| My Story: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was my first Spring Classic

There were a lot of great stories to come out of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday – and by now you’ve probably heard the same ones on repeat. Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) completed her comeback from a broken pelvis to take out the win in her return to road racing. Boels-Dolmans used their strength in numbers to dominate the day, despite missing out on the win. Tiffany Cromwell (Velocio-SRAM) has shown she’s back on form, finishing in fifth place in Ghent.

We used quotes in our Omloop Het Nieuwsblad photo gallery to point to a few of the lesser-known stories. It is our hope to demonstrate that each race is jam-packed with interesting anecdotes and small victories and unnoticed heartache by speaking with the riders that might not have a microphone or camera shoved in their the face moments after crossing the line.

My Story, a new Ella CyclingTips series, is meant to accomplish the same – and has been conceptualised based on the belief that every rider who lines up to race has a unique story to tell about her day.

We consider Lizzie Williams (Orica-AIS) the perfect candidate to open this new series. Williams finished in 43rd place, 4’54 behind the race winner. By results alone, Williams had an unremarkable outing. By how often do results tell the whole story?

Here’s what you should know about Williams. She is brand-new to Belgian racing with limited experience racing in Europe. The cold and the cobbles. The crowd-lined climbs. It’s all a first for Williams. Which means her story is the story of her first Spring Classic.

I had been warned, so I was mentally prepared for what to expect coming to Belgium this spring. I had been told to expect terrible weather – rain and freezing cold and maybe even snow. I heard about the big bunches and the race for position and how costly making a mistake would be.

“You have to keep going until you drop,” they said.

“It’s like war out there to hold position,” they told me.

My coach, Martin Barras, scared me a bit about the weather. I’ve come from an Australian summer. I’ve probably only been to the snow five times – and that was only in Australia. I haven’t had much to do with the cold weather. Martin told me to harden up. He said: “You need to learn to train in the rain because in Belgium its always raining!”

My teammates and I arrived in Belgium a week before the race. That definitely helped me get acclimated. We’ve been lucky with the weather, too. Mother Nature has been fairly kind to us. I’ve only had to train in the rain in terrible conditions one
time in the last week. We had a beautiful day for Het Nieuwsblad. I raced in just a jersey, shorts and arm-warmers. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy riding here despite the wind and the cold. Weather-wise, it hasn’t been too intense.

The racing on the other hand – that was definitely intense. The size of the peloton was as big as I was promised and the nerves were as high I was told to expect. I had a lot of close calls during the first hour of the race. I can count on two hands how many times I almost crashed. I think that comes with the territory of spring classic racing and early-season nerves.

I won the Amy Gillet scholarship last year, which gave me the opportunity to come over and race with the Australian National Team from June. I raced for about three months in Europe. I did all the stage races – and in the end, I qualified for the Aussie team for the World Championships.

My first race against the European peloton was Thüringen Rundfahrt last year. Before that I was just racing the National Road Series. Last year was my first year back on the bike following a ten-year hiatus. I’ve never been to Belgium. I’ve never ridden any of these spring classics. I had been told how different the racing would be compared to Australia and European stage races or even one-day races in Italy or France. Everyone told me it would be an entirely different beast – and they were right.

Do you want to know what it’s like to ride the cobbles? It hurts! Your whole body is shuddering as you get jostled around. You have to really calm yourself and try to relax your whole body rather than tensing your arms and your shoulders and your back. It’s really important to relax and sort of allow your bike to carry you over the cobbles. After awhile, it stops hurting and you just go numb. Everything goes numb.

It’s a lot different training over the cobbles than racing over them. I found that it didn’t hurt as much during the race. I was in the zone, and I wasn’t thinking about my body. I was focused on my lines and my position and what was going on around me. It was almost easier in a way.

My personal objective was to try to make the front group. My teammate Emma Johansson was a pre-race favourite, and I really wanted to help her in the important final stages of the race. Whilst that was my personal goal, I know without having discussed it with them that my coach would have considered that a bit too much to put on myself, but that’s my personality. I have big expectations of myself going into any race.

Which meant that I was disappointed to finish in 43rd place over the weekend. It’s just like they told me – make one bad decision and it’s a snowball effect. All it takes is choosing the wrong wheel, which I did – and it’s over.

My mistake? I was on the wheel of a rider that crashed in front of me. We were on the Paterberg, which proved a crucial point in the race. I had to get off my bike and run up the hill. I was off the back before I had even reached the top. And that was my day. The lead group was already up the road, and there was no catching back on.

Because I’m new, I panicked a bit when I found myself alone, but eventually I joined up with two other riders and we worked turns. I could see some teammates up the road, and within ten minutes or so a small peloton had sort of accumulated. By then I realised that I was mid-pack. I wasn’t at the back, so I had calmed down a bit.

