About a fortnight in the life of a fanatic cycling fan.
The month of May should be a rest period after the Spring Classics. I should take a break after Paris-Roubaix just as my mate Mitch did. But he had good results and great rides in every single big race so far. He has been on television at the right moment and that is what the sponsors, the fans, the girlfriend likes. We’ve been even witness (live!) to see Dockers smiling at his Lydia on cobblestone section number seven, 27km from Roubaix. Still don’t know where he gets the courage to do this. I wonder if that was because of the “stoverij met friet” or the Westmalle Triple few days before.
Anyway, no rest cause after picking up Tom Palmer, Alex Smyth and Matt Bishop, the reds were about to fly in. Only Matt arrived on a descent hour, somewhere in the arvo. The other two boys preferred to spend six hours at the Heathrow airport in London before flying to Brussels.
Airport pickups are always a kinda thriller, will they be on time, and will the luggage arrive at the same time? But more important, will the bikes be there too. So Sarah and I could drive the whole family back to Oudenaarde. Riders, bikes, suitcases, bags all packed in two vans and off we went.
In the first weekend w
e travelled to two races in Holland, Omloop der Kempen and the Ronde van Overijssel. The temperature on both days was far above the normal value this time of the year. And some of our Drapac boys loved it. With good results of Floris, Rhys, Adiq we could look back to a good start, not to forget that these guys just got off the plane after a 40 hours trip. By the way in the Omloop a motorbike rode into Floris (pic of bunchkick) with less than 10 km to go and still managed to get back on and take part of the bunch kick. The bad news in this sunny weekend was that Tom got ill.
A nice meal was deserved. Sarah booked a Japanese “wok” restaurant in Sint Martens Latem I admit that this meal was a lot better than the Egyptian stuff we (read: Jono, Craig and me self) had to eat in Eindhoven. Lucky Ago did not join us that night.
Also, do you know Adam Semple of the Drapac team? No? He is not only a good bike rider, he is also a great water bottle carrier and what is even more spectacular is the way he’s taking them from the car. Never seen such a confident rider picking up, was it eight or nine bottles, from the car. Not even paying attention on the cobblestones neither speedbumps nor even 90° bends. Just brilliant, I was impressed by this action of the young Western Australian.
While the team goes training all week (with few coffee stops at Or in Ghent) I went back to work as usual, counting down the days to the next race. I missed the race in Houthalen but was present at Verrebroek last Sunday,where Ago “upgraded” me to DS. Probably he had enough “klicks” on his mileometer. I bet you could see on my face that I was happy to do this, but what really made my day was that I draw team car number 1 in the convoy. That is almost the dream of every DS to get that number. 150 riders at the start with some old friends as Loh, Tobyn, Bert de Backer, Dan and others. Although everybody was talking and expecting rain, it stayed dry all day. But the wind was the spoilsport. Every lap (10 of 16.9km) had a long straight with headwind which created echelons in the bunch. Almost every lap about 20 riders got in trouble because of this. We had at least 3 riders in every break except…. in the last one. No matter how hard Rhys, Stu, Floris and Adam tried, with the help of Greg Van Avermaet, they couldn’t catch the 16 leaders.
Tomorrow, Wednesday our boys race in Puivelde, one of the biggest kermesses in Belgium. Hopefully Tom and Adiq are back after their cold. We go to Puivelde with the full team and hope a top ten placing.
Never mind, we’re looking forward to the An Post Ras in Ireland that starts on the 22nd, the riders fly to Dublin (Rhys, Adam, Stu and Floris) while Ago, Sarah, Jono, Nokkers and me self drive all the way. First catching a boat from Calais to Dover and then the next day from Holyhead to Dublin. We come back on the 30th with hopefully a bag full of jerseys, flowers, cups and whatever a winner gets!
You think this is all I did this week, no? I also checked every result on the net! Looking for Australian men and women who finished races. What started as a joke became really serious. The Aussie Cup is full on. (The women’s is sponsored by SCM !) So I have to stay attentive cause some of the riders really follow this competition seriously. One of the ladies already messaged me that I made a mistake in the points score. I must admit that she was right too!
Matthew Goss is still leading the men’s Cup. Since the last update on May the 1st not much has changed in the top 5, but right behind the top it is really moving. Sutherland, Sulzy, Richie are slowly moving their way up.
1. Goss Matthew – 120 pts
2. Haussler Heinrich – 112 pts
3. Renshaw Mark – 11O pts
4. Matthews Michael – 107 pts
5. Evans Cadel – 96 pts
First Pro Conti rider is Rory Sutherland (8th – 74pts) and first Conti rider is Adam Semple (14th – 64pts)
Rochelle Gilmore still leads the women’s Cup with a comfy lead, but the battle is on behind her with some of the girls coming closer. Only Ruth hasn’t been scoring points since the Dutch Ronde van Drenthe.
1. Rochelle Gilmore – 113 pts
2. Shara Gillow – 61 pts
3. Ruth Corseth – 57 pts
4. Vicki Whitelaw – 47 pts
5. Bridie O’Donnell – 43 pts
Oh! if you’re really interested in a full ranking, just let me know. A short e-mail is enough to following address: thealice40@gmail.com
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