Well, where do I start with April?? The weather has been fantastic!  It’s not rained in Belgium for 5 weeks now and I can only remember one day in April when it was less than 20 degree’s.  (Last year it was barely above zero and a dry day was a good one!)

My first race was manic.  It was an amateur kermes with over 260 starters and ‘sods’ law I started near the back!  I didn’t have great legs and with everyone wanting to be at the front I found myself going backwards from the gun!  After a couple of laps of literally never even being able to see the front of the race, my legs loosened up a little and I started to move up.  I did eventually get to the front and was actually then able to race!  All the races I have done this year with more than 200 starters have ended in bunch sprints, so I decided to save as much as possible for the last lap.  Enough said – a group got up the road never to be seen again, then I got held up by a crash in the sprint so ended up about 40th. 

A few days later I had another amateur kermes, again with well over 200 starters.  With so many starters, and a rolling, windy course, and with primes on offer every other lap, it looked like it would split to pieces.  I felt really strong that day so I decided to make sure I was on the front row of the grid and get in some moves.  On the 2nd lap I got into a 4 man move that included my house mate Matt Brammiere.  We gained about 30 seconds, but 10km later were pulled back by the peleton.  A few more small moves went, but none got too far and were soon reeled in by the peleton.  On the 3rd prime lap (actual 6th lap) I attacked on the back of the circuit on a slight rise just after a tough windy section and got a good gap.  A few kms later I could see behind that a chase group of about 8 had broken away and also had a good gap on the peleton.  I rolled through the finish line to take the prime and then waited for the chase group, a couple others came across and we had a group of 18.  We battered along for a few laps and usually a group of this size, which also had some good riders in, would stay away till the end.  After 30 kms I think we were all surprised to feel the front of the peleton breathing down our necks.  As a few riders in the break gave up, we were soon caught and that left me pretty battered with about 20kms to go.  Needless to say, I wasn’t up there in the finish and rolled in mid peleton. 

The next day I had another amateur kermes and placed 24th, which I was relatively happy with given the state of my legs from the previous day! 

After a day’s rest came yet another kermes where I finished 17th from 221 starters, and then an Interclub, in a local town, Aarschot.  I felt good that day but completely messed up and ended up 40th, pretty annoyed!

Following that came a 2 day Inter-club in West Flanders.  I was really up for the TT on the second day but it wasn’t to be….  The first day was a disaster – I hadn’t felt great in the week running up to the race and got dropped for the first time this year.  I was absolutely gutted.  The next day I came down with a virus.  At least that answers why I was so bad, thankfully!

The bad news is, three weeks on and I am still ill.  I haven’t been able to train seriously and certainly not race.  So keep them emails coming as I have plenty of time to read!  It’s a bit of a gutter because I have now also missed a big pro race which was one main target for the year.  However, it may actually turn out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise.  I have a lot of important races in August and September, so at least I will be fresh for them!

The rest of our new team kit has finally arrived, so I have my team launch later today!  Better late then never, hey!?! 

That’s all for now, till next time, when hopefully I will have better news! 

Dan

Special thanks this month go to -