The mud and the stare on Jack Wilson's face tells the story of his U23 Tour of Flanders, which he described as a battle zone (Photo with thanks to Kristoff Bruers)
By Brian Canty
Jack Wilson described yesterday’s opening race of Ireland’s Nations Cup campaign as a “war of attrition” and he himself became a casualty of “one too many fights”.
The An Post Chainreaction rider was honest as ever in his appraisal of his race; played out in atrocious conditions over a treacherous 177-kilometre course.
“I had no legs, then I crashed and blew up from chasing. It was a war of attrition with a shitload of crashes.
“It was raining hard before the cobbles and I got caught behind some crashes and ended up blowing myself up after one too many fights. My legs just gave up.”
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The former U23 national champion entered the race as one of Ireland’s protected riders alongside Ryan Mullen.
Wilson grits his teeth up one of the many cobbled climbs behind one of the Austrian riders (Photo with thanks to Courants d'Aire)
But when the latter crashed and Wilson was caught up in the subsequent traffic, it spelled the end of his day in terms of achieving a result.
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“Me and Mullen were sort of protected riders but he crashed after about 100k and I spent the day chasing,” he lamented.
“I wasn’t so bad, I’m about three kilos lighter than I was when we raced this last year so I managed to get up some of the bergs okay.
“I got up it without having to walk; a lot of guys had to walk but I managed to get up okay. A couple of guys were ahead of me slipping all over the place but I was able to pick my line.”
Looking pensive before the start; his Irish team mates Cormac Clarke and Eoin McCarthy in the background (Photo with thanks to Jens Morel)
It’s been a less than perfect season for Wilson and yesterday’s race was only his sixth competitive outing of 2015.
He’s been dogged by injuries sustained in various crashes but is still upbeat ahead of the next two Nations Cup races in the next week; at Picardie and ZLM, in France and Holland respectively.
“I’m still trying to recover from a crash at Zeeland when I landed on the same shoulder as I damaged in the Tour of Britain last year,” he said of his recent difficulties.
“But I’ll try my best (on Wednesday), I’m not too sure how I’ll be. I’ll try to go in the early break and try to get the name out there… But it’s easier said than done.”
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