
The tour de la province Luxembourg kicked off with team presentation. Beveren 2000 had seven riders on the start line but as is always some riders take a bit longer to get ready so only six made it to the presentation on time
Rolling off the start line with 200 riders in what I thought was going to be a sun soaked day in Belgium seemed to be a wee treat, but this was not to be. The cheeky people which organized the tour had use climbing for the first 20km, even if most of it was just false flats the legs didn’t like it at all.
Beveren 2000 once again was represented in the front group with four rides, we hit the finishing circuits and I had a few attacks. I got away just before a filthy climb with a few others riders, the group split again on the last lap and I sprinted in the remaining riders for 4th place.
The second day was absolutely horrible, we started in the rain, we finished in the rain, we got out feed bags in the rain, we went round the corners in the rain, and we……got very wet. Until the finishing circuits everything was rather claim. We had a kilometer hill to climb to the finish and we rode it three times, the first time over the climb I attacked and got away another ride came with me and we healed the peleton to a 20-30 second gap for the last 40km. With 3km to go I attacked the other rider and got a gap he came back at the bottom of the climb so I pumped him in the most awkward sprint finish and won.
It’s been a long time coming but final to win a race even though it’s a stage was good. I was only 20 odd seconds off the lead and sitting 2nd overall. I was now thinking about trying to win the tour out right. This was not to be, I had a major melt down on the bike during the next day and rolled in 7minutes down. It was one of the most frustrating times this year. The last day was under way and with the dismal performance yesterday I was out on the attack, a few times I managed to get away and every time it got brought back by the a few teams and a few riders in the breaks not wanting to work, the move went and I was not in the break but two riders from Beveren 2000 where so it was feet up and roll with the peleton, we hit the finishing circuits and the break came back but there was still 2 rides up the front and one was from Beveren 2000 so following wheels was all we did. A small group jumped away with a kilometer to go and people tried to get up to it I waited for a bit then hit out just catching the back of the group on the line and finishing 5th on the stage and my team mate won the stage.
It was a good tour for myself and the team, we where place in every stage and won 2 of the 4 stages so it was good
There is also a sweet wee video of the tour, I seem to star in it