Insert Title Here

Yea, sorry for the late blog. I was out all day yesterday at a race and I didn't get home till late and I still had to have dinner and then I was too tired to write this. It's a rainy day today so it's a good opportunity to clean the house and bike and write a blog. So yesterday I had another Pro Kermesse yesterday in Viane which is just over an hour drive away from where I live. I checked weather the night before and they were calling for rain so I packed all my wet and cold weather gear but it turned out to be a pretty stunner day. Cold but the sun was out. I hadn't been riding too much this week because the weather has been pretty bad with rain all day and real high winds and also a bit of lack of motivation. It's getting pretty boring being by myself so I am moving up to the other team house soon. But yea, at the race I wasn't feeling to motivated and my legs were feeling quite meh and heavy so I wasn't quite sure how I would go. The first couple laps I just cruised in the bunch but I was just not motivated at all. As the laps ticked over and a few things started happening like splits and break aways, I started to feel more motivated and excited and my legs started to come right. It was a real windy day and the course had a few long hills in it (well long for a Belgium so the longest was about 400m) so there were a couple big splits in the bunch. I decided to try have a crack at catching a split up one of the small climbs so I tried drilling it on the front and I formed a small bunch with about 5 other guys but we got caught pretty quick. That attack I did though cracked me a bit cause when I looked down my heart rate was at 202bpm and my lungs and throat were screaming! I think the cold air was effecting me a bit cause my lungs and throat were so sore and then I started tasting blood and had lots of mucus so I might be starting to get sick which is not ideal. It took about 35min for my lungs and throat to stop hurting. While I was trying to recover, a small group managed to catch up to the break up the road. Later on I tried having another crack to try and catch up to the break with a number of other riders but no one was working in the small break and we got caught not long after. We all got pulled out not long after cause the break wasn't gonna get caught. Luckily one of the riders from the team had bridged across to that break and finished the race which is a good result for our team in a Pro Kermesse. Just a couple more Pro Kermesses and then home time. In the mean time I'll just do some local kermesses.
But summer has definitely disappeared. All of last week was pretty much rain. It would constantly rain all through the morning until later that afternoon and it would be too late to go for a ride and I just wasn't motivated to ride in the wet. It's gone freezing cold now too. Last last Thursday it was boiling hot at over 30 degrees! And within a week it has well halfed that temperature. At night it gets down to single digits.
Gave the house a solid scrub down today cause I was bloody bored. Never seen this place this clean.
Just gonna do a local kermesse on the weekend cause there's no team race this weekend.
So yea. That's basically it. It's just bloody wet and cold and windy here. Sucks. Not long though until I'm home. Counting down the days.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Hectic But Awesome Week

This week has been a pretty fun and hectic week with 2 races and a music festival.

I went out to a race on Tuesday to try and win some money cause I'm nearly out of it. I had learnt from other races that a breakaway very rarely gets away in the first couple laps so I had decided to stay in the bunch and do nothing for the first couple laps. Sure enough, a bunch of guys smack it right at the very start of the race. I just thought "psssh, this isn't gonna work. I'm just gonna sit here and let everyone chase it down." But the break kept getting further and further. After a while I thought "shit! This break is gonna stick so I have to catch up to it!" The bunch was never working together to try catch the break but everyone wanted too attack the bunch and go solo which never works. So I tried doing that... I tried going solo and stupidly enough, some guy was sitting on the front of the bunch and chasing me down and once he caught me, he and the whole bunch sat up. It's so frustrating and stupid because the bunch is willing to work together to catch some lone rider who is trying to bridge to the break but they won't work together to try and catch the breakaway. I don't understand some of these Belgy riders. They frustrate the hell out of me sometimes. I tried a couple more times with some other riders but we just kept getting caught. The break was long gone so I just thought "screw it, I'm just gonna use this race as some good training" so I just sat on the front of the bunch and rode the front. Yet riders were attacking each other and other riders would chase that person down... Don't get it at all! Ah well. I came out with more money than I went it there with so all good. It was good training leading up to Thursdays Pro Kermesse in Izegem. 

