Hey, thanks for taking the time to read this. Just a few words beforehand.
It's been a while since I attempted a solo-story. Of course, Mresuperstar and I have been writing The Two of Us, but that's something else entirely. I've also been busy organising and writing for Cyclo-Cross: A New Dawn. However great those things are - and believe me, neither of them are going anywhere any time soon - I still wanted to try writing a traditional one-rider story again. Life gets busier, especially when graduation nears and life picks up on a few things. So the big unknown is ahead of me. I have no idea how that will reflect on this story, all I can say is I want to try to make this work. Any pace possible. Most stories die out before their time. But there are exceptions. Whether this is one, I do not know. We never know, we can only try.
I've had some fun stories with Van Gent or other one/two-rider stories, but I want to try something else here. I used to be a decent cyclist/climber when I was younger and I often wonder: what could've been. This story is a fantasy scenario of what my life could've been had I chosen the bike and nothing but the bike. Some parts will be autobiographic, others fantasy. This is not a story of a future Tour de France winner, or a big star in cycling. Rather of a not-so-bad rider, trying to come up in the hard world of cycling. Based on my strengths and weaknesses (but, of course, higher than my real life current shape ) and also limits.
Not to spoil too much, but for example I've already set the stat limits and, believe me, there is not a stat in the 80. The main stat doesn't even quite reach that high a number. I'll also slow down progression because Be a Pro goes too fast. So there'll be some editing, just trying to reconstruct what could've been.
One last thing, on the title. Just to make absolute clear: it's meant to be ironic. Things like 'The One' I find ridiculous and that's why I picked this title. Cycling is a hard world and you have to work so hard, sacrifice so much. It's a long, tough road to the top and 99,9% don't even get there. So that's why I tried to go with irony of "The Chosen One". You don't get chosen, you take a choice and spend a decade doing everything you can and most of the time, you have to settle for less than you thought.
This title is actually reverse: it's about my life had I chosen cycling. The chosen road, the chosen one
Also, it's a bit of a joke considering my reputation of story-writing. I've always been writing stories about stars, breaking records, being the absolute best. And now I pick this title and it's not at all so.
Thanks for reading and perhaps following. Hope I can keep you entertained. Enjoy my fake autobiography!
Hello,
My name's Jonas Van Maldeghem and I'm 21 years old. The 2015 cycling season is about to start and I'm proud to present that I'll be a part of the new peloton. It's been a struggle but I've finally managed to land a contract with a Continental Team. This year, I'll be finishing my studies while also riding my first cycling season with a Continental Team.
I'll be using this blogspace to keep track of my professional career. The life of a cyclist. It's always been fascinating to me, and now I'll be able to live it. Mind you, it's a hard life, or so I've been warned. But I think I'm ready for it.
Ancient History
Now how did I get here? Without boring you with the details, let's say I've grown up in a family where a racing bike - or any bike by that matter - is almost holy. My father raced his bike to work every day, going over 80 km a day. During the weekends, he'd really get going, with rides over 150 km. As soon as me and my brother were old enough, we went on cycling trips. First with our city bikes, later with race bikes.
Mariakerke, suburbs of Ghent.
When I was 12 years old, we were on holiday in Southern France, as usual, when suddenly, my dad put me on an old bike, a model of the late 60s, with the gearing at your knees. "This is Alpe d'Huez", he said. It was my first mountain and I rode it to the top without stopping, on that old bike. I did it in an hour and 10 minutes. Of course, I'd break that time easily years later, but it was the start of a passion.
I always looked forward to the holidays, as we always went to the Alpes or the Pyrenees for two-three weeks. Every year again, I'd ride more and more climbs. I did the Tourmalet, Col d'Allos, Mont Ventoux, Pra Loup, Pla d'Adet and many more. When back in Belgium, we used to go to the Flemish Ardennes to test the legs on the smaller climbs. This was great, but the big mountains always interested me more. Still, the passion only grew. And then it was time to take it to the next level.
Alpe d'Huez, my first climb.
I joined a club and started racing. This was not easy, let me tell you. You don't find a mountain in Belgium, and my flat riding is nothing out of the ordinary, so I flew under the radar a long time. Righteously so in these Kermiskoersen, but I knew I had talent elsewhere.
