Meeting Freddy Maertens and a Trip to Oudenaarde

We were invited by one of the sponsors of the team to go to the exhibition of cycling legend Freddy Maertens.  The exhibition was held at the Ronde van Vlaanderen Museum in Oudenaarde, Belgium and included a discussion with the man himself.  Although all of the conversation was in Flemish, which even with being Afrikaans I could not really follow, we at least understood after that what a legend he is.  A hero of many local cyclists with a very impressive resume that includes two world championship titles, two green jerseys in the Tour de France, stage wins in many tours and several one day classic wins to name just a few.

Me, An-Li, Freddy, Cherise, Robyn and Guy,

All the teams Freddy rode for in his career.

I had an eventful day leading up to the exhibition as well.  There was a race that finished in Oudenaarde which most of the Pro Tour teams raced.  Lotto-Belisol, Astana, Omega Pharma-QuickStep, FDJ-BigMat, GreenEDGE and RadioShack-Nissan were among the Pro Tour teams that raced the 3 Daagse De Panne race.  I set out to go watch the finish of the race before we had to meet up at the Ronde van Vlaanderen museum for the exhibition.  As it goes with me and travelling lately something had to go wrong.  I missed my train out of Aalst after having some mechanical issues with the commuter bike I was using to get to the station downtown.  I finally got on the correct train to Oudenaarde an hour later.  I got there just in time to see the 2^nd and 3^rd bunch crossing the finish line.  After getting a lift back to Aalst with the sponsor after the event I now had to get the bike back from the station to the house.  So I set out for a 4km midnight run to the station and rode back.  Only in Belgium!  Although I always miss South Africa it is a nice feeling being able to walk or ride your bike at night without having to look over your shoulder.  Reading the book Killing Kebble by Many Wiener which is about the underworld in South Africa makes me appreciate being able to do this even more. 

Welcome to what is world class European racing!

We arrived in Cittiglio, Italy for Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio after a nice training camp with the team in Tuscany. This was the second event on the UCI Road Women World Cup calendar. It was at the team presentation the night before the race that I got an idea of the magnitude of the occasion. Each team was properly introduced and the names of all the top cyclists in the world were announced the one after the other. I finally got to put a face to the names that in the past I have only read or heard about and feel very lucky to have an opportunity to line up against 174 of the best riders in the world.

It was a 131.2km race that started with one big lap and then finished with 4 circuits of 17km around town. It was the climb on the big lap that ended up being the first deciding part of the race. After what surely felt like an all-out hour of racing the bunch split on the climb. There were about 70 ladies that made the front split. The pace never really slowed down after that leaving very little time for recovery. It was with one lap to go that I dropped from this bunch and finished 62th. The race was won by Marianne Vos who proved again to be in a league of her own. Teammates Ashleigh Moolman ended up with a very impressive 10^th and Ludivine Henrion finished 24^th. Joanna Van De Winkel had bad luck having torn her tire to pieces after having to break for a crash on a downhill and was never able to get back to the front bunch with that pace being set at the front. To start your European racing campaign with a World Cup was never going to be easy. More than half of the riders that started did not finish. I set out to just finish the race but was disappointed coming so close to finishing with the front group. It has by far been the hardest race I have ever done. Welcome to world class European racing!

Out of the 174 starters I got picked for dope testing. I guess it was a case of first time ‘lucky’. We started the 9 hour journey home straight after. Driving back through Switzerland made the long trip worth it for sure with its snow-capped mountains, big lakes and waterfalls. We went through the Gothard Tunnel which at a length of 16.4km is the 3^rd longest tunnel in the world. After crossing the borders of Italy, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgium we finally arrived home at 4am.

We received recycling bins as a gift at the Team Presentation Gala Event. Even the venue with its certified attention to the environment and the use of alternative energy sources was chosen with care in support of the UCI's ReCycling project. It was nice to see that Team MTN Qhubeka is not the only cycling organization that supports a better cleaner future.

The view of the snow-capped mountains in Switzerland on the way back.

While out doing some retail theraphy today I spotted this pair of shoes that surely would not have passed my drug test after the race.

Under the Tuscan Sun

We arrived in a very chilly Belgium about a week ago for the start of our European racing campaign with Team Lotto Belisol powered by Team MTN Qhubeka.  We are based in Aalst, Belgium not far from Ninove where we stayed as a team last year so it is not all unfamiliar territory.

