Looks like summer is here

Knock on wood, but the weather is again wicked nice. And according to the forecast, should be nice for some time. Seems a little weird and un-Belgian, but appreciated none the less. Race day tomorrow. A bunch of cobbled climbs from Gent-Wevelgem will be there tomorrow, 147.5km of Belgian suffering. Wicked. Time to push my limits of pain again. We thought for a while that we would be climbing and descending the infamous Kemmelberg, but apparently not this year. Perhaps it has something to do with the numerous very bad crashes on it in this season's Gent-Wevelgem... Disappointing not to be able to race it, but at the same time undoubtedly making the race safer for us all. My knee has been a little sore since I banged it two days ago, but I've been icing it and it should be good to go tomorrow. Grocery run today, got a little overboard on the supplies. Note, don't go to a grocery store while hungry... Good stuff though, made some hummus today and more supplies to make some more musselli. Lots of nice fruit. Pretty relaxing day other wise. Quick 1.5 hour ride after the grocery store, loosen the legs up with a few sprints and high cadence work. Shower, nice salad for lunch and then lie down to watch some Scrubs and have a little tea. Hopefully a good day in the saddle tomorrow, just have to clean the machine still and then spend the evening relaxing and then spend the evening mentally preparing myself for a tough day of fighting and suffering. I find myself hungry for a result. Little disappointed after not finishing the last 2 Kermis'. I realize that there was not too much more I could have done, but I'm competitive. Just going to have to suffer a little more. Got another kangaroo steak for dinner tonight. Going to make a nice and complete meal to give myself the best possible chance again. Until after the race...

Concrete pylon = 1/ Cyclist = 0

Thats basically the story of the race. Fast, cross windy and one poor fool's encounter with a concrete pylon. And the pylon did not move. Starting from the beginning, nice relaxing morning with my pre-race pannokoken and a nice Bialetti. Got together with the boys racing, and saddled up and rode to the race. About a 1.5 hour ride, pretty cool out but at least it wasn't raining. Got to the race, rode part of the way with Bjorn Sealander from the US national team. Signed in, payed my 8 Euro and suited up. Nice course, not too technical, but a lot of long open stretches and some pretty serious winds (mostly cross winds). Got myself a decent start position in the first couple rows, and held my position the best I ever have in the top 10. I feel that is one of the things I had to work on most, and have improved the most in. Even managed to hold my position while eating. Have even gotten more confident defending my position, rubbing shoulders or giving a little push or tap. Nice. First 30 minutes or so went well, decent pace, but never had to push myself into the red. Sprinting well from the corners. Coming in about 40 minutes, the pack was strung out single file down the long backside, when the dude went down. The whole pack snaked around this piece of traffic furniture, but he must have had his head down, or just not been paying attention, and wham. Straight into at at about 50km/h. He went flying, bike went bouncing, and I (along with many others) had to lock up the breaks and try to pick the correct line to get through. Almost got through fine too, but got hit by the bouncing, flying bike in the leg. Sprinted away, as now the smart Belgies at the front had realized that if they upped the tempo even more, they could cause a decent split. A long chase down the straight but me well into the red. Caught back on in the next corner, but not enough time to recover before the pace went straight back up. Pop. The elastic gave out. Held the pack within about 20m, but was unable to close the final gap. Kept riding for the duration of the race for training miles. But that was all she wrote. Hard race, only about 30 finished, one gruppetto group but other than that split all over the road. After the finish, gathered our bags and rode home. Windy day at the office. Good feelings starting to come from the legs again, so pretty pumped for the UCI race on Wednesday. Going to have to race another smart, safe race to finish. Perhaps we'll see what happens, get some pain. For now, I'm enjoying a nice recovery day. An hour ride should be in order to keep the legs supple, and then some relaxing. Good stuff.

Angered by doping

The news is not good for cycling. Many cries are coming out of this mess, which I feel is a good thing for us. Bernard and Ann are off to watch the finish of Le Tour in Paris with Johan Bruneel (director of Discovery) and already with the arrival of Geert (ds) and Noelle (soigneur) for our team stage racing rumours are abounding with more doping announcements. We have heard a more solid rumour involving King of the Mountains Soler, and some quiet rumours coming through our vines of connections regarding Contador. The later is the one that could impact us more directly. I wish to stress that we will not know until the press conferences at 11 more of what is going on, and I don't wish to call anyone guilty without proof, but... This house cleaning is cycling is moving along like a bloody bulldozer in a china shop. Rough days for cycling. The thing that angers me most right now, to the point that I feel the need to write out my thoughts, is that many seem to pass judgment on cycling as a whole based on these riders. I read a local email this morning from Ottawa where a triathlete called for the cancellation of the Tour. What will that help in the sport. There are huge steps being made in the right direction to simply even clean up the sport, banning many of the former top contenders for doping. I wounder what would happen if more drugs tests, as cycling is doing, were to happen in other sports such as triathlon? I see the same thing happening, if not worse. At least cycling has taken the responsibility to clean itself up. It will be a rough time, but I intend to continue and ride to my fullest potential. Cleanly. I would rather not make it as a professional in the Pro-Tour, but know I gave it my all without any "chemical help". Thats how I roll. Needless to say, its time to take this anger and translate it into something productive - like racing tomorrow. It's time for a new generation to make changes in cycling, I'm ready... are you?

Running out of titles

Hard to come up with titles sometimes. Sometimes, they just pop into my head (usually while riding). Nice day today, the sun and some warmth came out which was nice as I had 3 hours (ended up being 3.5) with some 30 seconds sprints every 15 minutes. Actually a lot harder than it sounds, go try it. 30 seconds every 15 minutes in your biggest gear. Pays off, I tell you what. Legs started off feeling pretty good actually, which was odd considering how I was pretty tired when I woke up this morning. Took a few sprints for the legs to feel decent with the efforts though, but they seemed to come around. Had my usual lunch salad (spinach, chick peas, tuna, parmasan, and balsamic dressing) and an egg sandwich before laying myself out for a nap. Definitely needed one today after this long week of training. Looking forward to a nice short pre-race day (perhaps finally attempt the rijc tarts?) and then race day on Sunday. Will be another early top-sporter bed time for me tonight I feel. In fact, I may just retire to my room after this entry for a movie and some Compex muscle stim time. I'm currently just that much of a party animal.
Picked up a book the other day to try to help learn Dutch. Getting somewhat fed up with having to ask "English? Francais?" when ever some one tries to talk to me. Some of the pronunciation stuff is a little weird though, may have to download some kind of learn Dutch kind of thing to listen to... Perhaps another project for tomorrow. May try to get my pre-race ride in early tomorrow to leave the rest of the afternoon open to baking and language learning. Plus should be a good time trial in the Tour tomorrow! I still rest with my pick of Cadel Evans taking the overall title, and with ol' Rassmussen gone he is now sitting in second, only 1:50 down on first. Plus third place Levi is still within striking distance too, should be a good show. Some good articles floating around right now on the state of cycling which have got me back pumped up to ride and race. Even more so as a clean rider. Got my schedule in for next week. Looks like I'm racing another UCI on Wednesday (UCI 1.12 Zillebeke) followed by another Kermis on Sunday. But overall, a much easier week training wise to help my body recover and hopefully come into the Antwerpen stage race with some good form. Well, I'm off for some recovery time. Enjoy the rest of your summer, I've just taken note that July is almost gone now too. Weird actually realizing that both my time here is coming into its final weeks and that I actually have something to be doing in September. School. Weird saying that again. It may be to the line (as in who has class first) to see whether my little brother Toddy has actually beaten me to post secondary education. August 3 for my schedule...

Photos of food and the Belgian coast

Sooo windy here in Belgium, the trees sometimes grow sideways!

Riding the bike paths along the canals to Knokke-Heist on the North Sea coast.

Whole wheat & wheat germ biscotti. Delicious and nutricious anytime!

My biscotti grasshopper, Aaron. Learning.

Granola attempt round 1: result - delicious!

Me on the shore of the North Sea in Belgium near Holland.

Enjoying an espresso on the beach. Its Northern Europe, we wear long sleeves
and leg warmers all year. At least Top-Sporters must!