It was a bloody hot day on Thursday topping over 30 degrees. It was so hot riding especially with our kits that are black. Had my shirt unzipped for the whole race. It was a bloody tough race too. Legs weren't feeling to fantastic at the beginning of the race and the pretty much stayed like that. Only managed to last over 70km but in that 70km we average 45kph which is fast for a kermesse that has a lot of tight corners. There were about 230 starters and I think when I dropped off there were only about 130 left. Managed to avoid a big pile up to that took down about 30 riders. It was a pretty hectic race but good fun.

Then on Saturday, Tom and I meet up in Antwerp South for the music festival 'Laundry Day'. Had been looking forward to this day for a while. The festival was all set up outside with about 6 or 7 stages including the main stage that had all the headline acts. It was awesome to be able to see all the famous artists that you see on the TV or computer play right in front of you. So yea it was a pretty awesome day.

My computer is skitzing out at the moment and it's taking ages to write this blog so I'm just gonna call it. 

Got another Pro race I think on Monday.

So yea. Sorry for making it short. My computer is not liking me at the moment.

Thanks for reading

Go the All Blacks and Team New Zealand for the sailing!

Nick

Pretty Lazy Week

I've started this blog pretty early today so I've got no pressure of writing and publishing it before everyone gets up. So yea, it's been a pretty lazy week this week. Haven't raced since last Saturday but I did some good training and I've two races this week. Racing tomorrow at a local kermesse and then another Pro Kermesse on Thursday. The race on Thursday is in the town that I basically live in. It's in the town of Izegem and I live in Lendelede but I live closer to the center of Izegem than the center of Lendelede. After the race all the guys from the team are coming over and having pizzas and just chilling out which will be pretty sweet.
So I've got nothing really to talk about this week cause I haven't raced yet so it could be another short blog if I can't think of anything to say. Well, Taylor is back in NZ so I'm ol' Nigel-No-Mates for the next little while. I'm going to head over to the Zottegem house with the other boys some time so I don't die of boredom.
Next week I think I should have a pretty good blog cause I would've had two races and I've also got that music festival this Saturday with my mate Tom so I'm definitely looking forward to that. Been counting down the days for that for a while now.
It's just over a month now until I get to head on home. A few more big races left in the season. Nothing too exciting has really happened in Lonely Lendelede. One of the chickens keep escaping and I think he might get the axe cause he's escaped so many times and I think he's ripped up a heap of the grass on the outside of the chicken fence so I don't think Andrew will be too happy. I don't think Andrew has seen it but he's just got home right now so he might see it now. There's some road works up the road that are quite annoying cause they've closed the road off... Yea, not a lot happens in my area and a small change in the town I think excites a few people cause they're not used to change.
I've been looking at the computer for about 5 minutes trying to come up with something to say but not a lot has happened this week so there's not much to talk about. Oh! New tv show is on; Modern Family. Better than Road Wars with the British Police. This kinda just made my day.
But yea, I'm gonna go finish off my mince pie that I made a few nights ago. Is good kai my pie.
So yea

