Scheldecross - Antwerp, Belgium

A quick report on yesterday's race. First off, I loved the course, it was much more similar to racing at home. Lots of fast grassy corners, off camber, drop ins. But of course because we are in Belgium and they LOVE sand, there was also was 3 beach sections!  I had to run 2 out of 3 of them! One cool feature of the course was riding around the VIP tent. The VIP's were having a full on candlelight meal in there and peering out at the race through the plastic windows!

So I had a first row call up for the first time because the field was kind of small. However, it didn't help me at all because there was no start whistle or even an English 'go'. Just Flemish talking then girls sprinting. Fortunately, I got into about 10th and as soon as we made a turn onto the dirt, I passed 5 girls. I was having one of the best rides I have had all year until I did a bike change.

I had made a last minute change to my tire choice and my second bike had non-mud clincher tires...pumped up too hard it felt like I was riding road tires! Because you see, I thought we were going to have a dry day and my mud tires were going to be too slow. Well guess what? It is never ever dry for a cross race in Belgium. EVER. The skies opened up and it poured. 3/4 the course remained bone dry because it was a beach. However, I went flying around a corner with a gap on the group behind me and promptly crashed on this off camber hill. Honestly, it didn't look slippery! It looked like sticky mud. But it was like black ice!! Not a big deal because I had a gap the girls just caught up. However, I did the same thing the next lap at a different place and I was done. I was passed and down to 12th. I managed to make up 1 place. I am pretty stoked to be feeling healthy and riding well as I enter into my tapering phase.

I would love to give a proper report on the guys race however, I spent their race doing 3 things.

1. showering in the outdoor (in a small tent) showers which are shared by men and women racers. I am sure Kyle will post something about that in is blog as he experienced the communal part of it.

2. Finding the building where I could pick up my appearance fee which was at a completely different location than the registration. It is difficult to explain how big and chaotic these venues are. But trust me, you have to allow lots of time to find registeration. They really make you work hard for your money here.

3. Trying to confirm that I am not on the drug testing list or whether there is testing that day for the women at all. I honestly spend at least 1/2 hr per race trying to sort that out. But that is a whole other story for another time.

The crew is packing up for a road trip to France on Saturday, none of us have raced 'cross in France before so we are pretty psyched.
Cheers, Tross