Monday, September 03, 2007
Matt Brammeiers August 07
Engelse Tijtrit Kampioen !!!
Busy, busy, busy ! I can’t believe there has only been 31 days this month; it feels like the 1st of august was 50 days ago.
What looked like a steady month as far as races went turned out to be quite the opposite, 11 races again this month and a bit of travelling thrown in there for good measure.
After a bit of a break after a hard tour in august there wasn’t much big racing going on in Belgium so it was back to basics for a couple of weeks with some hard core Kermess and Crit racing.
First up was a Kermess at Linden which I was up there in last year but crashed out in the finish, so I was keen to try to stay on two wheels today and get a result. After a couple of laps I was in a bit of a sticky situation with 2 team mates in the break which was pulling away pretty fast. I didn’t want to take everyone with me but I was determined to get myself in the front. I attacked hard on the finish climb and got a comfortable gap on the peleton with 1 other guy. We battled round for a couple of laps and somehow caught the break! However I was pretty spent after this so pulled a few turns for my team mate Sander who went on to win! I was a few seconds back in 6th place.
A few days later I was back on “the grid” and racing in the town of one of the team’s directors so the pressure was on. The race started faster than i`ve ever experienced before and after 2ks there was a group of 4 of us 30 seconds up on the peleton. This group grew to about 10 after another few laps of grim crosswinds and not so good Belgian roads. My legs were feeling pretty tip top today and I was up for the win. All the eggs went in one basket and I hit them with all I had with 4ks to go. I got a gap but couldn’t quite hold it. It was all together with 1 km to go and looking like a group sprint. I did all I could to win but just didn’t have the legs after my attack. I finished a respectable 3rd place less than 10cm behind the winner!
The next day I crossed the border into Holland for a post tour Criterium support event in Roosendaal. The day didn’t go quite so well for me today when I got a puncture after about 30 mins of racing. So a bit of a disappointment but what can you do!!
One days rest and I was craving a win again and back pinning my numbers on in Grobbendonk Kermess. I arrived at the start with 15 mins to spare after a good old fashioned Belgian road diversion.
Obviously no chance for a warm up so I took the first lap easy and stayed in the wheels. After a lap of doing nothing I got bored and went on the attack. 3 of us got away and stayed clear for 60km! I could sense I negative race and didn’t want to play ball so I went on a kamikaze mission and kept attacking and attacking. I didn’t stay in the peleton for longer than 2km I think. I rode like an idiot to be honest. I remember an old director of mine John Herety telling me to never attack unless you attacking for the win. If only he could have seen me! Ha ha. Anyway somehow the rest of the guys slowly gave in to me and I managed to escape with two others and got a decent gap of just over a minute. A few laps later we were coming into the finish and it was time to go again, I made my last attack of the day and made it count, 1 km to go and I was way clear and smiling already. My 2nd win of the year and some more plastic flowers for the collection!!
The next day took me into Holland again for another post tour Criterium in oostvoorne. The weather was bad, the circuit was bad, the legs were bad and the moral was bad so yes you guessed it the result was bad! I did just over half the race and called it a day.
A few days later I was back for more at a Kermess in Ninove, the finish town of the tour of Flanders. So as you can guess there were a few hills today and quite a good course for Belgian standards. However I rode like a donkey and missed the break with every one of the favourites in it. Unless I made a move quickly it was all over, so it was all or nothing. I made a good go of it, crossed a 30 second gap and caught the front group. Unlucky for me I caught them at the bottom of the prime hill just before a sprint. So after a short 30 second stint in the break I was dropped and ended up back in the peleton. The gap went up and the race was over, I finished in the peleton and a bit disappointed to finish a race with good legs out of the results.
Next was a purgatory pro Kermess in Heusden, Belgium. I was told by my team that this was the biggest race in Belgium. I didn’t quite grasp how big it was until I saw the amount of people lining the streets. The whole 13km circuit was 4 or 5 people deep! I’m not quite sure why. It was just a normal grim 4 hrs at stupid speeds around a tatty Belgium town! Maybe the presence of the great Frank Vandenbroek had something to do with it. That guys a legend out here; I couldn’t believe the amount of supporters that were out for him. His name was on the road, painted on people’s houses, flags flying everywhere, banners lining the course! Crazy hey! Shame he got dropped hey! Ha ha. Anyway maybe I shouldn’t be laughing; I didn’t quite have the best result either. I had a few digs but those guys where just too fast for me that day! I finished somewhere in the peleton.