Thanks for reading

Nick

It's been a pretty alright week this week I guess. Had two Pro Kermesses but it decided to bucket down with rain on both the days for some reason. The first Kermesse was on Thursday but on the Wednesday, Taylor and I went for a light ride and finished our ride at the cafe. We were sipping away our coffee in the sun next to the canal and it was a bloody nice day. Then the next day the weather decided to throw a curve ball at us. At the race it showered then stopped then rained then stopped then showered. It was a pretty tough race with a long 700m climb every lap (700m is a long climb in Belgium). The break got away in the first couple laps and none of our team was in the break so we decided to sit on the front and drive the bunch to try and catch the break. We weren't too successful and we got pulled out of the race because the break got too far ahead and we were definitely not gonna catch them. I wasn't complaining because it was pretty dodgy riding on the soaking wet roads. There were a couple crashes but I managed to keep out of trouble.
On the Friday we went back to the same cafe after our ride cause it was another awesome day. Sat out in the nice hot sun again, tried to work on our arm tan. Then the next day we had another Pro Kermesse and yup, it was pissing with rain. It was completely pouring with rain this time. It was a real scary race with lots of tight corners. There were only about 80 odd starters which is tiny for a Pro Kermesse cause there are normally well over 160 starters at a Pro Kermesse. My back wheel was sliding all over the place and I could often feel my front wheel slide a bit which is really bad. There were a couple crashes around the corners but I managed to avoid them. I think I might of laid a fresh one in my chamois a couple times after going around some of those corners a bit too fast. I slowly found my way at the back because so many people had dropped and pulled out. I didn't notice that I was at the back for a little while. I was getting a bit nervous around the corners and so were a number of other riders. The rider in front of me dropped the wheel in front of him around one of the corners so we lost contact with the bunch in the cross wind section. We didn't get back on. It was pretty scary race with barely anyone finishing. A lot of good riders pulled out before the finish so it goes to show how hard the race was. But I managed to survive both rainy day races without a graze on me.
All is going pretty good I guess. Watched the All Blacks defeat the Aussies again which was pretty awesome. Haven't watch any rugby in a while.
Went up to a big party in the town that I live in and they had set up a big main stage and the AC/DC tribute band called IC/TC played for a couple hours. They dressed up exactly like AC/DC and were dancing around like them. It was something different to do and it was quite cool to join in with the locals.
Yea, I left my blog a bit late so I'm kinda rushing it. But yea, nothing too exciting has happened this week. Just same old same old I guess.

Thanks for reading

Nick

A Really Really Quick Update

So it's just another quiet week here in Belg. This is probably gonna be a quick blog cause nothing really happened this week. Just been at home by myself cause Taylor was off racing. Pretty disappointed that I didn't get to do the tour because I've the bad race I had last week. It was a selection race so it was a bad time to get major cramp in my hamstring. Hopefully I don't cramp up that bad again cause that was the most painful cramp ever. Up and onwards I guess. I'm really looking forward to home. Starting to miss home quite a bit now so I'm just counting the days. There's no more Top Competition races now so we are just doing the Pro Kermesses. I'm going to a music festival with my mate, Tom, on the 7th so I'm really looking forward to that, counting down the days to that!
Taylor is heading home on the 28th so I'll be old Nigel no mates for a little while. I'll probably head over to the other house in Zottegem for a little while so I don't completely lose my mind. But yea that's pretty much it. Been a pretty boring lonely week. Got a bit lost when I rode my bike into France the other day but I managed to get back into the right country with all the weird people. When mum and dad were over here, mum and I were having a good laugh people because what the wear. Especially on the weekend, the Belgy's love to dress up and go into the city center and have a beer or wine at a cafe. We were sitting at a cafe in Kortrijk just people watching and mum and I were cracking up at the amount of guys that wear their fancy dress shoes, nice ironed pants with their crisp new collard shirt tucked in and a jumper on their shoulders. The thing that made us laugh the most is the jumpers they wear on their shoulders cause in the movies and stuff, the people that wear jumpers on their shoulders and the arms tied together around their neck are normally rich knobs that play tennis all day in their big backyards behind their mansions. So many people wear their jumpers like that even if it's 30 degrees.
But yea that's pretty much it. Just have another Pro Kermesse on Saturday so hopefully everything goes good there. Just looking forward to home now.
I forgot to put up a picture of the BnE pie I made when mum and dad were here. Mum told me to put it up so here you go mum.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Mum helped wrote the 'yum' 'pie' and did the 'choice' the fern just appeared somehow