The coast

Nice ride to the coast today. Had a decent ride to do today still. Easy pace, 2-3 hours. So decided to finally make my way out to the Belgian coast on the North Sea. Rode out with Joe through Oostkamp, Brugges and then along the canals up to the coastal town of Knokke-Heist up in the North West corner of the country near Holland. Pretty cool coastal town, with apartments, hotels, and cool cafes lining the shore/beach. Grabbed a quick koffie (Belgian for regular coffee/espresso) before riding along the beach for a while and then heading back home. Legs are definitely a little tired from the past couple of days, but it was nice to get a nice easy 3 hours in and relax a bit. Sometimes you just need to take your mind off the training and enjoy something new, in this case the Belgian coast. One more hard day tomorrow before a short pre-race day then race day on Sunday again. Little too tired this afternoon to try my hand at the rijc tarts, perhaps save that for my pre-race day. Looking forward to them, but by the time I finish stretching, showering, eating, and some relaxing with my feet up it will quickly be dinner again. And then the house will get busy, with teams returning from both the stage race and a one day Belgian Top-Comp race. There will be some tired and hungry riders in the house tonight, all converging on the kitchens at roughly the same time. Perhaps I'll get my dinner going a little early tonight. I feel an early bed tonight coming, at very least relaxing with some Ali G show in bed after dinner. I look forward already to a day off the bike on Monday.

Tired

"This year, the UCI’s anti-doping measures were intensified before and during the Tour de France. Over 180 out-of-competition tests were conducted on riders in the weeks leading up to the start of the Tour. In addition, testing being conducted during the Tour includes approximately 400 pre-stage blood screens, 140 post-stage urine controls and 40 post-race blood controls. The most sophisticated analytical techniques are being used by the Paris laboratory, including tests for a range of blood manipulation techniques." - PedalMag

At least the controls appear to be working. 3 riders down, including the yellow jersey wearer. Enough on this depressing subject. Hard day in the saddle yesterday. Just under 5.5 hours. Rode the hour and a half each way to Deinze along the canals. Some big guns came out to play. One dude in white who appears to be know as the "kermis king" made his presence known pretty well. Serious winds and heat were the name of the day. Got a really poor start position near the back, but managed to move up mid pack fairly quickly using my newfound pack riding skills, minimizing my energy use moving up through the middle and through corners. After about 40 minutes I decided to eat as the pace had slowed up. Bad idea. I have still not mastered the art of eating and holding position in an aggressive race such as a kermis. Needless to say, I thought it was a good time as the pace was somewhat easy, so was not worried about falling back a bit. The lesson learned, when the going is easy, the race will get ridiculously hard in short order as Beglians hate to ride easy. And how hard it got! We went from 40km/h through the start/finish to 60km/h through the next straight like nothing. Attacks where flying and as I peeked around the rider in front of me, I saw the gaps opening. Now I was not in a huge amount of trouble holding a wheel, but when I have to close gaps while attempting to spin my 53x11 (biggest gear I have) into a headwind, then I get in trouble. Then try closing numerous gaps as riders pull off. Proud to say I didn't panic as I have, but stayed calm and tried to ride my own tempo. It almost worked too, got onto the tail end of the pack just before the next corner, but just did not have the gas left without some recovery to follow the next accelerations. Needless to say, I have no one to blame for my demise but myself. Lesson learned, so went out training on my own until the end of the race. Ride home, eat dinner, pass out. Race again on Sunday in Inglemunster, so will have another chance to redeem my performance. Little happier today after going over the race. I can see that even with the hard training leading up to the race, I am getting much stronger and smarter. Here's to steady improvement, ciao

ps-more pro spotting's, a Chocolade-Jaques rider out training with a Quick-Step rider near the Kermis yesterday. Apparently the Quick-Step bloke won a stage in the Tour de Belgium last year so had to sign a few autographs and sign pictures of him and his massive Euro mullet.

Panakoken, eggs, & coffee

That is my pre-race lunch today. Panakoken is just Flemish/Dutch for crepes. But makes me sounds fancier and more foreign I think. Oh, and a nice piece of homemade whole wheat biscotti to dip in the cafe. I feel classy now. 3:30 start for todays race. Leave here by bike at 1, hour and a half ride to the course. Race, approximately 3 hours, clean up a bit, ride home for hour and a half. That should give us a 6 hour training day with some serious intensity. I have a feeling I'll be hitting the hay, so to speak, a little early tonight. It'll be interesting to see how the legs feel during the race after these past days of training. They do feel better than yesterday already so...
Note on granola: Awesome. Gives cereal that little extra flavour. Mixed it with my usual All Bran and some corn flakes this morning while relaxing, and wow. This stuff is incredible. I've been finding more uses for the wheat germ too, added it too my crepes this morning, not bad. Healthy stuff from what I hear too, the most healthy part of the wheat plant. Packed with protein, fibre, unsaturated fats, vitamins and minerals. Pesto was made up last night as well, will try that out tonight on dinner. Not quite sure yet what I'll have it with, but you know it'll be good with this pesto!
I just realized that though I ran out of Euro's quite some time ago (the ones I brought with me) I have manged to live off race money for the last couple weeks. It gives me more encouragement to win the money to be able to go to the bakery to get some bread. It seems the last 2 races I have gone with the last of my Euro's and come back home with more Euro's so that I may get myself to the bakery or buy myself a beer or 2 in Brugges. Not bad. My only other current expense is grocery's and that is still taken care of by the old credit card. Well, time to eat and pack. The sun is calling us out to ride. Ciao for now.

Sad day for Cycling...

Alex Vinokourov, the pre-race favorite for the Tour de France, and current 2 stage winner has tested positive. The news just came out. The mood in the house is somber. Questions fly. The man was hugely popular in cycling, s strong man never afraid to attack. And attack he did on a regular basis. But now, all is brought into question. All by one positive test for blood transfusions. As a group of dudes trying to make it as professional cyclists, this is huge for us. And not in a good way like jobs opening up, but bad in the sense of losing sponsor dollars. The fallout from this and the many other recent cases could impact us personally. There was even supposed to be a large announcement regarding our team and a certain Pro-Tour team coming either toady or in the coming days... Currently we wonder, who will be the next to fall. On the plus side, it means the controls are working as designed, unfortunately many seem to continue to try to get around the controls. What next, really brings a dude down...

The sun returns... after my ride

Legs were pretty tired this morning, and the rain was threatening to make its return. Needless to say, I pushed my ride back a bit to allow for better recovery, and hopefully better weather. After some breakfast and a quick internet check, I decided to make some use of the morning and try out my first batch of granola/cereal. Came together quite well and is delicious. Interesting though, although I trusted in it all along, I had to deal with several house mates coming along and pointing out such helpful facts as, "you know you can buy cereal eh?". I ignored these statements and went along with my work, mixing a secret mix of oats, wheat germ, dried fruits, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon together and finally baking it. As the smell came out and filled the kitchen, the tunes changed to, "what is that?" & "Can I have some?". It came out awesome, though I did learn that I should save the dried fruit and mix that in after baking the rest, some of the raisins got a little burned. So just added some fresh ones after. Not bad for a first attempt. I'll have a fuller sampling tomorrow morning. As for the ride, a nice chill 3.5 hours on the canals to Gent. Plus a little more exploring around Gent with a nice bakery stop. Legs were pretty dead for a while, but began feeling a little better towards the end, hopefully good sign for the race tomorrow. For most of the ride, I pedaled along in the overcast weather we are accustomed to here in Belgium, but just as I was arriving home (in a massive headwind) the wind finally managed to remove all the clouds from above us. It has now been sunny and hot since I got home. Oh well. Though my tan lines are suffering, its all about keeping the body in good shape. Saw a cool thing while riding today too, my first pro out training. One of the Astana boys was also cruising the canals and came by me in the opposite direction. And yes I'm sure it was actually one of the Pro-Tour dudes; the only other guys in pro team kits are middle aged Belgian guys and young, skinny fans. This dude had the full setup: team BMC with team FSA SRM cranks, and full team kit right down to leg warmers and tuque. Not to mention how fit he looked. You can generally tell a real rider by their legs and the fluidity with which they ride. Pretty cool nonetheless, plus we exchanged Euro head nods of "hello, I would talk more but I am busy training". After a nice late lunch I feel the need for a quick nap followed by some pesto creation... Gotta get on that soon before the basil goes bad! Ciao