After a bit of counselling and a bit of a rest I headed down the road to a U23 Kermess which I remember we won with the national team a few years back with Cavendish. After a lap I had a dig and found myself away with 2 others. Unfortunately these guys weren’t in the best of shape and I was doing a good 80% of the work. We had a gap of just under 1 min for about 60km. Slowly the gap started to come down so I upped the pace a bit on a climb on the circuit and got rid of one of my breakaway companions. So it was 1 down and 1 to go with 60km to go. I did another 20 or so k`s with this other guy until he called it a day and went back to the peleton. I thought id keep plugging away and gave it everything I had. The gap was coming down, but not very fast. It was looking good for me with 10ks to go I still had about 40 seconds. However there was a Russian team there with a sprinter and decided to chase. I was swallowed up with 4ks to go after over 100km out front. Day over for me, I rolled in just outside the top 10.
The next race was one of my favourites of the year and one of the biggest in Belgium too the UCI 1.1 Drievenkoers Overijse, which translates to the grape race at Overijse. Something to do with a local sponsor or something. The course was a good one with a few rolling hills in the first circuits which we had to complete 4 laps and then a 10km finish circuit which we had to do 8 times. Everything was good for today, good moral, good legs, good form good weather….. Maybe not the last one! The weather was pretty awful and got rid of half the race before we made it to the finish circuits. It was quite a scary race with a few nasty crashes and hospital runs for the teams. The cobbled descents and death ridges claimed a few more victims today. Lucky for me I stayed out of trouble and made it to the finish circuits in the front. There were about 30 of us left and lotto and rabobank were riding hard every lap on the climb. I was riding well and was in the first 10 all of the time. Typically as soon as I dropped back the race split and I was in the back pretty annoyed with myself. I tried to attack but couldn’t quite get them. I rode in a few mins down in the 2nd group just outside the top 20. The moral of that story is, don’t ride at the back!!
A few hours recovery and I were back at it. A local Criterium in the town of aarschot. I was up for it today and wanted to win. It was a similar story to last week apart from I came off a little better. To cut a long story short, I attacked after 1 lap, was away for 50 of the 70km with 1 other guy when a group of 7 came across. 1 guy went clear in the closing stages and I couldn’t quite go with him. I went after him but couldn’t catch him and somehow managed to finish 2nd too. Not a bad result after 200ks yesterday! I couldn’t be disappointed really.
Next in the diary was the UCI 1.2 Vlaamse Havenpijl. A pretty awful race really, a circuit of about 20km which we had to cover 9 times with everything from, parked car, tractors, HGVs, tram lines and piles of cut grass in the road. A few near misses went by today I can tell you that. I followed an attack and found myself away with 9 others with 30km to go. We got a gap of 1 min and were all riding pretty well. I really felt good and when we took the bell lap the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I really thought I could win today and polish off what’s been a good year so far. Unlucky for me the right riders weren’t there and a few teams started to ride behind and we were caught and swamped with 5km to go. Pretty disappointed but pleased with my form. I had just 1 week until one of my major goals of the year (the British TT Champs) and knew all I could do now was mess up. All the work was done; all I had to do was not crash and not get sick.
I had a good flight home and after a good night’s sleep I was out on the tt circuit doing laps and laps and laps and laps…….. I had the whole circuit memorised 100%.
I had a think about how I was going to ride on Sunday and did a full on Dress rehearsal race effort on the Thursday before. It felt hard today but I did a good effort and got a lot of information on how I was going to approach the ride on Sunday.
I arrived at the start line in Holmes chapel in 100% condition. My legs were good but most of all my head was good. I had looked at the course in detail; I knew were all the holes, turns, manhole covers and just about everything on the circuit was.
I started hard and just kept it going, everything that I planned had happened and as I got a time check of “15seconds up” after ½ distance I knew I was on a good one. The next check was “30seconds up” , the next “40 seconds up” and the next was with 200 meters to go when I was told id “pi***d it”. I crossed the line and fell off my bike; I hadn’t tried that hard in a while! I was pretty happy and relived to say the least and proud to be British Champion once again!
