THE FLÈCHE WALLONNE Huy, Belgium, April 21, 2004

French national Sonia Huguet (Équipe de France) won the women’s Flèche Wallonne, beating German Hanke Kupfernagel (Vlaanderen-T-Interim Univega) and Lithuanian Edita Pucinskaite (Michela Fanini) by 9 and 18 seconds, respectively.  RONA’s Geneviève Jeanson was the highest finisher for our team, placing 30th, 44 seconds behind the winner.

At the 16km mark, Ina Teutenberg (Team Germany) and Japan’s Miho Oki (Farm Frites) attacked. New-Zealander Meshy Holt bridged to them and the trio’s lead varied from 45 seconds to 1min 20sec for more than 50km.  The peloton reeled them in on the hard Bohisseau climb, 30km from the finish.  Italian Fabiana Luperini (Let’s Go Finland) and Lyne Bessette (Team Canada) counter-attacked and Geneviève Jeanson (RONA) joined them.  Their lead reached 30sec but they were absorbed by the peleton about 10km from the finish.

Shortly after, Huguet launched a solo attack and Kupfernagel soon bridged to her. The duo reached the bottom of the mur d’Huy (average slope 12.9% with pitches at 19%) with a 40sec lead over the closest chasers.  The main group had reduced to 40 riders after the successive climbs exploded the peloton of 152 starters.  Huguet charged up the climb to take the world cup win.

My contribution to the team result started well but ended in disappointment for me.  On extremely narrow roads, that twisted in amongst the Belgium farm lands, staying at the front was vital.  I stayed in the top 20 during the first 45km but had heavy jetlagged legs that were totally unresponsive.  I moved Genevieve to the front when I could, sheltering her from the wind and keeping her away from the myriad of crashes happening in the back.  With 152 riders, it was a constant battle to even get to the front and then to try and stay there took so much effort.

At the 50km mark, on a steep twisty descent, a motorcycle stopped right in front of me to film the passing riders. I was trying to move up along the edge of peloton and at 70km/hr, completely locked it up, fishtailing sideways down the road.  Somehow I kept my bike upright and stopped only inches from him.  I was so shaken up and started riding like a ‘Nervous Nelly’, with a white knuckled death grip on my bars.

With 30km to go, on the Bohisseau climb, I tried to climb out of the seat but my arms couldn’t support my weight.  I had gripped the bars so tightly that I had no strength left in my upper body.  I tried to hang on to the tail end of group over the climb, but found myself in the caravan and eventually in a group of 30, finishing 99th, 8mins 28sec down.  I learned a good lesson from this race and understand now how important it is to relax and maintain good form at all times.

Now we are off to Italy to enjoy the hospitality of our bicycle sponsor, Colnago.
Until then Ciao.