As in 2015, I started with Bram, but already after 10min, he had a flat tire and so my adventure was going to be solo :(. Then again, the weather was perfect, the trails keep you sharp and the mud, oh man, the mud was just killing the transmission of my nice RAM and was even trying to throw me of my bike every 5 minutes. Wow, did I really forget all the techniques for mud or was this crazy? Hmm, the organizing club is called crazy bikers, must be the mud in this area, like riding on brown soap, impossible, just sit on the bike, let it choose directions and pray not to end up in a tree. But ok, it’s fun too ;). But, this is not really the key to fast riding, oh man, this was going to be a long day, luckily I was riding relaxed. But, as usual, something would happen to make the ride a little more challenging: around km 40, just before the second check point, on one of the steep climbs, I suddenly heard-felt a crack. I knew the saddle just broke and so I made a short stop to check the damage. After removing the mud, the rails seemed intact, position seemed right, hmm??? So, I continued and I felt weird, for sure the position changed, but how? 2nd refreshment, tool ready, but I could make out what was wrong?? So, I tried to forget it, concentrated on the trails and as they were going for kms and kms, it was easy to forget troubles, although my back started to become painful. On a track like this, it’s hard to find a moment for relaxing your back, and so I was slowly starting to feel the results in my legs, like the power was slowly being cut off. But, again, nothing I could do, but to continue. I was still enjoying it, maybe a little slower, but it was an incredible ride. But after 3.5hrs, the legs were almost empty and now also the bike started to protest against the mud. All year long in every race, I carry some chainoil, but sure, today I forgot it in the trunk of the car, damned! So, I had to listen to the chain being tortured on top of having lost the power, the worst combi. The last 20kms were a little faster and I really tried to enjoy them, but, to be honest, I couldn’t. I now stopped a couple of times to check the bike as the creaking was driving me insane, I thought I was destroying the xx1 drivetrain, or that something else would jump again, so already slow I had to go slower to keep the machine in 1 piece :(. So, 4hrs47min (ridingtime 4hrs 40 !) later, I was very happy to see the finish! And to my biggest surprise, I had just put the fastest time as well, how is that possible? After cleaning the bike, I discovered the reason for my hard day: the carbon shell of the saddle was completely broken in the middle, so when I was in the saddle, it was bending down till I was sitting 1.5cm lower on the top of the seatpost… Too low, wrong angle, enough to explain my troubled 2nd part of todays’ ride…
But ok, i won, no crashing, so i end this last belgian adventure before returning east in a good way, a much better one than last year, so i am happy! Next an enduro race on my xc bike? Sure, why not :)
