La Fleche Wallonne

I always love heading to the south of Holland, after looking at nothing on the horizon for miles and seeing nothing poking up you finally see some sort of terrain. The hills start about an hour from the southern border, here we have the start of all the good riding, some nice hills and some awesome scenery. Here is where we meet up with Germany and Belgium as well, but to confuse things even more, it’s the French speaking Belgium’s, and the Dutch speaking Germans. The good thing for me is that I speak nothing but English, so I am never confused with what language I am supposed to speak. Racing starts not far from the Dutch/Belgium border, in the area that Eddy made famous for all cyclists. We are starting the race today from a small town called Huy, in the area of Liege, one of the more fabulous regions that Belgium has. Riding around brings you through old towns that look like they have been there for centuries, and some of the buildings will just astound you how big they are.


The lovely town of Huy, now across the river, and up the hill, and we are almost at the start.

We had stayed the night, just over the border in Holland so the drive to the start was a small one for us, but finding parking for the truck and vehicles is always hard here, with the start/finish for the Women, sharing the finish with the men’s teams, fighting for your spots is always fun. The sun was up, the day was still, and it was already about 25’c, so it was going to be a stinker of a day out there. We had our usual bunch of World Cup riders, Susanne, Madi, Luise, Annette, Amber and our reserve for the day, riding, Susanne VanVeen. All the gang was feeling good, looking forward to a smaller hilly race for a change, only 104km today, using the last half of the men’s race, who were chasing behind the girls. Hey we even had the Kiwi team parking up behind us, which was nice to go and chat in my own language for a change. I missed seeing the team, as they were out warming up, but I’m sure I would see them soon enough in the race, hopefully they do better than last
year.


Hey it's team New Zealand, for their Second World cup for the season, Geelong was the first.

The racing started pretty hard and fast, with some serious attacking coming from T-Mobile with in the first half an hour. They sent out rider after rider, in some questionable tactics for the first half of the race, achieving nothing, from what we could see, except tiring their team before the half way point. With multiple other attacks from Team USA, Australia, and Menkini, the race started to
split the peloton within the first few climbs. So far we were looking pretty sweet, with all our riders still in the race, and no problems, our luck was about to run out. At the 60km mark, we enter a small road, here the cars have trouble getting past the little groups of dropped riders, and we all hope to hell there will be no punctures to attend to. Then, out of the blue, we hear the call on the radio from Amber, she’s crashed and her bike has the derailleur bent, and she can’t ride. Time for a bike swap, and try not to loose contact to the peloton for her (one of our better climbers, needed for the finish). We were car No.8 for the day, but with all the small roads, Jean-Paul had to do some particularly imaginative driving to reach Amber. We already put the call out to Luise and Susanne VV to stop and help pull her back to the bunch, we swapped the bike, made sure that Amber was ok, looks like a smallish crash, only a few holes in her knee and her shorts were a bit grazed up. Back with the smashed bike on the roof, and we hit the road to direct her back to the bunch.

Luise and Susanne, did a great job getting her back safe, we look so good as a team with moves like this, the mechanics, the driver and the other team members work together like clockwork. Only exception is my heart is not beating like a second hand, it’s pumping at about 200bpm’s by the time I get back in the car. Amber loves the 12-27 combo on the back of her bike, and for the race everyone else was on them as well, leaving us to make the decision to have a 25t on the back of her spare bike This we had to change if we were to have a shot on the finish, so we made the decision to stop and fix the broken bike, then swap it out asap back under Amber. The car skidded to a stop, I grabbed the tools, Klass got the bike, JP held it up so I could work on it. Derailleur off, alignment tool on and straighten the hanger, derailleur back on, tune the bike, make sure bars and all other possible damage from the crash is sweet, back on the roof and away we go. By this time we are well behind the rolling block, amongst regular traffic. We fly around blind corners at breakneck speeds, hoping to hell that nothing is coming the other way. Navigating our way through small back streets till we see the ambulance and broom wagon, finally we are back, relax for a minute or so, now to swap bikes again.


Susanne, taking a few minutes to check out the course, just in case she missed something.

