Race Report: The GP Stad Zottegem in Belgium
By Neil Shirley, Kelly Benefit Strategies
8/18/10 - I guess it's fitting for my first ever race in Belgium to be in the rain and have two cobble sections within the first 25k, welcome to Belgium!
On Tuesday myself and five of my Kelly Benefit Strategies teammates started the GP Stad Zottegem, a UCI 1.1 race. After racing the USPRO Crit Championships on Saturday and then flying into Belgium on Monday we were looking forward to using the 195k race to blow our legs open. The 200 rider field was made up of Pro-Tour, Pro-Continental, and Belgian Continental teams as well as two North American teams, KBS and Spider Tech.
Neil Shirley (Kelly Benefit Strategies) gets ready for his European campaign,
starting with the 195 k GP Stad Zottegem in Belgium.
Photo courtesy Neil Shirley
The first 50k of the race was the hardest part of the day for me. The combination of cobbles, rain, and narrow twisty roads left me a bit further back in the lined out peloton than I would have liked to be. The race settled down after the first hour and I eventually found myself off the front in a break of ten. Having missed the move, Skil-Shimano was forced to chase us down about 30k later. Jesse Anthony tagged the next move and rolled away with eight others. The pack didn't give his break much leash and was brought back with 5k to go. Zwizanski, Candelario and I helped Veilloux position going into the final few kilometers but Veilloux's run at a top-5 result was ended about 200 meters short of the line when he went down with a few others. He was able to walk away with minor injuries. It wasn't a bad start for the team in our first Belgian race. Having representation in the two main breaks of the day and then having a shot at a stage result was as much as we could have hoped for. I was happy to have good legs throughout the 4.5 hour race, do my job and make the front group of around 60 riders at the end.
Scott Zwizanski after a long day.
Photo courtesy Neil Shirley
Wednesday will be one of our few true rest days for the trip. I think we'll have to go check out the famous cobbled Koppenberg climb which is only 3k from where we're staying. Thursday we fly to Norway to start a 3-day stage race before we head to France on Tuesday and then back to Belgium on Wednesday. Unfortunately I will not be able to post any power files since my SRM head unit succumbed to the elements, it must have been a SoCal model (not made for the rain).
