MUCKERS MARCH CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL RACE. 28/03/24
ROUVY Route Used: Kerkgate to Ninove | 28.02miles | 2099ft climbing.
2EARLY4ME RACE RESULT:
| # | Cat. | User | Points | Age | Team | time | GAP | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men |  PACO60 | 89.5 | 60+ | AC CATENOY | 1:30:52.7 | 18.5 | |
| 2 | Men |  stetopps | 87.5 | 60+ | WBCCC | 1:36:40.7 | 0:05:47.9 | 17.39 |
| 3 | Men |  User_Roberto | 84.5 | 50-59 | 1:42:52.6 | 0:11:59.3 | 16.35 |
LATER-ON RACE RESULT:
No Finishers on the Later-On race.
2LATE4ME RACE RESULT:
| # | Cat. | User | Points | Age | Team | time | GAP | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men |  Gilson12 | 97 | 30-39 | 1:17:48.2 | 21.61 | ||
| 2 | Men |  Jettro | 96 | 50-59 | Red Pill Racing | 1:19:27.9 | 0:01:39.6 | 21.16 |
| 3 | Men |  bjm151 | 90.5 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:27:09.4 | 0:09:21.2 | 19.29 |
MAIN RACE RESULT:
106 Registered | 72 Starters | 62 Finishers | 10 DNF | 34 DNS
Back to the spring classics and what a route to use as the final Race for March. 28 miles with lots of spiky kicker hills for the really strong riders to drop those wheel huggers that they struggle with on the more flatter routes! We will see some watts on those today!!
13 of the top 50 were NEDs and it was a mix of first timers ( please accept my friends request from Mucker1974) and then 6 were just because of no HR data which is just a requirement to get a mention and points if you end up in the top 50 places in the championship. So if you are wondering why you are missing, its just the rules and NOT an accusation of cheating.
“Alieno79” makes a surprise return to the top of the podium after a sporadic March championship, with mr shy himself “karel_sousek” getting 2nd place just 2 seconds later. Then a 12 second wait and “BareRemi” pops up in a very strong 3rd place! (will this be enough to clinch this months championship!!??) A 2 way sprint for 4th sees “hinsbergen” just beating championship leader “breers33” who has to settle for 5th! Stuck in no-mans land for the very strong “Stefan_Schmidt” in 6th, but we then have a really close 3 way sprint for 7th with “adampel” just getting the nod in front of “andy_emmo” in 8th and “Edu.Armada_GURE” in 9th, then a few seconds later “lrollin” rounds out the top 10 with a strong ride from the Frenchman.
“Juan65” gets our next 10 Muckers Worldwide mentions off with a nice 11th place, followed by the identical timed due of “Grochang” in 12th and “RocketRoy” in 13th. We have another close duo next with “Andy_UP” in 14th just pipping “m-forby” who gets 15th. “owin.d” gets 16th this week with “KeithOldGit” 13 seconds later in 17th, and then we have quite a large pack racing for the last 3 mentions, but who probably thought they weren’t even on for a top 20! This is the power of the NEDs 😏 So 18th goes to Mucker “nielsbrynnum”, 19th to “Badeskum” and final mention to “Stefan793” who beats 6 other riders who were all just a few seconds away from getting a Muckers Mention!
Well done everyone who finished this. it was a long route with some hard climbs so just to finish this was a great achievement.
We have plans to carry on with this championship format for the rest of the year, with the top 10 in the world championship in line for some great prizes from ROUVY and Muckers Worldwide so if you can stay with us for the year, and make Thursdays your indoor training day, it might just pay off for you. We are also going to add an extra start time to the championship day as-well with a nice early one for us in the UK, at 9:30am due to a few requests to try one at that time.
Please check out the merch shop, and keep scrolling to see how the final standings for March turned out.