The return of rain

Rainy here in Belgium today, in case the title of this entry didn't give it away. Hard day on the bike too. First was the standard Monday morning grocery run. Went a little over budget today (both running low on some staples and building up a stock of stuff to make life cheaper in the long run). Got supplies to make more pesto, rijz tarts, and some homemade cereal/granola. Going to be a busy couple of days in the kitchen. Found that along with watching the harvest of many veggies from the fields during my rides has lead to cheaper produce for me to buy. Maybe shoulda just stuffed my pockets full every day while riding along the fields... Oh well, support the economy and whatnot. Found some of the most delicious oranges I've ever tasted too. Good food, but should be even better when I get some of this stuff cooked up. After the grocery run, got riding right away in order to make it back for the finish of the Tour stage on the tele. A little later than planned, but you gotta do what you gotta do. 4 hours in the rain with 30 1km intervals. Wicked good and hard, pretty tired now. Legs felt good and strong, felt like I was flying through the rain. Good feelings, but felt even better after to have a nice hot shower and then cook up some couscous and eggs. Little tea while watching the Tour and I'll be good to go again tomorrow for another nice day. Couscous is now one of my new favourite foods, filling, healthy, easy to make and delicious. Especially with some steamed veggies (ie. broccoli) and/or some scrambled eggs. Wicked. Should be a nice relaxing evening for me tonight, with the long hard day today and another long-ish day tomorrow, I will need my rest and to be extra careful to avoid getting sick. Especially currently without the weather co-operating. Race day approaches quickly again, with Wednesday and Saturday being Kermis days for me. We will be for sure riding to the race on Wednesday so that should be another long hard day in the office. Man, what a sweet life. The Ronde Vlams Branvant stage race is also starting on Wednesday so the house is currently preparing for the next UCI stage race. Again, I find myself on the "alternates" list, so I must be careful with my body as well in case something happens to one of the racers. That part is tough, its like that for most professionals too. You can get the call at anytime, leave at a moments notice. You must always be ready to race. This race will be a little more complicated for us at the house as the team racing will still be staying at the house as it is only a short drive to the start areas. This means that those of us not racing will have to pitch in extra to help unload the vans every day so that those racing may focus on racing and recovering. Its only fair, I may be on the other side in the coming weeks. Looks like for Antwerpen. I'm off for some dinner. Ciao

Rest and recovery

So I feel awesome today. Really want to ride, had a sweet route to the coast planned out. But after reviewing my training for the coming week, I have decided that I am best to take my prescribed rest day. Hard week of training coming up, with 2 Kermis races. Sometimes its hard to actually rest when its needed. My form is coming, and all I want is to go out and make use of it. But it can't be wasted. Coach Bernard knows whats best. So today is dedicated to baking. Unfortunately, lacking in the basil required for my pesto, found a kickin' recipe for rijce tart (rice tart pastry) but am missing a few ingredients... And everything closes in Belgium on Sunday, including the grocery stores. So will have to pick up this stuff tomorrow on the shop run. So looks like its a biscotti day, going to make a huge batch cause I'm teaching Aaron the art of biscotti as well. Word up. Plus the afternoon holds an awesome mountain stage in the Tour des France. Working out to be a decent day for a rest day after all... I too am in the same boat as my little buddy Keir, we even seem to be heading down the same path. The more I wear these Northwave shoes, the more I realize they are lacking. My feet kill after yesterday's effort. Seriously. Plus I've been looking everywhere for arch support insoles (as per Dr. Pruitt's recommendation) and can't find them anywhere in Belgium so far. He suggested Specialized shoes (he may be partial as he is the man who designed them ;)) but, seriously, I actually tried some on the other day from one of the other guys on the team, and man are they comfy! I may need a pair for my next shoes. Hate to spend more money on shoes when my current ones are still not fully dead, but man, the comfort! I'll look into that later though. For now, I just want those insoles. Well, time to create some biscotti. Ciao
Respekt

Race day & local colour

105km, 2:20, 2 cobbled sections (each of about 2-3km), and my first finish of a Belgian Kermis race. Finished the full race, not in a second or third group getting pulled. Main pack in the sprint. Right on.
Three of us drove down to the race from the Cycling Center, about a 1 hour drive near Holland. Nice area, plenty of really nice houses, decent roads, nice afternoon for a race. Found Wim Maes parents (who happened to be involved in the organization of the race) who directed us to their lovely house down the road from the start, where we were able to change and prepare for the race. Wim is one of the Belgian riders on the team. After signing in and riding a lap of the course, we headed to line up at the start line. The course was a fairly easy, basically a nice square. From the start you headed down a straight, hitting some cobbles partway down, tight cobbled turn, and then about another 2km of cobbles before hitting pavement again. Followed the pavement again through a few slight turns until the next 90 degree bend. From there it was a another straight until the next tight turn to the next 2-3km cobbled section. Now this turn was made more difficult by the fact that there was a nice smooth bike path next to the cobbles, which the entire 200 or so man pack would all gun for together. Fun. Got a little easier as the race progressed and I learned my line better and more guys got dropped or fell back. On the bike path it would string out single file until the next turn onto the finishing straight. Tricky corner here too, you could stay on the path and have to come to nearly a standstill in the tight corner, or my route of hop to the cobbles and take it wide holding more speed. Less sprint needed and you could pass like 10 people in the corner. Then nice drag race to the finish line through the feed zone. The 3 of us rode very well, always near the front, represented in most breaks and splits. I felt very comfortable in the pack for the first time here, no problems moving through the pack, minimizing my work by working through the pack and on the opposite side of the wind. Got myself into a few breaks and had to dig deep a few times, but held on and finished in the middle of the pack in the sprint. Things got a little dicey on the last lap, held my spot in the top 15 for the lap, then let the rest of the guys sprint while I worked on avoiding crashes. Plus my legs where a little toast. Back to the house after where we were treated to a hot shower, fresh homemade pastries, drinks, and some of the best hospitality I have ever encountered. Seriously, incredible people to let a bunch of cyclists they hadn't met before into their house and feed us like that. Oh, and mom, sister and dad all spent the race in the feed zone for us to hand up bottles. Which was much appreciated as it was a warm and sunny day here in Belgium. Got 15 Euro for my troubles somehow too, so making some more cash money here. Always nice, just to add to my current morale. For now, off to bed as it is getting late and my legs are done. Ciao

Update for GP Dourges

Team presentation and sign in pre-race.

Lined up on the start line. Us on far right of the picture at the front. I'm there.

Pack stringing out early in the winds.

VC Roubaix either trying to cause an early split, or they are not represented
in the break. Either way, pain for the rest of us.

So Steffan found a link online for some photos
Put a few up here, not too many of me let alone the team, most of the focus was on the pro teams and the winners, but it'll give you an idea. 182km in 4 hours. Thats almost an average speed of 45km/h. Man, no wonder it was such a tough day! Time to head off to todays race, more on that later...

Pre race day dawns again

So I have been in Belgium for over a month now. Kinda freaky how time goes by actually, but to the point... In the last couple of days I have seen I have seen the best, warmest, sunniest weather so far. But today, that has changed back. The weather is now beyond Belgian, we don't even have a word to describe how hard its raining. It is black out, and I feel flooding in imminent. Thunder, lightning. Luckily, I am not one of those with a long ride scheduled today. Just a pre-race day. I think I'll wait until after lunch, if its still coming down, I may just ride the rollers. Cause to be honest, I really don't feel like getting soaked or having to clean my bike again. Call me soft, but that is just asking to get sick riding outside today. I gotta stay sharp for some of the races coming up. Perhaps I'll go get rolling on that cooking and baking soon. Maybe put my legs up and watch some Ali G Show... The options are nearly endless, as long as they don't involve going outside. I have decided I really want to come back next season, I dream of even coming back for a little longer. The main problem I am encountering in this plan in the monetary part. Racing your bike as an amateur in a foreign country costs cash moneys. I will be attending school on a fairly regular basis come September something-or-rather. I pay school. So needless to say, I have been consulting the internet with ways to raise myself some cash to be less poor. Or maybe, less in debt. I think I'm getting somewhere too. I won't reveal too much yet, not until I get home and do some more research, but I have some entrepreneurial ideas. But will need someone with internet experience to help with this. And don't worry, none of them are illegal (to my knowledge).
For the time being, I find myself trying to figure out (courtesy of Google maps) how to get from Hertsberge to Sinaai for the u23 Kermis Sinaai Molenhoek tomorrow. Apparently I seem to be the designated driver of the fun bus with only 4 of us going. I have no problem driving, but could have more problems navigating on these windy Belgian roads. Fun. Well, I off for some food and perhaps some pesto making. Enjoy your days.

