Day 18 - Aalst Kermesse

Written by Stephen Hall with Brett Schnitzerling & Glenn Harris

Once again the blinds were thrown open early so we could get out for a short ride before the afternoon's kermesse in Aalst. Brett had finally recovered from his crash in Montenaken but awoke yesterday morning with a horrible cough and blocked nose. He decided to stay in bed to rest while Glenn and I went out for an hour. Since we arrived here in Belgium we have been staying in an apartment owned by a friend of Glenn's Tim Dejonghe. Tim is the mechanic for the Rabobank ProTeam and has been away for the Tour of Spain. The tour concluded a few days ago so Tim was expected home within the next few days. We gave the apartment a good clean to ensure the place didn't look like a bomb hit it when he returned. Time got away from us and before we knew it, it was 12 o clock. We had planned to leave by 12.30 as Aalst is 70-80km drive. I ran over to the shops and collected a few things to have for lunch while Brett packed my bike into the car. Brett decided it was probably better for him not to race today while Glenn was still feeling the effects of his cramping yesterday and opted to save himself for a solid performance on Tuesday in Nieuwerkerken.

There was plenty of room in the car with only one bike so I lay across the back seat and went into my pre race ritual; napping. Glenn woke me by tickling my feet to inform me we'd arrived in Aalst. I made my way over to registration and was given the prestigious #1 number for being an international rider. Today's race was set for 16 laps of a 7.3km circuit. There was a decent field and I rolled up and down the finish for awhile before the start. Somehow during my warm up I missed the part of the course with the 1km cobble section!! The circuit was undulating and by the time I realized I was doing 45kmph down the middle of the cobbles. More than half the field took to the footpath on either side of the road. The cobbles were slightly downhill with a dodgy sharp left hand corner on the bottom which continued for another 20m after. Once off the cobbles there was a steep burg of only 500-1000m which got harder and harder as the race went on. After the cobble section all momentum was lost so it was hard to search through your gears and get a good position for the short climb. The rest of the course featured windy and long strung out sections before a left hand corner back into the uphill finishing straight.

The pace was on and off throughout the race as attacks went and were brought back each lap. I was proud of myself that my conversion rate for collecting bidons during the race is now 4/4 (excluding yesterday's rabobank bidon which exploded on me). With 6 laps remaining the bunch began to splinter and there were groups everywhere. I had positioned myself in the front end of the field for most of the race and with 3 other riders helped chase onto the back of the break away to form a group of at least 20. The rest of the peleton tried but were never able to claw their way back. As I mentioned earlier the burg after the cobbles had grown harder and harder and with 5 laps remaining I suddenly started to cramp violently in my achilles. I lost contact with my group at the top and chased for the next 4km trying to make contact. The group behind me picked me up but the cramping became too painful that I had to retire from the bike race with 4 laps remaining. I was quite disappointed that I had to pull out when I was in such a good position but there really was nothing I could do about it. Guess I'll just have to try and get more salt and/or potassium in before and during the race (the hardest 120km of my life yesterday may also have been a factor).

2 riders ended up breaking away from the lead bunch with 2 laps remaining and kept their advantage until the finish line. The rest of the bunches followed with a rider coming down heavily in the sprint for 40th or something stupid like that. After the race I returned my number and we were on the road soon after. I took Glenn and Brett over the course in the car to prove I wasn't lying about the cobble section! We all showered and changed before a beautiful healthy meal was served up by Brett including vegetables, mashed potato and saute mushrooms. Tomorrow we have a Criterium in Hoeilaart which is sure to be a great test with 15 x 20 euro primes spread throughout the race. At this stage I may be the only one to compete with Brett still battling his flu and Glenn preparing for a final show down in Nieuwerkerken on Tuesday. After dinner we put the finishing touches on the apartment and sat down on the couch to relax and have a chat before bed.