LIMBURGS MOOISTE

Today as the day of the best organized and hardest race in the Netherlands: Limburgs Mooiste. 176 kms in the south of the country, with 30 climbs and many small hills. It was even harder because I’m running a cold with throat infection and had cramps half way thru the ride. But still a very nice ride with a selected group of colleagues.

Hoje foi dia da corrida mais bem organizada da Holanda: Limburgs Mooiste. 176 kms no sul do país, com 30 subidas fortes a muitas subidas pequenas. Foi um dia duro porque estou gripado, com crise de garganta e ainda tive caimbras. Mas também foi uma volta muito boa com um grupo de colegas do trabalho muito bom.

The day started very very early. Peter, with whom I was going down, show up at my door at 4:30 in the morning. We drove the two hours ride and arrived at the start with enough time to prepare everything calmly and set off with sufficient time for a toilet break before the start. The night before was quite a struggle already as my coughing kept waking me up and in total I only slept for 3 or 4 hours. Not perfect conditions.

Limburgs Mooiste is a very well organized event and I really encourage everybody I know to participate. Every year the route is different but always nicely designed. Road surface is mostly very good, food stations are well sorted and the traffic handling is well placed. 

With 30 climbs spread in its 177 kms and an average climb distance of 1.4 kms, it means we were climbing steep hills every 4 and a half kilometer. And those 4 kms were not exactly flat. I started climbing on my pace and not trying to overdo it. Richard and Chris, the ones in best shapes however started already pushing a bit harder and to stick with them I had to a bit beyond what I was planning at the beginning.

My heart rate was also a bit out of control. In all climbs, it was going up to 178 and 184 quite fast. I thought that it was coming from the sickness and decided not to pay too much attention. The climbs went all well and I managed to do them in a good pace. Staying around 11 to 15 kms/h on the steepest parts, with gradients around 10 and 12%. Which to me is a good result.

The rest of the time I was basically in front, pushing with Rich and Chris, keeping a speed of 30 to 35 kms/h on the flat and around 60 km/h on the descends. Most of the downhill were quite technical and short and you couldn’t develop speed. But they were very fun with short turns and steep ramps. By that time I started feeling very feverish and wasn’t feeling great. But could still keep pushing the pedals and performance wasn’t impacted.

When we were around 130 kms into the ride a surprise hit me. The quads (front muscles of the upper legs) and the hamstrings (back ones) started cramping. The hamstring cramps were the worse. They were right at the top of the muscle, in the connection with the bum. It was quite painful. This happened right in the middle of a steep climb and I I had to slow down dramatically.

The trick on those cases is not to stop. If you do, the cramps will spread and it will be quite difficult to start again. The secret is to get to the easiest gear and juts go slow, buying time for the cramp to go away. I did that and it worked. I believe the cause for it was the medication I am taking for the infection. Every time I take medicines for infection I get cramps. Also the constant warming up on the climbs and cooling down on the descends. It was a cold day with temperatures not going above 14 degrees for most of it.

At the top of the climb, when the group stopped to wait for the slower ones, I decided to keep on going to keep the legs warm. I would go a bit slow and allow the team to catch up. but when I was going down the hill, I missed one of the signals and went down the whole road and had to come back to find out the right route. And now I was in a dilemma: did the group already passed? Were they ahead of me or behind?

I decided to continue until the top of the next big climb, the Camerig, which has 4.5 kms in distance and a 8% average gradient. In there, the cramps came back but I managed to continue until the top. At that point, I decided to stop to eat and drink and gave 5 minutes for the team to show up. As they didn’t and I was feeling better, I started pushing hard again, counting they would be ahead. And that paid off: I catch up with Bart and Jeroen just before the next feed station, where the rest of the group was.

From that point on it was only 25 kms to the finish and we did it together, waiting for the slower riders at the top of the biggest climbs. The cramps were gone and we rode well to the finish line. It was a great hard day in the saddle. Sick or not I would not miss this ride for nothing. The team was great, the route well chosen and the results better than I expected. Next now is the team ride in Germany.

Things of notice:

- Being The Netherlands, even the finish line has a traffic jam.
- I broke the zipper of my t-shirt right at the beginning of the ride and missed the team photo.
- My new bike is very good in descending. She (always a she) can do it almost by herself.
- Quite some guys with triathlon bars. I don’t like them.
- Less women than last year.
- Limburgs Mooiste is the one race that has Apple Cookies. Like them.
- I did the whole ride without going for a pee, even if I drank lots of water. Strange.
- Got bitten on a sprint. Wasn’t expecting a sprint. Second time this year…
- Feed zones and control points were not crowded at all. Big improvement from last year.

Photos

Team at the start: missed because I had to change shirts.