I headed from my Belgian week day base to the south of Holland , near maastrictch . The course is based around the cauberg (the finish for the amstel gold race) and its both really hilly and pretty technical in a European sense. In Britain, technical is usually a way to describe an MTB course, but in Europe the increased width coupled with mud, sand or tricky rutted corners take up much of your headspace when racing.
I went there hoping for another top 30 result. I've ridden that course before so I knew how brutal it was. The conditions yesterday made it even harder. It was slippy with lots of hard uphill sections and a big run up. Bruce Joined me from a bike show where he was exhibiting Kinesis and he came to work helping me and doing live social media updates so people can't see what its like at races.
while he checked over my bikes and set up my wheels I warmed up in the Team GB camp.
We took off down to the start line and thankfully I got a good gridding.
The first lap was tough with everyone fighting for positions and everyone fighting for the racing line. There were lots of crashes but I made it round the first lap in a good position. Once I'd settled in and found myself some space to race properly I started to move through the field. I caught up to a group of 7 riders with a lap to go. That was the difference between 27th and 21st place which to me was huge. I found it difficult to get past riders in the technical sections and made mistakes on the final lap which meant I held my 27th place.
It was a finishing position that I should have been really happy with, but I can't help but think it could have been so much better had i have ridden the final lap differently.
It's on to the next round of the National trophy this weekend at Derby where I defend my yellow jersey and Bruce joins me to race. I'm looking forward to racing the good course at Derby.