So back on the radio, saying we are ready, and we are looking for a wide enough road to make the swap safely, and not steep, and not to flat. We found a spot, so we get the team ready, a couple on the front of the group trying to slow the bunch down a bit. Our little helpers, Luise and Susanne standing by ready for the pull back, and Amber hanging off the end of the bunch waiting for he call. Right, were ready, Amber stops, we pull up to a halt, I leap off, grab the bike off the roof (it’s on the other side of the car, always) and pop her on, push her on her way. Klass locks the spare on the roof and the girls work with Amber, pulling her to the back of the bunch, another successful swap, and as little energy spent by Amber. The rest of us are sweating, the heat is killing us, even the air con is working overtime. We relax for a short while, then we hear the last thing we needed to hear, my chains getting stuck, it’s catching on something bad, shit is all I can say. We wait for a good time, now we have to stop and change wheels on the spare, make sure the 27t is on the spare bike, tune it and check the brakes, back on the roof, and away to the bunch again. Swap number three and fifth time out of the car and off the roof with the bikes again. Swap went well, Luise and Sus looking not as fresh as the first time, as you can imagine, Amber back on, a quick run with the push off and she is back on the road, hopefully this is the last time we see her. Not too far from this, our two workers get dropped, their job is done for the day, time to relax, now the rest is up to the remaining girls and Amber, if she can use the adrenaline to her advantage. I sink back into the back of the car as we fly back to out spot in the caravan. A busy day for me for a change, soon the heart gets back to a healthy 110bpm, and a nice cold coke.


A great shot of the rolling countryside, and some of the caravan, see any of our team in the bunch?

Most of the other bigger teams had troubles as well, with their top riders swapping bikes for some crazy reasons, Nicole Brandli (Bigla) with two bike swaps, Marianne Vos (DSB, and current World Champ), one swap, Adrie Visser (DSB, and winner of the last WC race) 1 swap, 2 mechanicals, Mio Oki (menkini) 1 bike swap. And we took the record, with an unbelievable 3 swaps for Amber Neban (Flexpoint). By the 70km mark, we saw the first Kiwi's off the back, but by this stage, we had lost almost a third of the field. By the 85km mark we saw some pretty big names falling off the back with the speed increasing on the climbs. With a lack of good feeding spots, and the carnage in the caravan, most teams had serious problems getting water to their riders, dehydration playing a major factor with the non-finishers. Also, with the smaller peloton (138), there was no hiding mid-pack all day like most of the field try to do.


A nice shot of Madi, making her way up to the bunch again.

By the 10km to go mark, T-mobile played their last cards, by send out Chantele Beltman, this we think, was a play to drag out Nicole Cooke's (current WC leader) team to chase her down, and wear them down a little before the finish. With the biggest gap reaching only 30 secs, this was slowly caught back by the peloton, Raleigh Lifeforce and Flexpoint doing a little bit or work on the front. With three Km's to go, the bunch was together, the second to last climb was done. A quick run through the town of Huy, up to the Mur de Huy (the Wall of Huy), only about 900m long, but a gradient of 18% in places, most of the action came on. Vos attacked (with most of her team being dropped by this stage), in almost her signature move, a long, hard sprint to the finish, on her wheel was Cooke, Arnt and Neban, good tries from Eva Lutz, Susanne Ljunskog and a few others,
failed. With Vos winning, Cooke and then Arnt, it was a very predictable finish. Arnt was visibly disappointed with missing the win, as was our own Neban, who, with out the bike changes and crash, could have easily been on the podium.


Last Km to go, thank god it's over, and the wall just around the corner.

The crowd was fantastic during the whole day, awaiting the men's race finish behind us, the Mur was packed, with the usual alcohol fueled Belgium fanatics, giving the women the support they needed. With the Swiss World Cup in Bern in a couple of weeks, the race should be interesting, with most of the major players trying to knock Cooke (sorry Jo) off her number one spot.

Next up is a small Dutch National TT race, this we have four of our girls racing, the we leave early next week for the Chezh Republic for the first stage race of the season, Gracia Orlova. Hope it’s a little bit more fun than last (2)(3) year.

And you can check out some photos from the last two races here as well.

Ronde van Gelderland

Once again we headed up to the sunny north of Holland, not quite the top, but very close to it. In fact if it was fifty years ago, it would have almost been the top, but with major land reclamation, they increased the size of Holland by almost 10%. Part of this reclamation starts from about where we are racing. Ronde van Gelderland (round the are of Gelderland), is the first race of a five race series of the 'Top Competition', a hotly contested race series for Dutch Nationals. There are a lot of other international teams racing this series as well, making it some of the biggest one day race series we contest. The racing is hard and fast, on small roads, making it very dangerous, but the girls love it. Being the number one Dutch team it's really important for us, and the sponsors to put on a good show here. Hey we even have live TV coverage for the race, makes a change.


