror push. After last weekend's rather painful outings, things took a turn for the better this week. 150 on Tuesday, no probs, then I broke my training TT record on a fairly windy Thursday. The idea is to train just below threshold for an hour, and for the first time I averaged 40 clicks on the canal run to Deinze and back. But I went a little harder than normal (160-163) so maybe it was cheating.

On Saturday we started off very slowly in two groups because of the vigilant cops. Then did the normal parcours. I did a few 3-5 min efforts on the front and even hit 190 coming back to the cafe. If nothing else, that's a sign that I can hit 190.

Sunday was the Berchem bunch, a little bigger this time around, but with no police even though it's apparently illegal to ride with more than 15 without a following car. Jeez, we were being right anarchists then.

After about 10 km, a couple of blokes rolled off the front and slowly went away. When we got over Mont St Aubert there was only one left, but Geert d'Hondt told me that he was a Belgian Champion. I don't know what in - could have been Greco-Roman wrestling - but when we caught him 20 km later after a solid chase, I could see what Geert meant. He was built like a tank - completely huge in all directions! He made Guy Callens look skinny, and that's saying something.

Anyway, the 20 km off the front had slowed him down a bit and we were all together at the foot of the Lahamaide climb, where I set the pace as usual. Tanks typically don't go up hills well, and I was somewhat relieved to hear Champion du Belgique breathing rather heavily when he did a turn at the top. Then there were five of us left, and we had to take the shortcut into Flobecq because the Way was Shut in front of us. We hit a thunderstorm at Quatre Vents and then with about 5 km to go Guy stopped to help another dude who had broken a spoke, leaving just me with the BC.

Fortunately he waved goodbye before the Hotonde and headed back down to Ronse. Obviously the thought of climbing the mighty Hotonde cracked him. That's what I must tell myself to give me confidence. On the way back I stopped to help three guys who didn't have a pump between them(!) At least they gave me a fairly good tow to the coke machine at Oudenaarde, where I imbibed of the restoratives before smashing my way home into that bloody headwind. Better start racing next week.

In other even more important news, Dad came for a Visitation last Tuesday, driving from Londres to Gent via the ferry. My deadly accurate directions failed at the last hurdle (oops) and he ended up at Sint Baaf's cathedral. "Does Jeff live here?" "No, only Het Lam Gods." Despite my best efforts, he found me in the end.

We had some larx and went back and saw Het Lam Gods. Dad reckoned the lamb looked supercilious - hardly meek - and I tend to agree. It's a good painting but. We also saw numerous interpretations of the crucifixion in the crypt, where they had a art exhib. It's all about the culture.

Speaking of culture, the Greek place down the road is bloody good.

Normal service has been resumed

Do not adjust your set. The blurring you see now is merely your eyelids closing and your brain shutting down. Activity has been reduced to essential survival functions only - an automatic response to reading this website. This is your third and only warning.

I note that Blogger has got its arse into gear and realised that I've made 138 posts, not 51. Or 139 if I count this one, and I probably shouldn't. Blogger seemed to be stuck in October 2004 for quite some time. I don't know why, because it wasn't a particularly good month and the wine was off. Unfortunately, the word count feature in the profile page has disappeared. But I think I've pasted my whole collected bilge into a text file somewhere and it comes to a scary number of words, considering my purported lack of time.

I blame codeine. It has been making me sleepy since the good doc prescribed me some in a cough syrup last week. It has also clouded my judgement, because I decided to renew my training program as if July never happened. 130 km on Saturday (Schelde ride) and 165 km on Sunday (Berchem ride). Saturday was OK, but I broke my vow of silence and got into the break with about 10 km to go and didn't want to leave for some reason, despite the fact that my HR was 180+ for the rest of it. There were six of us rolling over at between 45-48 km/h (I was the 45 km/h dude) and there wasn't much wind. Well, I guess we stayed away...

I got back home, took two teaspoons of my cough mixture, and promptly fell asleep on the couch for three hours! That's not a nap. Didn't feel much better for it either.

Sunday was even stupider. I got up at the crack of 6:40am (yeah, six hours sleep) and rode out to Berchem. I thought it was going to be a bit sunny so I had sun cream on. I needn't have bothered, because after 15 km it started raining and I got fairly cold. What to do? Keep going into the headwind because it would blow over, and it did after 30 km.

I arrived in Berchem, rather damp, and there was only a small group there. No Eddy, so we could take it a bit easier. We did the same circuit as normal and I think I ended up doing more work than normal, but we kept the pace lower. On the hill up to Lahamaide, a couple of the younger guys took the lead and I followed, doing what I thought was a moderate turn. One of them dropped off and by the top it was just me, Guy Callens, and the other dude, while the rest had gone and presumably were going to take the short cut.

We kept the pace up after that, but didn't go too hard and stayed together. Mr Callens was a little bit stronger while the other dude was suffering more. However, everything is relative when you're not fit and I was definitely running out of juice at the finish. As soon as I hit the Schelde to ride 40 km home - seemingly still into a headwind - I blew up. Limped the next 8 km into Oudenaarde where I found the vending machine emporium and downed, in rough order, a coke, two coffees, and a chocolade covered wafel. Oh, the humanity. Strangely, I felt bloated and sick, but I had enough energy to get home and that's the main thing.

What else did I do? Saw Fantastic Four last week, and it was good for a laugh. A bit lighter than the usual crap.

Dad, who has been in Ireland/England/Wales for a Harp Exhibition/Showroom/Warehouse, may be coming from London to Gent tomorrow. That's not as far as Aix to Gent, I don't think. We'll see if he can follow my precise directions of how to get here...