MAIN RESULT TABLE:
| # | Cat. | User | Points | Age | Team | time | Time | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men | Alieno79 | 245 | 40-49 | Forno Pioppi | 1:00:54.0 | 27.61 | |
| 2 | Men |  karel_sousek | 242 | 40-49 | CK Vinohradské Šlapky | 1:00:56.1 | 0:00:02.1 | 27.59 |
| 3 | Men |  BareRemi | 239 | 30-39 | Narvik | 1:01:08.7 | 0:00:14.7 | 27.5 |
| 4 | Men |  hinsbergen | 237 | 40-49 | Team Adam-Chris | 1:01:17.1 | 0:00:23.1 | 27.44 |
| 5 | Men | breers33 | 235 | 40-49 | Protech Velo | 1:01:17.8 | 0:00:23.8 | 27.44 |
| 6 | Men |  Stefan_Schmidt | 230 | 40-49 | 1:03:17.1 | 0:02:23.1 | 26.56 | |
| 7 | Men | adampel | 227 | 40-49 | Muckers W-W & Team Adam-Chris | 1:04:12.3 | 0:03:18.3 | 26.19 |
| 8 | Men |  andy_emmo | 224 | 40-49 | 1:04:12.6 | 0:03:18.6 | 26.19 | |
| 9 | Men |  Edu.Armada-GURE | 222 | 40-49 | GURE | 1:04:12.9 | 0:03:18.9 | 26.18 |
| 10 | Men | lrollin | 220 | 50-59 | 1:04:18.8 | 0:03:24.8 | 26.14 | |
| 11 | Men | Juan65 | 215 | 50-59 | 1:06:44.7 | 0:05:50.7 | 25.19 | |
| 12 | Men |  Grochang | 211 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:06:53.6 | 0:05:59.6 | 25.14 |
| 13 | Men | RocketRoy | 209 | 50-59 | Moon Riders | 1:06:53.6 | 0:05:59.6 | 25.14 |
| 14 | Men |  Andy_UP | 207 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:07:56.1 | 0:07:02.1 | 24.75 |
| 15 | Men | m-forby | 205 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:07:56.3 | 0:07:02.3 | 24.75 |
| 16 | Men |  owni.d | 200 | 30-39 | 1:08:32.9 | 0:07:38.8 | 24.53 | |
| 17 | Men | KeithOldGit | 197 | 60+ | Old gits | 1:08:45.3 | 0:07:51.3 | 24.46 |
| 18 | Men | nielsbrynnum | 194 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:09:25.6 | 0:08:31.6 | 24.22 |
| 19 | Men | Badeskum | 192 | 30-39 | 1:09:26.5 | 0:08:32.5 | 24.21 | |
| 20 | Men | Stefan793 | 190 | 40-49 | 1:09:27.5 | 0:08:33.5 | 24.21 | |
| 21 | Men | MatthiasHeil | 185 | 50-59 | www.matthias-heil.co.uk/rvy_racing | 1:09:29.2 | 0:08:35.2 | 24.2 |
| 22 | Men | kvaningen | 182 | 50-59 | 1:09:29.4 | 0:08:35.4 | 24.2 | |
| 23 | Men | HalAir | 179 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:09:29.5 | 0:08:35.5 | 24.2 |
| 24 | Men | RaTim | 177 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:09:29.7 | 0:08:35.7 | 24.2 |
| 25 | Men | MikeHagen | 175 | 60+ | Muckers Worldwide | 1:09:29.1 | 0:08:35.1 | 24.19 |
| 26 | Men | Lyndon65 | 170 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:09:30.0 | 0:08:36.0 | 24.19 |
| 27 | Women | SillySilNL | 167 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide & de Gastjes | 1:13:47.6 | 0:12:53.6 | 22.79 |
| 28 | Men |  SwissChris69 | 164 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:13:48.5 | 0:12:54.5 | 22.78 |
| 29 | Men | Old.BikerRunner | 162 | 50-59 | 1:13:52.1 | 0:12:58.1 | 22.76 | |
| 30 | Men | Chak | 160 | 60+ | Muckers Worldwide | 1:15:03.1 | 0:14:09.1 | 22.4 |
| 31 | Men | S.Ludford | 155 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:15:04.9 | 0:14:10.9 | 22.39 |
| 32 | Men |  Pan.Rorisi | 152 | 40-49 | G.O.A.T. Team Michałowice | 1:15:47.2 | 0:14:53.2 | 22.19 |
| 33 | Men | Squalo_delle_Alpi | 149 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide & Shark Attack | 1:16:25.3 | 0:15:31.3 | 22 |
