Race #16 Bertem Interclub

Last Sunday was the last race for at least a little while on Belgian soil. 170 of Belgiums top elite and U23 riders took the start. The field was strong yet again with Profel European continental tour team, the US U23 national team (not the center, these are the real deal national team guys) and the Belgian Military national team being the favorite squads along with over 20 other top amateur outfits including the boys from High 5 Sports Nutrition. Our squad was a bit smaller than usual with only Bart, Jef, Chris and I riding. Chris had some incredible results the week before after the last interclub with a 4th and I believe and 8th on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, but unfortunately he got sick on Friday and was not 100% for Sundays race. Bertem is a tough race with 2 big laps of 57 km and 5 small laps to make the 150km distance. The course is never flat either with about 25 classified climbs plus all of the other smaller ones. The highlights included two assents of a 17% monster of a climb on a rather narrow road on the big laps and the two step finishing climb that we had to cover 6 times. The heat was on full as well with a peak temperature of 36 degrees being recorded at the height of the racing action.
The race started out well and I stayed in the front 40 riders for the majority of the race. I was having some problems with the heat, it felt as though pressure was being applied all around my head and my ears plugged up like what happens during air travel. I seem to have these problems in severe heat when I am really going and as much as I tried to block it out mentally it was a constant factor. After 30km a small group went clear on the steepest climb. I didn't even see it go and didn't realize until later what had happened as the narrow climb was rather chaotic. As the race wore on small groups escaped constantly until 25 riders had formed a group off the front. I got in several of these small groups and on the right side of countless splits up the climbs, but nothing I was in stayed away for long. Eventually on the small laps I got clear with about 20 others and we went clear with over a minutes advantage on the peleton. I finished 37th on the day. Only 99 riders ever saw the finish line and considering the field and me not feeling 100% it was another strong performance. Unfortunately Jef and Chris both abandoned the race, however Bart rode a strong race, also experiencing bad luck and despite riding at the front was only rewarded with 66th place, still a good performance, but not reflective of his work.
Geoffrey Demeyere of Bioagrico won the day in a final break of 5 riders. Profel despite having 2 riders in the final 5 man break only managed 2nd and 4th.
As a side note I was listed as being from Finland in the results today. This is the 4th nationality I have had this year, the others being Swedish, Canadian and Belgian. Another interesting point is that my name in the results appearing in the national newspaper has been also very inconsistent with versions including Perr, Storm and the favorite Stromper.