‘Cross Belgium Style: Nikola Butler

Nikola Butler goes on a road trip to Belgium to experience cyclo-cross at the home of the sport

Nikola writes … Yorkshire Cyclocross’s Chris Young and Steve Barnes have traditionally taken a group of junior boys to Belgium to give them an experience of cross racing. This year they wanted to give some youth girls and women the chance to get a taste of Belgian cross and I was really excited to be going.

I was really proud of the fact I’d managed to stay fit and well when everyone else seemed to have had a cough and cold leading up to the National Trophy at Bradford. Then a couple of days after Bradford, disaster struck and I came down with a stomach bug that seemed to be doing the rounds. So I arrived in Belgium after a week off the bike but feeling OK.

The accommodation was in Oudenaarde, which is where our British pros are based. The owners are cycling fanatics and organise the legendary Koppenberg Cross, previously won by GB’s Helen Wyman.

The plan for the weekend was to all race at Lichtervelde on the Saturday and then split up on the Sunday. I would go with the youth riders and race at Maldegem and the others would go to Namur for the World Cup race.

We arrived at Lichtervelde and took our permission slips and licences to the sign on only to be told that there was no race for women. If we wanted a race, we had to travel 160km to the GVA Trophy in Essen.

I was gutted. I’d come here to race! What if the race at Maldegem was the same? Logistically, getting to Essen would be very difficult given that the vans were finely balanced with bikes and riders but Chris spoke to the organisers and they said we could make it to Essen in time, so we switched everything around in the vans and left pretty sharpish.

Here’s what I knew about the race – the pros were using it as a warm up for the World Cup; there would be loads of spectators there; the course would be hard; I felt totally unprepared!
Colin Humphreys did a great job of remaining calm as we raced to Essen. The van was silent and Adela looked pretty sick with nerves. I didn’t feel much better myself. There was no expectation of me but I didn’t want to be an embarrassment.

We had about 30 minutes before the race started to get on the course. We found the course and Colin went off to find the pits. The course was the most demanding I’ve ever encountered in my short time cross racing and incredibly muddy. We didn’t manage to get a full practice lap in and my nerves meant I didn’t ride the bits we did see very well.

We also had no time to get clean. Waiting at the start, looking a bit muddy, a who’s who of women’s ‘cross rode past to warm up. Vos was gridded first. At that point my stomach did a bit of a flip. I couldn’t believe I was lining up in the same race as Marianne Vos!

I kept out of trouble at the start, which proved to be a wise move as I managed to dodge a bit of a coming together and pressed on. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Adela with her bike on her shoulder running towards the pits. My strategy was survival.

I couldn’t afford any bike problems or falls if I was going to complete as much of the race as I could, especially as I hadn’t ridden all the course. The deep mud, sand, steps, run ups and hurdles were massively energy sapping.

The top women were taking more than 10 minutes a lap. I felt like I was just trying to get round for a lot of the race, rather than racing but I did catch people. I was pulled out after 30 minutes and tried to make my way back to the pits to find Colin.

The crowd were amazing. I’d come a lowly 24th (I think) and people were still patting me on the back and shouting words of encouragement! I found the race very inclusive and the Belgians treat their racers like kings. I’d love to try it again and do myself justice, with a bit more prep and planning!

Back at the house, we’d had some good junior and youth results at Lichtervelde so the mood was good over tea and we were all looking forward to tomorrow.

On Sunday morning, I was feeling pretty tired. Lots of travelling and sleeping in a shared room had taken its toll. A shower and good breakfast woke me up a bit and we packed up in the rain to head to Maldegem, thankfully not as early as the juniors had left for the World Cup in Namur.

The course was another muddy one but thankfully not as obstacle ridden as Essen. The whole thing was on a much smaller scale but there was still a very good bar! And they had a race for women. I would race in with the juniors.

The youths raced first, all doing Yorkshire proud. Abby Mae Parkinson (RST-Trigon Bikes) (below) being the first youth girl, took a cash prize and a lovely bouquet of flowers. They’re all ones to watch for the future.

I was gridded right at the back. The start was a residential street with a sharp right onto cobbles so I was alert for any crashes. We all got round safely and I was 3rd in a line of four women. I pushed into second and then hit a big patch of mud with a bit too much enthusiasm, ending up on my bum and back in third with a ripped skinsuit… I calmed down after that and made some good decisions on when to run and which lines to take and pulled away into first where I managed to stay until the end of the race.

As I crossed the line I was dragged away to have lots of photos taken with the first junior, collect my flowers and get lots of hugs and kisses from different officials. On the way back to the van I received many cries of proficiat! They really are too kind…

Quickly back down to earth, we packed up the van for the drive to Calais and a journey that would see me crawling into bed at 2:30 am, tired but full of plans to go back and thrilled to have had a taste of cross in Belgium.

Big thanks must go to Yorkshire Cyclocross for the opportunity – Chris Young for organising and getting permission for us to race abroad; Steve Barnes for driving, organising, pitting etc, Ian McParland for driving and entertaining us and Colin Humphreys for racing to Essen and his encouragement during the race. I’m just off to get my kit out of the wash…

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