| 34 | Men | grupedo | 147 | 60+ | UCC, WEDU, Muckers Worldwide | 1:16:25.5 | 0:15:31.5 | 22 |
| 35 | Men | kylofski | 145 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:17:03.7 | 0:16:09.7 | 21.82 |
| 36 | Men | rouvy1bryon | 140 | 60+ | Muckers Worldwide | 1:17:04.3 | 0:16:10.3 | 21.82 |
| 37 | Women |  Regina_L | 137 | 30-39 | 1:17:04.6 | 0:16:10.6 | 21.81 | |
| 51 | Men | mgk1971 | 95 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:20:44.2 | 0:19:50.2 | 20.83 |
| 52 | Men | Mucker1974 | 94 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:21:16.2 | 0:20:22.2 | 20.69 |
| 53 | Men | Duckman2 | 93 | 60+ | 1:21:35.4 | 0:20:41.4 | 20.61 | |
| 54 | Men | MNHROUVY | 92 | 50-59 | 1:23:16.9 | 0:22:22.9 | 20.19 | |
| 55 | Women | kaz1bar | 91 | 40-49 | 1:24:00.2 | 0:23:06.2 | 20.02 | |
| 56 | Men | gunnera | 90 | 60+ | Muckers Worldwide | 1:28:46.6 | 0:27:52.6 | 18.94 |
| 57 | Men | Phil_SCRT | 89 | 50-59 | SC Race Team | 1:31:23.1 | 0:30:29.1 | 18.4 |
| 58 | Men |  JECLopes | 88 | 40-49 | 1:34:45.4 | 0:33:51.4 | 17.74 | |
| 59 | Men |  Dmezan | 87 | 40-49 | 1:38:52.9 | 0:37:58.9 | 17 | |
| 60 | Men | Dok_PS | 86 | 50-59 | 1:39:59.3 | 0:39:05.3 | 16.82 | |
| 61 | Men | vcanale | 85 | 60+ | 1:42:35.6 | 0:41:41.6 | 16.39 | |
| 62 | Men | black-angus | 84 | 50-59 | 1:43:57.8 | 0:43:03.8 | 16.17 |
FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS FOR MARCH 2024:
Going into this race, we had breers33 with a 4.62 point gap over BareRemi in 2nd, who had a 10.54 point gap over Gil.Mad.io in 3rd. A no-show from Gil.Mad.io meant it was a fight for first and breers33 just did enough to hold on and is this Months Muckers Championship winner! Well done!! But you now have the “honor” of getting your 1st lot of winners ballast with 1.5% deduction on next moths points. BareRemi gets the sliver, plus another 1% of ballast, and karel_sousek getting the bronze and another 0.5% of ballast to add to his total.
Top 50 places now get added to the world championship table so please pop over to the blog and search “world championship”
| Position | Name | Total |
| 1 | breers33 | 958 |
| 2 | BareRemi (-0.5) | 956.18 |
| 3 | karel_sousek (-0.5) | 938.27 |
| 4 | Stefan_Schmidt | 889 |
| 5 | RocketRoy | 874 |
| 6 | Lrollin | 871 |
| 7 | nielsbrynnum | 807 |
| 8 | Andy_UP | 789 |
| 9 | Grochang | 775 |
| 10 | hinsbergen | 709 |
| 11 | Gil.Mad.io (-2.5) | 707.84 |
| 12 | MikeHagen | 697 |
| 13 | andy_emmo | 681 |
| 14 | Minyana_GURE | 662 |
| 15 | HalAir | 648 |
| 16 | SillySilNL | 642 |
| 17 | Alieno79 (-1.0) | 628.65 |
| 18 | tranberg | 619 |
| 19 | Lyndon65 | 615 |
| 20 | m-forby | 606 |
| 21 | Chorus | 593 |
| 22 | owni_d | 580 |
| 23 | Dok_PS | 575 |
| 24 | kylofski | 510 |
| 25 | Squalo_delle_Alpi | 504 |
| 26 | macko | 501 |
| 27 | RaTim | 486 |
| 28 | Mucker1974 | 453 |
| 29 | Edu.Armada_GURE | 452 |
| 30 | MatthaisHeil | 449 |
| 31 | Regina_L | 445 |
| 32 | adampel | 442 |
| 33 | Jettro | 426.33 |
| 34 | keitholdgit | 397 |
| 35 | Badeskum | 382 |
| 36 | grupedo | 374 |
| 37 | rouvy1bryon | 372 |
| 38 | BTK_jiri70_cz | 369 |
| 39 | batbuilder | 352 |
| 40 | ogee | 351 |
