Discover Top Posts Tagged with #deerlijk

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4 - 08 - 2011 Deerlijk

We had a 50km ride to the race, 120km race and 50km ride home. Extra food was packed in the pocket. Our local helper from Gent warned us to pack rain jackets, I thought he was crazy because it was 28degrees and not a cloud in the sky, I took one just in case.

It was still fine when we lined up to race the 23 laps. There were 140 starters and it was a very tight course. After the usual teething problems in the first 2 laps, sorting the excited riders from the experienced, I settled into the top 30 in the peloton. Then two big drops landed on my sunglasses. Boom! It poured down. The whole field and road was wet. This was my first experience racing in the wet in Belgium.

I motivated myself to get at least into the first 10 in the bunch. Every corner was a standing start and was very slippery. I counted 5 crashes in two laps. It was difficult to stay near the front but my hard work paid off. I turned around after 6 laps and was in the leading group of 14 riders. We had around 2 minutes on the not-so-interested field.

10 very messy laps went past with only 3 riders clipping off the front. The corners got worse and worse. There were a total of about nine corners with 2 hairpins, 3 which were off camber and one which had white paint over the entire apex. Every lap, on at least one corner, you would slide just a little bit. My final slide came on lap 18 on the hairpin. It was completely my fault. I went into it way to hot and my front wheel went. I didn’t land too badly - just a bit of damage to my hip. My bike was fine and I chased back onto the back of the break. This effort was far too violent and the next acceleration from the break I was gone. I was so angry with myself for crashing and getting dropped from the best move I have been in. Once I had gone from the back of the break I realised my bike was a bit more damaged than I had originally thought and this caused me to pull out of the race.

Although it was not the greatest ending I was very happy with my progression.

#Deerlijk #crash

CYCLINGNEWS.NU - Sinds 2007

Monique van de Ree cornering at Deerlijk.

More superb photos of the race by Krist Vanmelle at cyclingnews.nu

#Monique van de Ree #Deerlijk

A good friend of me have said: ”You have to make winning a habit”. And it seems like I have done… In Deerlijk yesterday I won my 3rd race this year out 5. When my friend talked about winning, I’m not sure he meant it literally or if he wanted me to just make the right choices in everyday life.

Emma Johansson » arkiv » Victory in Deerlijk

#Emma Johansson #Deerlijk