One of the kermesses I did

Nice Holiday With The Parents

The last couple weeks have been a pretty nice, cruisey week. On the 31st July I flew over to London to meet up with mum and dad and spend a couple of days looking around London with them. Hoped on the Tube and headed in town and man was it hectic. Being completely squished in the tube with heaps of other people and the streets were just mental with people and cars and sirens. So many ambulances! We got on the double-decker tour bus and cruised around the London sites. Got to see all the classic things like Big Ben, London Bridge etc. So much walking too! Not used to walking so much, I sit on my ass for a living so my feet and legs were killing me. Also had a look around Winston Churchill's Bunker which was really fascinating. The next day, London turned on the weather for us and it was a clear-ish blue sky day (Bit of smog, not like NZ blue sky) and really hot. We went over to Buckingham Palace to say yo to the Queen and had a walk around some park. We couldn't stay for too long cause we had to catch the Euro Star over to Brussels at 2 so it we couldn't have more of a look around London. Had another pint with the whanau in a English pub, so I can tick that off my list, before we headed on the train. I really liked London, I wouldn't mind going over there for 6 months or so and working in a pub and travelling around Europe or something for a bit of fun.
Picked up the rental car from Brussels train station and we drove back home sweet home. The next couple of days I showed mum and dad around Belgium and we went to Brugge and Ghent for a look around. Dad and I had a few classic Belgium beers and we sat in some nice cafes next to the canals. It was nice to have a couple beers and be able to relax with the parents.
Then we made the big journey over to France for a couple days. Spent the first night in a small town just out of Caen in some creepy looking BnB. It was a huge old house next to a church with a big graveyard. Ghosts! The next day we headed out to the coast and visited Normandy beach. We stopped at Juno beach first where the Canadians landed on DDay. It's quite weird, 69 years ago that sand on that beach was covered in blood and bullets but now it's covered in locals and tourists sunbathing and playing. Like dad said, they had DDay so the locals and tourists can sunbathe on that beach. It just felt really weird cause it really did just look like another beach. We then had a quick look around the Juno Beach Museum which was pretty interesting. The museum also shows the brief history of Canada which was really interesting to see and also what the Canadians did during the war. I think dad was pretty happy to be able to see all this. Next we headed over to Omaha beach. The place was packed with people. When went over to the section where all the headstones are, it was pretty overwhelming. I got a really weird feeling in my stomach. Just seeing the amount of white crosses there was just unreal. You couldn't even see the ones at the back! It was pretty sad to see that many white crosses in one place. Then you look down at the beach from the top of the cliff and then you just think that the white crosses behind you were looking up at where we were standing, 69 years ago. It was again a very odd feeling seeing people enjoying the beach and playing in the sand and water. Again, they did it so we can enjoy the beach but it's still just really weird cause people now were so happy and enjoying themselves in an area that was once the last place you probably wanted to be. We headed down the hill and on to the beach and looked up the big hill where the Americans would have looked and fought up. It looks a lot nicer than when it did 69 years ago. Dad and I had a little explore around and found some big canon concrete bunker things (Don't really know what they're called) and a German Pill Box. Seeing the big bullet holes in the concrete or big chunks taken out of the concrete. It was all pretty overwhelming. We made our last stop at Pont du Hoc where the Americans had to shoot grappling hooks at the top of a big cliff and climb the ropes up to the top where they met the Germans. Before the Americans landed on the beach, the Air Force bombed the hell out of the top and left giant craters in the ground that are still here today. They managed to get a few direct hits on the concrete canon bunkers too with big chunks of concrete lying around everywhere and giant holes in the concrete bunkers. It was pretty cool being able to see all that and it was a pretty humbling experience too, I really enjoyed. Stayed another night in Caen and then the next day we headed to Mont Saint Michel which is a tiny city on a tiny Island. It's also where the Tour de France finished their first Time Trial. It looked pretty cool from a distance but as we got closer you could see it was jam packed with people. There were so many people who kept stopping and taking photos and holding up traffic so I just told mum and dad to be a Belgy cyclist and just stick your elbows out and tell everyone to get out of the way! It wasn't as crowded when we got up to the church but man was it high. You just stick your head over the ledge and there's a 50 meter drop right there. Dad was too much of a wuss to get anywhere near the ledge but it had pretty good view. Too bad it was low tide cause it was all just mud flats. We didn't spend too much time there cause we were all pretty knackered  so we just went and chilled in the town where our hotel was. It was nice just to chill out a bit and hang out with whanau. That's pretty much it. Won't say too much more cause the blog is pretty long as it is. Mum and dad headed off this afternoon so I will see them in 7 weeks again. Looking forward to it. It was real nice to be able to have some time off the bike, have an explore around a new country and be able to see my parents. It was a good few weeks but now it's back to business. Need to win some races to get some more money cause I'm broke as. So yea, I'll chuck up some photos from our adventure.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Dad and I having a pint in London

Omaha Memorial

Down on Omaha beach looking up to the top of the hill

Mont Saint Michel

The main walkway was packed as

The view from pretty much the top

So Frustrating!