A quick bike setup was done upon arrival and we took to the streets later in the afternoon to spin out our legs from the flight.  The next morning we got a bit of a rude awakening from the steep cobble climbs and narrow roads that are typical in Belgium as we did a team ride on the Ronde van Vlaanderen race route.

We are now in Italy for training camp close to the beach town San Vincenzo in the Livorno province in the Tuscany area.  It is apparently no secret that the training in this area is great as the Rabobank professional team is staying at the hotel next to us and several other professional teams are also in the area.  Around every corner it looks like a different scene straight out of a movie.  It really is beautiful here and I can understand now what all the talk is about when it comes to Tuscany.

View from the hill behind our hotel.

The highlight for me so far has been our trip to Pisa to go see the leaning tower and have pizza.  We were being typical tourists and thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures and walking around in the city.  A close second was the 9km climb that we got to do today up to the town of Volterra.

Team Lotto Belisol at the leaning tower in Pisa.

We have a couple of days left under the Tuscan sun before we leave for the Trofeo Alfredo Binda world cup close to Cittiglio, Italy.

Carlo has got his race drink mix right for being in Italy.  He obviously has not heard about PVM supplements yet.

Nationals Race Report

Nationals

We headed out to Nelspruit for the National Championships which was held from the 1^st through the 4^th of March.  Our team had a training camp in Nelspruit a couple of weeks ago.  We did a time trial simulation and trained on the route for the road race so we knew what to expect.  Having been familiar with both routes gave us a bit of a competitive edge which is necessary in an event of this significance.

Time Trial (TT)

I went out to Nationals with the TT as my main focus mainly due to the rolling nature of the route as well as the fact that a TT usually is a race over which you personally have much control over the outcome.  I spent a lot of time on the TT bike leading up to the event.  Based on the race simulation that we did on the route during training camp our coach, Dr Carol Austin, was able to prescribe very specific intervals that imitated the surges due to the undulating nature of the route.  I never felt more prepared for a race.  On the day the sport of cycling proved yet again its uncontrollable nature even under the best of circumstances.  The first part of the TT was going well until I started to feel some resistance coming from the back wheel.  After the turnaround this worsened dramatically.  I got off the bike twice to try and release the breaks thinking that it was causing the resistance but nothing was working.  As it turned out the hub cap of the disk wheel came loose and forced the wheel to rest “comfortably” on the left break pad.  Having worked so hard in preparation of this race there was obviously no words to describe my disappointment.  The fact that we only get to race this discipline in South Africa once or maybe twice a year made the disappointment even worse to deal with. 

Road Race

We were facing two laps of an undulating route with a total race distance of 110km.  It was Karien van Jaarsveld, Charlotte van der Merwe, An-Li Pretorius and myself lining up for Team MTN Qhubeka.  The day before the race we drove the route with manager, Carri-Ann Botha, once more to make sure that we knew the crucial parts of the race.  The climb out of Nelspruit was surely going to be the deciding part of the race.  This climb had three uphill sections.  We expected Momentum Toyota to make the climbs as hard as possible by setting a steady tempo and by attacking and counter attacking.  Knowing the route well we decided that I would attack on the last part of the three uphill sections.  If you were not familiar with the route it would appear that the climbs were done but then it kicks up for about another 300m.  The race went exactly as we thought it would and I was able to launch a counter attack at just this spot after an attack by one of the Momentum Toyota riders.  At the time it was only Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Joanna van de Winkel, both from Team Momentum Toyota that could respond.  We quickly had a sizeable gap on what was left of the remaining bunch.  After some deliberation we worked well together for the rest of the lap.  Ashleigh thought that it might be too early in the race but I have been in long breakaways in the races leading up to the event and was confident that the move would succeed.  I did not quite account for all the attacks that I would later be subjected to though.  It was at the start of the second lap that the attacks from both Ashleigh and Joanna started coming.  They did a good job of racing together attacking and counter attacking each other to make it difficult for me.  Having done a lot of race specific intervals I was able to close all the attacks.  With about 20km to go it became clear that the race would finish in a sprint.  Joanna was leading it out for Ashleigh with me on her wheel and Ashleigh on my wheel.  Not having much experience in the sprinting department I took the sprint a bit too early and Ashleigh came past me just before the finish.  Although winning is always better I have to be happy with a second place after not being able to finish this race last year.  Teammates An-Li Pretorius and Karien van Jaarsveld did not disappoint and finished 5^th and 6^th respectively.

Just like the terrain in Nelspruit Nationals surely had its ups and downs this year.  I am now looking forward to the Argus in Cape Town this weekend.