Belgian Opens

Shortly....a few hours actually....the "REAL" race season kicks off, as it should be, in Belgium. Far more erudite and experienced race prognosticators can walk you through the history, the favorites, and the course specifics.

Me, I'm interested in the spectacle of it all. The new kits, new riders on new teams (well, they are new to me since I haven't read any of the other race stuff this year yet). The narrow roads, the cobbles, the mud and grime and dirt. The snow and cold and cloudy skies. The race.

It's easy to become a bit complacent about the racing after 20 years deep in the sport - another race and there will be one on Sunday. Then they'll line up and do it again all season...but here's the thing, it's about the race. It's the battle that goes on everytime they tow the line. That's why I'll get up early and tune in - to watch the action develop over the last few hours and I'll do it again on Sunday - and I'll love every minute of it!


Here is Saturdays' course:

Omloop Is Punchy!

Sunday we get K-B-K....Podium Cafe has a nice review, including pictures! I'll admit that K-B-K carried more sentimental weight as a younger fan....maybe it was more covered by Winning, so it resonated more. I don't really know the course by heart...but it's straight out of Flanders so it must be meritous!

Video is always fun too....

Euro-Cross 2012 (so far...)

GP Neerpelt: September 29th

GP Kalmthout September 30th

Superprestige Ruddervoorde: October 7th

GP Mario De Clerc: October 14th

Belgian Training Day 2 (and 3)...

Tuesday I met up with one of my H.S. MTB athletes - well, I actually met up with the other 2 as well, but they went MTB'ing - and we headed out to do the legendary "Sweet Spot" or "Hour of Power" ride...60m at ~90% FTP. I figure my FTP is probably around 300W right now (maybe a bit lower), so I set out to do 270W, figuring that was going to be a stretch after not-a-lot-of-riding the past couple of weeks (months, years)...and figuring that Malcolm might not be ready to go full gas since this was his first time doing the workout. I use a sweet little loop by my house:
View Sweet Spot Loop in a larger map It takes about 22-25 minutes to do a lap, making it the perfect loop for this workout. You do have to wait - or blow - one stoplight, but that's not too bad for an urban area like this. Anyway, off we went and I quickly found that 270 was pretty easy - in fact I could hold near 300W without too much strain or heart rate drift. I even kept the "sprint-every-3-minutes" component because it wasn't that bad. Malcolm did a good job of sitting on my wheel (he's about 140 lbs to my 173 lbs - so in the draft he had it "easy"). Here's the quick version: 48 minutes of Sweet Spot, 12 minutes of Groveling! Things were going great into the third lap when I gapped off Malcom just before the turn around, roughly 45 minutes into the ride, and was feeilng pretty good. My average was down to 295 but I thought I might be able to pick it up again if I tried... then the wheels came off over the small hill on Arastradero - couldn't hold the power, couldn't really pedal very well...and over the next 12 minutes of nearly focused effort I lost about 12W of my average!. Here is the Strava for the ride: Roughly 20.5 miles in the hour...but still need the power download (F*%&king Powertap Cradle!)
 


 Day 3 was NO RIDE b/c I wasted too much time on my job today instead of riding - oh yea, and I ate a McDonalds out of depression...I suck. Back at it tomorrow...