Posts Tagged ‘Belgium’
Hey everyone!
I almost forgot I was having a webpage! Anyway, I have a major update from Worldcup Puurs. I’m too late with this update, because the event was about a month ago.
Thursday 29th of September, Wally, Nikki and I left from Eindhoven to Belgium. We drove in a Volkswagen, which somewhat had more legspace than the prior small Peugeot 107 from last year. It accelerated pretty well, using 6 shifts and we had the luxury of airconditioning!
It was quite necessary though, the weather was superb. It was quite unusual to have such a weather at the end of September but I really enjoyed it. I had a bag full of stuff with me, whereas Nikki brought a big suitcase plus a big bag with her. It looked like she had packed for 3 weeks, while we suppose to leave for just 2 days from home.
On our way we got stuck in traffic jam, but not that long. It took us 30 minutes longer than usual and then arrived at our hotel at Mechelen. Our hotel was situated in a side street of the main market.
After checking in, we dropped our luggage in our rooms and went for a bite. It was already 7.30 in the P.M.
During dinner Wally managed to register us at the technical meeting. While we’re waiting for dinner, team member Jorg joined our table. He finally arrived after a long journey.
Later that evening fysio Tom arrived as well. He took care of us before we went to bed. Jorg and I shared a hotel room, next to our room was Nikki´s room.
Wally and Tom shared a room on another floor.
Before I went to sleep, I flipped some channels on tv. There was nothing interesting on. Jorg took control of the remote and we watched Jersey Shore on MTV. A nice episode to end this evening though.
In the morning we´re suppose to meet at 9 for breakfast. From the first floor I took the stairs down, because I expected there was a breakfast room on the main floor. But I forgot I was in Belgium, so they pointed me towards the 3rd floor for a breakfast room.
Hmm, quite logical right?
After breakfast we left to the climbing gym.
Once we arrived team member Elko Schellingerhout and Rachèl Nilwik were present too. I tried to figure out which route was my first route. There was a black route on the right and a yellow route on the left. I focused on the black route. It looked nice, but in the roof it was set impossible.
Inside I warmed up with Jorg.
He started with a 7c as warm up, makes you get a good flashpump. That’s a nice way to prepare for a competition route. On the startlist I was next after Jorg. It was a matter of counting down the minutes.
Once in a while I kept myself moving by traversing on the wall. I watched a video of the qualifications. There was a small room available where demos of the qualifications were projected non stop on the wall.
After 2 times you get so bored and walk away.
It was nearly my turn. I went outside, gave the route a quick peek and was ready to climb. Once I left the ground, it was a matter of going all out to the next hold. At the first module there was an undercling which you had to match, I zipped and almost fell out of the route but I managed to focus well and kept my body close to the wall. My feet went back in the wall on the holds and continued. Matching this sloper hold was exciting but I managed well. Then I arrived at this big volume, just below the roof. I could rest for a bit but not for long. When I continued to a pinch, I tried to put my left foot next to my left hand. I couldn’t match it somehow and I was convinced I could do this. I was unable to put my foot so high and fell out of the route. Bummer, it didn’t work! What did I do wrong? I wasn’t pumped or tired. Later I saw another hold in the roof and if you grab that hold with your left hand, then it was possible to swing your foot on top of the module. It was so stupid of me to forget about this hold, I didn’t even see it!
After the route I could get an arm massage. CTO fysio Tessa was present as well. I picked Tom, I believe he can pinch harder and that was just what I needed at that moment.