Sun and cafe

Glorious day here in Belgium. 31 degrees and sunny all day. No clouds even. Made for a nice day for a ride. Kinda wish I had a longer than 2 hour ride to do. So I went for more like 2.5 hours. I had to, so nice out. Nice and easy, tanning weather ride. After the ride, I grabbed a bite to eat (nice spinach salad) before grabbing a cruiser bike and heading into Oostkamp for the afternoon. Nice way to relax in the sun. Found myself a nice patio, ordered a coffee and took advantage of some people watching time in the sun. After and couple of hours of relaxation, rode myself home to watch the finish of the Tour stage. Nice dinner of pork chops and potatoes and here I am. Almost race time again, nice u23 Kermis race on Saturday. Looks like it will therefore be another lax day tomorrow, some leg openers and some more easy time. Bought some stuff to make more pesto sauce the other day, so perhaps some more cooking and baking is in order. I am out of biscotti again after all.

Living the good life of a Top Sporter

"Eat half as much at home, twice as much on the bike"

Personal bodem and my wicked mug. Don't let it fool you, I use it for tea too.

The man himself. With his cafe.

A top sporter in Belgium is a professional sports person. In cycling's case, a pro or amateur racer. But the key is, you must live the life and race strongly. So far, my results are not top sporter, but I am improving by leaps and bounds, but my life is becoming increasingly top sporter. I do all I can with my lifestyle to improve my cycling. Much of the lifestyle revolves around Euro/Belgian logic here. I should mention that top sporter is not just another term developed by our house of cyclists, it is an actual official term here. We just use it a lot, to describe many things, some more humorous than others. For example, eating peanut butter or Nutella while not on a ride: not top sporter. To ride in the morning or when the weather is cool (below 23 or so) with out leg warmers or long sleeve jersey: not top sporter. Exceptions are made for this if you are racing, or doing a real hard workout (though you should wear them for warm-up/cool-down). Legs are either top sporter, or not before a race. Nutrition here is key, and doing it on the cheap even more so. Example, I go go to the bakery and buy smokin' sweet crepes for breakfast for like 5 Euro, OR I could spend an extra 30 minutes and make my own for about 50 cents. Plus mine are made with cane sugar, whole wheat flour and there for more top sporter. I figure you folks are getting the idea. Its funny, if I rode all the time back home with leg warmers and long sleeve jerseys like I do here (especially in some of the warmer weather) I would get some weird looks, and have many questions to be answered. Here, people just see me as a top sporter. Tourists, old man riders, and juniors ride without warm clothes. Weekend warriors out for their weekend leg tearing ride don't, they don't care about being sick. A top sporter in always sweating or on the verge of. We must always be wearing a hat and socks in the house, and long sleeve shirt and pants are the norm. Even while riding the rollers, we can be seen with at least a long sleeve undershirt on. Its all about minimizing the energy your body has to expend to help it recover. With sun out today again and pretty warm temperatures, look likes I may be able to remove the arm warmers and leg warmers after my body heats up. Nice. The A team is off and gone now, 5 day UCI Tour of Liege, leaving the house oddly quiet and the rest of us preparing for Kermis races. I will be racing Saturday at a U23 Kermis with a few of the other younger guys. Should be good, pumped to go out and race again. Learn some more, work hard and perhaps get paid again... Our kitchen crew swooped a smokin' sweet little french press last evening from another of the kitchens. This little mini bodum makes one mug of coffee, basically a personal bodem. Nice for a mid morning coffee while typing on this blog...
Nothing too exciting in le Tour today, so I have pushed my ride back a bit into the afternoon to take more advantage of this sun. Basically it leads to a nice relaxing morning here, sitting in the sun room with my personal bodem, writing my thoughts down for you folks to read - and help learn from some of my Euro experiences. I'll finish this post with a few more pictures for your entertainment. Ciao

Sunny Belgium returns

Well, awesome weather here in Belgium! After a nice afternoon spent in Brugges with Tex, doing a little shopping and some patio sitting, I awoke today to an awesome & sunny day here. Bought myself a cool Brugges Football Club team scarf and helped Tex to find some souvenirs and gifts as he heads home in a week. After the shopping and wandering the ancient streets, we found ourselves a patio and settled down for some 'man time' with a few beers. Managed to find the correct bus, and made it home for dinner. Nice to spend a day completely away from the bike, helped tremendously with both the physical and mental recovery. Got to bed nice and early and here we are, 25 degrees and sunny. Got a nice 3 hour ride in in the late morning, rode the canals down into Gent and then back. Kind of nice to follow some nice new routes and to see a bit of a new city. Gent is a little different from Brugges, not nearly as old (still many old buildings and cobbled roads, but not quite as medieval looking) and also more of a young non-tourist crowd. Apparently it is know as more of a university town. Plus these cool canals seem to branch out through and all around it, I had to be careful not to get too far off my route and get lost on the many windy roads. Not too much exploring, before I headed off back along the canals back home. Nice sandwich for lunch, some tea, and here we are watching another awesome stage of le Tour. The house is getting quite busy right now for a lot of people, especially poor Nate the mechanic, getting ready for the stage races. Spare bikes for every rider, many spare wheels have been re-built after a hard season of racing, Bernard has been talking with Discovery Channel Pro team trying to score us more tyres, wheels, bikes and food from them to add to what we have. Plus all the packing is going on and final preparations are being made by the riders leaving for Liege tomorrow. The house will be oddly empty tomorrow when I get up... Discovered this sweet coconut & lime sauce which I used on my fresh fish with some rice provencal and broccoli last night, works magic with fish! Not sure what lies for dinner tonight, I have some sausages, so maybe some sausages with pasta... Time will tell, perhaps potatoes...

Harsh lessons in France

Start list from France.

Me pre-race after sign in. Notice fully dressed in 30 degree heat. Thats
how it rolls in Europe.

Me after the race, and after my training ride with Wout. Tired from a 4.5
hour day in the sun.

So, when you enter a UCI 1.2 Pro race (yes, it was a pro race-we were one of 3 amateur teams) apparently the going gets tough. Real fast. Plus, this was the first hot day yet. I have been here a month, and never sweated as much as yesterday. Like 30 and sunny. And as many of you know, I am not a fan of the heat. It takes me a while to adjust. Incredible race though. 9km start loop, followed by 10 17km laps. All narrow village streets, hundreds of corners and roundabouts, several climbs, and the given open windy sections. Like I said, tough course, and even tougher field to boot. Three amateur teams (including us). Johnathan Page was the only other American, for those of you out of the cycling scene, he was the silver medalist at the cyclo-cross elite world championships this past winter. He is riding for Sunweb Pro-Job on the road right now for training, nice friendly guy - beast on the bike. Also in the race was the Quickstep development team, Palmans Collstrop, South African National team, Murphy & Gunn from Ireland, VC Roubaix, and teams from Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, and others... Some serious guns in attendance. But, anyways, got to the klitcommerce (changing rooms), got ourselves changed up, back to get oiled up by the team vehicles, get our food into our pockets and off to the start line. Best part, after getting changed, we had so go sign in on a stage. With an announcer, who announced our name, team, and country of origin to a huge crowd. Felt like a bloody rock star. Got a good position on the line, near the front, couple guys over from Jonathan Page himself, and pulled away as the gun went off. We held a civilized pace of about 45km/h for exactly 3 minutes and 20 seconds. From that point until I got popped, we were single file above 50km/h. Wow. Position was descent, but would make little mistakes every now and then and then loose a few spots. Every time I had to do anything (move up, close a gap) it would push a little bit further above my red zone. It was incredible. It was like being pulled behind several motorcycles while other motorcycles would attack continuously. And I was the 50cc electric moped holding on for dear life. Eventually, my legs gave out. About 40 minutes after the start to be precise. The heat, the speed, and the work had taken its toll. I was too wasted to even grab onto a car in the caravan, but yes I tried several times. I was simply ridden off the wheel. I was upset at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had learned. A little later on, a Dutch rider rode up to me on the course and I gave him one of my bottles and we got to talking. Apparently I had met the dude last year at the Tour de Beauce while working there. Small world. We finished a few laps together and then agreed to head out for a training ride together until the end of the race. Gotta at least get the miles in when dropped ;). We headed out to our respective team vans to get some bidons (food and water) and then headed out for a few more laps and some exploring. I even managed to flat another tubular while training. No idea how yet, but had to ride like 30 minutes back on a flat tire. Not cool, but what are you going to do. Quite unimpressed with the durability of these Comp 22 tyres. Great grip, but too light for Belgian roads I guess. Ended up learning a huge amount about Euro racing from Wout. He is 24 and has been racing since a Junior, even one several UCI 1.1 and 1.2 races. Great source of information, and very happy to help a new Canadian. Even showed me what the Euro teams eat during races and gave me a sweet sampling. They have these awesome pastries (basically sticky buns with pudding inside) which you can eat in about 3 chews, quite nice while the racing gets tough. Also some cool Euro brand of bars, gels, and cool gummy candies. Sometimes, waffles with jam and other sandwiches too. In the end, still 4.5 hours in the saddle. And I was wasted afterwards. Drank more liters of water than I can count (which should help tremendously with the recovery), and then a recovery session for my legs with the wonderful Compex again. Slept like a baby. Even allowed myself to sleep in until 8 today. We then moved into team meeting mode at 9, and discussed more of what needs to be done to improve and what is coming up race wise for us. And it is a tough session of races coming. Stage races and tough 1 day UCI races. Plus the usual Kermis races.
I had a good meeting with Bernard as well this morning, found out I am on the pre-selection list for the Antwerpen UCI stage race this month, and am listed as a reserve rider for the Pro Tour of Liege stage race coming up. Not likely to race in Liege, which is probably good considering how tough the race is, but is a great boost to my confidence to find how much people seem to believe in me. Shows how hard work can pay off. I have also been asked to potentially stay a little longer here in Belgium to do some big races at the end of the month. Not certain yet, but Bernard will let me know after he finishes up some more meetings and finishes up with Liege, he has a lot going on at this point. But it could be cool to stay a little longer (until the end of August) for some more racing. I do love this life so much! Team is really coming together at this point, everyone is getting to know each other better, and working well together. Few lone wolves, but several people may be asked to leave apparently, not working hard enough and not working as a team. With the weather improving after this morning's thundershowers, I should be trying to bus into Brugges this afternoon with Tex to chillax in a cafe and perhaps some shopping. Nice afternoon away from the bike. Not allowed to touch the bike today ;). Well, I seem to have written quite a lot today. Hope it is enjoyed. Ciao from Belgium...

