Luxembourg are third in the Euros mixed relay. Twelve months ago they were fifth. Two places in a year, as a team, men and women, with a bike change after 3 kilometres for Mathieu Kockelmann and teammates who waited for him. Me, I read that as a club ride.
Because at the club, we wait too. Every Sunday. The ride leaves at nine, I am a twenty-past-nine man, so we wait. Then we wait for the one who punctures, the one who stops at the café, and for me at the red light in Oudenaarde when we go to Flanders. Luxembourg waited once and took a medal. We wait all the time and have a coffee. I’m not saying it’s the same thing. I’m saying we can talk about it.
Jempy Drucker told DirectVelo: “We have been focusing on it for a long time. Last year we started the mixed relay with the aim of winning a medal and it comes in only the second year, it is incredible.” According to him, in the last 5 kilometres his riders were on the same pace as the French. I looked at my bike computer from Sunday. Over the last five kilometres, I was on the same pace as the guy zigzagging in front of me. That’s the start of a project.
And then there’s the motorhome. The men finished first and went back to it, and Mats Wenzel said it was “a strange situation, winning a medal sitting in the motorhome”. I know the feeling. I win my arguments sitting in the café.
Let him give me the name of the mechanic who got the spare bike out. The rest is project talk.
On Sunday I proposed a two-year target to the club. Leaving at ten past nine. At the café we argued till noon.
It’s true, we checked: DirectVelo.
