Overijse - Maleizen

Having competed in this race earlier in the year, albeit this being an U23 version, I knew what to expect. The rolling course with its centre-piece steep climb, and following uneven cobbled descent (made treacherous by the wet conditions) makes for a tough race of attrition. With the soaking roads on the opening laps, it seemed every corner on the circuit led to gaps being opened, and although sitting comfortable, a wheel ahead of me was dropped on the now, quite patently dangerous cobbled descent. With no chance of overtaking on the narrow lane, I worked hard to get back into the peloton, but even within the first lap, riders had disappeared off the rear of the race.

Eager to avoid wasting energy in this way, I moved to the front of the group, only to miss a strong break of riders move clear. Despite my efforts to jump up to the group - now hovering at 30 seconds lead - on the favourable climb, it was too difficult to break the elastic of the peloton.

Doing a fair share of work within the now “broken” peloton, and pushing on up the climb most laps, I finally went clear in a group of 8 with 2 laps to go. As it turned out however, this soon became the peloton, as the predictably attrional nature of such a course forced many to abandon early, and those who remained were too far back and pulled from the race.

With a surging Kevin De Jonghe however, by now some 4 minutes ahead of the chasing group, and my group a further 2 behind that, we were given our final lap 1 lap before the official race distance. Despite a flurry of attacks, the group stayed largely together, and poorly positioned into the final corner, I could only manage 3^rd in the sprint, and 13^th overall.

The result wasn't spectacular, but the performance was a marked improvement from the last couple of weeks. Not racing since last Saturday offered some respite from what seems to now have been a non-stop summer of racing – I'm now hovering around the 50 mark, and can't say I'm feeling as fresh as I could be! I was able to attack the climb, and go with moves, but just failing to give the killer acceleration and power to drive clear right now. I think it's coming, but with only 2 weeks of my season left let's hope that peak rears its head soon.