Over the past few weeks, I have been racing better and better; this past weekend, I took another step forward. 

On Saturday, I rode the Zuid Hollandse Eiland tour in the area just south of Rotterdam. I had good legs and was glad to be racing in hot and sunny conditions. The peloton stayed together for a long time, despite continuous attempts by many to break the race apart. In the heat, drinking enough water is critical but in an aggressive race it is always a risk to go back to the cars. Finally, after one hundred kilometres, I decided to take the chance, and went back. I picked the wrong moment however as a fifteen man break got away while I was fetching my bottles.

From then on, it was pretty well single file for the rest of the race. Getting back to the fore took me nearly half an hour as I managed to make up places by ones and twos in a peloton strung out op de kant. Within the last twenty kilometres, I made several tries and finally broke away ahead of the peloton with a six man group . We worked well together but were caught as we entered the final finishing circuit. The peloton resigned itself to a bunch sprint and I finished in the middle of the pack.

Sunday’s race was the Ronde van Zuid-Oost Friesland which was held on a beautiful lap through the forests and farmland of the region. The weather was perfect again. It was windier this time and right from the start a group split away in the lead. I hadn’t time to get to the front of the race before the move went. Finally, I forced my up there and from then on I was very attentive, watching for a group to go across. I made sure I was at the head of affairs as we sped through the landscape and shed riders off of the back in groups. In the diminished peloton, we had the gap to the kopgroep pegged at about a minute for the whole first half of the race but then we began to lose momentum as fewer and fewer riders participated in the chase.

Finally, about one hundred kilometres in, I decided that I was going to have to attack and try and make it across to the leaders. I went for it and brought five with me. Once we had attained an advantage, we settled into a hard, even effort and began to reel in the riders ahead.

As we arrived, it became clear that I was joining some stiff competition as riders from Metec and Koga made up half of the break’s numbers. From here on, my task was to sit in, wait, and try and go with the right move when the race heated up in the finale. As we entered the last hour of the race, the attacks began to fly. I was still going well and covered the most dangerous attempts, always letting the riders from the bigger teams force the pace.

I had been in a move that was brought back into the fold, when Schep and Wiersma countered and got away. Immediately it became clear that they had formed the winning break as Koga and Metec sat up; both teams satisfied with the situation as they each had good riders up the road. I had a few seconds to catch my breath, then went for it, not content to watch the win ride away. The others let me go and I was away, solo, putting everything on the line. I clawed my way forward and had them within a couple hundred metres for several kilometres but try as I might I could not make up any more ground. It was a bloody agonizing effort and finally I blew. I had been close but they were still too far away. Back in the group, I sat in and tried to recover, shaking the cramps out of my legs every chance that I could. I had one more go with ten kilometres left in the race, hoping that a few would come with me so I could sprint against a smaller group. Nobody followed however; my attack was for nought and I was shortly caught. I tried to position myself well for the sprint, but was absolutely blown away by the leadouts of Metec and Koga and finished a couple riders from the rear of the group in twenty first place.

I am happy with the way I rode, I was strong, I didn’t make any stupid errors and I had a good crack in the finale, despite being thoroughly outnumbered. Finally, I feel like I’m starting to get on a roll.

On Sunday, at the Dorpenomloop in Drenthe, I finally managed to ride well in a klassieker and, for the first time this year, take some satisfaction from my performance in an important race.

I had a point to prove, as Saturday’s A7 Classic had been a write off for me. There, things went terribly from the start for me, even though I had good legs. I was caught behind a series of mishaps in the early kilometres and was left near the rear of bunch without time to move forward in the wind before the pack detonated into waaiers, twenty kilometres into the race. The next hundred and twenty kilometres were spent trying to close a frustratingly small gap to the second echelon. Over time, help in the group dwindled as the others lost strength and gave up hope. Finally, the gap stretched out and the jury pulled us from the race. Riding back to the permanence after a DNF is one of the worst feelings in this sport.

Sunday was a different story however, the conditions were much better, warm and sunny, and I was motivated to ride an aggressive race. I attacked several times and finally broke away with nine others, fifty kilometres into the parcours. I was very comfortable in the break; we rolled in a smooth, co-operative effort and built up a two and a half minute lead. There were several long, nasty cobbled sections in the last sixty kilometres and I considered attacking on each one. For some reason my break mates were riding the stones very, very conservatively; killing our momentum and eating into our advantage. I opted to hold off and bank on the group’s cohesion but we were caught just before the last cobbled section, with twenty kilometres to go.

At this point, there were a flurry of attacks that resulted in a group of ten men breaking clear. I was boxed in when they went but saw right away that it was the right move.

With cards still to play, I got myself to the front and went all in, attacking into a cross wind on a long false flat. I dragged one rider with me and for the next several minutes we were on the absolute rivet, sending me up to my neck in lactic acid. We got agonizingly close, within fifty metres, but then we hit the stones and lost momentum. After a couple of kilometres the peloton caught us and set up for a bunch sprint for the minor placings. I stayed in the wheels to the line and finished forty something in the results.

Even though I left with nothing on paper, I was happy to have been back in the mix and racing aggressively in a classic. It was a big step forward and puts me in good stead for the weeks ahead.