Busy, busy, busy ! I can’t believe there has only been 31 days this month; it feels like the 1st of august was 50 days ago.
What looked like a steady month as far as races went turned out to be quite the opposite, 11 races again this month and a bit of travelling thrown in there for good measure.
After a bit of a break after a hard tour in august there wasn’t much big racing going on in Belgium so it was back to basics for a couple of weeks with some hard core Kermess and Crit racing.
First up was a Kermess at Linden which I was up there in last year but crashed out in the finish, so I was keen to try to stay on two wheels today and get a result. After a couple of laps I was in a bit of a sticky situation with 2 team mates in the break which was pulling away pretty fast. I didn’t want to take everyone with me but I was determined to get myself in the front. I attacked hard on the finish climb and got a comfortable gap on the peleton with 1 other guy. We battled round for a couple of laps and somehow caught the break! However I was pretty spent after this so pulled a few turns for my team mate Sander who went on to win! I was a few seconds back in 6th place.
A few days later I was back on “the grid” and racing in the town of one of the team’s directors so the pressure was on. The race started faster than i`ve ever experienced before and after 2ks there was a group of 4 of us 30 seconds up on the peleton. This group grew to about 10 after another few laps of grim crosswinds and not so good Belgian roads. My legs were feeling pretty tip top today and I was up for the win. All the eggs went in one basket and I hit them with all I had with 4ks to go. I got a gap but couldn’t quite hold it. It was all together with 1 km to go and looking like a group sprint. I did all I could to win but just didn’t have the legs after my attack. I finished a respectable 3rd place less than 10cm behind the winner!
The next day I crossed the border into Holland for a post tour Criterium support event in Roosendaal. The day didn’t go quite so well for me today when I got a puncture after about 30 mins of racing. So a bit of a disappointment but what can you do!!
One days rest and I was craving a win again and back pinning my numbers on in Grobbendonk Kermess. I arrived at the start with 15 mins to spare after a good old fashioned Belgian road diversion.
Obviously no chance for a warm up so I took the first lap easy and stayed in the wheels. After a lap of doing nothing I got bored and went on the attack. 3 of us got away and stayed clear for 60km! I could sense I negative race and didn’t want to play ball so I went on a kamikaze mission and kept attacking and attacking. I didn’t stay in the peleton for longer than 2km I think. I rode like an idiot to be honest. I remember an old director of mine John Herety telling me to never attack unless you attacking for the win. If only he could have seen me! Ha ha. Anyway somehow the rest of the guys slowly gave in to me and I managed to escape with two others and got a decent gap of just over a minute. A few laps later we were coming into the finish and it was time to go again, I made my last attack of the day and made it count, 1 km to go and I was way clear and smiling already. My 2nd win of the year and some more plastic flowers for the collection!!
The next day took me into Holland again for another post tour Criterium in oostvoorne. The weather was bad, the circuit was bad, the legs were bad and the moral was bad so yes you guessed it the result was bad! I did just over half the race and called it a day.
A few days later I was back for more at a Kermess in Ninove, the finish town of the tour of Flanders. So as you can guess there were a few hills today and quite a good course for Belgian standards. However I rode like a donkey and missed the break with every one of the favourites in it. Unless I made a move quickly it was all over, so it was all or nothing. I made a good go of it, crossed a 30 second gap and caught the front group. Unlucky for me I caught them at the bottom of the prime hill just before a sprint. So after a short 30 second stint in the break I was dropped and ended up back in the peleton. The gap went up and the race was over, I finished in the peleton and a bit disappointed to finish a race with good legs out of the results.
Next was a purgatory pro Kermess in Heusden, Belgium. I was told by my team that this was the biggest race in Belgium. I didn’t quite grasp how big it was until I saw the amount of people lining the streets. The whole 13km circuit was 4 or 5 people deep! I’m not quite sure why. It was just a normal grim 4 hrs at stupid speeds around a tatty Belgium town! Maybe the presence of the great Frank Vandenbroek had something to do with it. That guys a legend out here; I couldn’t believe the amount of supporters that were out for him. His name was on the road, painted on people’s houses, flags flying everywhere, banners lining the course! Crazy hey! Shame he got dropped hey! Ha ha. Anyway maybe I shouldn’t be laughing; I didn’t quite have the best result either. I had a few digs but those guys where just too fast for me that day! I finished somewhere in the peleton.
