Schepdaal – first top 10 ride!

After an easy day Sunday I headed to Schepdaal, just West of Brussels. The plan for a long hard day in the saddle, to replicate the sort of kilometres I will be racing in Zellik-Galmaarden in 2 weeks time. Meeting at Dom’s house, we cycled to Schepdaal, totalling 25km including a recce of the course. The main features were 3 distinct ‘power’ climbs for each of the 11 laps of the circuit, with the finish line at the summit of probably the hardest of the climbs – an ideal finish for me! The roads were generally wide with fast flowing corners. Under clear skies the race got underway at 15.00 with 106 riders taking to the start.

The race started uncharacteristically slowly- perhaps the feared reputation of the circuit’s climbs acting as a deterrent for the compulsory ‘all out attack from the gun approach’ I have become used to. However, it was not too long before the attacking started, as the lure of primes and a king of the mountains points every lap proved too much for some – who quite predictably blew after only a few laps! As the race progressed, the relentless climbs took their toll, as many riders were shelled out the back of the peloton. With bad legs, I decided just to try and follow the wheels, and sit in as much as possible, hoping I could ride the legs into the race and try a few efforts later on.

Sitting too far back, the group split through cross wind with some 26 riders stretching out a good margin to the quickly thinning peloton. With 50km to go, I took a gel and drink and decided to have a go at bridging the gap. After a few attacks, I finally got away on the main climb section of the race, and was joined by one other rider. Sharing big turns, we bridged the gap in less than a lap. I quickly learned that 5 riders were up the road, and although out of sight, quite surprisingly few were either willing or able to chase.

However, 3 riders attacked out of the group, whilst I was taking a misjudged rest at the back of the group, preparing for the final few laps. Almost instantly they had a large gap, and with many of the group not working, but also not letting anyone else go clear, we were to race for 9th. With one other teammate in the break we worked together to split the group in a cross wind section, but came back together a few kilometres before the line.

Having observed the other riders during the race, I was confident I would be the strongest in the hill sprint – quite probably my biggest strength on the bike. With a few riders attempting to go clear before the climb, I had a good target to aim at to launch the effort. Leading out the sprint, with still some 400metres to go, I jumped over to the early escapees, saw the finish barriers and went for the line. Somewhat satisfyingly I looked around at the top to see that no-one had been able to follow my wheel and won the sprint of some 20 riders by a few bike lengths!

Naturally I’m very pleased to have broken into the top 10 now, and to have ridden over to a break, and win the sprint on a day where the legs had not felt at so good is very promising. Riding back to Dom’s house, adding in an extra loop, we clocked 180.1km for the day – a good days riding and perfect preparation for Zellik-Galmaarden. Next race will be Thursdays is the G.P Cerami, a warm up race on the same circuit to the day’s main professional version later in the afternoon.