Morning Ride

Afternoon Ride

Ouuuuuuch. Currently stumbling through day two of the post @belgianwaffleride cellular decoupling epic bonk hangover. Can’t remember the last time I’ve been so epically whammied by a race. 

Things were all well and good (as good as they can be at least in a circus such as this) and I’d made the front split of six & was feeling quite peachy. Alexeyvermeulen was obviously on a ripper of a day and when he set off for real I found myself in the big ring, cough crying to myself, “you’re a ehaaa bad dog too! ehhaaaa. Bite ehehhh these MFs ehehhaa” as I was trying to claw my way back up to what would be the winning move. I got there but I made a deal with the Devil to do so & soon enough my debit was due to be replayed. Alexey was kind enough not to ride me off the wheel too quickly but after missing a feed & riding over an hour without water I began to realize my organism was returning back to its base elements and if I didn’t throttle back I’d soon become sand. 

The motor was blown. It had run too hot for too long & the gaskets were well & gone & all the moving bits were slowly dry welding together into a useless hunk of junk ready for the scrap pile. All I could do was shift down into idle & hope tip tapping along in my 34x34 was enough to get me home in time for 2nd. It was not. @mattbeers55 & @gmeaster91 came rolling up with a few km to go. I had a brief thought about sprinting which triggered a rather inconvenient full body cramp & that was that. 4th was on the menu for me and by the end I was quite satisfied with that. 

Would have really enjoyed a nice trip to the hospital for an IV, ice bath and round the clock monitoring but had to settle for a a bit of writhing in the merchandise tent, a gallon of hydration mix, a @lostabbey beer, the peaceful meditation of packing two bikes (had to pack @kielreijnen ‘s bike while he was cleaning up in @pstetina ‘s van after a crash) and a nice 2.5hr drive to @philgaimon ‘s wedding. The wedding was what you’d expect (❤️amazing ❤️) and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. Probably wouldn’t schedule my flight for 6:45am the next morning but yes to everything else. 

Top Sports

alex howes

Belgian Waffle ride

4 Photos

7 Comments

Segments

Sign up to view more activities from alex howes

Morning Ride

Morning Ride

Afternoon Ride

Afternoon Ride

Morning Ride

Want to see more?

The #1 app for runners and cyclists

Sign Up for Free. Track your progress and reach goals. Join 100 million active people on Strava.

See More from alex