ZLM Tour / a windy day at the office.

ZLM Tour:

This race after a promising Flanders promised to be a really good day out for the u23 NZ team. Everyone went in with an exact plan. But as bike racing goes sometimes things don't play out how you imagine them to. 

From the time the commissare dropped the flag to signal the start of the race, it was more or less strung out in the gutter. I tried to stay calm and form an echelon, but no one seemed interested and this soon put me back in the convoy ! I had a quick flashing look down at my computer and saw less than 10mins of racing….. 

I made it back to the main bunch and there was still a group of around 20 guys about 20/30 seconds off the front. I was still suffering like a dog, but made the effort to group the boys together and position ourselves on the front where it was going to be safer. We got organised quickly and had the break under control, but other countries were starting to stress out as well which meant that guys taking flyers off the front of the group. This would lead to the Peloton being slammed back in the 'gutter' 

Elastic Snaps 

Soon the race was strung out single file and another turn this time onto a roundabout and up an overpass bridge. This split the bunch into 3 groups. I was in the 2nd Group with Vink. but i was getting hammered with more 'gutter time' as I was right at the back.

Soon after the race came back together with just the front group still dangling out front with a 50sec lead, I knew it wasn't my day and did all I could to move the other boys into good posy in the group. 

I pulled the pin at the feed zone at the 94km mark, I hate pulling out of races. but when its not your day there is not much you can do. 

Our two youngest guys, Hayden McCormick & Hamish 'Panda' Schreurs got into the finishing circuits and were mixing it up finishing just behind the front group.

A huge thanks to all the support staff at BikeNZ: 

Steve, Chris, Bex, and our on the days D.S's Dirk and Marc Ryan. (it makes a huge difference to have all the little things taken care of)

My next race is next weekend in France, 

Paris-Mantes (1.2) 

The sun is out now and the form is still coming up so stay tuned..

KH