| 41 | bjm151 | 344.66 |
| 42 | boogybill70 | 344 |
| 43 | tomlerieger | 339 |
| 44 | Anonhemust | 319 |
| 45 | stetopps | 312.16 |
| 46 | A.wool | 311 |
| 47 | yayarecki | 289 |
| 48 | DolphWader | 268 |
| 49 | Phil_SCRT | 260 |
| 50 | stelviobound | 254 |
| 51 | Tuden | 242 |
| 52 | Mick_Michel | 238 |
| =53 | IvanSagan86 | 220 |
| =53 | nelsonsnyder | 220 |
| =55 | STADLER-TONI | 215 |
| =55 | Juan65 | 215 |
| 57 | magayol | 209 |
| 58 | kaz1bar | 208 |
| 59 | cespa | 200 |
| =60 | Grep. | 197 |
| =60 | s.p. | 197 |
| =62 | hj2010 | 192 |
| =62 | neminemlaedere | 192 |
| 64 | Stefan793 | 190 |
| 65 | s.cata | 185 |
| 66 | robinagy | 183 |
| 67 | Kvaningen | 182 |
| 68 | marcomartins | 178 |
| 69 | MNHROUVY | 176 |
| 70 | kjohannessen | 175 |
| 71 | thorc | 170 |
| 72 | jeff65 | 168 |
| 73 | Rodaballoso_CURE | 166 |
| 74 | DKN90 | 165 |
| =75 | Gunthinger-Mike | 164 |
| =75 | SwissChris69 | 164 |
| miicha | 162 | |
| Superman8 | 162 | |
| Old.BikerRunner | 162 | |
| rmadden1 | 161.33 | |
| PFHM | 161 | |
| Kaihu | 160.66 | |
| Chak | 160 | |
| S.Ludford | 155 | |
| perswe | 152 | |
| Rens_Piccavet | 152 | |
| Pan.Rorisi | 152 | |
| Yois_court | 148.5 | |
| cdtchris | 148 | |
| Southafro | 147.5 | |
| user_1417699 | 146 | |
| ambrosedelaney | 140 | |
| liboraa | 137 | |
| A7-453-DAVID-CAPOCCHI | 134 | |
| El_Tractor | 134 | |
| Slyfly | 132 | |
| runeholtzmann | 130 | |
| DonMatteo_07 | 125 | |
| FlyingSkywalker | 122 | |
| wgasiewicz | 117 | |
| Ingmar_ | 115 | |
| MLA78 | 110 | |
| FlyingPastor | 105.5 | |
| Hoppytherocket | 104 | |
| Gilson12 | 97 | |
| mgk1971 | 95 | |
| M-Think | 94 | |
| Duckman2 | 93 | |
| alfiocrist75 | 92 | |
| edgarcadence90 | 92 | |
| Rivers_mofeta_15 | 92 | |
| cjfandel | 91 | |
| JohnNada | 91 | |
| gunnera | 90 | |
| JimmyA | 90 | |
| PACO60 | 89.5 | |
| Easyspanner | 89 | |
| BTPciclismo | 88 | |
| dan-mountainboss | 88 | |
| JECLopse | 88 | |
| kubek81 | 87 | |
| max_1964 | 87 | |
| stijnley | 87 | |
| Dmezan | 87 | |
| Mikeee73 | 86 | |
| JaviLeal | 85 | |
| mtbfunk | 85 | |
| vcanale | 85 | |
| User_Roberto | 84.5 | |
| black-angus | 84 | |
| Keung | 83 | |
| hellonana | 82.5 | |
| IscoRider | 82.5 | |
| 19991992 | 82 | |
| lyndaRyQc | 82 | |
| CoffeeKing | 81 | |
| hejo | 81 | |
| NickoMagnan | 81 | |
| jahew | 79 | |
| Lefikz | 79 | |
| pass911 | 78.5 | |
| Tofizapar | 78 | |
| davidexp3 | 77 | |
| MickyCharly | 76.5 | |
| happy_thor | 76 | |
| ardelft | 75 | |
| morellana | 74 | |
| paoloomassi | 73 | |
| daniel30 | 72 | |
| Mortarmonkee | 71 | |
| EvandroSantos | 70.5 | |
| Hajdi | 70 | |
| Murcisoy_GURE | 69 | |
| angelostg | 67.33 | |
| sebkol | 67 | |
| danielmarino | 66.5 | |
| bondy | 66 | |
| mikado67 | 65 | |
| rpacovsky | 64 | |
| TerenceHale | 63 | |
| outlawill | 62 | |
| eric62 | 61 | |
| Damjan.G | 60 |
I didn’t know we had an annual championship…..a new goal 😀
February was a tough month but I limited the damage after a bad race due to the connection.
25 a good result even if I was usually in the top 20.
In my opinion the new draw has mixed the values on the field again, and until the weight of the drivers follows, it will all be fun but not perfect.
