Omloop Het Volk

1.12 Top Competition
June 24th, 2006
The team for this year’s edition of Omloop Het Volk was John Devine, Mike Wolf, Chris Stockburger, Brandon McKeever, Scott Jackson and I. The race was 172k long, with rolling hills all day. There was a 115k big loop with 2 X 28k circuits at the end. The race broke up early on with a group of 12 getting away about 25k in. We hit the Cappelestraat climb after about 60k. Devine and Wolf went across to the break with 18 other guys. Now there was a 30 man front group and we had two. In the Peloton, Chris and I were the only ones left. With 10k to go, the peloton of now about 50 caught the front group. There were 9 riders up the road, and the peloton now with Devine, Wolf and me. They were both hurting from a long day in the breakaway, so I did what I could in the 700 meter uphill to the finish. My legs were cramping pretty hard so it was all I could do for 13th in the field sprint. I was 22nd with Devine close behind in 33rd. Wolf rolled in just behind the peloton after pulling hard all day in the break as well as the final kilometers to the finish. It was a good race for the team so the motivation is good for the guys leaving for Spain on Monday. I’ll be staying in Belgium for two more races and then back to the US for nationals.