A step closer to professionalism?

No, not a win. But today I took part in my first rider protest – a sure sign of disgruntled professionals at work? Well perhaps not. But how the situation arose is quite exceptional.

Today's race was in Erembodegem, supported by the owner of my teams title sponsor, Van Eyck Sport, and naturally I entered the race among a large contingent of team mates. The course was a 17km circuit, featuring a couple of climbs, a narrow cobbled descent, and many fierce sections of cross wind. Perhaps however, the most distinguishing feature was a railway crossing, which we would be traversing 7 times in the duration of the race. After a short delay to remove parked cars from the circuit, it was not long before a crash mid pack caused devastation to the peloton. Singled out in cross wind, debris on the road caused 6 riders to crash at high speed, including team mate Dom Schils, who walked away with cuts and bruising, the frame taking most the hit cracking in 4 different places! After a brief chase back to the front group, I made sure I sat near the front of the bunch, as splits occurred every lap. With half the race completed, and the peloton vastly depleted, I decided to make my move. With a 30 second deficit to a leading group of 8 riders, I attacked through the finish line and was joined by one other rider. Sharing the workload, and riding flat out we bridged to the break after 10 kilometres.

Working well together, we slowly edged out the lead and with 3 laps to go, the race was as good as won. However, as we approached the railway crossing, almost inevitably, the barriers came down, and the race stopped, - we were forced to sit and wait while the peloton, now over 2 minutes down rejoined us. Normally, given the situation, the break would be given back its time gap as the race restarted. However, with no-one really in control, nothing seemed to happen, and the race simply set off again with the advantage gone. From an all but guaranteed top 10 position, I now found myself in the same situation as the start of the race, all be it with half the peloton now dropped out of the race.

Having restarted, another break group formed, with 15 riders moving clear, myself not one of them. Not disheartened however, I soon found myself attacking again, and was joined by 2 team mates along with 3 other riders. Working together, we closed the gap to the leaders, when on the final lap the railway crossing unbelievably closed again. Still with no-one in control, exactly the same situation occurred, where dropped riders simply rode back up to the stationary break. With total chaos, the so called 'bosses' of the peloton called for everyone to stop. After a long delay, much shouting between officials and self-appointed rider spokesmen, it was agreed that all the riders still present would split the prize money between us, among completion of the race. We set off again at a pedestrian pace to complete the lap. Averaging 20kph, we rolled to the finish, and all stopped just before the finish line – much to the dissatisfaction of the 'booing' crowd. It was then announced that no prize money would be paid.

All in all, the race was a total farce. The idea of hosting a race crossing a train line on 7 occasions at peak time on a Monday evening is inherently ridiculous, and the total lack of authority displayed by race official made a total mockery of the event. With no result to speak of, and knowing what could have been, is somewhat disappointing, but I can take much confidence from the performance – probably the best ride I have had this year!