Just another week here in Belgium really. Taylor was off at a Tour for most of the week so I was home alone for the week. The team rode really well at the tour and managed to pull off the win. Ryan Wills, from Whakatane managed to win overall and collect the yellow jersey which is an awesome result for the team.
The weather was real average in the second half of the week with big thunderstorms and torrential rain so I had to try and time my rides perfectly to not get wet or electrocuted. On Saturday night the thunder and lightning was pretty intense and I decided to watch a show on National Geographic channel about people being possessed. Not ideal on a stormy night when you have to sleep all by yourself so I had a pretty average sleep that night. I still got up early the next day and rode 60 odd km, came home cleaned up my bike and got ready for the race that afternoon. The race was only 3km up the road and it was I think a 19 lap course. There were only 90 or so starters which isn't big at all for a Belgium Kermesse. I was feeling bloody awesome and I managed to pick up 2 prime sprints which means pay day! 13 euro for every prime you win. (Definition of 'Prime Sprint' or 'Sprint Primes': First person to cross the line on a lap that is a prime sprint wins a certain amount of money. They tell you what laps are the prime sprint laps before the race and they wave a flag to let you know too.) I was getting really frustrated with myself and everyone else. I had told myself before the race that at these Kermesses, the breaks barely ever get away in the first half of the race so I should stay in the bunch and do no work for the first half but I was seeing good riders attack off the front and I got nervous so I would bridge across to them and then we would get caught. I did this way too many times. So sometimes I would stay in the bunch when a break went up the road and everyone would just sit on my wheel pretty much expecting me to bridge across which was bloody frustrating. I got really frustrated at one point and I broke away by myself to pick up a prime sprint but instead of sitting up after I won the sprint I just kept going to see if anyone would bridge across but no, the bunch started working together to catch me which they wouldn't of done if there was someone else up the road. It was so frustrating but that's racing and I have to learn to almost use that to my advantage. I think I showed everyone my cards to early and showed them that I was strong which I shouldn't have done because then, like they did, they will sit on your wheel and expect you to chase because you are one of the strongest in the group. So I need to learn to relax and trust myself that the race will pan out as I expected it to because it did. In the end a small bunch got away in the second half of the race which I new would happen. I was getting so angry with this one kid in particular. I was getting so worked up and I was hurling so much abuse to him, even more than dad does at the referee at Ice Hockey when he gets sent to the sin bin. He was such a potato. I think some of the retards from the hospital were let out, given bikes and told to race this race because there were some real cabbages in this race. Like for instance; there was a small bunch of us trying to chase this group down, this one guy was driving it hard on the front of our bunch and when he lapped off the guy behind decided to attack him and the bunch! That is the most stupidest and selfish thing to do in a race! What made it more frustrating is that when the small bunch got away no one was willing to take a turn on the front of our bunch to try and bring the group back but everyone was really keen to attack the bunch and try and bridge to the small group solo or with a couple other rider. It was so frustrating because then those numptys would blow up and then we would catch them 1km later. It would have been so much easier and energy efficient to work together and lap through as a bunch to try and catch back up to that group. It was easily the most frustrating race I had done and I was pretty disappointed with myself because I didn't listen to myself. I new how the race was going to play out and it did exactly how I said it would but I didn't trust myself which I need to learn to do more. FRUSTRATION!!! Ah well. I learnt and made some buck.
But yea, heading across the ditch to London tomorrow afternoon to meet up with mum and dad which is exciting. It's gone so quickly! I remember thinking a month ago that it's not long till mum and dad get here and that just felt like yesterday. Looking forward to checking out the sites and saying Ki Ora Ma 'n' Pa.
Been a pretty cruisey week this week. Made a mean as pie for dinner a couple nights ago. Lasted me a few days cause it was so huge. Kg of mince and a heap of vegetables and beans. So gutted that I forgot to put cheese under the top pastry though. Would've been a choice as mince and cheese pie. I was reading on Stuff.co.nz that the bakery cafe up in Botany Plaza won the best pie in NZ award so I'm looking to forward to putting one of those to the test. I think my pie might be able to compete with them, maybe. I'll chuck a picture up of it.
But yea that's about it. Nothing else spectacular has happened.
Oh yea, sorry Nans and Pops for leaving this a bit late. Dad said you guys were getting a bit worried that I hadn't put my blog up but yea here it is. I'm sure there'll be some errors in here cause I rushed through it. Sorry.