The group I was in was quite large, and we worked well together, but it’s hard knowing that you’re not in the race anymore. You’re just getting to the finish. It was a little disheartening. I knew what I done wrong, and I didn’t get a second chance not to make the same mistake.

Despite my immediate disappointment, I was able to take a step back and look at the lessons I learned. I better recognise the fine line between when to conserve energy and when to expend energy, and I know that understanding that line even better will come with experience.

Look at someone like Tiffany Cromwell. She didn’t have the best form in Australia just last month, yet she’s come fifth at the world-class level here in Belgium. It shows that experience and knowledge are just as important as fitness. I know that I have to keep plugging along and keeping learning from each race that I do rather than getting discouraged about the mistakes that I make and the targets that I miss.

When you race in a peloton of the size and pedigree of the one here in Belgium, it’s easy to feel intimidated. You think: “I shouldn’t be up there with those girls.” But why not? I’ve worked just as hard as any other girl in that group to get where I am, so I need to believe that I can be up there and believe that I have what it takes to compete with the best.

My next race, Le Samyn, is already on Wednesday. Rather than focus on results, I’m thinking about positioning. My goal is to stick near the top riders, to stay as close to my teammate Emma Johansson as possible. I want to fight for my position better and not let myself feel intimidated by the riders who get results.

My size is a disadvantage in Belgium. I’m pretty small, and there are some big riders racing these spring classics. I find myself getting pushed around a bit, so on Wednesday, I need to my elbows out more. If I get pushed, I’m ready to push back.

The team is definitely looking forward to bigger and better things in the future. We didn’t finish in the top ten on Saturday, which was disappointing for everyone. We’ve worked hard, and we have a strong team. It just didn’t show at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. A lot of my teammates didn’t have a good day, and when a few don’t have a good day, it can be really taxing on the team as a whole. I think we’re all ready for redemption.

lowercasev

Great article Lizzie - I love reading your behind the scenes account! The “my stories” will be a great addition to Ella. Can’t wait for more!
Thommo

Great reading, keep going Lizzie, you have a lot of male supporters
xponti

The best message here is not that Lizzie made a mistake, but that she recognises that mistake and is determined to fix it. With that attitude she can only get better. Watch out Europe… This “My Story” is a great addition to the Ella Fold.
http://www.littlepeople.id.au Chris Little

Great to read tales from inside the peloton.

A general question/comment for Ella-CT - how do others find the text colour used for the hyperlinks? I find the yellowy-orange to be sometimes impossible to read. Any chance of a change here?
- Jessi Braverman
  
  Just out of curiosity - are you reading on a computer or mobile device? The yellowy-orange is the Ella colour, so we’d prefer to stick with it but if others are are experiencing the same issue, we’ll definitely have a think about changing things up.
  - Anon
    
    I’m reading on a computer and it is hard to read the hyperlinks. If it was a little darker it might be easier to distinguish it from the background.
  - Timiji
    
    I’m reading on my IPad, and I didn’t have any issue with the hyperlink text colour. One of these days I’ll take a look on my desktop and let you know if there’s much difference. I think having a brand colour is a great idea, though to be honest, I didn’t notice that the hyperlink text colour was the same. That’s perhaps the best sign of a good brand strategy, though… so good that it’s invisible.
  - http://www.littlepeople.id.au Chris Little
    
    On computer screens it’s a problem. I don’t have the same issue on tablet or smartphone, now that your question makes me think about it.
    
    And I’m glad to hear it’s a brand colour. I like that idea and hope it works well. Perhaps just a tweak or so?
  - Dave
    
    I think it’s borderline, and I read CT on both an iMac and an iPad.
    
    Making it a touch darker could be a solution as suggested by Anon, but also putting the links in bold/italic instead of just italic when they are in the top bit before the story proper could be a minor improvement.
    
    See this example - I’ve altered the logo and text to be R241 G173 B62 where it was originally R250 G183 B66, i.e. a slight increase in saturation and a slight decrease in brightness. Still close enough to the original that most people won’t notice the change to the logo at the top unless they compare it side by side, but just enough that it’s more readable.
    
    http://s16.postimg.org/y470bitl1/Screen_Shot_2015_03_03_at_3_45_34_pm.png
    
    I’d suggest also copying the main site in changing it for the leader’s jersey colour when the big women’s races are on, i.e. the Giro Rosa (the biggest) and the TDU women’s tour (most international stage race in Australia).
    
    What’s most important is that the content is already fantastic, of course!
    - Jessi Braverman
      
      Dave and company -
      
      Really appreciate the time you all put into giving us feedback on this. It’s definitely something we’ll discuss and consider changing (likely using Dave’s suggestion) moving forward.
      
