Dolmans Heuvelland Classic

I'm pretty tired, so hopefully this post makes a little bit of sense. It was a long, but fun weekend. I'll try to give you an awesome recap, because it was a great race!

Friday morning we went for a short spin to loosen the legs. It was kind of gloomy and cold. No rain though, but it sure felt like it was going to rain.

Devon H. feeding the horse at the top of the hill we rode up.

In the afternoon we headed to Carcassonne to catch our flight to Brussels, Belgium. It was a short, smooth flight. We didn't have any issues. Renis and Pete (friends of Chris), where at the airport to pick us up. They then took us to our host house in Tielt-Winge, Belgium, which just happened to be Vision1's team house. Vision1 is the team Nicole Cooke rides for. How sweet!?!

Lauren and Megan smiling on the flight from Carcassonne, France to Brussels, Belgium.

The house was pretty sweet. Lots of bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a basement for bike storage, a decent sized kitchen, a dining room, and a sitting room. We were all super stoked to be staying in that house. The house was located about 60k from the course, but that wasn't a problem. Of course it was raining and cold when we arrived, but that's Belgium right?

Einat and I mimicking the statue.

Megan (leg), Lauren, and I doing our Skins promo photo. We are sending it to them in hopes of sponsorship :).

Friday evening we spent getting settled in. Saturday morning we woke up, ate, breakfast, and headed towards Limburg, Holland to drive the course. It was another gloomy day in Belgium. Once we arrived in Holland, the sun started to peak out through the clouds. It was still relatively cold though. We weren't able to drive the entire course, but drove enough of it to get our blood pumping. There were quiet a few decent hills, some tricky descents, and some nice cross-wind sections. Believe it or not, Holland isn't flat. I actually think we climbed all the hills in Holland during the race :). To make a long story, short, here's a map and a profile of the course. It was 88km long. We did one big loop until we hit the circuit. The circuit we did 3 times.

This map shows where all the hills are. It also gives the percentages.

A cool windmill in Holland.

Holland.

Megan and Lauren hanging out in Holland.

Saturday night we cooked dinner and did some more lounging around. We also went for a short spin. It was rainy and cold when we got back to Belgium (note above picture it is sunny).

Riding in the rain in Tielt-Winge, Belgium.

Sunday morning we woke up and headed to the race. It was overcast again. The weather really couldn't make up it's mind the entire day. It was spit rain on us at sometimes, and then sun would come out other times. One thing I was happy about was the minimal amount of wind. Anyway, they called us to the corral (yes we started in a corral like thing). There were close to 150 riders at the start line. Lots of big teams were represented (Team DSB Bank, the women's RaboBank team, Team Flexpoint, Leontien.Nl team, and lots of others). We started with 6 riders (+ Megan Guarnier who is currently racing for a French team and Einat Argon who is racing for Chris's team).

We all had pretty good starting positions, for a change. The first 2k was a neutral roll out. It was a crazy experience. Girls were literally riding the bumper of the lead car. Others were riding next to the car and the official kept blowing his whistel at them. At one point, I saw a girl on the sidewalk next to me. Fun stuff. Anyway, the lead car pulled away at the base of the first climb, indicating that it was "game on!" I positioned myself at the front of the pack. Nothing too exciting happened in the first 40k of the race. The first 40k was the "big loop". Some people attacked, but nothing stuck. I tried to cover wheels. There was a sketchy downhill coming up so I went to the very front. I didn't want to risk anything. I bombed the downhill and actually created a gap. Didn't really attack much, but the peloton was sure to close the gap. Funny how things work now that we are wearing our USA kits. The pack whittled down pretty fast once we started to hit the hills. I think there was about 50 riders in the front group. We hit the circuit and things got harder. DSB and Leontien attacked and countered. There were a few times some riders got a decent gap on us.

A shot of the peloton. That's me at the front. Not sure what I'm doing. (Photo by cyclingfx)

On the 2nd lap of the circuit, two girls had a 30second plus lead on the main field. Their teams were doing an awesome job of controlling the race. I was very impressed. Anyway, I saw that it could be dangerous so I went to the front and helped rotate with Team Flexpoint and Megan G. Even though Megan wasn't wearing a USA kit, we were working together. It was fun! At one point, I was dead tired. She told me to grab her wheel and she would lead me to the top of the downhill. So I did. Then I bombed the downhill with her on my wheel. We made up quiet a bit of time and whittled down the gap to 10seconds. The two riders were caught at the top of the hill.

Climbing up one of the 14 hills. (Photo by cyclingfx)

The major climb in this race was the Cauberg. It had an average grade of 10% and lasted 500meters. It hurt bad and was completely mental. There was a huge crowd lining the climb, so that added motivation. Anyway, once the two girls were caught, people tried to counter. Nothing stuck until about 1/4 way through the last lap. Leontien, Flexpoint, and DSB all had people in the break. This was a dangerous break. I wish I would have been closer to the front to go with it, but I was stuck in the peloton and couldn't bridge up. I made a sorry attempt at one point, but my legs were toast.

Here's a picture of my attempt :) (Photo by cyclingfx)

Megan G. and I tried to take some hard rotations and attack each other to get things going, but nothing worked. The 3 riders slowly pulled away from us and some how put close to 50 seconds on us by the end of the race. With 2k to go, I went to the front and started drilling it. Megan was on my wheel. I tried to close gaps of girls who had gotten away on the hill. We caught a few of them, but not the main 3. Coming into the last 1k, Megan was still on my wheel so I tried to give her a leadout. We didn't drive the finish (bad idea on our part), and had no clue what was ahead of us or where the finish was in that matter. Megan hit the final right hand corner way too fast and way over geared. It was a tight corner that we had no idea about. She came into the corner first and definitely would have won the field sprint. Oh well, lessons learned. Not a good idea to come into a finish completley blind like we all did. Anyway, I pulled off a 22nd place. I was pleased with my result. I felt like I did a lot of work in the race and am feeling really comfortable with the peloton. I learned a lot during the race and pushed myself to extreme limits. That's what we are here to do to - learn.

Here I am, deep inside the pain cave on one of the climbs :). (Photo by cyclingfx)

We were pretty lucky with the weather for this race. The skies never opened up and poured on us, thankfully. There was a small section where the roads were soaked, but I don't think it ever actually rained on us. There was mud on the roads and on the shoulders, so we got pretty dirty. My mountain biking skills definitely came to use during the race a few times. The roads are narrow in Holland and I had to use some technical skills a few times to keep myself on the road. It was a fun course and a fun race. Here's a link to a recap online, along with some pictures.

The crew hanging out in the van post-race.

Sunday night we went out to dinner in Belgium. It was a good restaurant and I tried some true Belgium beer - Leffe Blond. It was mighty tasty. There were some really cool buildings in the town.




Awesome buildings in Belgium.

The best beer I've ever tasted.

Our flight left Monday afternoon. We arrived back in Carcassonne around 5pm. Now we are chilling in Limoux. This week is sort of a rest week. We are doing a stage race this weekend. It's called the Tour of Burgundy. There's a 106k road race on Saturday. Then Sunday we get to do a 22k team time trial and a 72k criterium. I'll try to post some more updates this week. Thanks for stopping in!
-A