I wanted some Dutch action, kissed the tarmac………Pedal, Pedal, Splat !

Koewacht, Holland – Wim Hendriks 29th April 2018

Distance: 108 miles

Starters: 137 starters

Type of race: Flat, Lots of Laps, Lots of Corners…Braking, Sprinting, Not Much Else!

On Saturday morning the team met early outside Jason’s house in Kent. Piling into 2 cars and a new team minibus. We were going over as a squad of 5 riders with 4 helpers, and were meeting 2 other riders and another helper in Holland. Very exciting. Our race was on the Sunday.

The mood was light and everyone was making jokes as we entered the Channel Tunnel and made our way to Holland. Koewacht, for anyone that has good knowledge of the flat country.

We made it there in good time to enable a practice ride on the Saturday afternoon. Dave Williams led us round and gave us the inside knowledge on how the race would go down. It was a good laugh. We ended up with some of our own time to practice on some of the sections and then back on the bus to shoot off quickly to the hotel, unpack, meal out, bed.

On Sunday I woke up with a runny nose. I didn’t feel 100% but you have to roll with these things - I was in Holland and here to make the most of it. We arrived at the course, took a few photos of us at a team, headed to the start. We waited at the start for quite a while as nerves grew, as everyone started to talk about how fast, how technical and dangerous the course was. A lot of talks about crashes… great, nothing like crash stories just before you start a race!

On schedule, at 11am we were off. I knew the pace would be fast from the gun and the style of racing was full gas to the turns, sprint out of the turns, full gas, repeat. It was like racing a massive crit. I was able to move up through this group at points even getting a chance to get off the front for a brief few kilometres but this was unrelenting . But I had started to get into a rhythm.

As we entered the second lap, I got caught in a situation where I rubbed wheels with another rider and had to unclip to stay upright. That was a little nerve racking, but no chance to dwell on it; I just worked out a way to stay upright and go again.

The following lap was a brutal. The group kept on splitting and regrouping. Sometimes I was on the right side of the split, other times I had to do the chasing.

Then the event of the day for me happened! (not something that was unheard of in this race). As we entered the third lap things took a turn for the worst. All riders were fighting for position, we came up again to road bollards where the pack had to split either side before a sharp right turn, and all this going on at 37mph. As we came up to this road furniture (as is the term), the rider to my right hadn’t seen it (but surely he remembered it from the previous two laps!) and moved inwards; the rider to my left also wanted the gap in the peloton in front of me. I also wanted the gap in front of myself. Mmm!. We all squeezed into a gap for one rider all at once, and then the road narrowed around the bollard as we went over a large speed bump (oh yeah this was another regular obstacle)…………………... I lost control and interlocked bars with the rider to my right. I was heading south but managed to unlock myself from the other rider such that he stayed upright. I hit the ground with my last recorded speed on the Garmin was 33.6mph before the auto pause (the graph looks rather odd but quite simple to explain). Everything hips or below hit the road. Everything else hit the grass verge in-between the road and the pavement. The last thing I did before hitting the ground as to put my hands over my head. Wow! All so fast and yet felt like slow motion at the same time as I did stay conscious. I eventually came to a stop and lay there on the ground. Ouch physically and Ouch frustratingly. I had been feeling strong in the saddle.

Thankfully

I was picked up off the road by Dave Williams who had jumped out of the team car. I immediately felt secure and that I was being looked after so thank you. I had happened to crash outside the first aid building so that was convenient for everyone and was helped over by the marshal – impeccable support and medical safety.

As for the bike, it was completely written off and I’m now talking nicely to my insurance company.

As for me, road rash in many places on my right side. A week or so to heel over but won’t stop me for too long. I do look forward to racing in Belgium this coming weekend.

As for my team mates…we all different challenges but valued the intense experience of rapid road racing.

Thanks to Jason and the team. Another experience in the bag! But not quite the one I had hoped for.