The second route was a yellow route. I just saw Elko climbing and falling. It was a crux from this intermediair hold to a pinch. Unfortunately his route ended at this point and stood back on the ground. After 2 hours it was my turn in this route. Again Jorg was first and he climbed pretty well in this route! Good enough to advance to the semis. I looked at the start and saw it was annoying. There was a foothold just below the starting hold, so you had to go dynamic and crossover at the first movement. It was dirty but I managed to do that. Carefully I matched a big sized hold and swung my feet to the other side and continued on this grey module. This module was quite dirty but I had to use it. Then I had to put my left foot high on the module and conduct a insecure jump to the next small hold. The next hold was quite far. I had to put my left foot high on this grey module and go dynamic. There were lots of annoying movements in this route where I felt I could barely reach it. It didn’t stop, again going dynamic to a small sized yellow hold on a module. Wow I was quite surprised how dirty this hold was when I matched it. I put my feet together on 1 hold below me. From this position I had to clip the rope. It took me quite some effort and it felt impossible to rest. Quickly I continued to this hold on my shoulder, and to continue I had to put my right foot next to my right hand. And grabbing this intermediair hold to continue to a pinch. I managed to pinch it but it wasn’t enough. Too bad! What did I achieve? Nothing. No satisfaction at all, just frustration..
Only Jorg managed to advance to the semis and even to the finals and ended up 7th.
I recorded his climbing moments and put it online.
Counting my 2 half routes, which makes 1 total route it wasn’t enough to advance to the semis. The routes are set that well that each hold counts. In my situation, that meant 3 holds more and I would’ve got myself in the semis! I ended up 34th from all 45 climbers. A result to forget right away. Elko ended up 28th, Rachèl ended up 29th and Nikki 30th. The rest of the results are here.
The award ceremony at the end!
What I like about Worldcups, is to see the top climbers at work. They climb so well and it looks like they take a lot of risks. I could learn a lot from observing. It was just super to be there, despite my sucky climbing moments. There were lots of side events, slacklining, dyno-ing, enough to keep yourself busy when no one was climbing!
Usually I get a lot of energy and motivation to train after a Worldcup when I get back home. However, after this Worldcup I had a meeting at the jaw surgeon. That went well but because of the painkillers afterwards I felt like I was weak and therefore felt less motivated to train past month. And that resulted into laziness and didn’t want to keep my blog up to date. Anyway, I’m back and fixed my desktop and started to write like a maniac.
Meanwhile 2 Worldcups past by and team member Jorg competed in Boulder (USA) and ended up 5th. Well done Jorx! Below you’ll see an impressive video from this Worldcup at Boulder.
The other Worldcup took place 2 days ago at Amman, Jordania. None of Dutch people attended here though. No surprising results because the unbeatable Austrian Jakob Schubert managed to win again and the small Spanish Ramon Puigblanque received silver and the Japanese Sachi Amma got bronze.
I’ve decided to join the next Worldcup. It will take place within a week at Valence, which is about 1,5 hours south of Lyon in France.
Come week I’ll keep you up to date! You’ll be receiving more Worldcup news from me. I’m going to climb and enjoy this weekend! See you around.
After an invitation from Rachel from Facebook, we realised our plan and went climbing at Puurs Klimax together!
From Breda Yvonne and I were lucky enough to join Pascal, Mirthe and Viola. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic jam on the highway E19. Finally after 2 hours of driving we arrived at the climbing venue.
The weather was super! When we arrived at the climbing gym, we weren’t the only Dutch crew. Another big group of Dutch people from Heerlen arrived early in the morning. They started climbing at 10 A.M. already. Bunch of die hard climbers! 10 minutes before we arrived, a few team members arrived as well: Nikki, Elko and Tabitha. In total we were with a group of 13 Dutch people in Belgium! We set a nice record on a regular Saturday right?
I changed clothes quick, ate a sandwich and started climbing! I believe it was about 28 degrees, however when I was climbing it felt way hotter. I didn’t have a concrete plan though. I just wanted to climb some hard routes through the roof. That went pretty well!
Climbing in Puurs is quite unique. It’s a different style, a style you definitely need to get used to. Most of the routes are challenging and getting harder at the end. Nonetheless it’s really cool to climb here, it’s a nice way to practice your clipping skills. Falling out of the roof is also something you have to get used to. I like it though, I don’t think about falling, which is good so I can focus on the route!