After doing a few races in the Ardennes, though, things were looking up. To make a long story short: It got me where I am today. A signed contract with a Continental Team. And I hope that's just the beginning.
Strengths & Weaknesses
When you're young, it's not easy to know what specialty you have. Except that it's clear as ice water for me. I'm a climber. No question about it. Don't know if I'll make a good climber, don't know if I'll make a decent climber. But I can become a better climber, and that's what I'm trying to achieve.
Strengths - So let's start off with what I can do best. I don't weigh much, I'm very thin and I love the mountains. My weight also makes me great at accelerating. Up a mountain but also coming out of a corner. I've been at it a long time so I'm rather technical, too. Riding in the Flemish Ardennes so long pays off when you have to go through corners or go downhill a mountain. These are things I can do well.
Weaknesses - But that don't make me no Alberto Contador, let me tell you that. I've got a lot to work on. Riding on the flat is not that well, since I don't have that absolute power wattage. I never spend any time on a time-trial bike, either. I've been on several longer trips but over 175-200 km and my engine says "pffrrt". I've got to work on my stamina but I don't have a lot of body so I've got to eat and drink like crazy to avoid crashing and burning during a ride. It's not easy for me.
Unknown - I've been riding those short hills in the Ardennes a long time. I can race up them quite good, but how will it hold up against real professionals? Maybe the Ardennes hills suit me better, but even so, I get better when a climb is over 5 km long, a real mountain. Cobbles is another thing, I enjoy them so much, I really do, despite not weighing too much. But despite enjoying them and going over them quite smoothly, I've noticed others going way faster in a race.
There's much to discover, and much work to be done.
So I'll best get to it!
Next time, I'll tell all about this time I signed with. And I'll probably have a better look at my season calendar, too. Very excited about it. But got to hit the books, now. Still got university besides this life of ..."glamour".
See you around,
Jonas
Edited by Ian Butler on 14-01-2016 10:53
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Daily Song Contest WINNER! With Foals - Mountain at my Gates with Greece! 1 like 1 girlfriend ''I call you the stage god. You are the stage god.'' -baseballover312, 15.07.2016
With the Christmas holidays coming up, I've got some busy days ahead of me. First of all, I just had the first training camp with the guys. I'm not really a social type so it was a bit strange in the beginning. I can say some nonchalant things and if you don't know me, it might be perceived as rude. But there were no big incidents and everything's been cleared out so we're ready to go.
But I've also got exams coming up in January. The school has been so kind to give me a special schedule so I can combine my exams with racing perfectly. Yes, the team wants me out there in January already. More on that later in this post.
The third thing is, obviously, Christmas itself. It's a strange time in my life. For now, though, I'll be staying at home, with the parents. At least until I graduate, later this year. So for now, the holidays will need to be pushed to the bakground so I can concentrate on this wonderful thing called: cycling!
Team 3M
As for the upcoming year, I'll be defending the colors of Team 3M. It's a Belgian team, but with a nice calendar going abroad enough to see some mountains. They want to launch young riders a bit like Topsport Vlaanderen does. I didn't make it into Topsport Vlaanderen, but they told Team 3M about me and managed to get me a contract here, and they said they'll be keeping an eye out for me. So if I do well, perhaps I can jump on the Topsport Vlaanderen project when I get my career going. There are worse places to end up!
But for now, it's Team 3M, and I don't regret it for a second! The management is really good with young riders and they'll give me every chance to grow here. I almost ended up with an Italian Continental Team and - while it would've been exciting - I'm happy I can keep living at home for now.
I hope I can make some new friends in this team, I think I can. I overheard one guy talking about Pro Cycling Manager, a game I used to play myself, so maybe we'll get along fine. Anyway, I'll have to see how it goes, can't force anything here.
All I know is the workload will be tremendous. This training camp might've started out casually, but it quickly turned into a brutal exercise over Flemish roads. I got in trouble once and was left behind, I felt a bit ashamed. But in the end, we're all young guys and it happened to several riders at one point or another. We're all here to learn.
So it'll take some getting used to, but this is my new family for the upcoming year. I hope we can learn from each other and grow as a team. We don't just want to be along for the ride, no. We want to put Team 3M on the map with some good results.