A nice lineup at the start, almost looks like an optical illusion.

The field was huge, with 28 teams, and most of them with eight riders, the start list had just under 200 names on it. All the serious pro teams were present, as well as a lot of local Dutch club teams. This is the record for starters for Woman's racing for a very long time, (they can't remember if it's ever been bigger). With eight riders, all with a bike or two I was kept pretty busy leading up to, and on race day. For some strange reason, I seem pretty organised this year, we have a few more wheels and bike at our disposal, so getting ready for this race was a little bit easy. We now have training bikes for almost the whole team, meaning I get to keep their race bikes at home base for preparing for race day. This make things a little bit easier for days like this, as I used to get 6 or 8 dirty messed up bikes to try and get sorted in a couple of hours before the race. I like the new system.


And the race is underway, 500m from the start, and already it's a mess at the back.

The start line looked awesome, so many new faces from the Dutch club teams, and a lot of younger riders in the trade teams. With teams of eight, it was going to be a good race, normally we are allowed only six, so everyone had a few more riders to spend for the gain of the sprinters in the finish. There is some pretty good riding on this course, with some nice little steep kickers, hidden in the middle of a national forest park, just big enough to split the field. funny when you see the club teams, most of them getting dropped before the hill even starts, it must be a head thing, as most of them have not even seen hills, let alone even raced them. Racing was underway, the peloton looked huge as it passed us, waiting up field from the line, so many girls on bikes, brought tears to my eyes, nah, it was just the police bikes stirring up the sand on the road, as I crouched to get a few photo's.


Another nice lineup, this time the bunch is spread all along the dyke, speed is increasing, gaps forming in the bunch.

Racing was hard and fast, with crazy high average speeds in the first two hours, the bunches were splitting all over the place. By the time the first climb came, we had a small group of 11 away, thankfully we had two in there with Amber and Loes G looking fine on the top of the first climb. After a small loop of 7km, they were back on the climb, we had waited here as the roads were small as, and we would be late getting to any problems, neutral service could look after the gang for a while. After the two climbs, the bunch was chasing hard, as many teams had missed the break, and were keen to pull it back in. The breakaway groups was giving it all, but there was a few lazy girls, just sitting on, hoping to get and easy ride to the finish were they would sprint those that had worked to stay away.


The breakaway group of 11, second time on the climb, Amber leading, Loes G, just out of shot.

On a nice descent, there was two girls escaping, Vos (World Champ, DSB) and Chantelle Beltman, so the small group was racing hard to catch them. With ony 20 km to go, the race was almost done, so everyone was chasing hard. Just let me explain something first, in the race we have a lead out of about three police, a neutral service car, and a Commissionaire in front of the bunch, the neutral will service and breaks, and the jury Will make sure they don't cheat. Behind the bunch is the main Jury riding directly behind, then another neutral spares (for the teams that are sitting at car no.28 etc, that can't get to the front quick enough), then the caravan follows (that's us, with a random draw of sorts to get your placing for the day). Around every corner, all roads and intersections, traffic island etc, are a number of guy on motorbikes with bright vests on, controlling the moving road closure. These guys are the guardian angles of the girls, stopping cars getting ON the race course, pointing out obstacles, cars and other dangers. They have a hard job as they have to get around the course any way they can, though the bunch, on cycle paths, through back streets etc. But they are always there to help, normally there can be up to 30 of these guys on the course, and they love it, and the cops turn a blind eye as they break all the speed limits and rules of the road.

Now where were we, right, the attack went off the front, two escaped with 20 to go, the 9 chasers followed at speed, with Amber making the break to join the two attackers. Up to a big roundabout, the lead cars (who are about 150-200m in front) went right at the island, a few of the moto's went straight ahead, to get to the next intersections before the race. Next, the two attackers, Vos and Beltman went straight as well, following the bikes (there seemed to be no one on the island directing the riders, which is not normal), and then Amber and the 8 other followed. Shit, what a mess, on the radio (which Amber's wasn't working for some reason), on the car horns, trying to attract their attention to turn back. Lucky, Loes G heard the commotion, and grabbed Amber back, and we turn right as was needed. But the two attackers were off, their team cars stuck well behind in the caravan, oblivious to the shit fight going down in front. The small group took off, (adrenaline can be a good incentive to ride faster) with out the two leaders in front, but the chasing bunch was a bit closer now, as we had wasted a min or so getting the girls back on the good road.

