This race is certainly a specialist race, requiring an agile, fast, and lightweight rider to overcome the parcours (course profile) that looked like an earthquake on the Richter scale. The course really suits a guy like Frank Schlek (Team CSC) last years winner.

The race finishes on the famous climb of the Cauberg, which you pass twice before finishing, it’s 1.3km long, with 9% slope, it’s a truly amazing atmosphere there, packed 4-5deep with people either side of the road, coupled with the smell of beer and sausages wafting into the air as the deafening sound of all the fans helps push you up the climb.

On this day I spent most of my time swinging on and off the back of the peleton, getting bottles for my team mates, before calling it at day 180km in the 260km race. Races like this come down to a really select group of riders who actually have a chance of winning. About 5-10 guys on the day will be in that position, or be brought into a position by there team to win a race like this. A tough thing to explain to people outside the sport, but that’s just how elite events like this culminate.

Here’s probably a good opportunity to explain the different levels of Pro Racing.
The lowest level race is what is called 1.1, for a one day race, and 1.2, for a stage race. This is where I’m competitive at the moment, and I’m aiming for some results in these races this year.
Then you have you Hors Category races, another step up, normally attracting a field of at least half pro tour teams, here I feel like just jersey in the peleton ‘bunch fill’ as we call it.
And then there are the big ones, the Pro Tour races, 30 races a year, where all pro tour teams are mandatorally required to start, together with a few minor teams who get wildcard starts, for the moment I’m mostly a number in the bunch as the worlds best riders battle it out. As I’ve observed in the last few weeks, these races are pretty insane!!, really fast and intense experiences.