Emma Silversides in action
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Since my last diary we have racked up several races. I don't intend to bore you with all of them but I will give you a few highlights!
We have raced twice virtually every weekend since the Het Volk. This has been a mixture of UCI races, kermis' and criteriums. Racing twice a week does help to make training easy; there's always lots of motivation to train but also, you have two hard training sessions done already.
The team varies for every race depending upon who is fit, who is available and the terrain of the race. This is a slightly different arrangement to last year when, due to fewer riders on the team, we would all race virtually everything. I think that the set up this year is much better; although you don't know from one week to the next what races you will be doing, there is certainly an incentive to keep yourself in top form so that you do get selected for the races that you would like to do. For me, it's an incentive to really work on my bunch positioning since this is what has, in the past, held me back.
There is no limit to the number of riders from one team that can do a kermis, as a result you are generally guaranteed one race a week. A Belgium kermis can be, and usually is, very fast. The average number of riders at this time of the year is about 110. This is made up of a mixture of club riders and pros. It makes for aggressive racing; club riders are out to get spotted and generally ride as individuals, the pros are often there trying to show their form (the rest of their team will probably be racing a UCI event) so that they can get selected for the next big race on their teams calendar.
One of the recent kermis' we traveled to was in Westkerke, close to the coast of Belgium. We were rather thin on the ground for Westkerke since we were due to ride Flanders the following day. Katie, Lizzie, Gabby and me started in a field of 130 and after about 40km of racing and several attacks by the 3 of us, Lizzie successfully got herself into a break. Going on to get a 6th place she left Katie and I to contest the bunch sprint. I had Katie on my wheel for some time and wound it up a treat; she finished it off in style and got second in the bunch sprint. Unfortunately this race was the start of a prolonged virus for Gabby. As I write is just returning to training.
On 21st April we fielded a full team in the Ronde Van Gelderland. This is a UCI 1.2 race and takes in a mixture of classic flat Dutch dykes and narrow bike paths, as well as some sweet little climbs, actually they weren't that little on reflection!! I was reserve for this race but this time it was Nikki who was suffering from a virus so I got a ride, I discovered this the day before the race during my interval session! As ever, the wind plays a key part in the Dutch races; if you lose a wheel you're bound to suffer. The race itself wasn't massively eventful; a few crashes and a railway barrier down stopping the race temporarily (which provided a great opportunity to straighten Debbie's bike that had been bent in a crash). It was basically a wearing down process; the pace was high and the race was very much controlled by DSB, this is the team of Marianne Vos (World Champion). Vos went onto to take the win in a bunch sprint. 6 of our 8 riders finished with race with Lizzie getting a top 20. Although we are not yet at the level of controlling such a high class race, the fact that we had 6 finishers speaks volumes about the talent on the team.
We are confident of our abilities and our team performances are improving at a rapid rate. Keep your eyes out for the next update when I'll tell you about training; both for myself and the team.
Bry