Voss managed to get back in the bunch, probably with the generous help of her team car, and dodgy director (no apologies here, sorry, as it was almost super human for her to get back so fast), Beltman was finished. The bunch chased super hard, with Vos and her team, DSB Bank, spearheading the bunch. nine to go, the break was caught, the race was now up to the sprinters. And a sprint it was, Vos (DSB) winning, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (t-mobile) and our own Loes Makerink in third. A nice result, cause it could have been worse, I stopped sweating in the back seat, packed up the 15 bikes out, and headed home.
Next up the fourth World Cup of the season Uitslag Waalse Pijl or in English, Flèche Wallonne held down in a town called Huy, in Belgium.


And another nice shot of the countryside. You can tell easily when the speed is up by the single line and the gaps starting to form, this was about 43km/hr.

Tour of Road Bike

Looking at colour schemes before the start of last years season, Stevens asked us which one of two colour options we would like. Either Black Gloss of a Silver/white two tone option. As much as black is close to my heart, and probably the colour of it, and having as many as 13 black bikes in my house at one time, I kind of liked the white look. After my first year with the team, having white bikes was a drag, especially with greasy mechanics hanging on them all day. So with three of us decided, white it was to be, but they made a huge mistake, and when they arrived, they were fortunately black. After the whole season with black bikes, we extolled their virtues all year, they always looked clean, and were easy to keep them that way. So a full season with the white and silver look is going to be interesting. I have already had to clean up my cleaning of the bikes (if that was possible), and take a little bit more care to rubbing my greasy prints off before the start. But they do look hot, now to get rid of the orange (sponsors colour unfortunately) tyres and get black ones, then it's done.


The almost stock standard, and most common setup for the year. And yes, she does like her bars in that position, low hoods and high drops.

We are still using the same model of Stevens this season as well. With a few small changes to the frame to make them a little lighter and stiffer, why change too much. Here is a good quote stolen directly from the Stevens site. "The SCF is classy, lightweight and reliable. The High Modulus Fibre technology allows for light and high strength frame designs. The SCF captivates with its rounded and fluid frame tube connections and the carefully tuned sizes. In racing the SCF convinces easily. Latest examples: the Buitenpoort Team won the Tour de l´Aude as well as the Tour de France Feminin." And what a great mention of our team. These frames are light, with the smallest we have 49cm weighing in at about 790gm with fork under 1000gm, thank god we have some stuff hanging on them to keep them on the road here in Holland.

You can check out the Stevens Website here. If you want to see more of the SCF1
you can check it out. As ours was a custom colour, it doesn't look as though there are any pics of it here. But once they get there shit together, you might see a few of them here on our racing site. They love getting all the photo's after a stage race, seems he has no limit as to what we can send them, they print it all.


The rear triangle, with Bontrager Carbon 5.0 rear wheel.

A full 10speed Dura Ace Groupset, for the running gear. Our same sponsor from last year 'PRO' is looking after all the handle bars, stems, and seatposts for the road bikes, and the carbon TT bars on the TT bikes. Topped off with the saddle of the riders choice, and we are almost ready to ride. Saddles range from the SLR, in three versions, mostly carbon, a few of Specialized Jett's, a few flights and a couple of Arione's and Vitesse's from Fisik, more on these later. Pedals are mostly the new Dura Ace version, though there are a couple of exceptions, with Amber and Susanne riding something special (more later).


And the front of the bike, nice headtube, beautiful legs.

Wheels are all from Bontrager, with almost all wheels they manufacture hanging in the store. Ones here are some of this years newest models, this is the Carbon Aeolus 5.5. This is a new one form them this year, the first race we have for them is this weekend, so more on this later. But we have enough set for a whole team of eight, and a car full of spares as well. This will be the wheel of choice for the season, and most of the races from now on (cause all the bad cobbles are almost finished). The hubs are DT Swiss, so we expect to have very little problems again this year with these. And the tall rims add such a nice bit of speed to the bike, but watch out in high winds, they will through the smaller riders around a fair bit.

Other wheels used for various situations, riders or races include, low carbon (for climbs), disc wheels (for TT), High carbon front wheels (for TT), high alloy rims (for Dutch Crits and Cyclocross), and some low alloy rims (good for spares, or climbs on shit roads). All of these for racing are Tubular rims, so calls for a lot of glueing, which I love. A few clincher carbon rims we have been testing, and use these for various races as well as needed.