Ka Pie

Ka Pie (pun intended) 

It's been another good week. I think the form is coming along nicely and hopefully it stays for another 2 and a bit months. Had an alright race on Thursday at the Pro Kermesse. Pretty much all of the FDJ Pro Tour Team who weren't racing at the Tour De France were there and they controlled the bunch all day. It was a bloody hot day and our black riding kits didn't help with the heat. It was a pretty cool course, 13 laps of a 13km circuit, that had a small climb in it and a small cobble section near the finish. It took me a couple laps to get into it. My bike riding skills went out the door in the first couple laps for some reason and I was feeling really nervous but after a few laps my confidence level went back up. I was feeling quite good and I was sitting up the front at about 10th wheel and bridged across to small break up the road and I even had a little attack off the front of the bunch just to see what would happen. It all came to nothing but it was kind of cool to know that I am able to ride away from the bunch at a Pro Kermesse. I was then rolling around mid bunch for most of the day but near the end I think hunger and dehydration caught up with me, I was having to get a water every lap because it was so hot. I slowly started to feel more and more hungry and thirsty after every lap and drinking warm water really doesn't quench your thirst. I started falling further back in the bunch every lap which is the exact opposite of what you want to do because everyone starts to go harder and faster near the end and with FDJ driving it on the front for their sprinter, the pace was really going fast. I was in the worst spot possible for the cross wind section of the course and dropped with 1 and a half laps to go. So close to finishing. So the lessons I learnt at that race was that I need to hydrate a couple days before race day when it's weather like this because hydrating the night before isn't enough for me and I need to learn to eat more during the race. I do get a bit nervous trying to eat in big Kermesses like that because a lot of the times the courses are pretty technical and I do get a bit nervous taking my hands of the bars in big bunches like that but that's all just down to confidence and my confidence will grow the more I race. I also need to eat more often during the race instead of eating when I'm hungry because that is normally too late, you never really want to get hungry. Yea, a bit disappointed that I didn't quite get to finish but still kind of happy that I was able to have a crack off the front.
After the race, the team just sat around, chatted and had champagne and then the team manager shouted us dinner which was pretty awesome. It was a pretty cool just chilling together as a team and just talking shit really like we weren't talking about the race or cycling, just talking about random stuff.
Last night was Andrew's dads 60th birthday so the family organised a party for him and set up two big tents and tables and we had a massive BBQ. Taylor and I just sat outside and chatted to the team managers sons who help out the team as our mechanics sometimes and they were asking about NZ and stuff and they seem pretty keen to come over to NZ sometime.
Had a pretty solid week training over the weekend, managed to clock up 340k over the two days which is alright.
Have another Pro Kermesse on Sunday so I'll try to eat a lot more during the ride and drink more before the race. Should be good.
That's about it from me. Pretty gutted that 7 Days is taking a break, got nothing to look forward to on Fridays now. But yea, nothing else really happened last week. Oh yea! I made blueberry and lemon muffins and they looked nothing like I thought they would. They tasted awesome as though so it was all good. I put way to many blueberries in, which isn't a bad thing at all, and I didn't wash them (they were frozen) so I think the juice on the outside of the berries turned the muffins purple. I also lost a lemon seed in the mixture, still haven't found it and I've only got one muffin left so it's either in there or I've eaten it. I leave you a picture at the bottom.

Yea. Thanks for reading. Sorry if there's any grammar or spelling mistakes. Feeling quite tired today cause it's hard to sleep with the heat and the flies flying in my ears and face in the morning.

