After Paris Roubaix I took a little break, which was more than welcome.
Having started my racing at Six Days of Rotterdam in January, the season started early for me, so it was time to rest a bit after a long stretch of competition.
And I did enjoy the time off, doing some of my hobbies like riding with my cars. I took the time to renew my house a bit.
With Ramona we decided to install a new floor. Quick-Step gave us a big help and now we are really happy about the result!
After that, I started training again. I also went to Mallorca to do some training over there in the nice Spanish sun. :-)
I'm really happy to start in the Tour of Belgium, I have always liked this tour. It has something for everyone, a time trial, sprint race, climbing,... And especially for me, this is the race where I made my debut by winning my first professional race. It was in 2006, an Ardennes stage where we also did the Mur de Huy. So, it was a pretty tough one! I went into the breakaway kind of early with a big group. We took quite a bit of time on the peloton, and it became clear that this group could make it to the finish. In the final, with about 15km to go I went solo. This was after the last climb, and they never saw me again. ;-) That feeling was amazing! It was the most beautiful stage of the race and also no one expected me to win, including myself!
I'm looking forward to seeing how my condition is. I trained a lot but the past weekend I had a really bad cold. But as of Tuesday I felt better, so ready to go for it! Looking forward to the rest of my program.
Together with the team we decided that I will not take the start at Le Tour. This year my program is a little different than usual. It was a difficult decision because with the start in Holland, as a Dutch rider, it would have been something special to be riding on what I consider to be home roads. But sometimes you have to make choices to find the right program. I will be riding the Eneco Tour, and after that we will see what my program is for the rest of the season.
I'm really excited to enter competition again after such a productive period of recovery and training!
The following blog entry is from Petr Vakoc, who is participating in the Giro d'Italia for the first time in his professional career.
I was so excited when I learned that I was selected for the Giro! My first big tour…. it was a bit of a surprise to me, but a really nice one! Of course I knew that it was going to be hard, the Giro is a tough race but a very beautiful one too. I didn’t really know what to expect. But it still surpassed my expectation. Also the atmosphere of the race is amazing, even better than I had imagined.
It’s important to try and relax in between stages, on the bus, in the room, etc... Actually the most fun moments beside the bike is the time we get to spend with our Sports Director Davide Bramati! He is the most funny man ever, but really a super nice person, everything comes from his heart. The passion of the race he shares with us is the best motivation ever!
The “least" fun so far has been Stage 7, the longest stage of Giro, and we had a strong headwind, it was so long. :-) After the first week in the Giro I must say I really love Italy. The food is amazing! Pasta, pasta, pasta I love it! Also, the nature here is beautiful, but I must say the best thing about being here in Italy is the atmosphere. The people are amazing here!
