Back in Belgium, with a bang! Literally...

So here I am, sitting in Oudenaarde writing another one of these blog's. Just before I start blabbing, I'd like to thank all the kind and generous people who have kindly sponsored me and helped fund this trip, really appreciate every bit I get. Thanks guys! After a long days travelling last Thursday I finally arrived, with a broken back! Trying to haul around a bike box and massive bag on your back while jumping in and out of trains and up and down stairs is not fun, not fun at all!

So Ive been getting everything organized for the next month or so of my life that I will be spending here. At the moment I am staying at a very nice B&B but its not ideal. I can't cook and have no where to store food, wash clothes etc.. Which is definitely needed as a cyclist!

Tielt (Kanegem) 1.14.3 Juniores - Sunday 24 July:

First race back in Belgium after roughly a month, and oh did I forget how fast these guys can go! With the race in Tielt the closest one to me at 35km I got a taxi to bring me there so I wouldn't be wasting any energy which I'd need for the race.

Unfortunately the race turned out a bit rough for me. It started very quickly and never really slowed down. It was very sketchy and I could hear people cash behind me but didn't want to look back it was too hectic! The course was 6.8km and we had 12 ronde. The course was difficult, with 14 corners(1 U-turn), road furniture, rough surface and a drag along with 70-80 odd juniores flying around it! Hectic is the perfect word to describe it.

I was going well, staying about mid-way most of the time (it was pretty difficult to move up!). Until about 8 laps in, some guys started to give me weird looks and sprint off. At first I thought nothing of it just thought it was typical in Belgium, but when a few guys started to scream and shout along with pointing at my front wheel I noticed what they were all cringing and moaning at. My skewer on my front wheel had come undone! Of course I had to stop and tighten it up, I'm not an idiot! Unfortunately I could't manage to get back on, got close on some corners but the acceleration from the front was too much!

Disappointing yes, but after I got everything sorted I got going for Oudenaarde and pedalled my way back. You can't change what happens you just got to move on and think to the next race which was..

Reningelst - Inter-Club Juniores 1.14 NAT - Wednesday 27th July:

Pieter Vande Kerckhove the Junior manger/coach had told me a few days previous to Reningelst that he had lined me up so I was very keen and excited to see what an inter-club had to offer. I met the soigneur Patrick at the shop at 12 and Gilles Merchiers and me travelled with him in the team car to Reningelst. When we arrived, it was bucketing down which wasn't too nice, and trying to get organized in a little team car wasn't ideal either but it worked out. We signed on, got numbers ready, massage, race food, small warm up and we were ready to go.

The course suited me perfectly, a hill after 50metres, continued for maybe 600-700 then did a massive left hander onto tiny roads. The rest of the course was pretty lumpy and had a small stretch of cobbles. Savage stuff! The start line was filled with nerves, people were jumping into every little space there was it was madness. I started close to the back unfortunately and the race took off amazingly fast and there was splits with poeple dropped in the first 2km, fortunately this time I was on the right side.

My legs were feeling good and every time up the hill more and more people were getting dropped. A rather large break got up the road and on the 4th lap or so I attacked and tried to ride across. This was when disaster struck, I was on my own so I thought I could gain some time on the corners as I could take my line perfectly. Sadly the roads were wet and I was going a little too fast then my front wheel washed out, leaving me sliding for about 50 metres into some grass! The impact immediately hurt my elbow and hip and I got a nice bit of road rash to match.

It was something like this! but more like the video below..

I was nearly as bad as Menchov!!!

When I stood up, I was in a bad state and the chain was wrapped around the bottlecages so I didn't continue. I was put into the ambulance and checked thoroughly. I was very disappointed as I had great legs and watching the rest of the race was a bit depressing! But at the end of the day, I am lucky I didn't hurt myself too badly. There are plenty more bike races!

So thats a quick update of how things are going so far. I am sure I'll have another blog soon - stay tuned!

Eoin