Speeding Hills of Linden

Yesterday Andrew, Pozzy, Zeb and I lined up in Linden alongside 80 other hungry Belgians and Dutch riders for a 120K leg-breaking circuit race. The course was 8k long, with one big climb a lap, and two smaller climbs along with a super twisty and bumpy descent. On the climb every lap there were KOM points up for grabs 5 deep.

The rest of the boys having raced the day before we decided that I would be the hit man in the latter stages of the race. In the first 3-4 laps Andrew was covering just aboug everything, with Zeb close behind. All of Andrew's early efforts paid off shortly, as he got away with another rider, and together they bridged to the 3 leaders up the road. Zeb and I quickly came to life trying to cover everything that looked like it might get across to Andrew. Zeb got in a lot of good moves, always looking strong, but they all came back and with 4 laps to go Andrew's break was finished.

Zeb and Andrew gave it a good go, riding really strong, and decided to cash it in with 2 laps to go. That left Pozzy and myself to try and get something away to the finish. On the last lap over the top of the climb I gave it everything I had. Only 2 riders could answer, but our gap was short lived, and the pack caught us quickly. On the last lap three riders got away, and we ended up sprinting for fourth. I stayed out of trouble, not contesting the sprint, and rolled in for 22nd, with Pozzy a few bikes behind.

It was a fast, hard race with an average speed of just over 40kph, and that's with hills!

Tomorrow's race is only a 10 minute ride from the house, we'll let you know how we do. Here's a picture of the boys with a classic's legend--Sean Kelly.


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