Schedules
And that brings us to race schedules. Of course, much will still change, so the management doesn't like to give us a detailed overview of what specific races, rather a general trend we'll follow. For me, it's the following.
In January, I'll be going down to Spain. I'll try to get some studying done there, as well as some training. There is this new three-day competition there, too. Three rounds spread over three races, and the team signed me up for it, while I'm there anyway. So I'll be getting my first racing there, without any pressure. After that I'm returning home to do my exams.
In March, most likely, I'll start racing again. Probably with a .2 race in the Netherlands, followed by Grand Prix of Sochi in Russia, a stage race. After that, I'll get into the 2.2U23 scene with Le Triptyque des Monts et Chateaux. I'll definitely race Liège - Bastogne - Liège U23, too, which is one of my season goals for sure!
I'll mostly ride .2 and 2.2U23/1.2U23 races, including Circuit de Wallonie and, another of my season goals, the mountainous race called Tour de Pays de Savoie (which Louis Vervaecke won last year!). All short stages, mostly uphill, perfect for me at the moment. That's where I want to see how I can do against my contemporaries in the mountains.
I'll end my season with some .1 races, including Druivenkoers and GP de Wallonie, which will have a better start field than the U23 or .2 races. Paris - Tours Espoirs is probably my final race of the season. I'm not sure to start there yet but Paris - Tours is one of my favorite races so I really want to compete in the U23 event, if I can.
Well, I'll see you in the new year. I'll try to get back to you from Spain and tell you how the 3-round Trophy went. Don't expect me to pop up in the headlines, but know I'll be in that peloton somewhere, probably hurting like crazy and worrying about my math exam or something. It's all a part of life, I guess.
I'm back in Belgium. My trip to Spain has been rather successful; found plenty of time to crack the books and got some good training done. I feel I made a huge step forward already. But that's not why I'm making this blog.
It's not UCI-official so it doesn't count for the European Continental Rankings or it isn't a real official race but I got my first races for Team 3M over with. A nice initiative called the San Sebastian Trophy, three rounds of races.
San Sebastian Trophy
The first race was rather hilly. Of course, this being my first race with a peloton of all ages and top riders like Bjorn Leukemans here, I was just here to fill the pack, but mostly to enjoy my first real racing experiences.
The first race was extremely tough on me. I didn't know people could ride that hard. I was dead before the actual climbing started, and I finished 10 minutes down on the race winner. Little time to enjoy, but a valuable lesson learned. You don't enjoy a cycling race unless you're the fastest. Everyone else is just trying to keep up.
The second race was quite flat-ish and I did better. The race only got going for real in the last 20 km, leading up to the sprint. However a late attacker won the race and I finished the race inside the pack. Growth!
But then came the third race. Another hilly affair, even more so than the first race. It was raining cats and dogs at the start. Luckily the race was only about 130 km, a perfect length for a rider of my age. Not too long.
Two guys went up the road. And, then, on the second climb of three, I felt the pace wasn't extremely high and there was room to improve on that. So I went to the front and attacked!
It was a good feeling.
Unfortunately, the finish was still 57 km away and the peloton had no problem picking me up only 5 km later. I never even saw the head of the race but at least I made an impact of some sort on the race, right?
I finished the race in 35th position, which is actually pretty nice, seeing how I wasted a lot of energy with that attack. I'm quite happy with my achievement in this round.
So there I was, feeling pretty good about myself that I pulled off that attack. Some guy, though, came up to me. He asked me about the attack and said: "That's just not how things work." I was taken aback by this for a second. But the guy didn't mean it so bad and he explained how these types of attacks never go anywhere and aren't necessary. It just makes the race harder for everyone and nobody needs them.
I can see his point, some way. I never came too close to the leaders, this race isn't aired anywhere, I won't get a mention in the newspaper. There are unwritten laws in the peloton. Just because I don't agree with them, doesn't mean I can just break them. Because you don't want the peloton against you.
Don't get me wrong, though, the guy was friendly and eager to teach me. Lesson learned. There's more to professional cycling than riding a bike.