      Thanks for the props on the content, too, Dave. In early days, this especially means a lot.
      
      Cheers,
      Jessi
Pete23

great article. good to read that pros worry about and make the same mistakes as the rest of us.
Anna

Really enjoyed reading this.
Would have upvoted a couple of comments exactly echo-ing my thoughts (lowercasev, xponti), but found I would need to login to do so.
Is it still the case on cyclingtips that you can ‘guest’ vote? Any reason that’s not the case on ella?
(I don’t think it’s a critical issue, but as it’s early days, thought I’d add my comment/feedback rather than just nodding my head at the screen and moving on… Loving your work all round!)
- Jessi Braverman
  
  Thanks for the props We’re looking into the upvoting issue - and we’ll get back to you on this soon!
Rowena

Great read Lizzie! Keep at it and thanks for sharing this with us.
Anon

This is a great insight into the race. And I agree with xponti, the recognition of the error and the determination to do something different is an awesome way to improve.
Coach

Awsome article. Thanks for sharing!
Dave2020

“You have to really calm yourself and try to relax your whole body rather than tensing your arms and your shoulders and your back. It’s really important to relax and sort of allow your bike to carry you over the cobbles.”

There you go - a debutante who knows what it’s all about. Now it’s just a question of getting more experience. Practice, practice and more practice. Skill training is a zero cost exercise. Once the right ‘muscle memories’ are programmed in, it becomes second nature.

Egon advised Chloe she should be “gripping” the ‘bars and pushing a big gear. Kinda difficult to relax the arms, shoulders and back, if you do that!!!

“the fine line between when to conserve energy and when to expend energy, and I know that understanding that line even better will come with experience.” - A great insight.

Hope you enjoy better luck today in Le Samyn.
- Chloe
  
  I seem to be doing okay with my technique though Dave ????
  - Dave2020
    
    That was a great ride in Le Samyn Chloe, but four days ago you said . . . .
    
    “This is something I really need to figure out. It happened last year as well, so I really need to try and fix this.” You could get a little better in technique over four weeks or four months by adopting specific training drills. More likely, the easier, fluid pedalling just means you’re enjoying good form.
    
    Can you tell the difference?
    
    It’s very easy to say; “raise your optimal cadence ten or twenty rpm.” but in practice it may take four years! There’s a reason we put kids on restricted gears, but coaches may set them in a position on the bike that’s not ideal for learning to pedal fast. They’re all too keen to ‘grow up’ so they get to use the big gears the big boys use. This may define how they pedal for the rest of their careers.
    
    Sitting on the saddle the way it’s designed to be used doesn’t just keep your weight on the back wheel, for good traction on wet cobbles! It is fundamental to balanced and relaxed biomechanics. Sitting ‘on-the-rivet’ is indicative of poor technique. Yet have you noticed how many pros do it? Does it look like they’re relaxed? It’s just good sense to question things like this:-
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sYUfzHzYaU&feature=related
    - Chloe
      
      I think I was talking about my cramps not the cobbles! Haha!
      - Dave2020
        
        I know you were. Don’t you see the connection?
        
        http://www.cyclingTips.com.au/ Wade Wallace
        
        @Dave2020:disqus, I appreciate your attempt at politely engaging with the readers and writers however it’s becoming counterproductive. “Never give advice unless asked” is a saying that you should perhaps take on board which would make your conversation attempts much more palatable here. I would really hate to moderate your comments because it’s obvious you have good things to say, but the way you’re going about it is plain rude. It’s your choice and I hope we continue to see you being a part of the conversation here.
        
        Dave2020
        
        How is it rude Wade? A professional sportswoman suffers cramp, she’s been told to use a “big gear” to climb on cobbles (strikes me as counterproductive!) and I’m trying to help. “Never give advice unless asked” isn’t very helpful. It makes me wince, some of the stuff that ‘experts’ come out with. Yes, my style may sometimes be too confrontational, but it stimulates a response.
        
        (I see you did an edit) Irony indeed.
        
        Where’s the harm? Take it or leave it, but just read what I’ve written in the spirit that’s intended. “I really need to try and fix this.” sounds like a cry for help. I tried to help, but failed. As I intimated earlier; you can write one thing and people read another. It tends to be unpalatable, if it challenges some cherished convention.
        
        ‘AnotherExpert’ makes a derogatory comment and you up-vote it. Why? ‘donncha’ falsely accuses me of mansplaining and that ain’t rude? Is this in the fine old tradition of pom-bashing? That’s ok; makes me smile.
        
        I’m sure there are readers who are sick of seeing my comments. Well, they can easily ignore them.
Bernie

Great article Lizzie, well written insights into the race itself are few and far between. All class you are!