Nick

Still tasted awesome 

Well I think summer has finally settled in. Have had a couple weeks of sunny hot weather and I'm loving it. Spent most of my time riding my Time Trial bike last week preparing for the Top Competition Team Time Trial on Sunday. I was looking forward to chucking on the disk wheel and going for a good hoon on the TT rig. It was " "bit of a drive" according to Andrew. It was only about 1.5 hours, that's just a casual drive down to Cambridge, but if you're driving for over an hour and a half here in Belgium then you're probably in a different country by the end of the trip. We went across Belgium and were near the very bottom of Holland, very close to Liege. The area where the TT course was very nice, lots of very big nice houses and nice farm land and I think I saw some wineries, not really sure though cause I trying to pay attention to the race. The course was 3 laps of an 18.5km lap totaling to 56km. It was an awesome course that suited me pretty well. It had a bit of everything in it with a couple small climbs, false flats, downhill sections, a technical corners and a dog. We were about 5km into our ride and we were approaching a right hander when a small dog just casually comes trotting around the corner. Then you hear from the back of the group 'aw shit, it's a dog!" Everyone had seen it and we were slamming on the anchors! I was sitting second wheel out of the 6 riders in the team and my breaks weren't working to good so I went flying past the rider in front of me! (Who needs breaks for a Time Trail anyway!) Luckily we were all on the left hand side of the road approaching the corner and the dog was on the right so we were able to avoid it but we were still unsure if it was gonna freak out and run into us. It was a bloody hot day and I couldn't fit a bottle cage on to my bike so I went drinkless but I still managed to survive, only taking a sip out of Taylors drink once. We lost one of our riders early because he had an injury but we could still finish with only 4 riders so the 5 of us were rolling around alright for pretty much the rest of the race. There were 4 kiwis in the team, including me, doing the race and two Belgys and everyone worked pretty well considering the 6 of us had never done a TTT all together before. I was feeling really good the whole race and was doing some good turns on the front. On the 2nd lap I hit a really big bump in the road and my bars slipped down a little bit, sounded like I cracked my bars but I didn't find any crack, really hope I didn't. We dropped our last rider with about 5km to go and crossed the line. I was pretty happy with how I was feeling for my first TT in a while. The team did well to. We came 14th out of the 20 teams which Isn't too bad considering these are top Belgium teams we were racing against and we just rocked up there, no Team Time Trial training what so ever and some teams had been riding at that course for a few days preparing for this race.
After the race we went to a bar restaurant and had a couple beers and some dinner there. The restaurant was an old farm house I think and had a big court area in the middle where we sat and ate and in the entrance that had old German plane engines and in the backyard they had a US tank and a US helicopter that kind of looks like the ones in M*A*S*H*. They had a couple big old airplane bombs too.
Got another Pro Kermesse on Thursday which should be good fun, try and avoid the ditches this time.
Like I said, summer is properly here now, all the fields have something growing in it. They love to grow their corn here but it's pretty annoying cause now you can't really see around the corners so now you have to slow right down a pop your head out cause the roads are so skinny that you can only fit one car down it.
Taylor and I are getting sick of the flies so Taylor went out and bought those fly stickers that you stick to your windows. The flies mainly like the area where the computer is on the table and there's two windows, one behind me and one to the left of me so Taylor stuck one on each window and the flies are really loving the window to the left of me. There are about 16 dead flies on the ledge, and one in a spider web (I killed a fly just then! That's the third one I've got since I started writing this blog) and on the other window there are only about 6 dead ones. You know you're starting to get bored when you start counting the amount of flies you have killed for that today.
Taylor and I went out to Kortrijk this morning and met up with another Kiwi rider and had a look around the local markets that they set up every Monday morning. Had a nice coffee with my name written in it and then had lunch at a Wok Noodle place which was some good kai then went out for a nice ride in the sun when we got back.

So yea, I'll leave you a couple pictures below.