If you have not seen them yet, the new (even though I saw a prototype pedal two years ago) Dura Ace wide platform pedals.

Cateye supplies all the computers for all the bikes that are not running the SRM system (at riders own cost), this we use the wireless version. But we are about to receive the latest units available, but more on this later. Cages for the bottles are supplied by Tacx, and the bottles as well. Sweat and tears supplied by both the riders and the mechanic, these are very good quality, only the best used.


The line up for a cobbled race, low alloy rims with 25mm tyres. Not as cool looking, but safe for bad roads (if thats what they call them).

Any questions you have, you can always post a comment below. Next up The Chrono, Stevens, brand new carbon, Timetrail specific machine. This you are going to love, just have to wait till I get one of the discs installed, then it will look hot. We have a few TT's coming up soon, so plenty of photographic inspiration coming.

Novilon International Damesronde van Drenthe

Race three in the series up in Drente was held directly after the World Cup. With a few changes to the team, four out, four in, we got underway in which would normally the last stage. But this was feeling weird, as it was the same race as last year, same start, and same finish as the stage race, but it was a stand alone race again. I'm not complaining as the sun was up once again, and no real wind to speak of, what more could I ask for. Up to now we had had no problems, where as most teams had had major issues on the cobbles, multiple punctures and rider failures, we were pretty sweet, and I was wishing as usual to continue along these lines.


One of the local Belgium Trade Teams Capri-Sonne, and their new bikes for the year. Capri-Sonne makes fresh orange juice, still sold out of the tetrahedral shaped Tetra pack (designed in lil old NZ).


Hey it's Linda, riding for T-Mobile in her Danish champions shirt. That's the USA Natioanal team on her right, not team Spiderman.


This time we were not so lucky with our position in the caravan, car number 19, this out of 28 is not bad, but you still can't see shit this far back. If there is any problems at the front of the race with bikes, it would take us about half an hour to get there, by that time it would be too late. I shudder to think what it's like racing this far behind the peloton all the time. We are lucky that the radio's work this far behind the bunch.

Racing started, and around and around we go, with five runs over the Vamberg (our rubbish hill, remember) and a bit of the country we had already been over in the last few days, it was going to be a long day. But the speed of the race was good, and the bunches were splitting up all over the show. But still it did not change things too much, and the race was still altogether in the last laps of the course. But just as we thought that, there was a great attack on the Vamberg, with three serious riders, busting out over the hill. They managed to hold out almost to the end of the race, and were caught again for a bunch sprint. Today again was not so good for us in the positioning, no podium finishes, but all finished in the bunch. And more importantly, no problems with the bikes again, they all stayed together till the end. Nothing fell off them, not even the girls, so thing were good. The temperature reached a high of 33'c, so summer has reached us already, may it continue.


Hey it's Madeline (on the right) and her Sister Fabiana (on the right if you can't tell) riding on the German National team.


Some of the team waiting for the start, what a great lineup.


And say goodbye to the fantastic north of Holland, and not the good weather, I am taking this with me to the south.

I got a few pics from all three races posted for you in the photo site.

Ronde van Drenthe World Cup

This is one the new races in the World Cup this season, but we have raced almost the same circuit the last couple of years as part of the Tour of Drente. The sun was up, and the temperature was up even higher. Before the start, the gauge was ready almost 28'c, and this was supposed to be spring. Most of the trade teams had had a few changes to the teams they were racing on Thursday. Some of the stars had been resting while the younger riders were getting a bit if a run. We were running most of the younger riders this time out, so were not expecting a whole lot of action. But we would certainly take any chances we could, and were here for the racing, not the sunshine.

The Race pretty much stayed together right till the end. With no real hills to speak of in his part of town, they used the famous Vamberg (a big pile of compacted rubbish, which seems to grow taller every year) to try and break up the race a little. It seemed to work well, as the last time over the hill decided most of the top ten. You can read more about the race here at Cycling News cause I have run out of things to say. But have a few photos for you, cause a picture says a thousand words, doesn't it?


Nice lineup for the teams presentation the night before the race, unfortunatly the thousands of spectators didn't turn up, but three of them did though.


What a nice clean lineup of bikes and cars, this is my presentation for the day.


And the race is finally started, hey get back behind the bike.


Some more of the very nice countryside, and the bunch looks fast.


A nice section of cobbles just to shake things up a little. This doesn't really show you how bad they can be.


Iris getting her breath back after a tough day in the saddle.

