So it has been a busy few weeks with a couple of u23 Nations cups with the national team and a 3 day tour in Spain with my Belgian team Rock Werchter. First up was the Cote de Picardie in the North west corner of France. It was an awesome race with cross winds and rain which made for a dirty and cold day out. It was going good and I was hanging near the front making the splits and staying out of trouble then when we hit the finishing circuit I ran out of legs which was race over. The next Nations cup was the ZLM tour in Holland. It was a one day 190km race which was once again windy and this time completely flat. I got the late call up the night before so I wasn't really prepared as well as I could've been but learnt a hard lesson in bunch positioning as I got tailed off in the cross wind when someone dropped the wheel and had to fight hard to rejoin the bunch only 100km's in. Then again with 30km to go, tough day out! All great experiences and I learnt a lot more about bike racing coming up against some of the best u23's in the world. Was a good motivation booster..
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| Hotel in Benicassim Spain |
Next up I was off to Spain With My Belgian team Rock Werchter. The 17hr drive to Spain from Belgium was ample character building time and I managed to remain sane for the whole journey which was lucky.. Couldn't wait for the return journey just 5 days later! As Heney would say-''Mental strength''
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| Spanish Coast |
We stayed In Benicassim on the same street as we were based for the team training camp back in February. This time however the weather was 25 degrees! Which was a very nice changed from the same old overcast Belgium. The Volta Castello was a 3 day tour with stages between 130-150km with lots of hills. It was handy that we rode the majority of the roads during the training camp so we all knew what to expect. My team mate Yannick got into the early move on the first stage and managed to get the leading u23 jersey. With the rest of the guys some minutes down we focussed on protecting Yannick for the u23 leader. We worked really well as a team and managed to secure it for him. It wasn't the ideal tour for me with all the cat 1 climbs and super fast Spanish climbers in the mix which made it very hard to hold on going up these hills!
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| nice views over Benicassim |
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| Pre-Volta Castellon spin |
It was a good few days away with some hard racing and good weather. Finally feeling comfortable on the bike and my legs came out better then when the tour began so I'm happy and now motivated to finally get things going. Just returned from Pepinster where I had 3 days in the hills and got some good miles in.. took a few pics..
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| The highest point in belgium, 694m |
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| Cote de Stockeu/Stele Eddy Merckx |
Next up is a Top Competition UCI 1.2 race on Tuesday. Looking forward to it!
Fraser
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