Hagelandse Chrono and Ardennes Trophy

As they say After storm comes a calm. The last couple of weeks a lot went wrong. Luckily after getting my bike fixed I could start this weekend at two of my favorite competitions. Saturday would be a race against the clock, everyone would start separately and we decided to start early because of the hot weather. Tom De Groote and Peter would ride with me to keep the pace up. We managed the 80 KM in 3h42. We had to wait for the other girls to finish and wish for a good result. Nele Van Maldegem was really strong followed by Kim Saenen and Inne Bertels. I stranded at 4th place. Good feeling afterwards, and progress is noticeable. Results Hagelandsechrono

Sunday we headed for the Ardenne Trophy. One of the "famous" marathons in the Belgian Ardennes. Last year I participated there during the Belgian Champs. All I can say is that I finished.... This year weather would be total opposite, very, very hot. Sunday night we had a massive storm over us, and that made the trails wet, muddy and slippery. Due to the numerous people in the starting boxes, it was not clear to me which position I was riding in. Peter and I decided to race our own race.  For this long hot race, most important was not to overheat in the first part and drink  enough H2O. A stop at each feedzone to fill up bottles was tactically calculated. Waterstops costed me 3' in total. At 65 KM the trail split up into 75 and 100KM. Not knowing what the other girls were doing I decided to attack on the longest distance. They told me I was in 5th position. I passed Ilona Meter who was probably racing in 4th position. On the last long downhill I saw Ken Vandenbulcke who was waiting for Katja Cauwenbergh. Until that point I was sure she was somewhere in front of me. In the last 5KM she past me, realising she climbs better than me I had to keep up and go for the sprint. I spotted Peter yelling at me to keep up. It worked out great! Winning the sprint for 4th place. Minutes after finishing it seemed I finished third female rider on the 100km. First podium of 2014 was a fact. Nele Vanmaldegem and Kristien Achten were respectively 2nd and first.!
Great weekend and thanks to  Smart Cycling Team, Sports2 to fuel me up, Canyon Belgium and Crankbrothers for all technical support! And of course Peter for always pushing me and getting me where I'm now!   Results ladies Ardenne Trophy