I got a few pics from all three races posted for you in the photo site.

Drentse 8 van Dwingelo

It’s always nice to see another area of the Netherlands, especially when the weather is so on your side. What is normally a very wet, cold and windy race this time of year this far north, is very different this time around. With not a drop of rain, low or no wind, and unseasonably high temperatures, the race was very different both for the riders, and for us working on the bikes. With short sleeves, no large outer jackets or leggings, the girls were smiling on the start line, this was not normal. But then again, this race was not normal, to split a good, three day stage race, into three, one day races was not normal, but then again, this is the north of Holland. Much the same as most countries, the north of Holland has it’s own identity, and most of the shit get flung it’s way. The people here are a little bit backward (not that you can tell by looking), the houses are different, most of the locals are farmers, and the fashions are localized. For me, it’s a very nice part of the country, not too populated, some very nice riding, both on the road and off. There are plenty of nice national forest parks, lots of green areas, and plenty of very cool houses to look at. One of the races goes right though the heart of an old village, it looks like it has been untouched for the last few centuries. With lots of thatched roofs, old fences, and old looking stables, this place looks amazing. I must come back as it’s swarming with people, moving from house to shed, with old crafts and wares to buy, it gives you a inside look at the nether Netherlands.


Nice day to ride to the race.

The first race started on Thursday, in town called Dwingaloo, sounds a bit Australian really, and looks a little bit as well, as there was a few wallabies in a cage not far from the start (seems every small town has a collection of these). There was a full lineup of teams for this race, with the third World Cup on the Saturday, most of them came a little early for this race as well. 28 teams of six at the start, all the major pro teams were there, plus a few of the national teams were present, it was looking good. The sun was up, and the wind was down, most of our gang were praying for bad weather, believe it or not. The race included some nice cobbled sections, some of them were pretty old, bumpy as hell, and covered in dust and shit. We were well prepared with our wheels from the Flanders race, low rims and big soft tyres. Some of the other teams were not so lucky, as on the start I saw many high carbon rims covered with tiny tyres, local knowledge must help today. The race was underway, drawing car number 5, was lucky, with the small streets winding their way through the small villages, I would have hated drawing car number 28. Not only would you not see any of the race, but if there was any problems, it would take a long time to get up to your rider.


One of these things is not like the other, guess which is mine.

Nothing much happened in the race, one rider got away for an hour or so, with a gap of 3 mins at one stage, no one was really interested in chasing. The lap was a figure of eight, with 6 laps. We would pass through the finish line 12 times in total. There was a good crowd to watch, the great thing is they wouldn’t have to go too far too see some good racing. With less than 25km to go, the lone rider was back in the group, then through the group, then spat out the back. A few other girls tried to escape, but the bunch was not going to let that happen, and chased them down every time. It was looking like a bunch sprint, and it was, so boring and almost predictable. I think we got a 10th or 11th place with Loes Makerink, with the rest of the team finishing safely in the bunch. Kiwi Jo Kiesanowski (Raleigh Lifeforce) was looking good with a close miss on the podium at 4th.


The nice Drente landscape, the bunch is together.

I got a few pics from the three races posted for you in the photo site.

Tour of Flanders

Next up The Tour of Flanders, a classic one day race, held in conjunction with the men’s race. This is the fourth running of the race for Women, and one of the biggest, most hotly contested one day races, for the World Cup series. This would have to one of the more prestige races for the girls to win, and with the streets lined with spectators waiting for the men’s race, one of the most exciting for the atmosphere present. We have won this the last two years, with Mirjam taking both wins, and a third place last year for Loes G, so this race has been good for us so far. This years race, was going to be interesting for us, with Mirjam not quite up to speed, after her accident last year, she was not to start. So the race would be wide open for the other teams hungry for a win.

We had a younger team racing this time round, with Susanne L taking the cap for the team, she was supported by Amber and Loes G for the lead, and Annette, Iris and Mie taking up the slack. This is one of the toughest races on the circuit this season, with 11 mean climbs, three of them covered in nasty cobbles. As well as the climbs, there are 11 sections of old cobbles, some of them up to 3 or 4 km long, this is one race you need to be prepared for. The cool thing is that we do all the climbs and cobbled sections as the men’s race, the difference being, they have a 100 or so more km to ride before they get to our start. This would be the most serious race for the bikes, wheels and tyres, and probably the most sweating that I do in the back of the car, in any race. We make some changes to the setups of the bikes from a normal race. A bigger tubular, from 23mm to a nice fat 25mm, these are glued on to both a low carbon and alloy rim. No high carbon wheels for us today, they may look cool, but far too stiff for the cobbled sections, giving you a far harder ride, and a higher chance of punctures, by almost factor of three. And even worse is the chance for multiple crashes, with a big peloton, filled with nervous riders, it’s just asking for the wheels to be smashed to bits.