After a bit of counselling and a bit of a rest I headed down the road to a U23 Kermess which I remember we won with the national team a few years back with Cavendish. After a lap I had a dig and found myself away with 2 others. Unfortunately these guys weren’t in the best of shape and I was doing a good 80% of the work. We had a gap of just under 1 min for about 60km. Slowly the gap started to come down so I upped the pace a bit on a climb on the circuit and got rid of one of my breakaway companions. So it was 1 down and 1 to go with 60km to go. I did another 20 or so k`s with this other guy until he called it a day and went back to the peleton. I thought id keep plugging away and gave it everything I had. The gap was coming down, but not very fast. It was looking good for me with 10ks to go I still had about 40 seconds. However there was a Russian team there with a sprinter and decided to chase. I was swallowed up with 4ks to go after over 100km out front. Day over for me, I rolled in just outside the top 10.
The next race was one of my favourites of the year and one of the biggest in Belgium too the UCI 1.1 Drievenkoers Overijse, which translates to the grape race at Overijse. Something to do with a local sponsor or something. The course was a good one with a few rolling hills in the first circuits which we had to complete 4 laps and then a 10km finish circuit which we had to do 8 times. Everything was good for today, good moral, good legs, good form good weather….. Maybe not the last one! The weather was pretty awful and got rid of half the race before we made it to the finish circuits. It was quite a scary race with a few nasty crashes and hospital runs for the teams. The cobbled descents and death ridges claimed a few more victims today. Lucky for me I stayed out of trouble and made it to the finish circuits in the front. There were about 30 of us left and lotto and rabobank were riding hard every lap on the climb. I was riding well and was in the first 10 all of the time. Typically as soon as I dropped back the race split and I was in the back pretty annoyed with myself. I tried to attack but couldn’t quite get them. I rode in a few mins down in the 2nd group just outside the top 20. The moral of that story is, don’t ride at the back!!
A few hours recovery and I were back at it. A local Criterium in the town of aarschot. I was up for it today and wanted to win. It was a similar story to last week apart from I came off a little better. To cut a long story short, I attacked after 1 lap, was away for 50 of the 70km with 1 other guy when a group of 7 came across. 1 guy went clear in the closing stages and I couldn’t quite go with him. I went after him but couldn’t catch him and somehow managed to finish 2nd too. Not a bad result after 200ks yesterday! I couldn’t be disappointed really.
Next in the diary was the UCI 1.2 Vlaamse Havenpijl. A pretty awful race really, a circuit of about 20km which we had to cover 9 times with everything from, parked car, tractors, HGVs, tram lines and piles of cut grass in the road. A few near misses went by today I can tell you that. I followed an attack and found myself away with 9 others with 30km to go. We got a gap of 1 min and were all riding pretty well. I really felt good and when we took the bell lap the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I really thought I could win today and polish off what’s been a good year so far. Unlucky for me the right riders weren’t there and a few teams started to ride behind and we were caught and swamped with 5km to go. Pretty disappointed but pleased with my form. I had just 1 week until one of my major goals of the year (the British TT Champs) and knew all I could do now was mess up. All the work was done; all I had to do was not crash and not get sick.
I had a good flight home and after a good night’s sleep I was out on the tt circuit doing laps and laps and laps and laps…….. I had the whole circuit memorised 100%.
I had a think about how I was going to ride on Sunday and did a full on Dress rehearsal race effort on the Thursday before. It felt hard today but I did a good effort and got a lot of information on how I was going to approach the ride on Sunday.
I arrived at the start line in Holmes chapel in 100% condition. My legs were good but most of all my head was good. I had looked at the course in detail; I knew were all the holes, turns, manhole covers and just about everything on the circuit was.
I started hard and just kept it going, everything that I planned had happened and as I got a time check of “15seconds up” after ½ distance I knew I was on a good one. The next check was “30seconds up” , the next “40 seconds up” and the next was with 200 meters to go when I was told id “pi***d it”. I crossed the line and fell off my bike; I hadn’t tried that hard in a while! I was pretty happy and relived to say the least and proud to be British Champion once again!
# posted by matt8195 @ Monday, September 03, 2007 
