Joseph Schmalz: Diegm

The past few days have been crazy as there is a lot going around the house. There has been a race the past three days with most guys doing all of them. I raced two out of the three days. My first of the two races was a smaller race in Beernem. It was a pretty cool race that went all thru the neighborhoods and all along a river with a series of steep up and downs and at the bottom of one of the down hills they had a guy standing there to keep you from going in the river. At the top of the same downhill they had a stretcher to carry off the victims. Anyway it turns out there was a large field as the Elite and U-23s raced together. The start was crazy and being that three quarters of the race was on single track thru the woods, moving up was impossible. I had an ok start but it was just too congested to get to the front. That’s when I was riding with Cody Kaiser and we were just minding our own business having fun when this jerk laid it down in front of me on an icy corner. I had no way to react being that we were on ice so I slide out in a way that I thought I could get back up and keep going, but instead I landed with much more force and the whip lash slammed the back of my head into the pavement. I got up seeing stars and got back on my bike and tried to keep riding, but I soon realized I was not able to ride my bike that well. So before I hurt myself more I pulled the plug. Thankfully, I did not end up with a concussion just a really sore neck and busted up helmet. Not the race I had in mind.

I took Sunday easy to try and get ready for Monday’s Super Prestige in Diegem. The course in Diegem is very hard. It’s all in town and climbs to the top of town each lap and then descends back down on coble stone streets. There are always thousands of people watching and the elite men race at night so the crowds are crazy big. Our U-23 race had over 70 starters and I started in the very back of the grid. I had an average start and was able to pass quite a few riders on the first lap and more the same on the second lap. But on the third lap I crashed hard and then bobbled in a few corners and lost a lot of spots. I was able to get going again but it was too late and the gaps between groups where huge. I managed to finish on the lead lap and ended up 57^th. Not good and not what I wanted, but it is a “result.”

Tomorrow we go to Azencross GVA in Loenhout. It always has huge crowds and is famous for its green whoops. It should be a lot of fun and a big U-23 field, probably over 100 starters.