As part of my preparation for the World Cups, we headed over to Belgium for the Roc d’Ardenne XCM, a well established race. Having never been to Belgium before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I found was a fantastic course, with some real technical sections, punchy climbs and mud, lots of mud!
We normally arrive a few days early so we can have a look at some of the key areas on the course. One massive mistake I made was not checking the race schedule ahead of time, I had planned to look at the last 10km loop on Saturday; however, unbeknownst to me there was the e-bike race on that day, and not possible to get out on course. The last 10km of the course was super technical with some steep climbs and involved descending and I did not do myself justice in that section.
Due to having unplanned surgery 7weeks prior my fitness was not where I would want it to be. Especially since I had come off the back of the La Santa 4 Stage race feeling fantastic. The last hour was a bit too much for my fitness levels. But this was a race to see where the holes in the fitness where and there were a lot of positives to take away. Like the start; in true Belgium style the start went straight up a steep long climb. I had done some practice intervals on the climb in the days prior which gave me confidence I wasn’t going to blow up. There were some big hitters on the start line, all ranked higher than me in the UCI standing, when the gun went off, I was surprised that I was climbing with the front runners, with 30 seconds of the climb left I talked myself out of keeping up and let the front 5 or 6 girls get away. This was self-belief rather than fitness, and riding with the same racers a few weeks later at Nove Mesto, I think we had a bit of slow start!!
The mud made for slow going, and a top 10 was a better result that I could have hoped for that soon after injury. All in all it’s a race I would definitely go back to again. The atmosphere was fantastic and any race that finishes by passing through the beer tent, is an absolute win!
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