@Yves, Vali: Thanks guys. Yeah, he's on a run of consistent results. Not much left and he'll win one now (hopefully).
Superprestige Gavere
The Big Four in Gavere
If you exclude Stybar, arguably the four best current CX riders fought it out and Lars Van der Haar won the race in the sprint ahead of Pauwels and Albert. Nys finished 4th and is starting to lose ground on his rivals in the Superprestige classement.
I wanted to put in some attacks today but Gavere wasn’t too kind on me. Earlier on, Walsleben had a mechanical and when he came back, he went full-throttle passed us. That surprised me a fair bit, and he took guys like Van Aert and Van Amerongen with him. I thought there wasn’t too much going yet and that I could easily increase the pace myself and decided to follow. After Sven Nys showing in recent days, many of the favourites preferred to hang onto Nys’ wheel and play the same game basically again. I wanted to mix it up.
I tried my attack a second time when I noticed that my group has lost its rhythm. Walsleben, still a bit at a disadvantage due to the mechanical, couldn’t follow. Neither did Van Aert and Van Amerongen. I got away from them and from there on out it was me against the peloton. Once again. The usual stuff by now. Thankfully I had a fantastic crowd alongside me, but my solo-run didn’t last eventually. I tried for the longest time and I was up there and I was believing in it, but… when you get caught, it’s all over.
When you get caught, that energy that filled your move just quickly leaves you. It leaves you stranded there. Suddenly you feel how heavy your legs become. You imagine the pain and you don’t want to ride anymore. I could say I bonked. In fact, I bonked mentally. At that point, in that last lap, I didn’t care anymore. I somehow rode the race to the finish of course, I continued and I rescued myself over the finish line with an 8th place. Afterwards I was so damn hungry, and my head was so empty.
If I would look at this objectively, I'd say Raphael should stick to the road. He seems to have more talent there (well so far)
But I have a feeling he'll grow a lot and combine the two perfectly, so keep it like this
The race of the crazy crowds in Kokijsde was early on dominated by the youngster such as Van der Poel and Van Aert. I joined in too for a while. Their attacks caused for some cheering there, but as the laps got more, quality set itself apart from the youth and a group of Meeusen, Albert, Nys and Van der Haar contest the finale sprint. It was won by Albert. I finished 5th, 22 seconds down.
There’s one medicine against a failed attack: You attack again. Maybe not the next day, but you’ll try again. And I did today, but I played it smarter I think. When Van der Poel and Van Aert were so eager to impress, I thought following them but I decided against it. I didn’t want to spend too much energy on that run. Instead, I kept my eye on guys like Nys and Albert, whenever they were in my sight. That allowed me to react quickly when they were suddenly coming up front, and I had a great momentum following them.
At one of the remainings laps, I made a push for it and thought that this was the best chance. I am at a disadvantage in the sprint, and I thought I needed to cover some ground before, they’ d go into the finale laps. It worked out in that regard that the fans cheered at the side-lines. It worked because I held a lead onto Nys and the others, and it worked as I hit the finale. However, they drew closer and I was caught. I was able to stay in the group without too much hassle, although I missed them in the finale turns of the finale. Their acceleration was just that tiny bit too much.
I feel good though, and I think my plan nearly worked today. It was my best performance so far in this season. I have been closer to the win in the past. But I feel like that I can predict the result by now.
Okay, so i've decided to start following stories again (well, besides Ian's and Karl Hammarling), so this is obviously the best place to start.
Nice 5th for Raphi there, not much missing to the best of the best anymore.
And to catch up here, what did i miss? He won two stages at the Eneco Tour and also Dwars Door Vlaanderen, is that all or did i forget something? Did something important happen off the bike?
Dippofix wrote:
Okay, so i've decided to start following stories again (well, besides Ian's and Karl Hammarling), so this is obviously the best place to start.
Nice 5th for Raphi there, not much missing to the best of the best anymore.
And to catch up here, what did i miss? He won two stages at the Eneco Tour and also Dwars Door Vlaanderen, is that all or did i forget something? Did something important happen off the bike?
