Ronde van Vlaanderen

There is no doubt, riding the ”Tour of Flanders”, is a big dream for almost every rider, and it really was for me the same. The race is doubtless on of the most special races because of the hillings and all the cobblestones, and as I like cobbles, I was really looking forward to my first “Flanders”.

The day before the race I almost could not sleep. I was excited – but I knew I was well prepared, and there were nothing to worry about. The rest of the team was fit too, and getting some good advices from the experienced Kate, made us quite ready!

The first part of the race was at big roads, where the speed was really high and for me it was really important that I was focused on staying in the front. The first helling, Rekelberg, did not make any different, and the whole peloton continued the high speed toward the second helling, Oude-Kwaremont.
On the top the peloton was still together, which was not as I expected, as the point was an obvious place to split everything.
Shortly after a big crash in the front of the peloton, just before the third helling, Kortekeer, did split everything into atoms. Unfortunately we were all caught behind the crash.

I managed to move from one group to another, and ended up pretty well advanced, but the speed in the group was not high enough, as the riders all had someone in the front, and therefore was not interested in getting closer to them. In the end three groups got together and we all ended up being there. In the final Marie got away in a smaller group, just in front of the peloton, as Nathalie did a good sprint, while me and Anna-Bianca finished in the peloton.

I had a really good day at the bike and I cannot wait for next years “Flanders” :-).

After “Flanders” I went with the Danish team to “GP de Dottignies”, another Belgium race – 128 kilometres and 200 girls at the start line. I did not expect anything, and I might say that I was a bit tired already before we started racing. A lot of wind made the race quite tough, as well as the four hills we had to pass.