I have been in the Drenthe region of Holland for the past week and we are flying to Italy today. The Van der Valk hotel in Spier was excellent except for having internet.
The racing in Holland was tough. Its dead flat but the roads are super narrow and there is plenty of wind. Finding position at the front of the peloton is a constant shuffle. And there are cobbles! Not like the cobbles in Belgium which are cut from stone in square shapes and leveled. These cobble “roads” are made from round field stones and dropped in the dirt.
The women completed 3 road races each about 130 – 140 kilometers. Saturday was a World Cup with three cobble sections and 3 trips up the “Vamberg” which was about a 1 minute power climb literally on a hill made from trash over the years.
I drove in advance to the end of the first cobble section to have wheels in case of a flat. After that section I hade 12 minutes to make it to the end of the next cobble section — prolly about 2k’s away by car on back roads. Then I had about 15 minutes to make it to the end of the third cobbled section which was about 4 k away by car. It was hectic and stressful to figure out these roads and make it there on time! And then I had to haul ass to make it to the feedzone on the Vamberg. Whew.
Brooke Miller has been sprinting very well up against the worlds best and she won the sprint jersey Sunday. Way to go!!!
That’s all I have time for now, more later,
-Frank
0 Responses to “Goodbye Holland, Hello Italy”