Race report: Kortessem (BE)

Kortessem (BE)

door: Emily Collins – fotografie: Bart Hazen

Sunday 1st August 2010: Kortessem 1.15 Dames Elite

This Sunday I gained my first Euro podium in the Kortessem 1.15 Dames Elite Kermesse in Belgium.
The race was about 90km around an 8.1km circuit (we even got a nice little hill)
Start time was 4.30 and there were 93 girls lined up to race.
Of the Swabo girls, we had Sofie, Tracy and Emily (me).
It was a nice steady start, not too quick off the start line so a bit of time to get a feel for the course in the first few km and warm the legs up properly. Half way through the beginning lap, girls started attacking to and fro trying to get away. This got me focused on getting a good position – up where all the action was.
The finishing straight was about a km long into a nice tail wind. Here, the speed really picked up and any solo or small attacks would usually be chased down along this section. Straight around the corner from the finish we’d come into a nice sharp little hill. – Enough to hurt the legs.
In the 3rd lap I went for it up here with a few Canadian girls and one other. We attacked hard, however were chased down along the following straight by the fast moving peloton.

Kortessem (BE)

From here, the same sort of attacks kept coming. Just small stints by a few or individual riders. Each attack would slowly be pulled in – the team of Topsport girls (purple/yellow) were very respondent to these and would generally be on the front driving them back in. They had a full team of girls racing so were able to work well together.
After several more laps, nothing too exciting was going down. I decided to fuel myself up with half an energy bar and gel. The legs were surprisingly not feeling to bad! – very strange as the day before (Saturday) we had a very tough Swabo training over the Holland Hills classic course (100 plus km) – which we are due to race on this Sunday the 9th of August (going to be seriously hard )! – Anyway, after a night of recovery at team mate, Guusje’s and a lovely massage I seemed to be going well.
At the end of the 8th lap there were only 3 to go so I knew I had to take a chance soon. I was starting to get pretty frustrated with the race as nothing exciting was going on! So about halfway through the 9th lap I put my head down and went for it, just before approaching the headwind straight.

Kortessem (BE)

At first I didn’t really think too much of the attack. – I just went as hard as I could and didn’t turn back!
After a few km another rider bridged across from the bunch to jump on my wheel (Lotte Van Hoek, RWC Ahoy). This was good news for me as it now meant I had someone to share the workload with and push the pace along.
We now had just over two laps and I was really hurting. I forced some more gel down me and got the legs running in a good rhythm. Only 2 laps to go – 16km I kept telling myself.
I refused to look back to see if the bunch was approaching! – Phew it was hard. Especially into the headwind. Lotte and I worked well together, however and kept the pace going.
Coming into the last lap I was very buggered! – We still managed to push the pace hard up the hill and really went go for it.

Kortessem (BE)

It was definitely a mental boost knowing there was only 8km of pain left! Coming into the headwind straight we had about 3 or 4 km to go. Lotte turned back and saw the bunch fast approaching. This really got us going – there was no way we were going to let them get us this close to the finish. It was a pretty big effort having to dig even deeper to further up the pace. Coming into the final straight I was going for it. – Still worried the chasing peloton would catch us in the last few hundred meters. Lotte played the smart game and refused to pull through, sitting in for the final sprint. I could’ve slowed down and played the game too but I was so worried the bunch would catch us I kept driving hard on the front. In the last 200m Lotte sharply came around me and went for the line. Unfortunately I was very much out of steam and too slow to react. I tried to chase her down but she was too quick. A smart finish on her behalf.
So, I came in 2nd.

Kortessem (BE)

Not as good as the win but I am pretty happy with how I rode the race and stoaked to have gained my first European podium placing.
I am continuously building confidence and learning new skills with each race over here. I hope to keep progressing. A win would be good now.
Sofie and Tracy both had a good race, both finishing in the top peleton. Sofie came in a pleasing 17th and Tracy a bit further back. Good to see her riding strongly again.
The winner of the peloton sprint (3rd place) went to Sjoukje Dufoer of Topsport.

We are now focussed on recovering for this weekend’s Holland Hills Classic. It’s been a tough week on the bike so the legs are screaming out for a nice rest. Today will be my first actual rest day in a while! Hmm…what to do….?!

Official results of the top 30 can be found at: http://www.cyclingnews.nu/uitslagen/2010/Kortessem01-08-2010.pdf