Lounging with Joël 'relaxation chair' Roelants
Hello friends,
Finally no column while I'm sitting or waiting for a plane! On the contrary this time it is keyword peace. Rest rust, I know, but the past few weeks have been tough enough. We start with a flashback: in particular GP number 7: Saint-Jean d'Angély.
Or the GP of France. Saint-Jean started badly, but finished well! On Saturday I crashed at the start of the qualifying series and I wasn't driving very well either. As a result, I was only able to go to 'the bar' on Sunday as 31st. I had two good starts on Sunday, rode two strong heats and came second in the final standings. Although the starting position at the fence was poor, I actually approached that match in the same way as usual. Just do the best you can, no matter what.
In the run-up to the next GP, Teutschenthal, I feel excellent. However, the driving during the first series in Germany was anything but great! Fortunately, the second series went a lot better. I was able to move well to the front and halfway through the race I was ninth. Then Herlings crashed and I moved up one place. Then I passed Simpson and was seventh. I still had a view of more, but then I fell stupidly and twisted my thumb. It was not possible to continue driving so I had to leave with 0 points. I also had quite a bit of pain in my thumb in Kegums. You could say six and five, but it certainly wasn't really good. Before the last GP in Sweden I had injured my hand the week before. A leg that had sprung and was pressing on a nerve. Again I had to ride in pain and twice eighth was the maximum in Uddevalla given the circumstances. I am not flat but I was really in too much pain to be able to go all out!
To rest that hand - the same hand as the one on which I injured my thumb - I will now rest for two weeks. In other words, don't ride your motorcycle to arrive in Lommel fully fit. As a result, I will not be there on Sunday in Tongeren. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with Everts & Friends because it's a little later, on July 21, of course. At the moment the thumb is not too bad. It doesn't bother me anymore. I still have pain and if I make a wrong move, it quickly turns around. (editor's note: next time ask Joël what the difference is between burden and pain in his dictionary!) At the moment, however, I want to be on the safe side and not ride the motorcycle. The past few weeks have been very busy and physically it is also good to slow down. Moreover, the circuit in Tongeren has been very hard in recent years and I preferred to avoid those shocks for my hand at the moment.
For that pinched nerve I had taken anti-inflammatories before and after Sweden and that was over quite quickly. Yet I think it is also important to take enough time to allow such injuries to really heal. Because if you continue and it ignites again, you are much further away from home. And then you don't even have to be called Roelants and live in Grobbendonk! The three GPs that we had just one after the other are not extra difficult in themselves. Only if you are unlucky enough to be hurt at that moment, it will be a loss. You don't have time to rest, even though you still need to be able to train with the motorcycle at least once. I wouldn't have done that for Uddevalla. And then you lack the right feeling during the weekend. In that way I think that for many riders the three GPs were more of a journey of survival and a mission to limit the damage.
In Sweden, my interim teammate Jeremy Delincé did far from poorly. That actually didn't surprise me, because he is someone with a lot of technique. Personally, I had immediately seen him in the top 15 twice, but in the GPs the pace was immediately high and I think he was a bit lacking physically.
Last Tuesday we had Joël Smets' annual team building day with the MXoN pre-selection of Team Belgium. Together with Ken (De Dycker), Ramon, Strijbos and Desalle. It was another very pleasant, relaxing day. We did some water skiing and afterwards we were alone the velo came back. But this time no flashy mountain bikes or carbon racing monsters, but those velos with a bucket on the front. Like the ice cream carts of the past! Alternately someone had to crawl into the box and someone else had to kick it. I had the largest load in my box because I rode with Ken (De Dycker). You can insure a very special combination. Things went downhill at one point, but Ken could only use one arm after his injury in Sweden. We drove straight into the guardrails... A blessing in disguise actually because otherwise we would have stopped! More photos from the team building day see you here.
As a sports fan, I have of course also followed the Football World Cup a bit in recent weeks. Not that I'm a football fan, but my support for the Dutch has apparently already paid off! I wish them well and I was already looking forward to those scenes on TV if the Netherlands would also win the final. Actually, I had estimated Germany in advance to be somewhat stronger than Spain, so in principle they still have a good chance against Spain.
Speaking of TV. At Negaan-JM Racing we regularly play TV ourselves! I'm not talking about the antics we do, but the video analysis we use. Joël (De Busser), our man on the blocks, films during the GP races on Saturday and he goes around to look at the different lines. He has also driven himself so he knows what to look out for. We can then view those images in the trailer in the evening. That's certainly an interesting tool. Sometimes you have the feeling that you are driving well and when you see the images, you are sometimes surprised: “Wow, I'm sitting on it like a block of concrete or you have a dead point in a bend.” have. Something that you sometimes don't see on the motorcycle itself.” So much for the positive aspects of TV! In Uddevalla I had to play a cameraman and such a dual job is not for me. Your helmet doesn't weigh much more, but the camera is from the front and if there is mud on it, it weighs more. I didn't enjoy it that much, so I threw it away for the second series. I actually didn't want to drive it, but there was no way around it! Oh yeah.
Enjoy your holiday and for those who stay at home, enjoy the beautiful weather and I hope to greet you en masse during the Limburg GP at the beginning of August.
Until the next!
PS I'm curious to know what silly title they've put up there again...
Credit photos: CDS, Youthstream/Massimo Zanzani, Team Belgium
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