What a real tough and smart mans race. The day started with overcast weather and abit of a cold wind coming through. It was hard to tell whether to put on more warm clothes,waterproof gloves,gillet,arm warmers etc or go hard man usual summer clothing. It is hard to decide because usually once your racing you warm up straight away so even in around 10 degrees you can be wearing summer clothes because you become very hot. I opted to take a chance and rode with normal short sleeves and short finger gloves BIGG mistake.. Within the first 20k it first started to rain then hail with big hail stones. Its hard to describe but i was both in pain from the hail and seriously cold, it would of been my fingers that were the worst. Trust me having to look at your hands everytime you want to change gears just to make sure your fingers are actually on the levers when coming up to cobble sections because you cant feel you cant feel your hands anymore isnt fun. I gritted my teeth and managed to stick on the next few laps but with riders pulling out left right and center due to the weather it was looking like the smart thing to do. It was the final straw when my legs were beginning to cramp due to the cold and i could not stop shaking. You just got to have some common sense sometimes if i know i will be racing 3 times a week there is no point slaving in the cold with wrong clothing and getting sick for a minor placing. With that in mind i pulled out with another team mate and we were rushed to the team car stripped down, replaced all the wet clothes with dry ones and in the mean time i was shaking uncontrollably, it end up taking almost a good half hour in a heated car for feeling to come back to my hands. So in the end out of 95 starters there was only 40 that finished all scattered apart. I was once again pissed not to finish but with a forecast of better weather for next week i look forward to my next race on Wednesday.
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| Small field of 96 |
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| In red only one without arm warmers |
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| Belgium weather |
Race results
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