Race-report Krawatencross Lille and Superprestige Hoogstraten

Freezing weekend in Belgium

Before leaving, I stuffed all my winter clothes into my bag in order to be prepared for two icy races! It proved not having been enough: today, I’m suffering of chilblains on both upper legs.

I was impatient to ride in Lille as I have never been there and I was told, that it is a nice sandy course. But after we arrived, problems popped up one after the other, beginning with a blocked-door-mechanism of our Camping-car. It went on with a broken chain during my first recognition-lap between two men’s races. I had to get back to the car from the farest point of the course. Which meant that I hadn’t seen the most technical parts of the lap and after that I was too much in a hurry to do the inscription and prepare everything (Marc was occupied with my bikes and the car-problem)...!

I went to start with just 20’ of warm-up done and a lot of stress, so I missed my start and it took me to the start-finishline to be able to double some riders that blocked me out for the whole first lap. After that my race was quite ok, I didn’t even feel the cold and enjoyed the nice course, until two laps from the end I crashed hard on the icy ground after coming down from a bridge. Landing on my shoulder and my hip, I felt a sharp pain and as I already had had problems with both shoulders and hip, I preferred to quit the race, hoping for better conditions in Hoogstraten.

After a nice stay in the bed and breakfast « De Rijke Rust » in Rijkevorsel (which I absolutely recommend), it was hard to get out into the cold at 9 o’ clock in the morning.

This time, everything was perfect in preparation, I liked the snow-covered technical course with it’s up’s and downs. The sun even showed up for our race and made the -7 degrees somehow bearable.

Only 15 girls dared to face the cold and the frozen hubbles. Daphny van den Brand took a fast start, but during the first laps I resisted well and stayed in the wheel of former belgian champion Joyce Vanderbeken. At half race, I began to have serious problems with deep-frozen fingers and a blocked front gear-shifter and making errors while shifting which made me loose precious seconds.

It allowed Christine Vardaros to catch up while I changed bike in the penultimate lap. I tried my best to keep the gap as small as possible and was very happy to finish only 5’ down from European Champion Daphny van den Brand.

Pictures © by Krist Vanmelle

A special thank you to the Rent a Camper and Campingshop "Beim Fiischen" for nice vehicle Fiat - Pössl we can use for going to the races.

Unfortunately, my shoulder and hip are painful reminders of my crash on Saturday and chilblains on both upper legs hurt so I’m kind of walking around like a grandma. Hopefully I’ll recover for the race in Middelkerke next Saturday!