This course captures the brutal essence of Belgium cycling, to describe the terrain as legbreaking is an understatement, specially when you add that pretty much the whole thing is gravel and some of it very technical. What makes it so tough is that there’s barely any time to relax because you’re always going up or down or rocky technical terrain and this makes it very difficult to keep up with your nutrition and hydration. The last 30kms I felt a cramp coming and when I had a minor crash due to another rider who stopped in the middle of a climb, my calf cramped so badly like never before, I was on ground whining like a kid from the pain, have to give thanks to the other rider who helped stretch my leg to aliviate the cramp. I did loose a few minutes recovering from this episode but in the end I don’t think it would have made enough of a difference to qualify. After that I rode easy using my right leg as my left calf was still tight from the cramp.
On a positive note, when I did this race 2 years ago, I had 4 flats so this time I came prepared with MTB tires on my gravel bike and it was the best decision ever, no flats and I was able to use all the rocky downhills to my advantage, easily passing others and making up places that I would lose on the climbs 😀.
I saw a few nasty crashes and tons of flats as plenty of people were in 38mm and 40mm gravel tires and on this course they will not last more than 20kms.
#houffagravel #mtbrace #graveladventure #gravelrace
1 Comment
Hey well done! I can see you have mtb skills as you over takes many riders. But a lot of wasted effort and energy to move up, loons like a solo time trial at times. What age group did you race?