Mirthe took more photos than me, which is quite unusual. You can view her photos here.
Anyway, enough about Puurs. Here is my yesterday’s climbing ticklist: 6a, 6a, 6a, 7a, 7b+, 7c, attempt 8a, attempt 8a and ended with a 7a. I trained well and I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt good about it! I want to climb often at Puurs, the environment feels more comfortable though. It’s a good sign for the Worldcup Lead, which is pretty soon on my calendar!
Last week I received a text message on my mobile phone from Timo Tak. He’s back in town and felt like climbing outdoors. Although the weather forecast wasn’t that good I’d accepted his invitation to climb outdoors. Once in a while you need to take a risk to climb outdoors.
8 in the AM I was ready to go. I packed my harness, climbing shoes, quickdraws and enough food with me. A little later Timo arrived in his dark marine Peugeot. He was just in time, that’s how I reckon Timo.
2 hours and 15 minutes later we arrived at Freyr. Surprisingly it was dry! We noticed the parking lot was full of cars.
After some warm up routes, we were looking for long difficult routes.
We climbed about 4 hours at Freyr. Unfortunately the weatherman was correct and it started to rain a lot. We hoped for dry weather, better luck next time.
Oh well, we had fun climbing. Soon we’ll be back to finish our route.
It is Saturday and my alarm went off. It was early but fortunately I prepared my rucksack the day before. Today we went to climbing gym Klimax at Belgium.
On my way to our meeting point at Eindhoven, I dropped by at a supermarket to get myself breakfast and lunch. I was in the supermarket and bought some gingerbread, some currant buns and bananas. Then I went to a gas station where I would join Tabitha Buma.
Far away I saw a big van parked at the gas station. Kim got out of the van and waved at me. I parked my bike nearby and entered the Buma van. It contained hot plates, a table and a bunk-bed.
An hour later we finally reached our venue. It looks like there was a competition going on, however coach Wouter already arranged that we were still able to climb outdoors.
After a short briefing by coach Wouter, our training was meant to simulate a competition. It is important to know how to prepare a competition. How do you warm up properly in a limited isolation area, how do you mentally prepare yourself, how do you prepare your route? Everyone had different goals.
Then we started to get ourselves ready. I went to the isolation area to warm up. Meanwhile Wouter and Kim picked a few routes for our simulation competition. They picked a blue route for me, which was quite long and all the way through the roof. Everyone had their own route and it was up to us to climb it onsight.
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Wouter and Kim observed everyone. They shared their opinions about how to improve ourselves and how long we were actually climbing. That was nice to know.
We still had 1,5 hours left to climb routes. I managed to climb 4 routes until we went back home.
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It was a super sunny day. Climbing gym Klimax is nice location to train outdoors with the lead team. I have had a nice time and it motivates me to climb with a team. See you next time again!
I’m going to train with the lead team at climbing gym Klimax at Puurs (BE). What do I pack in my rucksack? I pack my harness, climbing shoes, chalk bag, team clothing, a few Powerbars / enough food and drinks with me. I peddle my way to the CTO house of Vera Zijlstra and Elko Schellingerhout to join them.
On our way to Puurs we listen to awesome classic songs on the radio.
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After 2,5 hours of driving we finally arrive at climbing gym Klimax. It was windy but I was well prepared.
While Vera is sorting out her rope, Elko and me are warming up in some routes.
30 Minutes later coach Wally, Nikki van Bergen and Teun Keusters enters the climbing gym. They were stuck in traffic jam.
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Coach Wally is showing off his boulderskills in the roof. Teun picks a different route and also climbs in the roof.
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Coach Wally shared a few targets. One of them was climbing at least 10 routes today. Within 3 hours I managed to achieve my target.
After 4 hours of climbing we decided to pack our stuff and go home.
Vera let me drive on the way back.
To end our day we decided to go out for dinner at Eindhoven. It was a nice training day!
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