Houffa Gravel: Full Gas in the Ardennes

For over ten years I’ve been making trips to the Ardennes to race bikes, first MTB World Cups, then marathons and stage races, and now gravel races. Somehow the excitement never fades. This past weekend lining up for Houffa Gravel I felt the same buzz I did before my very first Belgian race. Maybe it’s the legendary climbs, maybe it’s the waffles, maybe both. Either way this event kicked off a packed block of five races in seven weeks. After all the training it was finally time to let loose and have some fun.

On Thursday morning I hopped in the Ribble team van as it rumbled down the M40 and by the evening we were rolling into Belgium after a Eurotunnel dash and plenty of me boring the team boss and Meth with my Ardennes stories. I’d insisted this event had to be on the calendar, so even though it ended up being just three of us making the trip, we arrived with a clear mission: race hard and enjoy the weekend.

This year’s race featured a newly designed 47km course, created in preparation for next year’s European Championships. The Côte du Saint Roch was still the iconic opener, but the rest of the course was tweaked with wider tracks, slightly less technical downhills, and a hefty 141km total with 2320m climbing. I’ll admit I was worried they’d softened it too much, but I needn’t have. The mix of savage climbs, rocky singletrack, and high-speed gravel was every bit as brilliant (and brutal) as before.

This event was part of the UCI World Gravel Series, this combined with it being in the heartland of cycling, meant it was one of the best attended events on the calendar. The start list included the names of Connor Swift, current series leader Mathijs Loman, Mads Würtz, Alexander Miller, Greg Van Avermaet, and plenty of cyclocross starts. The women’s race included series leader Wendy Oosterwoud, Nicole Frain, Tessa Neefjes, Annabel Fisher and Annika Langvad and cyclocross star Annemarie Worst.

After a very sweaty warm up on the rollers I stood on the start line at the base of the Côte du Saint Roch full of motivation and confidence. I’d trained well the past month and am fired up to show what I can do through the remainder of the season. Looking around at the competition it’s easy to loose some of that confidence but I knew how well I can race around these hills having previously finished on the podium at Roc d’Ardenne MTB marathon and having finish fourth place at Houffa Gravel.

The gun goes and we fly onto the monster first climb, it takes 506 watts for just over 3 minutes to crest the 0.8km hill with an average gradient of 12.4%, but I’m in the lead group and the race is already in bits behind us.

The first lap was savage, I clung to the leaders until five of them edged away and soon I was swept up by group two, a twenty strong bunch who depressingly seemed more interested in racing for the top ten than chasing glory. I was frustrated as my legs felt so strong, my descending was on fire (the Ribble Ultra Grit with Rockshox Rudy fork and 55mm Schwalbe tyres was flying), and I wanted a shot at the podium. I found myself on the front of group two dragging riders around who were saving their legs for later.

Lap after lap I tried to shake things up, attacks, hard pulls, you name it, but nothing stuck. By lap three all the people who’d saved their energy and still had fresh legs came to the front and whacked it on the front! The pace went nuclear. I had a normalized power of 344 watts for the first half of the third lap but it wasn’t enough. I was paying for all the work I’d done in the first two laps. I managed to hang on for half a lap but the elastic snapped. Game over. I waved goodbye to a group racing for fifth and settled in for a lonely time trial to the finish.

I focused on the power meter determined to keep the power over 300 watts whilst staying aero. I didn’t believe I could maintain the position in the race but was going to empty the tank trying. Past the highpoint of the circuit, through the feed zone, then onto the longer descents where the aim was to ride as quickly as possible and save energy for the next steep climbs. The legs were screaming but I was approaching the finale. One last Precision Fuel & Hydration gel, empty the energy drink from the bottles, every bit of energy was needed.

I was ready to cross the finish line but I still had a few more technical tracks to negotiate whilst staying safe as we lapped some of the age group competitors. Onto the last tarmac climb, down into fast road descent into Houffalize, sharp right onto the cobbles, zigzag through town and over the finish line! Eleventh place!

Danish rider Mads Würtz Schmid took the win, powering away from the rest of us to build up a steady gap that was more than 3 minutes at the finish line. Dutch series leader Mathijs Loman finished second while Belgian Kevin Panhuyzen had to let him go in the final to secure third spot at 4 minutes 20.The women race saw Dutch Esmee Peperkamp opening strong to pass solo at the finish line after one lap. Australian Nicole Louise Frain managed to keep the gap within 30 seconds and closed that gap during the second lap before making her move at the beginning of lap 3 on the Côte du Saint Roch to finally win with a large 10 minute margin to Peperkamp. Series leader Wendy Oosterwoud moved away in the final from her competitors to take third spot at 12 minutes back.

Houffa Gravel was once again an absolute classic. Steep climbs, gnarly trails, roaring crowds, frites, waffles, the full Ardennes experience. I didn’t ride the smartest race but sometimes you have to roll the dice. This time it didn’t work out, but the form is there, the motivation is sky high, and I’m already fired up for Graean Cymru (UCI Gravel Series) this weekend and Nationals in a weeks time.