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Last updated : 13/3/08 Next update : 20/03/08
News : Hello again! I have started to update my web site again. After the disasters last year I decided to wait and see what happened with the team and races before I started to update my website again. It took most of my enthusiasm just to get through the season. The season so far has had its ups and downs! My winter went with with plenty of good miles and some great memories. I got married in November then started to train hard. I was able to get into good enough condition to win the National cross championships. It is is always nice to win the champs as I still have a great affection for the discipline but more importantly it is a good sign that the winter preparation has gone well. It was the first time I have done Tour of Algave. Normally I would ride Besseges and Ruta Del Sol as my preparation races but due to the training camp in California these races were not possible. I had heard great reviews of Algave from other riders so I was just excited to get stuck in and begin the season in the good weather of the southern Europe. How wrong I was! It didn't just rain all week, it poured down and was pretty cold too! Nearly the whole team caught a cold there!!! I survived the race but really struggled to be competitive. I think a combination of jet lag and lack of race fitness was the difference between being a number in the peleton and getting results. When I returned to Belgium I got the dreaded signs of a cold, a bit of a sore throat and a blocked nose. I was really motivated for the opening weekend of Het Volk and Kuurne so I just tried to look after myself as well as possible, there was still 3 days to go. The day before the race I started to feel a bit better but as you can see from the results of the race I was not 100%! The result doesn't tell the whole story though! Just before the critical sector of the race, I was rammed by a very optimistic rider trying to pass where there was no room! It wrecked my back wheel, which meant I had to go back to the car to change it. The upshot, I had to start the very narrow climbs section of the race at the back! Needless to say I was caught behind all the crashes, 3 big crashes to be exact. It felt like I was chasing all day but eventually I caught the the main group with most of the favorites with about 25 kilometers to go. I thought that was it, with most of the Quick Step team there - including Boonen - we would catch the leaders. But for one reason or another, they stopped chasing with 15 kilometers to go. The 60 kilometers of fighting had been for nothing! We rode in almost 6 minutes behind an unbelievably strong Philip Gilbert! Kuurne Brussels Kuurne is a difficult race at the best of times, but with the slight illness and the very big effort of the day before this edition was to be very hard. It was blowing a gale making conditions even worse. I was a bit too far back on the Old Kwaremont and the peleton split in the cross winds over the top and that was that! I finished in the main peleton. Date Event
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