St.Michielsgestel Cyclocross - coooooool!

So Sunday’s Karcher Super Prestige Cross race in St.Michielsgestel turned out to be a great day – I don’t have any photo’s from the race, but check out the start list at:
http://www.superprestigecyclocross.com/cms/default.asp?contentID=565

For those that know a bit about cross racing, yup – those are the ones. Sven Nys is the Lance Armstrong of cross racing, Richard Groenendal is the Jan Ullrich equivalent, and Bart Wellens…..well, he could be the Ullrich equivalent too – always second to Nys. Among the other big hitters from NL, Czech, France, and Belgium. Oh yeah – and yours truly!

The day couldn’t have been any better for cross racing with the temperature between 10 and 14 degrees, the skies mostly sunny, a little wind, and all the trees changing color and leaves all over the ground. It had been wet the week leading into the race but not soaking, so the course was absolutely perfect – tacky cornering, with just a little bit of mud (I think that was thanks to the local fire department as I heard they watered down part of the course….no joke, they were – that’s how serious they take ‘crossing here, they don’t mess around!).

I went with my friends Hein, who raced the Amateur A category at the start of the day, and Wilco, who would be our mechanic and soigneur for the day. It’s a great routine as we get to the race early so we get a great parking spot, and I get to wander around the course and be support for Hein as he’s racing, then we swap roles when I’m racing. Then I eat, get changed and prepped, and get out for a warmup – all in good time! This was actually the best prepared I’ve been for a race yet as I had about 2 hours warmup – clearly not riding the whole time (that’s way to long of a warmup), but just checking out the course, going to the toilet, etcetera – getting everything well prepared.

I started with bib number 8, but since I have no points in the series of course I got put to the back of the pack, literally at the back of the start group. This would be my one and only chance to get on TV for this race as I knew I’d never see the front group after that! So the gun goes off and of course the riders immediately hit into the fastest sprint I’ve even been in – up until the first corner, which was a hilarious bottle-neck. Then the endless series of twists and turns that made up each lap, complete with the drunk Dutch and Belgian fans lining the entire course to cheer on their favorites.

Actually it was pretty funny – Hein and Wilco had convinced some Belgians to cheer for me while I was racing, so as I was going around the course I could hear my name being shouted out at random places in a crazy Flemish accent, so it really got me grinning :o)

But alas even with the cheers of my Flemish fans ringing in my ears I still wasn’t able to keep up – I just didn’t have any top-end speed or acceleration. My handling skills felt pretty good though (it’s funny, this was only my second time on my cross bike since last season, but it just felt really relaxing and good – and I was hitting some of the corners faster than I thought I could).

I wasn’t at the back of the pack, but for all intents and purposes I might as well have been. And to be honest it was actually really nice! I got to thinking I was all alone because I was in the LEAD, and all the fans were there to watch me win the race……but that still didn’t help me go much faster.

In the end after about 45 minutes the blisters on my hands popped and I knew my day was done – 2 on each hand, with one on my left hand about the size of a quarter right on the pad of my hand. I couldn’t even hold onto my handlebar at that point, so it wasn’t long before Nys came tearing past me…..and he was going so fast I didn’t even get a chance to slow him down ;o) At that point I was coming around the start area with the jury, so I pulled out of the race to watch from the sidelines (it’s no fun having all the top riders tear past you in the single track, and I know all I’m doing at that point is slowing them down anyway). But I had more than reached my goal – I had hoped to make it at least 30 minutes without getting lapped, when I ended up making it about 50 minutes, and if my hands hadn’t gone I could have held on longer.

So in the end it was a stellar race, but my performance was a little lacking. Do I care? Not really – I got to line up with all the big guns, so of course it was a great time!

Here are the results of the race – turns out I didn’t do that badly after all!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2006/oct06/SPMichielsgestel06