Very tough race, I used my head and not the fire in my eyes (on Wednesday instead of resting I competed again 😝), starting in the 20s and then spitting out in the 40s, I looked for extra w uphill with a good group. On the second or third climb a rider joined in and cut my watts and I moved away from the Pan.Rorisi group where there was a good feeling. Luckily I found a group that we continued until the end, with an eye on Kyle who was following us…. the new draw however makes it difficult to recover even just 80 meters as a success for us who wanted to return… it’s worth thinking about 😉. In the end last drops of strength to win the sprint but I still thank grupedo for the excellent work👍
I make a write error for the automatic writer…Luckily I found grupedo that we continued until the end…. 💪
Strangely, I sprinted with Grochang and RoecketRoy for place 14 but Rouvy crashed and I seemed to have not arrived. My time is however correctly registered on Strava.
This was a fun race. We were a very good group after 8 km and the first climbs and worked hard and well. The group became smaller and smaller and we ended in an all out sprint with Grochang being the strongest. Great race. Have a happy holiday period!
Another challenging route that I wouldn’t want to do in real life at all. I always struggle a bit on very steep and short climbs. Quite a few attacks in the first pack (with our Italian friend at 20w/kg :)), and by the first third, the selection was made. I found myself dropped from the first pack with nielsbrynnum, who unfortunately quickly disappeared from the race. I waited a bit for the second group, and a lot of app freezes caused me to lose touch with this group, ending up just in the top 10.
Enough to maintain a 6th place overall in the March standings.
Top race again muckers, enjoyed it but it was hard. the drafting is good but very hard on you if you are solo. I
was hoping to get in the top 20 so I could treat myself to the a muckers got mentioned T. Next time I hope.
Grochang
Didn’t knew what to expect of Thursdays race and had no tactical race plan. So started off not too hard and fell quickly back as number 32.
I think it was on the second climb I could see Andy-UP 25 meters ahead and my goal and tactics were clear as crystal.
Let Andy feel my front wheel and do not let him win the sprint at any course😉 This was going to be payback time for last Thursday’s race💪 I couldn’t get the phrase out of my head: “ big brain small legs” as Andy had mentioned last week after he took the sprint and glory.
So decided not to pull the train but only push hard on some of the climbs, just to test the group and of course Andy which he by the way was doing quite well – he was like glue
On the last ramp I gained some few meters to Andy, M-forby and and RocketRoy. I was pleased to see RocketRoy doing my companion and we teamed up to reel in DOK_PS and his group 100m in front of us.
Mission completed Andy was left behind and surprisingly I took the sprint at the finish line – Sad to hear DOK_PS had a crash at the sprint, hate to win with a technical issue😬
unofficial 🏁14, official 11🏁
The new drafting has definitely made a change of tactical moves from my point of view – so game on boys and girls 🚴🏼♂️💨🦵🚴🏼♂️🧠😉
You are right, the new draw is nice but it’s hat mixed the real value of the riders. Now is better attend another train rather attack in front with 70/100 mt at a distance in alone mode….
No worries, my Rouvy crashed literally on the last meter and you were in front. I realised 40 minutes later on the Rouvy screen that I had not finished and there was one meter to go… but Strava showed that I had finished and showed the correct time and distance … the same as you… so many of you passed by on the last meter 😂… and it seems that I stood there watching 😂… I went back to my bike, turned the pedals twice and was finally done at the end of the results table at Rouvy … just for the sake of the Rouvy challenge … strange thing ..
Some ride you got there😂
Not really in the mood as I warmed up looking at the 2000ft elevation ahead, didn’t do a silly fast start and kept steady up the first climb happy with the names I could see on the nearby list. On the 2nd or 3rd short climb four of us pulled slightly ahead, I did not recognise two riders and the other was ‘stronger than me’ teammate SwissChris, I instantly thought I’d made a bad error. We continued and caught another teammate Chak who slipped back 200ft at the same as I realised I couldn’t stay with the other three guys, I instantly thought ‘Chak’s my only sensible option’ and eased off at the top so we could team up. It was then about 75% remaining race distance as a 2up time trial to the line, and it was a great team effort. I’m still working out the draft and the weird drift to the front after letting of power, but we kept it tight and at any point one of us was saving a nice amount of watts. Wasn’t sure if Chak would sprint at the end, I was happy either way but glad when he did, it was nice to throw down some big watts at the end of such a hard effort, but he claimed it, great work Chak.
