My first taste of Belgian Kermesse racing came at the Buggenhout Kermesse this last week. I was feeling a bit despondent with my riding after two back to back disappointing results in the last Belgacom XCO’s I had done; this in combination with picking up a head cold. I really needed a decent result to get my confidence back on the right path.

 

I wasn’t quite sure as what to expect with many of the famous stories of Belgium racing in the back of my mind. The circuit was pan flat; I kind of expected that, although it was to an extent what you may call technical. There were quite a few corners, narrow cement slab roads, a short section of cobbles and some sketchy road surface at points. This meant a lot of hard accelerations which start to take their toll later on in the race.

 

I approached the race conservatively and sat in the bunch for most of the duration of it. I did follow one or two moves in the later 25% of the race although nothing came of them. A split of about 15 riders went clear with 3 of the 16 laps to go and that was the move of the day. I finished safely in the bunch which doesn’t look fantastic on paper but personally helps a bit with the confidence. The 117km was covered in just over two and a half hours at an average speed of 43.3km/hour.

 

Tomorrow it’s off to Geraardsbergen for the final round of the Belgacom XCO series. It is a UCI category 1 race so should be tough as usual. Our start loop consists of the famous Muur of Geraardsbergen climb, the idea of riding it sounds cool but the actual deed may be a different story…

A star studded field lined up behind the chalk in Boom for the next round of the Belgacom XCO Series, included Sven Nys (multiple Cyclo Cross World Champion), Kevin van Hoovels (Belgian National Champion), Rudi van Houts (Netherlands National Champion), Sebastien Carabien (Belgian U23 Champion) and Jonothan Page (former Cyclo Cross World Championship medallist).

I was fortunate enough to have a third row call up again amongst some fifty plus starters.

 

How the race started, you can see me breaking my chain about a minute in.

I felt quite good with the fast pace off the line for a change and was well positioned in the top fifteen until I had to get off and run on the first climb as we all bunched up.

Heading up the second climb disaster struck…. My chain had snapped, and to make matters worse I was literally a hundred metres past the tech zone but the rules stipulate that you can only move in one direction on the course so I had to run some three kilometres to the next zone. I was now comfortably in last place. Arriving at the tech zone Gerry fixed my chain in such a speed that would have earned him a spot on an F1 pit crew!

 

Heading up the first climb.

Image Credit: Ludo van der Put

I knew the chances of being lapped were quite real but set off to get a good workout in for the day nonetheless.  I pushed quite hard on the relatively tough course. There were four steep bank type climbs, they weren’t long but the steepness and the manner in which they were arranged took quite a hit on the body. Although there was nothing particularly technical, most of the single track was quite twisty and required a lot of breaking and accelerating, so technical skills played a major role on the day.

 

The second climb.

Image Credit: Danny Zelck

After my initial mishap I managed to catch four guys through the race to finish in 36th place in the combined Elite/U23 race despite getting a slow flat which meant another stint of running on the last lap.

 

The second climb again.

Image Credit: Danny Zelck

I was quite disappointed as I felt that I could have ridden at least a top 30 on the day but that’s the way the cookie crumbles I guess.

I will be doing a Merida Flanders Cup XCO race this weekend followed by a mid week kermesse next week and then another Belgacom XCO next weekend.

 

The academic workload over the last week and a half was a bit more than anticipated and I wasn’t fully focussed on the racing as I spent hours at my desk finishing off assignments and submitting them in dodgy internet cafes (however these days are over as we now have internet at our flat 🙂 ).

 

First up was the Malmedy Mountain Cup, another UCI category 1 event. The course has previously been used to host the Belgium National Championships and after squeezing in a practice lap the morning before the race I could understand why… steep climbs took the total ascent of each lap up to 280m in just over 5km and even steeper technical downhill’s to bring us back down.

 

I had picked up a bit of a sore throat after Averbode in addition to allergies from the lovely Belgian spring air (don’t you just love pollen?).