Race time again

That time again... The time to suffer at the hands of some Euro motorcycles, I mean cyclists. Seriously though, some of these dudes ride like they are on a moto. There are a couple of Lithuanian teams around the last little bit, and they definitely are not that smart, but man can they team time trial! As for me, I have become much smarter and adept at hiding behind larger riders draft and clinging on for dear life ;). Tomorrow's race promises to yield some pretty good stories for the blog after, it should be an epically hard day in the saddle. 190km of European UCI Tour action. And from what I hear, the races in Northern France are even more catty wompus than some of these Belgian races here. They seem to go all out from the gun, on even worse roads than we have here. So positioning will again be key, I seem to be sensing a pattern about the importance of this positioning thing... Did another round on the Compex Muscle stim device last night while watching the Punisher. Tried out the "Endurance" workout, pretty cool! Slept well last night, and now my legs are a little tired from yesterdays effort. Nice easy day today, with a few leg openers to prepare for the efforts to come tomorrow. This will be a race where I must be very careful of the many little things in order to finish I feel. Every little advantage I can find (staying off my feet, nutrition, energy savings) will be needed tomorrow. My head will have to be fully in the game, and my morale just so happens to be pretty high after the money "haul" at the last Kermis. This is good. Steffan from Canada is back at the Cycling Center for the weekend as well now, he will be racing GP Dourges with me tomorrow. Nice to be racing with another Canadian sometimes... Things at the house are about the go crazy too with stage racing season arriving here, something like 4-5 stage races in the next 4-5 weeks. Busy times.
Looks like the Alps have finally arrived in the Tour today too, so we all know how I will be relaxing this aft... Works out perfectly tomorrow too with a rest day in the Tour, so I will not miss any climbs so far, and perhaps into Brugges on Monday to do some exploring/shopping and then watch an epic climbing stage from a local watering hole in the afternoon... There seem to be a couple of guys interested as most of the house has a rest day on Monday. There are 2 teams racing at 2 different races tomorrow. Good luck to all back home racing the OBC GP this weekend. And looks like the Echelon Project boys should have 3 of 4 finishing the Tour de la Martinique! Check out their blog for more crazy stories on that... Ciao

Sun returns to Belgium, after my ride

Usual morning here in Belgium. Cafe, yogurt with muselli, toast. Ride time: 2.5 hours, tempo, with biggest gear sprints every 15 minutes. Doesn't sound that tough, but man. These sprint days take their toll by the end. Even when Bernard gives you an easy pace day, but throws in sprints every 15 minutes. They add up. But they should pay off in racing, especially kermis racing. Got back, quite overdressed in the end, the sun came out as I arrived home and I noticed that the temperature had gone from 14 when I started to 25 when arriving. Needless to say, although I looked quite Euro pro in my leg warmers, arm warmers and vest, I was sweating a bit. No biggie, a nice shower and some food and time for a team session with THE Dr. Andy Pruitt. He is famous as the head doctor and director of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, author of many cycling books, designer of the Specialized body fit shoes... the list goes on. Google the name. Seriously. He just so happens to be the father of one of our riders, so had just arrived to visit after leaving the Specialized product launch in Spain. He arrived with tons of goodies for ol' Scott (his son) that many pro riders had also just received for the Tour. As a fit specialist, he offered us the opportunity for a free seminar/consultation. Many of us took advantage of this to ask questions regarding training, bike fit, and and pain or ailments we had. Quite interesting, and incredible to see the answers. He of course backed up the scientific terms by showing us with our own bodies exactly what the problem was (through a series of exercises and movements) to help diagnose and find solutions for anything. I of course brought up my knee, which he spotted directly what the problem was within a few seconds of evaluation, and later confirmed by seeing me ride on a trainer. Apparently, the problem stems from the arches of my feet. My right one is collapsing, causing my right knee to flex slightly towards my frame, which in turn is causing my left knee to even overcompensate even further by flexing out and away from the frame. Basically, my problem is that my shoes (like most) do not provide adequate arch support. So I am now to go out and buy some simple arch support insoles, and also install some 1mm shims on the inside of my right cleat to compensate for this. Shims are already done, and I will try to find these new insoles tomorrow perhaps.
On some separate notes, I have 2 reviews/1 sponsor product placement to throw your way. Kangaroo is delicious. Man, tender, juicy, easy to cut and eat and lean as heck. Cooked it up in a frying pan with some pepper, garlic, and coriander... what a treat! I will definitely be buying some more of this stuff. As for the other review: Compex Muscle Stimulator Sport. Basically, its a small hand held muscle stimulator. You plug in several electrodes to the machine (4 each with a positive and negative electrode) and then attach the pads (similar to small difribulator pads) to the specific muscle groups you wish to target. You then select what type of program to run (active recovery, strength, endurance...) and adjust the voltage and press start. From there it zaps your muscles causing them to contract, looks like you are twitching, at different intervals. I did the active recovery on my hamstrings and calves which is supposed to act like a massage and help promote recovery through increased blood flow. And man it felt good. Felt fresh after, and even better this morning! Pretty cool stuff for sure and we happen to have a couple of them here for our use I discovered as they sponsor us. Check out their website for more info on them. May just try it out again tonight... After this sweet day, its now nice to relax, watch le Tour and then move on to my pre-race day tomorrow. GP Dourges UCI 1.2 in France on Sunday after all, which just so happens to be 190km of French racing. Man, gonna be a hard man's day. Plus after a little research, I have discovered that this race makes up part of the UCI European Tour. Gonna be a REALLY hard day. haha. Well, time for some recovery, perhaps a movie night is in oder...

One of those days...