Race stats: Age : 57, Weight : 95kg, IF=1.011
Averages : 154bpm, 286w, 3.01w/kg.
Final race for March, a month where I prioritized to participate in all 4 races (every other Thursday I am usually unable to race)
Had two full rest days prior to this race and updated Rouvy, rewaxed my chain and did an easy 30min warm-up to test the system and recalibrate the trainer. All good, join the start pen!
No fixed race strategy formed other than start hard with a quick 1100w burst to get speed up on the first down-section coming into the first kicker hot and aimed for a 5w/kg push over it and crest. Despite solid start I was now in 30th place give or take, racers were all around :D. Strategy going forward was to stay in a good group, and use the kickers to push watts and accelerate over the crests. Spent most of the racing with MikeHagan, Matthias Heil, Yumile, Stefan793, Kvaningen and others and we had a good group going. Caught up with and passed a smaller group that had left us in the dust earlier and we kept racing on 😀
With 1km to go Yumile and Stefan793 tried to go, with Matthias also follow, so I made a quick punch to stay with them.. We were 8-9people in tight formation, this could go either way for all of us, 500m..holding position, 400m, wait…at 350m I got out of the saddle and did a solid power burst, but I started a little too soon and power was fading with 250m to go and loosing top-end speed…at 150m I pushed what I could but was overtaken by 2-4 riders on my botched up finish attempt – but exhillirating race! We were 8 riders that all finished within 1sec and soooo close to get into Top20 tonite 🤗. Brutal & fun!!
Got an official 23rd place tonite, securing me the 15th place in the March GC 🥳
Great writeup Haldor! I don’t have to repeat it. Great riding with you. Speaking for myself, I made a bit of a tactical error at the start as I decided to rocket off best I could. That worked in that I was in 5th at one point, but then we turned the corner to the first ramp and, gah!, I was in the 40s by the top. But riders were still closely bunched, and was able to slingshot off wheels and move up to the group we ended up in. Loki72 was there too, we haven’t seen much of him lately, and also RaTim and Lyndon65. It was a good group, great finish sprint!
Indeed, RaTim, Loki72 and Lyndon65 was also well within the mix – in my defence most of these races are a blur and I need to “cheat” by looking at the finishing table to connect back toe right names 🤣. Great riding indeed, right back at you Mike 😀
The start of this race was realy fast. Im not quite sure why some of the riders decide to pull so hard out of the start, then start struggeling after 15 min…
My goal was to beat Breers by 3 places to secure the overall win in the march champ. Around halfway the race was between me, breers, hins, karel, alieno and the unknown italian guy. The italien guy seemed strong on the uphill so when he decided to launch an attack in the bottom of the climb in geraardsbergen i waited for the steep part and then decided to chase him down. At the top he had around 30m, and the rest of the leaders was around 100m behind me. The italian sadly didnt wait for me so there were to guys separeted by 50-100 going tt up front and the group behind was working together. At the last climb i noticed that breers was just behind and i decided to wait for his group. Now the tactical play started. I was looking at breers and i guess he was looking at me. A few attacks was netrulised before Alieno slowly went away. Then Karel did the same. My legs felt good, but i decided to let Breers or hins close the gap. I guess they had the same toughts. I was not going to close the gap to let breers take the win 😅.
At the last small uphill, i launched a massiv attack. When i had climbed it, i was around 50 m behind the lead duo, with the to last guys over hundred meters behind. Alieno and Karel countered and started to pull away. After that the last 2k was just about securing 3. pl. Breers lost out in the sprint for 4th, but the fifth pl made him march champ by around 2 pts. Congratz to him and Karel on p3.
Purple sky during running warm up promised lot of action at Muckers race. I could feel fatique on one hand, on the other i know myself and typically under continuous load i perform best, so with three races in three days everything possible. Strong group in front and finally sectours we can call climbs, yet short ones. First half i stayed in group until legs adjusted to race pace. I could see few attacks, but none succeeded.
However nice to see that few strong riders burned their matches too early. Group got reduced anyway and we stayed six or so. Baremi launched big attack in the second half and got 200m lead, but even now i was pretty sure it is too early. We catched him easily on final climb and after that suddenly only me and Alieno had little advantage. Very surprising, but let’s try to take advantage of this situation. We switched in front equally and indeed we could hold it till the finish. When i saw Alieno sprinting 13wkg i could not react, yet 2nd spot feels great. Very exciting tactical race, yet to be honest i was also a bit lucky today being able to draft right wheel. Thank you all who joined!