Tour of Belgium UCI 2.HC Stage 1 and 2

Just a quick update of the first couple of stages.

Stage 1, I think it was 190km or something, Tervuren - Tervuren.

So much for a flat stage, there were some steep wee climbs in there.
It was pretty hard for me, I got pretty good at motor pacing. I had more
flat tyres in the stage than i've had all year. I did manage a chat
to Robbie McEwen during lunch though, he was telling me about how he won
the tour of wellington in 1994, I was telling him how I was 6 years old
then. Ended up too far back and missed a split in the last 3km, lost 1 min 24 sec.

I did learn something though, to catch back up in the last 30km you have to be
doing atleast 80km/h behind the car. That was pretty scary, especially on these
roads.

Stage 2, 200km, Buggenhout - Knokke Heist.
No problems for me today. Did it easy. First hour was fast until break was away,
then it was lunch time. Toilet stop, whatever you want to do at 28km/h. After 15min or so Katusha had to set tempo for most of the day as they had the leader in Ivanov.
Then 70km to go the sprinters teams come to the front to bring the break back and it's race on. Silence with Belgian Champion Roelandts, Rabobank with Brown, Katusha with Napolitano, De Haes and McEwen, Vanscansoleil with Bozic, LPR with Ongarato, Quickstep with Weylandt, Skil-Shimano with Van Hummel, the list goes on. So it's pretty much a bloc (full gas) for the rest of the race. One thing I did learn today though is that when you hit the front you do whatever you can to stay there, because there's no coming back from the back if you drift. I rode 53x12 at 100ish rpm for the last 2 hours and we covered over 100km. Crazy stuff!

I have a new respect for those professional sprinters. They have some big balls to ride those sprints. I don't yet have the nerve for that. Well not so much the nerve it would be ok if I had the power to sustain the position.

There was a huge crash that happened on the finish line, it was a crazy circuit, so much road furniture, a crash was going to happen somewhere. 3km earlier I was also following McEwen when he jumped the curb and rode into the stop sign. Yesterday he was telling me about this years Tour de France and today he's lying on the road side, broken knee, career in doubt, thoughts are definately with him tonight.

Other than that not much, i'm about to sleep. Later start tomorrow though which is nice.

Will try and update tomorrow night.

We have another flat stage, only 170km this time. cobble sections though.
Should be cool.

Ryan