Come race morning it felt like it had mainly cleared up, so I decided to go and race.

Malmedy Mountain Cup

Photo Credit: Ludo van der Put

 

I felt I started fairly well up the first climb on the start lap and was sitting in the top 15 riders. The wheels started falling off after the 1^st full lap and by the 3rd lap I had decided to call it a day. I’m glad I started though as I became more confident and smooth on the downhill’s as I did more laps. The one practice lap on this course was definitely not sufficient and not being 100% on the gas didn’t help either.

 

I put that behind me and hit a fun filled week of assignments!

 

Next up on the programme was the Ardennes Trophy Marathon in La Reid. Another race in the southern region of the country, which meant some more climbing. And climbing there was, 2400m of ascent in the 90km race. No passes or anything, I think the longest climb may have been four kilometres long, but most of the climbing was done between 15-20% gradient on quite rough track.

 

I played my best “the lady at registration said it would be fine for me to start in the front group” card to try and get near the front for the start. Although some of the French speaking marshals’ didn’t understand I was eventually allowed through to start at the back of this group.

 

Luckily, I thought, the first couple of kilometres were on tar roads… Not so lucky when they are narrow country lanes. A bit of pushing and cutting through and I managed to make contact with the front split not too long into the race. This was short lived as I fell victim to the ever increasing speed.

 

I tried to settle into a group but it just wasn’t happening. I fell down into the 30’s after the first hour of the race. With fresh bottles from Gerry I felt a bit more revived and set out with a fresh mindset. I rode back up into the high twenties again. After a few mid pack duels with a few guys along the way it just wasn’t my day. A puncture 10km from the finish confirmed this and was made worse when I couldn’t find my tyre levers.

 

Anyway I eventually got to the finish and if nothing else it was a solid day training. Up front Kevin took a very convincing win and won himself a 1.5l bottle of beer!

 

Next up for me will the another Belgacom XCO race taking place in a town called Boom this weekend. It looks like I will have my road bike next week which will mean I will be doing some Kermesse races too.

 

I have uploaded some photos from living and racing in Belgium. Click on the link which will take you to my Facebook account if you would like to have a look.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150666323835437.695494.722060436

Belgium is the Mecca for all racing cyclists around the world. The country eats, breaths and lives cycling.

 

So Christiaan and I choosing it as our first foray into European racing seemed like the most natural choice although one may say we are jumping straight into the deep end.

 

We left South Africa last Saturday and just over 24 hours of travel arrived at our flat in Leuven, which will be home for the next two months. Leuven is a university town, much like Stellenbosch is, and is about thirty kilometres east of the country’s capital, Brussels, and is what I would imagine, a typical European town with many cobbled roads, old buildings and a large church in the centre of town.

 

The Oude Markt in the centre of Leuven.

There are about 50 bars in this big square.

 

The riding here is a really amazing, with many roads leading away from the town in every direction and we have only explored a fraction thus far! There are also cycle lanes on 90% of the roads and when on the actual road cars wait and only pass when it’s safe to do so, very unlike South Africa… I haven’t had much of a chance to explore the trails yet but I am sure they will not disappoint.

 

We have enjoyed in a few Belgian specialities namely frieten and beer (all in moderation of course as we are here to race). I have enjoyed the Maes beer the most so far and the frieten (French fries/slap chips) are great and can be found in many frieten cafes around the town with a choice of sauces. Mayonnaise is the most popular choice. I have recently been informed that as Leuven is the home of the Stella Artois brewery that is now my favourite beer…

 

The frieten are unlike those back home, are always very hot and crispy and quite superior different to ‘slap’ chips. I also had quite a cool ice cream the other day after practicing the XC course, and haven’t ever seen anything like it. Each side had two thin pieces of wafer biscuit, using the outer pieces as a scoop to eat the ice cream in the middle and when that’s done squeeze it together and eat the rest like a sandwich! Enough about the food.