A profile of the race from the race guide, doesn't it look cool.

The drive was a short one from home base, kind of strange really, as I was at the hotel in and hour and a half. The carpark was full with trucks and race cars from the men, with a few of the smaller women’s teams trucks filling the gaps. The night looked clear, so we were expecting a fine day, not really what we wanted, as our girls love the rain and the wind, and it gives them a great advantage over the other softer teams. But the morning was cold, as I started, it was sitting at a cool 1.5’C, this was the coldest day I have had since arriving a few weeks ago, so it was kind of nice for a change. After five or six summers in a row, a day of winter was good for the system, just to remind me what a winter feels like. I had done all my work the night before, so a little bit of tyre pumping to go, and I was ready for the start.


A nice cold start to the day, lets hope it gets warmer.

A small drive to the start town of Oudenaarde, and the temperature was not budging one single degree, the sun was coming out, but things were not changing so quick. The race was full, with 28 teams racing, each with six riders, it was a very full peloton. Lucky we had car number 6, at least we would see something of the race, and would be quick on the spot if there was any crashes or problems with the bikes. Riding cobbles can be pretty bad for your body, but it’s the bikes I worry about. Things shaking loose, bars moving, and numerous other problems can occur if you are not so careful, but after checking each bike about fifty times, I was ready, and confident. But still there is always that little bit of fear in the back of my mind, did I get everything, are the tyres the right pressure, etc. But after a few hundred races, this huge fear, kind of moves aside, as you see all the other mechanics panicking, and furiously fixing the last few problems. The guy next to us in the carpark, was a wreck, it looked like he had been working all night, and was still sweating putting the final touches to his team’s bikes. I could help but piss myself laughing as he dropped a big case of small parts, all over the road, it was the last straw, he almost lost it. Lucky he could see us laughing at him.


Some of the gang before the start.

The race begun with a roar, the speed was incredible, over 45km/hr to start with, and there was riders hanging off the back of the bunch already. The sun was getting hot, and soon we had a high of 22’c, this was going to be a hot day after all, thank god, no chance of rain. Well they raced for an hour or so, a few teams were having troubles already, with many girls getting flats, some of them getting a couple in the first 50km, what a bummer. The streets were small, so getting through the caravan of about 40 cars would have been interesting, lucky we had only about 6 cars to move through, hope we didn’t have to try. Opps, spoke too soon as the first major crash was upon us, about thirty girls were down, what a mess. As I run up on the crash, I could see a pile of girls (most guys would love this idea) almost four high in a pile. I had a quick look, helping a few of the other teams get the pile untangled. Were weren’t going anywhere in the cars, until the mess was cleaned up a bit. No one was really hurt, and lucky enough, all our girls were well out of the way in the front of the bunch. But there was a fair bit of skin off in the pile, but all of them except one, got back on the road. Twenty or so of the girls were not to be finishing the race, unfortunately for them. A few weeks training out the door, and a few sore asses to boot.


This pic doesn't give it justice, but a truck mounted observation deck, that folds out to a two story, huge, glass hangout.

The race started to get serious, when two of bunch escaped for about two hours, gaining a lead of up to about 3 mins at one stage. None of the other teams were interested in chasing them, neither were we, so we just relaxed. A few more smaller crashes, a lot more punctures from other teams, was making the following caravan a race in itself. With some very small country lanes, some with cobbles, holes and other various obstacles was making life fun. The last climbs were looming, with the last one being the deciding climb for many races in the past. The Murr, or wall in English, was the killer for the day, with a gradient of about 20%, it looks a lot steeper in real life, with stones so old and messed up, makes for a nasty climb at the 100km mark. This along with about ten thousand drunk Belgium’s, cheering themselves hoarse, makes for the most exciting moment of the race. Here the race changed a bit, with four more riders, including Susanne, managed to escape and join the tow at the front. They raced hard, with the peloton quick on their heels, with a few attacks put in by Karin Thurig (Raleigh Lifeforce), the five had to follow. But with the current World Cup leader Nicole Cooke (same team as Thurig) following, the chasers were getting tired. As they entered the finish chute, Cooke came around the pack of 5, and took yet another win, bring her to a clean sweep of the WC races, 3 in total. Susanne came in 5th I think, and the rest of the gang finishing in the bunch.


