Derek Zandstra: Europe Report
The trip to Europe was quite exciting this year. Again I flew from the south over the big pond. Amanda Sin , Chris Everest and I traveled to Monterey California to do the famous Sea Otter Classic first. The weather was different from usual. When we first got there the wind was so strong it was blowing over the portable toilets. It also blew me over as I was going off a bit of a jump. It destroyed my helmet, but I was ok. The race usually has cooler weather with sometimes rain, but this year it was super hot, well in the 30’s. My race started off not the best with a small little pile up, putting me in the middle of the field. It’s a 2 lap race with mostly open trails so drafting is a big thing. I went off pretty hard to catch back up and started to really feel the heat fast. Before I knew it, I couldn’t cool my self down. Basically I was done, but just kept on going super easy till I regained some of my focus. The last lap I started to push again, but just tried to have fun and finish. I ended up with a surprising 15th place. Right after the race it was full packing till late that night to get ready for the second part of the journey. We packed the car and roof of the vehicle and headed to the airport. We slept for about 3 hours that night. We left at 3am to drive to San Jose Airport. Chris flew home and Amanda and I continued on and met up with Emily Batty. We flew from there to Salt Lake, then JFK and then to Brussels. We arrived a day later and got our rental vehicle and drove to Germany for the 2nd World Cup. Talk about being super tired. I didn’t think we would make it, but got a second wind. This was followed by a lot of sleep. Got on a good schedule pretty fast and the weather was good too. The day before the race Kyle Douglas flew down for support and that was awesome to have. It was also a lot of fun having him there too. The race started with 220 riders and because I didn’t do the first one in Africa I started off in 83 spot. My start was ok but I was caught up a bit and was in 90s the first lap. The course is super fun, but fast, making it hard to pass. I moved up slowly and finished off strong to move into 53rd for the finish. I was hoping for better, but with my start, that was a pretty good race. Next weekend I hope to have a better start, by having a better starting spot. After the race we chilled there that night and slowly packed the van the next day. We ended up putting 3 full hockey bags on the roof of the car to fit everything in the van. We had lots of people staring at us on our 4 hour drive to Houffilize, Belgium. We made it there with very little difficulties, although we did see a fully drunk driver all over the road making it super nerve racking to pass. Had no cell phone to call it in, but we did make a video because it was pretty funny how bad this guy was. The weather in Belgium was what you would expect with lots of rain and colder days. The course was a bit muddy, but not that bad. Amanda and I got caught in the rain once, bad, and I mean it poured. It was tempo for 25mins all the way home. At our place we had our fair share of red wine and lots of bread with brie cheese and olive oil with balsamic vinegar. Boy was that good. The race was good too with lots of climbing and some nice descents. I rode the hard tail and it climbed like a Billy goat. I had a great start going super hard to get a good spot. I started off in 73rd and moved into the low 50’s. I slowly moved up through the race with passing people and other people passing me. It’s always a big battle because everyone is fast and so close together. I finished 43rd. I’m slowly moving up, but it’s a long process. I came home to do a fun local Ontario cup. It’s a great way to get some good, fast and hard riding in.
DZ
Monday, May 11, 2009