 

Ice Cream!

My first race was the second round of the Belgacom XCO Series in Averbode. This series is pretty much the Belgium national series and the event was a UCI category one race.

 

 

The Belgium National Champ, Kevin van Hoovels, had been kind enough to pick me up in Leuven and give me a lift to the race. I was also able to chill with his team, Versluys Evenza, before the race in their very professional setup! The course was just over five kilometres long, which we would do eight laps, but pan flat with only thirty metres of ascent per lap.

 

The Versluys Evenza Team setup at the races.

 

The race started at 4pm on Thursday afternoon (my latest start ever but apparently it was a national holiday) with about 70 guys lining up. The scales were tipping at 30 degrees, not what you would expect when racing in Europe but it is going into summer here, the vibe was very different to the South African races I have done as almost two thousand spectators lined the course.

 

All started well until we hit the beach sand sections which had changed significantly from the previous day’s practice.  A lot of cyclo cross guys raced on the day and for them riding in the sand is second nature. I managed to get a hang of it by about the 5^th lap in the race but this was a bit late.

 

Struggling along in the sand.

Photo Credit: Regiopunt

 

I think I must have lost at least 10 positions on the first lap in the sand. I would be able to ride back to the guys in the forest section and pass them only to have them pass me again in the sand. This yo-yo battle went on for most of the race, against who I’m not sure as I don’t know many guys’ names.

 

Coming through the start finish on each lap was cool as the commentator would say in Flemish “here comes Christopher Wolhoooterrrrr the South African” and really roll the “r”.

 

I finished in 42^nd place in the elite and u23 combined race and somewhere in the top 30 elites. Not an amazing result but it’s something to start with and I feel I can definitely improve on that (especially on a course with less sand J ).

 

My next race will be on Sunday at the Malmedy Mountain Cup, another UCI category 1 race.

 

Apologies for the lack of blogging of late but we have had a couple of issues sorting out internet on our lap tops which is now all resolved.

 

This last weekend it was back to the other side of the mountain, Worcester that is, through the Du Toits Kloof tunnel… An engineering marvel – as my Dad would say. This time it would be for the Afrimat Keeromberg Mountain bike race.

The opening kilometres of the race saw us traverse the walls of a number of dams. These were quite rocky and not much different to riding the cobbles on a road bike. Petrus Malherbe and myself took turns at pushing the pace to try whittle the group down. We were soon four riders off the front including Robert Sim and Reniel Matthysen.

I was quite disappointed by how the latter two decided to race on the day. Helping with the pace making was not high on their list of things to do for the day. Petrus and I took turns in attacking in an attempt to dislodge them but this was to no avail.

Unfortunately for me I started losing air from my rear wheel some 35km into the race. Over the top of one of the short steep climbs Sim put in a bit of a move and was awarded with a 5 minute gap. I couldn’t chase him on the rocky downhill with my soft tyre successfully and the gap opened a bit more thus I was faced with the decision whether to ride it conservatively and hope to make it to the finish or stop and bomb it and surely loose the group.

I decided to ride it. Approaching the main climb of the day, only 500m long at that, I tried to close the gap on my own. The climb although only 500m long is exceptionally steep and has to be walked up, which took close on 10minutes.

I rode conservatively to the finish in 2nd place pushing it where I could and backing off on the down hills and corners. This is how I finished with Matthysen in 3rd and Petrus in 4th.

A post on Belgium coming soon!

Hi All

I am selling my GT Series one road bike.

The frame is brand new, I received it last week from Omnico. It is size medium.

Components:

Durac Ace Crank Set
Dura Ace Brakes
Dura Ace Front Deraileur

Ultegra Rear Deraileur

105 Shifters/STI’s

Fizik Saddle

FSA Stem
Elite Oversize Handle bar
Ritchey Pro Carbon Seat Post

I have also fitted a brand new BB. The bike has just come from a service where all the cables were replaced, new brake shoes were put in and new tyres will be put on.