Today was one of those days, one of those days I love the fact that I'm a cyclist. The weather was Belgian (overcast, cool, windy, and threatening to rain any second), and I had a long hard day ahead of me on the bike. After a quick grocery run in the morning (forgot a couple of things last time) I grabbed a quick snack, kitted up and packed my pockets with food and ipod. Legs had a bit of a dead feeling for the first while, but after a bit and a couple of intervals, they began to come around. As I worked through my intervals and put the miles behind me, my legs began to feel better and better. Soon I was flying along in my intervals, ticking more and more off. The time began to fly by. The rain never quite came, but I rode through a pretty dense mist/fog stuff for a while while the wind gave me a break. Pretty cool to be flying along these narrow roads through a nice dense fog. In the end, I finished my 30x1km intervals (10 x big gear, 10 x above threshold, 10 x high cadence) and finished with 4.25 hours and 130km. Sweet day in the saddle. Made myself some sandwiches and soup to warm my core back up and now sit here typing and watching another catty wompus day in the Tour.
"What the h$^%, has everyone been taking crazy pills???" - Scott W.
I will be trying something tonight I never thought I would eat, let alone in Belgium tonight. Not even quite sure how to cook it, consulting the internet now. Kangaroo. Thats right. For some reason, the Del Haize carries kangaroo steaks. Aaron and Scott found them last week, and I have decided that I must try it. Not a bad price either at just over 3 Euro for 2 steaks! I will have a full report on the qualities off this rare meat in tomorrow's blog. Pretty excited though, gonna make a sweet spinach salad to go with it. I just need to add that watching Vino chase back on to the group right now, is giving me even more respect for the man. Wow. Off the back while the pack is going full tilt in a crash, calls back his team to time trial him back to the pack, which meanwhile hits a climb and more attacks start, he uses all his teammates and then strikes out on his own. Never giving up. Suffering like a champ. Him and Cancellera have both received huge points in my book already this Tour. Well, 7km left in the stage, so I need to focus on one task. Here's a hint, it doesn't involve writing... Ciao

Rain and some cash

So, update on yesterday's Kermis. Still work to do, those sprints kill me out of every corner. But, rode much better than the last one. About 70 guys lined up in the sun, then the only grey cloud in the Belgium promptly moved in above us and open up it fury. You could seriously see sun all around us except the course. It was ridiculous. Every one was laughing on the line. I managed to work myself into a front line position for the start which was awesome and going to be quite essential with the 2 cobble sections coming one after another 500m after the start, right after the first tight 90 degree corner. Got myself onto 3rd wheel coming into the cobbles, and flew through, no problems. Followed the first attack of the day (never know what will stick in these races, plus I was out to make the day as hard as possible for myself) and stayed away with one other guy for about 1 1/2 laps. Not bad, got caught, and a team mate of mine countered and I grabbed second wheel and let some Belgie tow me up to him. Basically of the 5 of us at the race, we had someone in every break and attack for the first half of the race. None of us left the top 15-20 at any time. Feeling really good with my positioning now, and more confident on the bike fighting for these wheels. Should mention I almost wiped out hard in the first break, came around the Belgie coming into a tight, wet corner and lost my rear wheel. Ended up sliding through the corner sideways - pretty freaky, but somehow held myself upright and kept charging. The course was pretty sweet and technical. Long slightly uphill finishing straight, tight corner onto cobbles, under a brifge, more cobbles, tight 180 degree turn, weaving through some corn fields, into town, another 180 onto a wide highway type road, up a 500m climb, quick descent with another 180 at the bottom (Cereal from my team wiped out good here) then a couple easy corners to the finishing straight. Plus the roads became very slick quite quickly with the rain after a day of sun. At about half way, I started to feel my efforts (we were already past the length of a normal crit back home) and got my wheel clipped. Guess I wasn't paying enough attention. Ended up having to do a serious chase for a lap (4-5km) and caught back on right at the start of the cobbles. So toasted from the chase that I got popped for good at the next acceleration coming out of the 180. Finished up riding a couple of tempo laps with this British guy and then taking him in the sprint for 41st. Basically, when they are about to pull you, they wave a white flag and you sprint for your placing if you are with anyone. Went back to change and hand in my number, and to my surprise, the commissars told me to wait 5 minutes - I was in the cash! Sweet! My moral quickly shot back up as they handed me my envelope with 5 Euros. Not much, but remember, the races here only cost 3 Euro to begin with. Plus, I am officially making money as a cyclist in Europe. This should hopefully give me a little extra drive and help me suffer that little bit extra to make a little more next time. These Kermis races are hard, I should mention that only about 10 dudes actually finished the entire race distance. Basically, the race shatters after about an hour, and if you are not in the front group, you are not making it. Crazy racing here. No negative racing. Everyone thinks simply that, its time to attack. No matter what. Pace at only 45km/h, better attack! In the gruppetto, better attack! Its all out from the gun. No rest, pretty hard to eat and drink too. I'm off for an easy 3 hours soon, back for today's stage of the Tour and a nice relaxing afternoon. Apparently I've got a hard week, racing in Drouges, France at a UCI 1.2 level race on Sunday. 1.2 is the next level up from the 1.12 UCIs I've been doing, and apparently the racing in Northern France can be even crazier that the racing around here so I'll have to be on top of my game. But at least I speak the language so will understand more of what is being yelled, maybe eve do some yelling back in the correct language! Ciao for now, I'm off to ride in the clouds of Belgium...

Race day dawns again

The Tour de France route through Belgium.

Me with the Predictor-Lotto car in the feed zone.

The pack comes rolling through led by CSC chasing the break, 'bout to
score me a Confidis musette!

Kermis day in Oostkamp. Got up, made some sweet panekokens (crepes) and a nice espresso. Did the little internet check; email, Canadian Nat's results, and other such fun activities. After that, grabbed Vince's cruiser bike and rode myself into Oostkamp to the grocery store. Loaded up on fresh supplies and a few other stables to keep me going for the week. Still kept in in budget and barely managed to stuff in all in my back pack. Nice. Even got some more supplies to make more pesto. Hit the rollers for half an hour after arriving home to work on my knee "issues". Pretty nice to just focus on riding smoothly and focus on form and breathing for a bit. Even got comfortable enough on the buggers that I am now able to drink without any problems while riding. Yesterday I fell off the rollers a few times attempting this, so I was quite proud of myself. Found some sweet little cakes and crackers to stuff my pockets with for longer rides at the Del Haize too, something to look forward to on long rides! Ate some pasta and broccoli for lunch and will make myself some eggs, rice and olive oil about 3 hours before our start to chow down on. Other than that, keep my legs up and rest and hydrate before the race. Supposed to be a nice technical course today with a decent cobbled section to deal with. We'll try out my new theories and put some lessons to use today to improve on the last Kermis result. Today is booked to be a nice easy 3 hours, so here's hoping for sun! I'm off for a quick nap before the Tour comes on TV...

The Tour de France comes to Belgium

Got up at my normal hour of 7 today, which seems earlier lately with the lack of Chris as I now no longer have much company for my breakfast. No problem, I also therefore have full run of the kitchen without having to share and a few moments of peace to myself. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to get to the grocery store as our Tour departure got pushed up to noon to be able to get there and find good spots in the feed zone. Talked with Bernard, he feels that my knee movement (anyone who has ridden with me has seen my knee bobbing around side to side) is probably just due to a muscle memory thing. So for the next while, I will be doing 30 minute rides on the rollers in front of a mirror to try and retrain my muscles to go straight up and down. So today was my first ever ride on rollers. Took me a few minutes of riding with one hand on the wall to hold me up, but by the end of the hour (I happened to have a 1 hour pre-race ride on schedule) I was even able to drink while riding. Not bad, time seems to at least pass much faster than on the trainer. After a quick lunch, we were off to the feed zone of the Tour de France. Parked, and rode over to the feed zone and settled ourselves into nice spots. Grabbed a bunch of random free stuff from the massive parade/caravan that precedes the actual race. While waiting for the race, many team cars began to appear and begin filling musettes and bottles around us. Luckily for us, the Predictor-Lotto car parked itself right next to us, so we managed to scout out what the pros eat. For those interested, most bags seem to have: some sandwiches, rice cakes, little pastries, gels, coke, 2 bottles. Not all bags have the same stuff, and different teams do it a little differently, but all have the same idea. A small break of 3 riders came through first, and then the peloton came flying through led by team CSC trying to protect their yellow jersey. You really don't see much of the race itself, but I did manage to score a Confidis mussette bag thrown by one of their riders. Sweet. Headed back home, little dinner, and now getting ready for bed. My body always seems extra tired on these easy pre-race days. But so far, my legs have felt good when it mattered. So no worries, just keep my same schedule going and get plenty of rest. Next, a large portion of the team is racing a local Kermis race tomorrow in Oostkamp. Which is only a 10 minute ride from the house. Nice to be able to just roll over to the start. Late start though, 6pm. Going to be a weird eating schedule tomorrow. I'm off to bed...

