2nd Day in Overijse

It's been a fairly quiet week on the racing front, with just the return leg of Overijse on Saturday. This event is a 2 day affair, with the individual placings making up a general classification. The course for this event was much harder, with multiple climbs, cobbled ascents and descents, and fast technical corners, sharing many similarities and indeed many of the same roads with an event I rode in Overijse earlier in the season. With 82 riders signing on, racing got under way at 15:00.

Despite the constant attacking, the peloton stayed very intact for most the race, and not feeling too great, I bided my time sitting in the wheels knowing the race would become a war of attrition rather than one to award attacking flair. Going on the attack in the last quarter of the race, I felt terrible, and soon found myself back struggling toward the rear of the now 40 man peloton, with over half the field dropping out the back. However, worse was to come as now a series of all body cramps began to set in. Riding through it as best as I could, with the pace heating up in the closing laps, I lost contact on the main steep climb of the race, cramping every time I stood out the pedals.

Eventually I came in 31 place, somehow leaving me with a hard worked, but possibly not well earned 9th overall on the gc. The problem: by the end of the race I was totally dehydrated, and hadn't drunk any where near enough leading up to the race. A total school boy error on my part, and one I shouldn't be making. Lesson learned.