Gieten used to be a CX parcours I appreciated for its toughness, difficult surface and eventufl racing. I have come in here 18th in 2012 but I knew that I could have done better. I didn’t participate here last year though. It was a race of Superprestige Classement and it was one of many I had tried to score points in, where I tried to grab a good enough result to justify my CX career. Today the bike-carrying felt lighter, the mud was less remorseless, my virtues shined brighly. Superprestige Gieten will remain as a race amongst many races in the calendar of Cylo-Cross, however one thing has changed: I shall cherish it as the venue of my first win in Cyclo-Cross!
With Stybar here, there was some tough competition on the short cobblestone passages. I knew that I had to take initiative this time around if I was to have a chance. With the motivation of great results as of late, I started this race. I avoided the splits on the pave, where the high pace by the best riders was difficult to hold onto from early on.
Things started to get messy when the rain came down. I think two, three guys surely crashed along the way, but none of the big ones. But I knew today I was riding for victory and when they had a bit of gap onto me, I left Nys and Albert behind with a careful acceleration. There were some other guys with me, but eventually I had to drop them too. I nearly would have crushed into the fences in a particularly dangerous turn but thankfully, not only luck was on my side.
At every turn you see them, so best just don't look around
So I kept racing there. Passing the laps, I didn’t think not much at all. Maybe that it’d be better if the sun was shining for once. I spared a few seconds for my dad each time I changed my bike, which I had to do three times in five laps. Precaution you know. But most of my concentration went into my legs, and my looking out. Because I got nervous with each lap I passed. I saw them coming for me, they were hunting there. Stybar looked so damn strong. I thought of Dwars door Vlaanderen for a second, where he and I contested in the finale and I won.
Each time I turned my head, I thought they were nearing me. But then I slowly managed to keep them at distance. Maybe they decide to wait, maybe they overdone it themselves. I was riding good, but I wasn’t riding away. Only when I passed the last lap and heard the bell of the finish, I realised that this could very well be mine and finally be the right day.
There was the feeling of a victory lap in the last few turns I took when people cheered for me in the unforgiving rain. I was empty and I couldn't go any faster, so at least I could enjoy it and it was one of the best glory rides you can imagine. It was wet, muddy and it was all fine. For the first time today, I think I actually heard all those people at the fences, all those fans cheering. I heard what they said. They called me things, from an Italian prick to a genius beauty– there will be always be people who love and hate you. Right now, I loved nothing more than this race.
It was hard to keep the race held up after such a solo-run for roughly the half of the race, but of course nothing would take away this joy of raising my arm. I was there thinking of mom and dad and that they were finally here again, those deeply treasured goosebumps in the rain.
Impressions
Spoiler
My first attack to drop the others.
Some laps under those flandriennes laps still ahead of me.
This is where I wanted to cheer later on.
They were always so close. They never granted me a meter too much.
Conescutive attacks bring the groups closer to me but they also power themselves out. I am just carrying my bike.
Me in the back, still a bit upfront and all those guys following me.
World Cup Roubaix Nys triumphs in the Velodrome of Roubaix
A four man group, of which Philipp Walsleben was for a long time upfront, contested in the sprint of the Velodrome and surprisingly, Sven Nys won it. The tough race in Roubaix must have cost everybody so much energy it all ended in an rather awkward finish, but no one can deny that Nys didn’t deserve this one after being a active motor throughout the race.
The shifting weather conditions made racing a bit hard at times since you could never really get used to one thing for too long. Crelan and Sunweb wanted to make from the get-go sure that they had to win here today. I myself was keeping my cool after my recent win in Gieten, however I noticed how more people kept an eye on me or wanted to block me out of the trail. Pauwels and Nys were upfront and Mourey demanded some action from me but I just smiled and refused cooperation this time around. My face was god damn muddy and I want to be clever for once. I was riding alongside young French Alaphilippe most of the time.
With a crash Mourey and Pauwels got kicked out of contention in the last laps. Walsleben and Nys remained upfront though and I then tried to make the best of the situation by attacking and Stybar followed me. I was there working for the longest time in the second last lap with Stybar but eventually he dropped me. I noticed Albert attacking too earlier but I didn’t really register it because he was gone so fast. I hit the Velodrome on my own and could observe the sprint, which was won by Nys. A good race and a solid 5th place give me hopes for another win soon.
