After a week of no racing, I headed out to Nieuwrode for a 120km Kermesse on a ver flat and windy circuit. Being central to many towns, there was quite a turnout of 140+ riders! With the rain clearing up, and the wind picking up it was time to race...

Within 1km of racing, there was an attack from 5 guys so I joined in to cover my rear (in case the move succeeded on such a flat course) and also to warm my body up in the icy conditions! The move failed but at least I was warm and ready to go. The peleton stayed as one over the following laps; a few small attacks but nothing worth getting involved in.

Come the final lap and I was really feeling worn down. Had I eaten enough? Was it last nights' curry? I looked behind me to see how the peleton was fairing and there uhh... there was no peleton! The only remaining guys were 60 of the original 140 riders. Now this is where the whole sprint thing started, 3km from the finish.

I tried to position myself in the top 30 for the remaining 3,000m - a perfect "shotgun position" for the dangerous finish. With top guys from the Davitamon Lotto feeder team jostling for positions, alongside guys from the Scott USA and Lotto Olympia squads - I was really in the midst of it all! The final 1,000m came in a flash and the whole peleton surged again with another acceleration... 800m, 700m, 500m... time to move my ass! I swung out to the right from 40th position and battered up onto the bike path (whoops) and hammered it past some suffering riders. With 200m to go and I was back onto the tar and trying to nab a top 30... The final kick came at the 100m mark, and we were bumping on 65km/h courtesy of a tailwind. I was only half a metre away from the barrier so it was pretty tense for me! We crossed the line after 2hr:28min of racing flat out - thank goodness it was over!

After checking the results, I saw that I had in fact landed in 17th place / 140. I had also managed to nab 9th in the U23men rankings and also be the first foreigner over the line... ahead of several Davitamon Lotto and Scott USA cyclists - making it my 2nd top 20 in Europe and also earning me some cash which is always nice to have. (and a free dose of confidence)

A great days' racing!!! I've got racing on this Saturday and Sunday so lets' hope for the best.