Written by Stephen Hall with Brett Schnitzerling & Glenn HarrisI finally slept through the morning until Glenn threw open the curtains and had the oats on the oven by 8am. We did a bit of research into our trip to Paris tomorrow before jumping on our bikes. Once again we had a short ride just to roll our legs over before the race at 6pm. Turnhout hosted us for coffee once again which is quite a nice town with great buildings, shops and coffee strip. A short cobble section paves the way into the town but it was much friendlier then the cobbles Glenn introduced us to on Saturday. We sat down for another Hot Chocolate Cecemel and watched people go about their lives. Its great to see what a cyclist friendly country Belgium is. Everyone commutes by town bike from old folks, to children. Even the beautiful women in town can be seen riding around to university or work.
Our new diet finally took its toll, with both Glenn and myself hitting the wall after only 30km in the saddle. Brett towed us home while we chewed stem and sat closer than a team pursuit behind him. We were devastated to find most of the grocery stores didn't open till 1.00pm. There were still a few bread rolls & some veges left over which got us over the line and cured our shakes for the time being. It was only 1 o clock by then and had a few hours to fill so we all had a siesta to pass the time. We actually ended up oversleeping and had to do a bit of running around including food shopping, packing the car, fixing a broken spoke and finally driving to the race. Once again we were horribly lost and if not for the friendly people we asked we may not have got there in time. We rolled up to the start line with numbers in hand with 2mins to spare.
The race was precarious to say the least, it was a tight 4.5km circuit with 7 corners. Six of them featured some form of cobble, drain, bump or pothole in the apex of the corner. We were blessed with nice weather for the 4th day in a row however the wind was howling today. The speed along the back straight was furious, consistently we were reaching up to 58kmph each lap. There was a big field and the race unfolded quickly with a break away forming. Glenn rode aggressively all day jumping with everything that moved and setting up a lot of breaks himself. Unfortunately he missed one of the earlier breaks which ended up staying away. Brett & myself were content to sit in the bunch but had a difficult day in the saddle. The finish was all over the place with the 8 riders in the front group, a group of 4 behind them, Glenn and two others, then another 4 and finally the main bunch. Glenn destroyed his two opponents in the sprint and got up for 13th, I came in with the bunch kick to claim 20th while Brett was only a few placings behind me. We were all pretty relived when the race was over and had some time to catch our breath.
The race paid down to 40 so we all managed to win our nominations back (plus an additional cash bonus from the number ladies for being Australian). We didn't get home till after 9.30 so we all famished, Brett whipped up another feast to the likes of a Sweet & Sour Chicken Stir Fry while Glenn and I unpacked the car. Tomorrow is set to be the first day of 'Belgium weather' lucky for us though we are having the day off to head to Paris. Our train leaves bright and early so we will be in the beautiful city by 930am. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of our sponsors including Arbitrage & Wormall and especially Tony Anderson for this great experience which will be remembered long after we return.
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