As with my traveling to Europe, I obtained my window seat which is where I would make my groove for the next 3.5 hours to France. The drive went well. On the way, you can’t help but notice that all the drivers in Europe share driving qualities known as respect and courteousness. Nobody blocks traffic in the fast lane, everyone moves over if you speed up toward there bumper, and there is just one steady speed that you can maintain while driving the freeways. It’s AMAZING!!! I still have to experience the driving in bigger cities, but so far I am quite impressed. While gazing out my window, looking past those courteous drivers, you also notice the beautiful landscape as you drive through France. It is nothing but green rolling fields with castles and aged stone churches scattered about. Each church had a small village distributed from the center and then farmland separating the towns.
We eventually arrived at the hotel which seemed to come around quite soon from our departure from Belgium. When arriving at the hotel, I did not know what I was in store for. We unloaded our luggage from the back of the van and approached the small square shaped hotel with enthusiasm. Off in the distance was an amazing view of an old church where you could see all the flying buttresses and weathered stone used to erect it. When we went inside the hotel, we did our usual check in and went to our rooms. We typed in our own 6 digit combinations and would open the door and let out a little giggle, “Three of us our going to fit in there”. Beds were called immediately and we knew it would be a comfortable cozy night. The picture describes a lot.
After getting slightly situated in the room we headed out for dinner. We were going to go to a Moroccan restaurant but decided the spices might be a bit too much, so we ended up going to a Flunch. I wasn’t sure what it was really, but once you go in you realize it is a little buffet restaurant with amazing pictures of the dishes that the meal you receive does not match. Oh well, its fuel.
We finished our dinners and would return to the hotel to begin our slumber. The hotel rooms were quite small and did not have any bathrooms or showers in them. Those were located in the hallway like the good ‘ol college dorm days. They reminded me of small faded yellow porta-potties only much cleaner. Sooo anyways, the guys I was rooming with and I began a movie and then decided to pass out for the evening. Sleep went well until 2 o’clock came around. I was up for about 2 to 3 hours just thinking about the race and other random thoughts churning through my brain (can’t really remember what they were). I would fall asleep, finally, and then have to wake up at 6:45 in the AM.
Eating time began at 7:00 AM, in which the team strolled out into the lobby area for some baguettes, cereal, and some toast. It was actually quite delicious. I think I went through 8 baguettes, 2 bowls of cereal, a banana, and lots of jam, mmm. We then went back to the room where we would rest up a little more and my roommates and I would finish the movie we began the previous night. Anne and Bernard rolled up around 8 or 9 in which they brought even more food for us to eat. 9 o’clock was the official time to eat again, in which we each had a large bowl of plain pasta. I was definitely full by the end. We then got all dressed for the race that began at 12:30.
After packing our luggage and getting the bikes all ready, we set off to our race start destination. The rain began to fall and the flags outside were extended out horizontally. We all knew it was going to be an interesting day. We arrived in the parking lot which was about 7 kilometers from the hotel. We gathered as a team and went to sign in on the stage. The French announcer was talking about the race and teams, I presume, as we went up the stairs and scribbled our signatures down next to our names. We stood in a line, looking as professional as we could be as random citizens would snap photos. By this time I was getting very ancy to begin the race and was trying to bring myself at ease with all the professional and amateur teams scurrying around the parking lot. Once it was closer to the start time we grabbed our bikes and rode up and down the start stretch road. One last leak next to a tree and we were off to get our starting position for the neutral start. As we waited for them to send us off, several people were in front of the peloton shaking hands and hugging most likely sharing thank yous and all that jazz. I couldn’t tell, I was too far to hear anything. After the lead car pulled up it was just moments after they sent us off. The race has begun.
The neutral start was chaos to say the least. Riders were passing the lead car, people weaving in and out of riders to jockey for position. I was comfortable as could be and relaxed, since I was forewarned about the aggressiveness of European riding. Before I knew it, within 500 meters of the start, a guy pulled right in front of my front wheel. My tire tapped his wheel until it basically was stuck to it and I could not get my balance to pull right. Instead of him stopping or moving back left, he did the opposite and kept moving right, most likely unaware that my wheel was in his rears presence. There was nothing I could do as his rear wheel pulled my front right out from under me and I went down taking a couple of my teammates out with me. It was both humiliating and demoralizing. All I know is that it wasn’t my fault, I DID NOT PANIC, or hit my brakes as I have been in that situation before in my 9 years of racing. It’s simple, he took out my front wheel with an unexpected move. I was quite distraught about it. But I got up as fast as I could and received a new front wheel, since I sustained a front flat, and would press on to catch up with the peloton to begin the actual race. When I caught up we would soon be at another stop in the cold, rainy, unforgiving weather. My side was quite achy and I already knew my difficult day has only begun. After about 5 minutes of just standing, we began our race with the sound of a vehicle horn. It was an insane pace where the throttle was down and you were pacing and drafting behind guys trying not to lose position and hide from that ever insulting headwind. It seemed impossible to move up during the first 30 minutes of the race. I would pass a few guys here and there then they would pass me. It was exhausting. I could not put anymore power into the pedals as I was pushed all the way to the nose of my saddle squeezing every ounce of energy out of my legs. I would stay with the pack for about an hour yo-yoing from the back and going through the caravan until I finally popped after passing a couple small towns. I would be by myself for a while until a teammate eventually joined me. We rode together for a while until a small group of riders being followed by the broom wagon (sag wagon) would join us. As they approached, a voice yelled out, “Welcome to Europe boys”! Oh he hit the head of the nail on that one. We would ride together for another couple of hours until, eventually, I could not go anymore again. I was stuck riding climbs and rollers in my big ring the whole day due to a malfunction from the crash. I was then by myself with the sag wagon until I was able to meet up with our team van in one of the feed zones. I pulled off completely upset and demolished from my first European racing experience. Anne gave me a bottle and some food and told me to change and get warm. Once I finally was settled in the back seat, I had a slight breakdown. I was a little frustrated at the fact that I hate quitting and just being completely disappointed with my performance. Anne and Noel would then comfort me and make me feel better. Thanks guys! I regained my composure and would watch the rest of the race from the sidelines hoping everyone else was doing better than I had done. After Anne and Noel finished feeding the guys still at the head of the race, we drove to the finish. We were greeted with a parking spot close to the finish line. There were people everywhere, huddled around the stage and finish line. Drummers were banging away and dancing and BMXers were jumping around on their make-shift spray painted ramp. The guys finally came through, and would grab their luggage to take showers. We all ate some more food that Anne had prepared for us and drank 3 bottles of various supplemental fluids. It was time to recharge the mind and body. After everyone had come through the finish and were all changed we began our drive back home to Hertsberge, Belgium. We finished off the night with a plate of lasagna and a night of deep sleep.
I think the biggest thing I took from my first European racing experience is that there are a lot of good riders out there. European racing is so much faster and aggressive. Belgian racing is an all out effort right as the gun sounds. It's a business here for riders. Pain and suffering is the way of life in cycling in Belgium. I learned that I need to stick to the front to save energy and just try as hard as I can. Neutral starts really aren’t neutral. I think they are more of a race than anything. I have to be more aggressive and put on my mean face when it comes to jockeying for position. But I think I got a lot of nerves out of the way getting my first race here over with. I know what to expect now and will be ready for the next one. You just have to pick yourself back up and give it your all the next time with what you have learned. There’s always room for improvement! You can’t always have astonishing results but you can always learn from your experiences.
