Wambeek – Day 2

It seems the efforts of day 1 combined with the forecast storm over Wambeek for Mondays second day was enough to put off a huge number of the riders from Saturday's race. As we lined up for the 3 o' clock start, just 31 riders took to the start line, 16 of which being my team mates!


Naturally, it was 2 Van Eyck riders who flew off the start line to initiate racing for the day and joined by 3 other riders, they settled into the lead break for the day. Behind them, it was clearly a day to sit right at the front of the peloton, moving up the road at all opportunities. With 5 up the road, a few already out the back – including Andrew with his chain snapping on the opening lap – its easy to see that if 10 riders form a break ahead of the peloton, then they will gain a numerical advantage, become the peloton and the those behind would have been dropped...


Soon enough I found myself in smaller groups out front and settled into a rhythm within the group. In such small numbers, and fierce winds blowing on the exposed course, the work-rate for everyone was very high, despite the pace being relatively slow (39kph average). Despite numerous attacks (including team time trial formation at times) from myself and Dom, the going was too much for 2 or 3 riders to stay clear, and despite getting close the leaders at times we never made the junction and so we settled down to tick over the laps, as the gap to the leaders steadily increased again.

Toward the end of the race, the group was down to 6 riders, including the U23 Luxembourg national champion. In the final lap another team mate – Yannick – attacked the cobble climb, and following the response from a “non-worker” in the break group, I counter attacked him over the summit and continued the final lap alone.


The punishing wind meant the final few km drag to the finish line would be block head wind, and with Yannick pushing hard to catch a dropped rider from the break, I put in an all out effort to close the gap. I caught the pair, at 50metres to go point, both now looking at each other to start their sprint, and jumped instantly, integrating my own sprint onto the 8km time trial, and just being pipped at the line!


7th on the day, 1st under 22 and 4th overall for the two days, (although really joint 3rd!), with team mates 1st and 2nd, it was a great day for the club!