The Flemish country side, spring is here, time to plant up the fields.

Hey, you can’t win them all, the Girls were all safe, no damage to the bikes, no crashes, no punctures, and the sun was still shining. What more (besides another win) could you ask for. A quick pack up of the bikes and staff and riders, and we were out of there. The men’s race was about half an hour away, then the traffic would be blocked for a few hours, so we were out of there.

Next up, World Cup number four, Ronde van Drente, and a couple of races either side of this around Drente, in the north of Holland. This is a new race for the WC circuit, the race that NZ lost from Wellington, so the normal three day tour, gets split in to a mess of races. More soon.

Let the racing comence.

Finally got a little time to sit down and write a little bit. Been a case of been too busy and way too lazy to write. Arrived in the Netherlands almost two weeks ago, with getting over jetlag (about 15mins) and enjoying the sun and the MTB trails, the first week was taken up pretty quickly. Half the team was down in Italy racing a couple of early season races, a few more of them were at the Dutch National training camp in Tuscany. So I really had nothing to do except organise my living quarters, ride my bike and relax. I could get my hands on any bikes for a few days, so there was no work at all for the week. It was great to have a few days off, time to recover after my three weeks holiday, a little bit of flying, and having to unpack a few bags, and sort my shit out for a few days before the onslaught starts


Spring is in the air when you ride through fields of daffodils.

The riding was good, it’s always such a nice way to get over travel legs, jet lag, and work lag (which is most difficult). The last week in NZ was pretty busy, filling for the two other mechanics who, were both away racing. It was kind of nice, been so busy with work, finishing off all the difficult jobs we had been putting aside for a few weeks, without all the tomfoolery that goes on in the last week. Being busy meant that I had no time to get excited, that would come with the first races, as I knew I had a fair bit of work to sort out when it finally started. I ended up bringing my 29” Singlespeed MTB, this will be the second SS I have here (one is never enough), but this one has more than one purpose. With the MTB tire 29 X 1.95, it is an awesome bike for the MTB terrain around here, tight, fast, flat singletrack. With sand and loose soil on most of trails, it can roll over everything with ease. A small change of tires to 700 X 32CX, and a little bit bigger gearing, turns it into a wicked single Cyclocross. This is almost the only style of bike you need here for most of the off-road riding around where I live, and would probably be in this state more than others. Another change of tires to a 700 X 23C and bigger gearing and I got a cool roadie. With a small modification, I can also turn it into a street or off road fixie as well. This I was most looking forward to, as I miss having my fixie here, as it’s such a relaxing way to ride in such a flat country. To make things even better, I found even more forest trails on the way to work, this can now add another half an hour easy to the commute, that’s assuming I make it to work at all.


The rear of the truck, Mirjam again looking great on the bike.

We have had a change of sponsors this year, as you already know, a name change, a uniform change, and a few staff and rider changes. These will all be exposed in the weeks to come, as there is too much to show you in one week. I will endeavor to interview, each and every rider (much to their dislike at the idea), but that way you might get to know who I am talking about in some of the race reports. We have a few changes to the bikes and equipment as well, but this is mostly cosmetic changes in the case of the road bikes, a new colour is all that’s different, from what I can tell at this stage. A wicked new carbon TimeTrail bike, is in testing stages for a few of the girls, and it is coming up trumps, with those that have ridden it. And to top it off it looks really spanky, some awesome shapes and aero features, but you are going to have to wait to see these ones.


The new look graphics, and team logo/name.

Racing has already started for me, with the first race last week, the Dolmans Classic. A first time for this race, organized by one of our sponsors. Race report on this next week, along with a full, who won and raced what so far this year. We are also racing the Tour of Flanders tomorrow (sun), this being the biggest one day classic that the Women race. The cool thing is we race the last 140 km of the same course that the men race. With all the hundreds of thousands of spectators that the men attract, as they race about a half hour behind us, chasing the end of the field in. Check it out here, and you can also check out the cobbled climbs that make this race so famous here at Cycling News. We start the race about 15km before the first climb listed here, the cool thing is we miss out the 100 or so km of flat stuff the men are racing before this. Righto, I better get out of bed, I got a truck to pack, and a small drive to the hotel in Belgium.


And this is the art shot of the week, what a sight.