Rd2 of the E-MTB series in Belgium
After arriving in Belgium to beautiful weather, I was not expecting to wake up on Saturday morning and see a frost covering the ground!
I fired up the diesel heater in the van and warmed myself up while making breakfast, before layering up and heading to rego with the bike to collect my race plate and complete the bike check.
Last round we got a free pair of socks with entry; this round we got a free T-shirt. At this rate, I’ll have a full outfit soon!
Saturday was practice day: nine stages in total — four in the morning, then back to change or charge batteries and have lunch, before heading out to practice another five stages, including the power stage. We finished around 2pm, put the batteries back on charge, checked over the bike, and waited a couple of hours before racing the power stage at 6:30pm in front of a massive Belgian crowd.
We only had one power stage this time, and I felt pretty good after practice. However, I did make a few mistakes in the race run but still managed to sneak into 3rd place. Afterwards, we were invited to a free dinner (lasagna — my favourite) while the power stage podiums were held. That was unexpected, but I was stoked to come away with a trophy.
By the time everything wrapped up, it was just after 8pm and I still hadn’t had a shower. I made friends with a couple of German lads and mentioned I wasn’t looking forward to a cold shower (as I only have hot water in the van when plugged into mains power). They said, “Come with us — we’re going to walk into the campsite next door for a shower and walk out.” It felt cheeky, but it was so worth the warm shower… and no one noticed — lucky!
After an hour or so of watching GoPro footage and taking some notes, it was time for bed. Waking up Sunday morning, it felt even colder than Saturday. I went to turn the diesel heater on, but unfortunately the house battery in the van was flat, so it wouldn’t work. I boiled some water and used a hot water bottle to warm up instead — not ideal, but it did the job! It also didn’t help that we had to be ready to leave at 7:30am, an hour and a half earlier than Saturday.
As the grass crunched under my tyres while riding towards the trails, the sun was out — but it was a false illusion, as it wasn’t warm at all. Pedalling up to Stage 1, I did some warm-up drills to get the body ready, as it was straight into it.
Unfortunately, I messed up a key section — an uphill climb onto a rocky ridge — losing some time to the leader, Helen. Despite that, I still managed 2nd on the stage, which moved me into 2nd overall.
On Stage 2, I found my rhythm and felt like I put down a strong run, nearly catching the rider in front, but ended up 3rd on the stage. This dropped me back to 3rd overall.
Stage 3, I was back on it — taking 2nd place and regaining 2nd overall. From there, I stayed consistent and slowly built a gap to 3rd place. The trails were brutal — not that long, but incredibly technical and physical, with lots of line choices. Make sure you head to YouTube to watch my practice day vlog to get an insight into the trails:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5rwn5Kvp4
Going into the final stage, it was a semi-blind one — part of it was the power stage in reverse, with some extra sections — and it was sketchy. I had over a 20-second lead on 3rd going into it, so my goal was to stay upright and ride clean to secure 2nd overall. I did lose a little time, but still managed to lock in 2nd overall for the weekend.
I was stoked with that result — I felt a lot of improvement from last week’s race, more like myself, and able to relax. Driving long hours and managing everything solo definitely takes its toll, but I’m starting to find a rhythm now.
A couple of weeks off to recharge and practice before heading to Castino, Italy, for Round 3.
See ya soon 👊
