Restdays need to be earned

Although September would be considered part of the rain season in Vietnam, we haven’t seen any during the race in the past few days. You could argue if that’s a good thing, because the sun and high temperatures in combination with high humidity might just be our worst enemy.

On stage 4, second longest of this race with almost 200 kilometers, our team of 7 consumed about 55 liters of water. You can imagine that also gives our support team a hard job. Luckily this day a group went pretty early and got a nice gap we would be able to control. However, the Vietnamese teams not represented in the break brought it back and so the jumping game started all over again. After a little over 2 hours we finally had our break of the day going and I was able to put myself in it. This way I was able to gain some sprint points, but also anticipate for the one climb on this stage. As I still climb like a brick, I got dropped by the break but managed to get my ass in the main bunch again. On the run-in to the finish we had to work to limit the damage for our GC, but overall it wasn’t too bad for a long day like this.

The next day was a sort of rest day with ‘only’ 10km of individual time trial. For us it would be impossibly difficult to contest the stage win as we would have to make do with our normal race bikes and a clip-on aero bar, opposed to the domestic teams bringing in full-blown TT rigs. I did feel quite good, as did David and Martijn D so we didn’t lose too much time, also with respect to the team classification. David surprised many people to also keep himself near the top of the individual classification.

Stage 6 was again a strange day where it took almost 2,5 hours before a break finally got a (small) gap, hence the 46 km/h average speed over 160 kilometers. As we had Bart in the break, we could leave the chasing to other teams, and have a relatively easy day, if it weren’t for the heat. The 40 degree temperatures in the last hour of racing cooked me, and some others, so when we got to the finish line in Huè, nobody was feeling fresh anymore. No easy days in VTV Cup Ton Hoa Sen.

On the seventh day of racing, we had only 111 km to cover, but that included our first real ‘mountains’ with the famous Hai Van Pass, climbing for 10 km at 5% gradient. You can imagine I was overloaded with joy at the start. To give myself the best possible chance of finishing within the time limit I hoped to get into the break of the day and start the climb with a big enough lead. Robbert probably thought the same so we both positioned ourselves behind the two lead motors at the neutralized start. As soon as the flag dropped, we accelerated with the motorbikes and got a gap right away. A few riders joined and we were off. Quite the opposite of the 6^th stage. Unfortunately Robbert had to drop back, but we plowed on to gain more time on the peloton. The gap never grew beyond 2 minutes, but I was happy nonetheless. I survived the two small climbs halfway, got the intermediate sprint points and managed a few kilometers up the Hai Van Pass before I got caught by the first peloton. As Bob, Martijn D and David kept their position in the first group, Martijn K and Bart found themselves in the second group and me and Robbert picked up some more riders after the descent to form a third group. We would at least make the time cut, so mission accomplished.

Stage 8 would be a good opportunity to try my sprint again. A hot-dog circuit of 2 kilometers, for 25 laps. The summary can be just as short as the race. I started my sprint from a little too far back, but missed out on top speed so didn’t get any further then 8^th. At least I saved some energy for the next day.

The 9^th day would be the longest, covering 244 kilometers. This would be the day that suits me best so I was quite eager to make it into the break, which happened about 20 kilometers into the race. With 10 guys of 10 different teams, we had a good chance of getting a nice gap. However, we had to work quite hard for it, as 2 Vietnamese riders were just sitting on and 2 other Vietnamese riders were doing only half turns. Halfway through the race, our lead stretched out to a maximum of 12 minutes and 10 seconds nonetheless. I took the first two intermediate sprints, but started to suffer a bit after the second due to the heat. When we got near the third sprint, after about 200 kilometers into the race, our pace had dropped significantly as riders were getting tired. 

As the cohesion in the group was starting to fail, I figured to let the third intermediate sprint pass and gamble to try and split the group, getting rid of the sandbags slowing us down. I sort of succeeded, but it was just me who got split from the group. Thus, I was looking at a 40 kilometer solo ride, exactly what I’m not good at. But anything can happen after 200 kilometers of riding, so I just put my head down and kept on pedaling. Unfortunately for me, temperatures again soared to about 39 degrees in the sun, making it difficult to keep the body sufficiently cooled. Half an hour into my solo escape, this forced me to lower my power output a little bit. On top of that, the wind also changed direction as I was now facing a stiff headwind. This made the situation quite hopeless, so after spending over 200 kilometers at the front and with only 12 kilometers to go, I was yet again absorbed by the peloton. With all muscles cramping up, I barely made it to the finish with the pack. Some might call it brave, some might call it stupid, but looking back I can say I really enjoyed it. At least I earned my rest day.