By Lauren Kitchen
I have now began the season in Europe with last week’s Het Nieuwsblad marking the beginning of the Spring Classics. It was a very cold start to the European season with a maximum of 1 degree for the whole race, with some girls even suffering from ‘frozen eyes’ that had to be treated! For me, I was very much looking forward to the race and with the support of Wiggle Honda I wanted to start the season with a bang, but it wasnt to be and in hindsight racing with a cold isnt the best but its difficult to stay away from the Belgium classics!
After skipping the second race, Le Samyn, on wednesday to get over my cold, I lined up all fit and healthy with my Wiggle Honda teammates to start Omloop van het Hageland yesterday. With most big teams racing aggressively, including our team, it made it a fast race. But it was to be a bunch sprint where after trying to escape a few time myself in the final few local circuits, our team looked to Emily Collins, my kiwi teammate who had hidden pretty well for the race for a bunch sprint result. I tried to help her with positioning in the final few fast kilometres and she managed to pull of the win in a close sprint. It was very exciting to be a part of the first win for the team and hopefully the start of more results to come next week in Drentre. I am looking forward to Drentre beginning on Thursday where we will start with our world cup line up to test out some tactics before the big race on the Saturday.