Donkey Power

So, according to Wikepedia, one donkey power (significantly less than one horsepower) is equal to 250W. So I can push a couple of donkey powers. Word. Makes me laugh, even after taking another look at my busted up front wheel. Definitely should be able to save the tubular still though. Which would be nice considering it's a Comp 22 with only 3 races on it, therefore NO visible wear. Just pop a new tube in there and sew it back up. As for the wheel - toast. Bad luck, but that's racing in Belgium. I'm definitely getting a new rim though, just put those silly ceramic bearings in the hub before I left. Not letting those bad boys go to waste. Talked to Bernard this morning, apparently I'm racing again on Tuesday at a local Kermis race along with most of the team so should take today relatively easy and then do a pre-race day again tomorrow. Which is almost too bad as it appears to be another sunny day here in Belgium so far, which have been pretty few and far between. Got myself another score of free food the other day when I happened to be the first one up and Chris had just left that morning. Swooped! I have also worked out a deal with Vince that we will use his recently acquired basil plants and my recently acquired olive oil to create a fresh batch of pesto. Sweet. Tomorrow will be a pre-race day in the morning and off to the Tour feed zone at 1:30 to go find me some free schwag! I think there may be a grocery store run going down too, which would be nice as I have run out of a few fresh ingredients recently (fruit, vegetables...). Getting better at sticking to my grocery budget, and getting better at spotting the sales and whatnot. Found myself a tour guide for a rest day in Brussels one of these days, Steffan (the other Canadian member of the team) lives in Brussels with his girlfriend, so I may come a knocking some day to check out the sites. Considering a run into Brugges today to explore a bit, but we'll see how the legs feel this aft. Ciao

Sandy vs. the broomwagon

So apparently our average speed for the first hour and a bit coming into the Oude Kwaremont was 49km/h. That is what Ann has just informed me. This explains a lot. How about I start from the beginning...
Today was a day of firsts, and not good firsts. First time flatting in a race (~20 minutes in), first time flatting a tubular (hit some crevasse in the road so hard it buckled my Ksyrium rim), first wheel change in a race, first time maneuvering through the race caravan (motor paced up to the caravan first, as our car was almost last in line, at 60+km/h) and first time in the broom wagon. Not a fun experience. Did everything right leading up to the race, legs felt good and strong, mind was in the game. Right from the start, I held my spot in the top 20 or so, right where I needed to be to follow attacks as per orders. We were neutral for about 4km, then the fireworks went off and the pack went from 35km/h directly up to 50+. Man, saw guys attacking from the guy left right and center, but nothing could stay. Our pace was just too fast and the wind too much. At least the sun was out for this day of suffering. Realizing that there was no attacks worth going with, and risking blowing myself up by trying to break away, I settled myself into the pack. About 20 minutes into the race, we found ourselves strung out single file rolling along next to a canal when WHAM! I heard my front tire bottom out on my rim as I hit some kind of crevasse in the road. I quickly looked down, wheel looked basically true, not flat. Kept riding. A few minutes later I thought my bike was handling a little funny as it was sliding around on the road, a little disconcerting at 50km/h. Checked down again, sure enough, flat as a pancake. Put my hand up to signal to everyone around my and the commissar's car that I had a front flat. Radioed Heert (our DS for the day) that I needed a wheel change. Unfortunately our car was about 20th in line so I kept rolling and waited until I heard his voice telling me that he wa 20m behind, pulled my wheel out, popped in the new one, and got a nice push off to start rolling. Got in behind our team car and Heert tore me back up to the caravan at 60+km/h. Seriously, I kept looking down because I was spinning out my gear, but there was nothing bigger than that 53x11 I was spinning like a junior track rider. Got up to the caravan where I unfortunately panicked a bit (never having ridden a caravan before) and starting wasting too much energy, should have been more patient and moved up when I got better chances. Got within 3 cars 3 times. But I could not close that gap. Yo-yoed back and forth in the caravan for about 50 minutes, or until we hit the base of the Ode Kwaremont when the old broom wagon finally caught up to me. Tossed my bike into the bike wagon, and did the old walk of shame into the broom wagon. Watched the rest of the race from the wagon. Did a nice 3 hour ride after the race pre-dinner.
That was my day, needless to say I am not in the greatest of moods right now. But hey, thats racing. Time to learn from this and get ready for the next race. I hate not finishing, I can now put this in the pain bank and use it when the going gets tough. I'll talk to Bernard soon to get my coming schedule and see what I'll be racing next.

Day in my life pt. 2

My lunch, homemade crepes... Some filled with bananas and honey, others
with jam. Mmmmm...

Pre-race dinner of champions! Whole wheat pasta, fresh yellow pepper, fresh
broccoli, and fresh Atlantic salmon (most on sale!), and topped of course with my
homemade pesto.

My new ride bars. Baked fresh this afternoon. Pretty good, already
improving them in my mind for next time.

Here are some pictures...
And there we have it. And yes, my days off seem to consist of creating food for the rest of the week. I do love food, and this is much cheaper than buying it pre-packaged in the long run.

Passing the time, a day in my life...

So, pre-race day has dawned again. Slept like a baby last night after the epic ride. Feel good again this morning, I'll ride about 1-1.5 hours today. Couple of form sprint and a few efforts at threshold. Nothing tough or that strenuous. Just gotta get the blood flowing, and clear out the legs. Gonna need some good legs tomorrow ;). I thought I would fill some of you in on how I spend my days here whilst not riding mi bicicletta. No matter how long of a ride I have, it always seems easy to fill the day. Generally I wake up about 7am. Get up, relieve myself, and the proceed to create some breakfast. Coffee machine gets turned on first, then eggs and toast, or yogurt and muesli... Depends on what I have planned the rest of the day. This meal will basically fuel my efforts for the day. Less food on recovery days, more on race slash long days. As a general rule in the house, "eat half as much food at meals than you would at home, and twice as much on the ride." And lots and lots of water. This is the Euro way courtesy of Bernard. The idea is simply that we, as North Americans not only eat wayyyyy too much, but also of the wrong things. I eat much less here. No seconds, one plate. And I have never felt so good. The liters of water definitely help too. Makes the whole body feel good and running smooth by drinking a lot. After breakfast, I grab my cup of joe, and head to the common room to check the net, email, etc... Generally head back to the kitchen after that, prep some ride food (Nutella sandwiches, banana, waffles...) and then get changed dependent on the weather. Grab the bike, and hit the road. After ride, it is time for a shower and some warm clothes. You must constantly be dressed warmly (house rules) to avoid sickness and help you body focus its energy on recovery. Socks, pants, long sleeves, and hat. Thems the rules. Obey or get reminded constantly by all. Works for me. Then usually a snack/late lunch and some tea. Followed by a nap (if needed) and some relaxation. Watch some bike racing (or Wimbledon tennis and Moto GP lately) and surf the net until dinner. Dinner usually consists of pasta/rice with some form of meat (mostly chicken or fish) with some veggies and a piece of biscotti and an apple for dessert. I truly enjoy the preparation of dinner the most in the day. I bought a whole bunch of spices lately and love to mix them up with sauces and curries to create something new. My current every dinner spice is simply hot sauce, but man, gives everything a kick and keeps the metabolism working faster apparently. Love the stuff. Recovery days I usually add in some baking (going to make some homemade ride bars today) and some extra movie/TV watching. Mostly I have been streaming and downloading new movies on the computer. Finished a few seasons of the Office and am now working on Little Britain. BBC British humour at its finest! Todays ride, is looking like an exceptionally windy one, according to the weather Westerly winds at 42km/h. Sweet. Then I have decided to learn to make crepes for lunch. The internet truly is a wonderful thing for a cyclist. I might have to read a lot more otherwise and send all you clowns letters everyday instead! After dinner, is usually legs up time, movie or Monopoly or general chillaxing time, and I usually throw in a bowl of cereal about 8. Thats my life. Pretty wonderful I must say. But yes, it is a hard life. Everything is done carefully, to avoid sickness, we ride rain or shine, there are very few days to be a tourist (recovery is paramount and walking all day isn't recovery), we can't enjoy too many Belgian brews, there are almost no sweets in the house (except some for ride food), and riding is our job after all. You must answer for yourself and represent the house well. Everyone has a job, as long as you do that job to the best of your abilities and work hard, everyone comes out happy. I have had the word passed down that my job for the race tomorrow is to cover early attacks and try to get into an early break. It will be a hard day. But it will also help me, both in the race and in the long run. If I can be in a small group heading to the climbs, I don't have to worry so much about my position in the pack and fight tooth and nail for a top 10 heading to the first climb. It will be harder work, but make the decisive point in the race easier in the big picture and make it easier for my team leaders for the day. And it could be worse, I could be designated to go back and forth to the cars for water. That almost guaranties that I won't make it over the climbs with the lead groups! Well, I have work to do, I'll update you after the race. Ciao

