Belgium Mountain Bike Challenge 2019

5 second count down for Sophie.

The UCI Elite race had some top quality racers signed up with Matthieu Van Der Poel the clear favourite, but the BEMC always attracts a strong field with good racing in every category.


Time trial
Arriving on the Monday afternoon we planned to ride on the Wednesday to allow some recovery from the Roc Marathon but with heavy rain forecast we moved the ride to Tuesday and chose to ride the prologue course (time trial).
This was an 18.5 km loop that started up a steep road climb out of the centre of La Roche. A few kms in it was followed by an extremely steep off road climb on which maintaining traction took a lot of concentration. Once over this the remaining climbs were quite tame by BEMC standards.
The open racers were to go first and Mark was one of the first away at 15:16. The UCI riders followed such that my start time was 18.07 with the UCI men to follow.
It rained on and off during the day and whilst Mark had heavy rain before the start it stayed mostly dry for his race. 3 hours later and I was not so lucky with heavy rain as I started that continued throughout (though I barely noticed it once underway).
We were set off at 30 second intervals so were battling with our competitors on the course. It was a lot of fun and a great way to start a race. I finished the loop in just over an hour and in 10th but only 38 seconds down on 7th. Mark broke the hour despite a local farmer amusing himself by moving signs such that he (along with Van Der Poel and several others) took a wrong turn and had to backtrack.

Matthieu Van Der Poel at the top of the Wall of Borzee.

 Stage one

After the late start on the Thursday it was a relief that the start of stage one was at 10:00. It had stayed dry overnight, was fairly warm and remained dry all day. The trails mostly ran well with just a few greasy places that were pretty hairy if you hit them fast and didn’t stay loose. Mark and I were both hit by other riders swerving across greasy trails but little time was lost.
Despite the previous day’s prologue there was only minimal seeding amongst the Open category, leading to some queues as we entered the single track at the top of the first climb. These didn’t last long however and we were soon battling over the sawtooth profile once more.
Stage one would be our first time up the “Wall of Borzee”, 200m of 20-26% gradient and possibly a stage decider coming only 5km before the finish. Most would be pushing their bikes up here, riding it could open a gap on competitors.
For whatever reason I found myself struggling on this stage. I felt under pressure and I think this negatively affected me and the collision early in the stage had kinked my cables meaning gear shifts and dropper post weren’t operating properly. I finished in 10th place again but today felt less in contention than I had on the prologue.

 

Mark on the final descent stage 2.

 Stage two

Stage 2 was billed as the Queen Stage and was to have been 92kms but due to heavy overnight rain and continued rain forecast throughout the day the river crossings were removed, shortening the stage to 82km. Despite a similar distance and height gain to stage 1 this was undoubtedly a tougher stage, largely due to the weather and quite a few opted not to ride, considering the conditions too challenging. We had swapped our Ardent Race front tyres to Forekasters and this proved a good decision. The Ikon on the rear still afforded plenty of traction but the Forekaster (appropriately) gave predictable front end control. This ended up being my favourite stage, in a similar vein to 2018 where the wet muddy final day was also my favourite. It was so much fun sliding around and I found I could hold a good rhythm all stage and finished feeling strong for the last 20kms, which once again included the Wall of Borzee. I managed to pass two UCI ladies towards the end, finishing 8th on the stage and moving up to 9th in the overall rankings.

So much fun was had sliding around in the mud. 

Stage three
At 62km this was the shortest of the full stages and consisted of two loops, bringing us close to the start at the end of loop one. On the map the loops appeared broadly similar with only minor changes on the second loop but in fact the common sections were largely tarmac or well surfaced and were covered quickly, meaning a large proportion of the time was spent on the sections that differed. Each loop contained a different piece of technical single track which was fun and challenging to ride and I found it a clever and well thought out circuit. Being 20kms shorter and with trails drying out quickly the pace felt high. This is often the case on the final day of shorter stage races and many of those who hadn’t ridden stage 2 were now back on course with fresh legs. I finished the stage in 11th and dropped back to 10th overall.

Cemille in the leaders jersey on Stage three.

The finish

Overall
It’s been a great weekend of racing. The routes for each stage were all fun to ride and race on, probably the best BEMC course yet. Having not raced much recently I definitely felt my fast descending in slippery conditions improved throughout the race. It was great to see Cemille take the win after some very close racing between us four years ago and it’s been amazing to see her progress. Also impressive was the ride by Sophie Halhead to finish in 7th. We will be pairing up for Appenninica MTB Stage Race in July so I need to get a bit more form and a lot more grit to stay with her in Italy. There were plenty of other Brits in the mix, many of whom keep returning plus a good number bravely making the BEMC their first stage race. It’s a very addictive race and I am sure we will be returning again. 

THE Elite women podium: 1st Cemile Trommer a minute ahead of Geerte Hoeke in second and 5 minutes ahead of Bettina Janas in third.

The Elite Mens : 1st Matthieu Van Der Poel 4 minutes ahead of Hans Becking in 2nd and 28 mins ahead of Frans Claues in 3rd. 

All photos thanks to Sportograf

Thanks as always to Cyclopaedia, Cardiff jif, OTESport and FitInNoTime

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