And so here I am, back in Belgium. Back at home. It's been a great trip and I got my nose in the wind in the Team 3M kit, which was great. My next race is 8 weeks from now, so I'll have to concentrate on my exams first. I'll see you later.
Unfortunately, the finish was still 57 km away and the peloton had no problem picking me up only 5 km later. I never even saw the head of the race but at least I made an impact of some sort on the race, right?
At least that's how I race irl.
A good start to his/your career though and 3M should be a good team choice.
Wow, I'm stunned. Awesome to see another story, hopefully this story will be the chosen one to last this year, huh ? An up and down start to life in the pack for, erm, you
And of course I can second what trek said, my tactics every time
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
So, it's been a while. First of all, the exams went fairly well. No formidable grades but I pass all classes and so I can graduate in June if all goes well. Let's hope I succeed.
I've got my first official racing done. I started in the Netherlands.
Rabobank Dorpenomloop Rucphen
Preview: A flat-ish circuit in the Netherlands. Though it's tougher than it looks, with a minor ascent on the road. It's up and down all day long, and it's close to 200 km, I'll have to see what I can do.
So I started the race without any big ambitions. Hoping I could do some work for the team. The final 25 km were really hard, we were already at 175 km and the pace only went up.
The peloton split up and I got the wrong side of the split. But overall I managed to finish 21st, so all in all it was a good day for me. Close to 200 km and I survived.
So that was it in the Netherlands. It was worth the trip, I think. Gained some more experience and I was getting ready for my first stage race ever.
Grand Prix of Sochi
Preview: My first stage race. The team gave me a free role for this race, no pressure at all. Just do my thing and get through the four days comfortably.
It's quite cold in Russia in March, I tell you that. The first day was quite brutal, with the weather. I finished in the pack comfortably, though.
The time trial was something else. We didn't bring time trial bikes because of the costs, but not a lot of teams did. I spent the entire race fighting against the wind. I finished completely last. I knew this wouldn't be my forte, but it still hurt a bit, finishing dead last.
And so I went into stage 3 with a sense of retribution. I wanted to show the team, most of all, that I have other qualities.
It was a hectic start but four of us managed to get away from the peloton. I was in the break of the day, surely that was a positive thing.
Unfortunately, though, my legs quickly turned to sh*t, pardon my French. I really wasn't feeling very good and by the time we reached the mountain sprints, I couldn't eve accelerate. A lost opportunity.
Still we stayed together and another rider even joined us, another Belgian. By the time we hit the bigger climbs, though, the breakaway group split up completely. I couldn't quite hang on to the better punchers.
I didn't feel like just waiting around for the peloton and so, with a good descent, I managed to rejoin the front group for a while again. But now the peloton was coming, relentlessly.
And so that was the end to a long day. Too bad I had an off-day, otherwise I might've done something more with the mountain sprints. I had to settle for a third spot in the KoM classification, without any real chance of threatening the leader. In the last day, it turned into a shared 3rd spot.
And so my time in Russia came to an end. I'm already looking forward to finally racing in Belgium, though. In just a few day, I'm starting my first 2.2U23 race here in Belgium. I think I can do better there, since I'll be racing my contemporaries, shorter stages and in my home country.
Still, the upcoming race is all about flat riding, so that's not really my style. But I'll try to make most of it. As I always do.
And so I'm slowly getting used to the rhythm of a professional cyclist. I'm not really impressing a lot, right now, but I'm on the right track. Being in a professional team has really opened my eyes. I think I'm only getting started, now. I've been riding my bike a long time, but I never had professional guidance on my training. I turned 22 a few weeks ago, so there's definitely room for improvement.
Trainer says I might be a late-bloomer anyway. I guess that's good news. I'm really excited what the U23 races will bring later this season. Let's hope I can make a good impression, because those races are usually packed with scouts from ProContinental and even World Tour teams.
For now, though, I'm training my ass off. Hard work, this racket.
first steps in professional cycling look already promising, I can´t wait for the great struggle for polka-dot jerseys, breakaways and uphill finish results in the debut season...Let´s go Jonas
Cheers guys! It's something different for me, riding with a normal human being in this game and not a world talent
It's a lot of fun, though. Especially with still some U23 races on the calendar, where I hope to at least fight for a podium this season!