I would like to sell the bike with the Rolf Vector Wheels in the second picture for R8250 negotiable but am willing to negotiate to sell the bike with both sets of wheels too.

Please drop me a mail on chriswolhuter[at]live.co.za if you are interested.

Having raced the previous day at the Willow Creek Mountain Bike race the legs were a bit tired, combined with a tough week of training. We decided to ride to the start of the one and a half hour criterium race which was some 30km away. This was a good warm up and I felt I was ready to go again.

The format of the race was to be a criterium race with a handicap where the cat 2 riders would start 5 minutes ahead of us.

A small group set off with the Smith and Associate/O-Bike Maties guys doing most of the work in the first half an hour. I didn’t feel the pace was hard enough though and I didn’t think we would catch the Cat 2 guys if we carried on like that so I decided to attack and see what would come of it. I managed to stay away on my own for a lap but no one was chasing to bridge the gap so I sat up and went back to the bunch.

Image Credit: Marie Cronje

Half a lap later Jan Hendrik Verdoes (Maties) and Raymond Cox (Intellibus) attacked and knowing they were both quite strong I went across to join them. We built up a bit of a lead and slowly chipped away at the gap the cat 2 riders had.

With 3 laps to go, I decided to test the legs and attacked on the climb on the lap dis lodging Jan Hendrik with Raymond coming across to work with me again. We worked together until unexpectedly Christiaan kriek came across to us with two laps to go and attacked straight away. We closed the gap again and worked together.

Image Credit: Marie Cronje

On the last lap I attacked again on the climb and got a gap but Christiaan’s counter was too strong and I couldn’t hold on.

Raymond again caught me and we set to catch Christiaan. We managed to get the gap down to 10-15seconds until we started thinking about the sprint in the last km. I attacked a bit early and Cox came around me on the line and took 2nd place by half a wheel.

Christiaan finished 20seconds behind three cat 2 guys so actually finished 4th, Cox 5th and myself 6th. I was happy with the race and happy how I rode, maybe not the smartest race but aggressive nonetheless which is what I wanted for the days workout.

Winter has arrived in the cape and we felt it on Saturday morning with a chilly start to the Willow Creek/Computer Mania mountain bike classic which was held just outside Worcester. When it’s warmer to stand at the start line rather than warm up, then it’s pretty cold in my books.

A fairly strong field lined up including Christiaan Kriek, Craig Boyes, Stefan Ihlenfeldt and Lieuwa Boonstra all wanting to win a lap top which was up for grabs for the top 3 places.

We set off at a steady pace before a couple of acceleration s whittled the group down to 5 of us including myself and the four mentioned above.

Unfortunately for me my time at the front soon came to an end. Riding up a slight uphill, jeep track into the rising sun we were a bit blinded and when switching across to the other side of the jeep track I failed to notice a ditch which opened up in front of me. This swallowed my front wheel and I came down fairly hard hurting my wrist and knee a bit. I calmly collected my bottles and got going again now in 5th.

I managed to ride back to Stefan who was in 4th eventually until he dropped me on one of the sharp climbs. The terrain was mostly jeep tack surrounded by thick karoo fynbos and rocky roads. Bar a missed turn due to a confusing sign board things went a bit better for me from here in.

I passed Stefan some kilometres later as he had a puncture and gave him my tube and then carried on to finish in a slightly disappointing 4th place. Christiaan took a convincing win with Craig in 2nd and Lieuwa rounding up the podium in 3rd.

I received my 2011 race and social kit a few weeks ago. It has a few small changes from last year which I really like. I’ve done a couple of races in it already which you may have noticed from the pictures on my blog over the last few weeks. Thanks very much to Sean for organising it all.

Race shirt – front

Race shirt – back

 Shorts

Social Shirt

(sorry about the creases mom 🙂 )

Cap