This country is amazing! I arrived n Belgium on August 4th after my first trans-atlantic flight. I was able to stay awake even though I was extremely tired. I am staying in a room with Marcus Smith and Jonathan Schilling. In the other room Erik Volotzky, Michael Dessau and Colin Joyce. There is also Billy Innes, our Director Sportif and Carl, our awesome mechanic.
The town is really great. It isn’t too big, but we still like to explore. Izegem is a traditional Flanders town with several bakeries and such.
The first day here we visited the HTC-Columbia service course. It was really cool to see all of the pro bikes including Mark Cavendish’s. We met the mechanics and basically touched everything because it was just so cool.
Living here is really cool and I am considering not coming home. One of my favorite things is probably the Speculoos which is so good!
The races have been pretty difficult but that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. Kermesse style racing is one of my favorite types of races. The first race we did was the Kermesse Buggenhout. It had about 50 starters and the course was a crit style race. Since I am a Nieuwlingen (15-16) the race was only 60 kilometers. Also, being my first race here I didn’t know what to expect. So, I attacked relentlessly for the first 2/3 because I didn’t want to miss the split. I worked way too hard and ended up actually getting dropped from the group on 3 to go. I made it back into the group. I came in 30th at the back of the peloton. The top American was Marcus, who took 15th. Even though I was placed badly I almost won some money because the 350 EURO purse went 25 deep.
Sunday went much better. On Sunday we did the Kermesse Lovendegem and it went a lot better. It was 12 ronde of 5 km. It had a really windy road on the river and then we turned into some extremely narrow farm roads (less than one lane). I bridged to some chasers to a guy 1 minute off the front and a breakaway of 7 riders formed with me in it. We built the break up to 2:30 on the peloton. The start/finish was 700m of pretty rough cobbles. I came in 7th in the race out of 75 starters and 30 finishers. I won 45€ in prize money and primes. I’ve gotten into my euro groove you could say.
Race Schedule
08/11/10 Kermesse Hoelenden
08/15/10 Interclub Zwevezele
08/21/10-08/24/10 West Vlaanderen Cycling Tour
I am so ready to bring it in these races and my team is too. The Interclub and Stage Race we will be racing with USA team kits on. We are riding Specialized Tarmac S-Works bikes with Dura-Ace 7800 and Mavic Ksyrium SL wheels. They are very fast and our team looks legit with the same bikes. I am so excited!!
nice work, the Belgium’s will yell at you but don’t do too much work… tot ziens