Long day in the saddle

Recon ride today. Some celebrations last night. Fun times. Went out with a few of the boys and took some of the cruiser bikes into Oostkamp and headed to a local drinking establishment to partake in a few local brews. Celebrate Independence Day/Canada Day Belgian styles. With the exception that several of us had a big ride today, so not too many beers. Tried this sweet one called Westmalle, which is Brewed in an abbey by Trappist monks. Delicious, and a pretty cool heritage! Woke up this morning to the usual Belgie weather, so we packed our pockets with food, and tossed several dozen water bottles into the team car with our rain jackets and Bernard. Bernard drove with us on the ride to direct us around the 100km loop for the course. The course is going to be incredible difficult. It is basically an out and back route with 5 local laps of 9km each afterwards. The out and back consists of riding out to 4 Tour of Flanders climbs and then back to town. Ouch. And the roads are tough too, either wide open roads with some serious cross winds (therefore crazy echeloning) or super narrow and twisty farm roads. We start the climbs off with a long, fast and narrow run in to the Oude Kwaremont (2200m of cobbled climb, and seriously rough cobbles), then a long descent (making it more difficult still to close any gaps. The field WILL shatter here and if you are not in a front group, you will not see the front again in all likelihood. After a much too short and hard rolling section, the Steenberg (?) is next on the list. Pretty long, not cobbled, but ridiculously steep and flippin narrow. About the width of maybe 3 cyclists. After managing to climb the final pitch, you again descend and roll until you hit the Paterberg. At only 400m, it is still ridiculously hard AVERAGING 14%. And I promise you it is much steeper than that at the top. From there you have another slightly longer rolling section until you hit another slightly easier (only by comparison) cobbled climb which I have forgotten the name of. Then back into Pittem for the usually hard local laps. Like I said, a hard day, only to get harder when we actually race it on Saturday. Should be quite the incredible experience. We will even have a full Canadian contingent in attendance: both Steffan Elzinga and myself. Steffan has actually been living and racing in Europe here for a number of years, but his passport still Canadian. In the end, we ended up with 5 hours ride time. Tough, yet fun day in the saddle like I said. All that's left is the pre-race day tomorrow and then go time on Saturday. On Sunday I will be making my way to Gent most likely to watch the stage of the Tour and should be heading to a Tour feed zone with Bernard and Ann on one of the 2 Belgian days to check it out. They seem to have scored us some passes to get into the feed zone. Try and score myself some free schwag! Ciao for now, I'm pretty good and knackered...
Good luck to the boys and girls racing Nationals and Martinique this week.

Rain and fit in Belium

"To prepare for a race, there is nothing better than a pheasant, some champagne, and a woman."
-Jaques Anquetil
I found that quote at the end of an old VeloNews. It brought happiness to my day. Apparently he used to spend many a night before Tour stages up late drinking and partying. And then win the next day. I'm pretty sure Bernard would beat us with a proverbial stick if we tried that. Plus my chances of winning a Tour de France stage this year are getting pretty slim. None of the correct teams seem to be returning my calls. I told them I was Sandy, and that I was kinda a big deal... Oh well. Back on topic.
Had my bike fit last night. And to sum things up, it was topsy turvey. Word courtesy of Mr. Scott Wenzel. Basically, we went to Franz's place, and settled into this little old school fit studio in the back of his garage. The man is old school to the bone. He owns like 6 generations of Eddy Merckx bikes, is about 60 and reminds me of a grouchy version of my grandfather (Dap). He is quite nice, other than being set in his ways, full of stories, and only speaks dutch. Luckily Ann was there to translate the important parts. Unfortunately I couldn't understand most of the stories, which sounded wicked cool judging by the names of the cyclists he was dropping. In fact, he had an appointment today with an Astana pro he was upset about as he could not change any parts on the dude's BMC without consulting Astana management first. Apparently the guy would get fined 10,000 Euros for being seen with non sponsor parts or changing stuff. Anyways, this office was small, but packed to the brim with every bike part and tool you could imagine. Stems of every length, angle and quality, bars, shoe fitting stuff, and drawers full of riders measurements. He showed me the bike fits of many pros who have very similar measurements to me. The man knows his fitting. After taking about 12,000 measurements of me and double checking them all, he calculated what my "perfect" frame and bike would look like numbers wise. As if I would be getting a custom bike. He then measured my stuff up, and proceded to tell me how everything was topsy turvey. Not his exact words, but my bike was changed pretty drastically. He then basically stripped my bike down, and rebuilt it with the correct measurements. The dude even modified my seatpost to be able to level my saddle better. It took him about 45 minutes just to get the seat set up just right. Meticulous was an understatement. New, shorter stem now, modified seatpost, lower bars, 2cm higher seat... The list goes on. He even changed the routing of my cables. Four hours of bike fit, 60 Euros. A deal and a half as normally that would be a 200 Euro job. He then mounted my cleats perfect with this crazy homemade jig (he has made jigs for everything) and got me on the bike and showed me why he did everything and how it would make me better. Pretty sweet. Got home at almost 11, happy. Oh, and he changed my pedals to Time, Bernard gave me some. He HATES Speedplay. Looking forward to riding today, though our recon ride has now been postponed until tomorrow due to what looks like an epic storm a brewing. Most likely caused by Tex looking at the sun this morning and commenting on it. Literally, 10 seconds later these clouds blew in. Better find out what I should do for a ride soon and do it before this rain starts.

Rest

Team off to get changed in our ballin' tracksuits and matching luggage...

Bikes set out, checked over and race ready by mechanic Nate.

Number 75, thats me.

Team list slash program for the day.

So I am tired today. Legs feel dead, well my whole body feels dead. But I'm somewhat happy with the race in the end. Lessons learned, and good feelings were had from the legs. Seriously crazy day though. Odd how much stuff goes here. Rolling closures with the roads (local laps are fully closed off), police escort, 35 car caravan, tons of moto commisares. And people are nuts. Apparently our pack was about 200 strong on the start. Massive road race. Funny to watch the team cars try to get through the pack up to breaks though. These Belgies are too busy fighting for spots to care about a car. The cars honk, no one moves an inch. Eventually the cars just wait until there is a free bike path or sidewalk and floor it up the road on that. Went out for groceries this morning and to the bike shop. Some of the bikes have some serious damage after yesterday. A ton of crashes and mechanicals. Mostly for Santi (yes, you have no idea how confusing this is both in the house and on the race radios) and 'Tex'. Santi crushed his original bike in an early crash, and then had 2 flats. Tex had 1 flat and 2 bike changes. First his chain exploded and ended up hitting a parked car. Then crushed the spare bike in a nasty crash 15km from the finish. Bad day for those boys... Bernard just spent lunch with Patrick Lefevre (DS of Quick Step), while I sat here pretending to type with my mouth open. I couldn't understand much, but I understood that Patrick was giving Bernard the low down on what he thought would happen at the Tour de France this year. Wish I understood more Dutch - could be useful for the Tour Pool. Looks like its going to be a relaxing aft here in Belgium for me, was planning on heading into Brugges, but Belgian weather has taken over (overcast and showers) and my legs are too dead to walk around. Need to recover and make sure I don't get sick coming up to stage race season. Works out though as I now have a bike fit appointment with the famous "Franz" at 6:30 this evening. Which means I won't get home until like 9:30-10. Yes, he is apparently that thorough. Looking forward to that. Gonna talk to Bernard this evening and try to get myself some Time pedals. Team sponsor, and my Speedplays are pissing me off lately. Plus apparently Franz hates them. Cleats are giving me tons of grief. Got myself a sweet coffee mug at the GB (grocery store) this morning too. Nice big, rotund mug. Plus says "Coffee" on the outside. Pretty glad I had tubulars yesterday. Rough roads here in Belgium, lot of flats going down. Plus those Continental Comp 22 tyres are amazing. And they better be for their price, ya I splurged. If not for Belgium, then when? Good luck to the boys of the Echelon Project as they head off for Martinique early on the 5th, give'r. Sandy out.