Thanks for reading

Nick

My Latte Macchiato in Kortrijk 

Near the entrance to the bar restaurant place

The US tank. Couldn't get a photo of the helicopter cause it was behind a fence

I've Had Much Better Weeks Than This Before

Well this week definitely was not the best week I've ever had. Started off with me being sick for most of the week. I had a terrible sleep on Wednesday and a cracking headache all through the night and day. Friday, I was still not feeling to great so I just kept munching on the multi-vitamins so that I could race on Sunday. I was feeling alright on Saturday but I still woke up with a really sore throat and during my training my chest began to become really sore when breathing so I just took it easy. Come race day at the Pro Kermesse in Roselare, all I wanted to do was sit in the bunch, do no work and finish. That goal didn't really turn out too well for me. It was quite a technical course that goes straight through the middle of a town so there were lots of tight narrow corners and traffic islands to avoid. We headed out of town on to a narrow road with fields either side of it. I was riding on the left side of the road, right in the gutter, sometimes doing a bit of off-roading. Then I took road cycling off-roading a bit to the extreme. We were riding along and I was moving up the bunch on the far left when all of a sudden, the road basically just stopped; I couldn't see the road at all, just a bit of gravel and then about a 7 foot drop into a ditch. I was heading straight for the ditch! I had a quick decision to make: I could try and save myself and swing out to the right, in the gravel but have my front wheel wash out in the gravel and go down hard in the gravel and take down half the bunch then probably tumble down into the ditch orrr just lift up the front and do a one handed back flip into the ditch and hope I stick the landing.  Couldn't quite get the full rotation in my one handed back flip but I lifted the front wheel, landed in the 7 foot ditch and forward flipped in the deep grass. I opened up my eyes to find myself lying on my back, feet in the air, feet still clipped into the pedals, bike directly above me and a really sore crotch. Not the best way to start the first lap. I unclipped my feet from the pedals and tried climbing out of the ditch which was bit of a struggle, it was a bitch of a ditch. Main thing was that the bike and wheels were fine because I was borrowing Taylor's carbon wheels. I was all good as well, just a nice tingling feeling on my arms from the lovely stinging nettles that I met with at the bottom, a few little cuts on my elbow that bleed out really good just to make it look that much more worse looking and a little graze on the top of my wee wee. The stem of the bike just missed the important bits but just got the top which was really painful. I got back on the bike and rode in the car convoy to try and catch back up to the race but my chest was really starting to hurt from my sickness. It got to a point where I couldn't breathe because it hurt to much. So it wasn't much of a race for me. This week hasn't brought me down at all, I'm still feeling positive and ready for a good second half of the season. (I think the crash was just too funny to sit and have a cry about. Apparently the bunch saw it and just started cracking up laughing.) Still recovering a bit from sickness but I think I'm nearly back at 100%. The nice weather is helping me recover too with a good dose of the vitamin D. Been chilling in shorts and a singlet for most of the day, don't think anyone could do that back home.
There's a Top Competition Team TimeTrial on this Sunday that I will be doing with the team so just be riding the TT bike this week and getting ready for the race. First TT that I've done for a while so I have no idea how I will go but hopefully everything will go good and there's no ditches in the course.
My roommate, Taylor, is back from London so it's nice to have someone to ride and talk with and share with cooking and cleaning duties. Then in a few weeks, mum and dad come over and I get to do some travelling with them around London, Belgium and France which I'm looking forward to. France is pretty much just up the road but I still haven't crossed the border. We've ridden along side the border quite a few times and ridden into French speaking Belgium but still not France.
It's pretty cool with the Tour de France being on aswell because we get back from our ride, flick the TV on and watch the tour. No having to stay up all night to watch the racing. Watching it gets you motivated as well, makes you want to go out and ride your bike. Watching the hilly stages makes me want to go out and ride some hills but sadly, there are none here.
Yea that's basically it. Didn't do much this week cause of sickness but I'm starting to feel better and hopefully I'll be right for the weekend. Some solid training this week should do me good for the weekend.
Yea, onwards and upwards.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Another Good Week

I'm feeling good again which is a really good sign. Smashed some more steak and spinach this week cause I think that is really helping. It's been a pretty cruisy week this week, nothing too exciting. Taylor, Maddy and I drove up to the team house in Zottegem to pick up some bike frames for Andrew and on our way back we stopped in Oudenaarde for a feed and to have a look at the Flanders Cycling Museum. After our coffee and bagel's we walked across to the museum, I've heard some pretty cool things about this place and I was looking forward to having a look around. We get to the front door and it's locked but we can see two staff members behind the counter. We tried getting their attention but they were just pissing around behind the counter yapping away to each other and then they just walk off. Had a look at the opening hours, it was only 3 O'Clock and the place closed at 6 so I don't know why the doors were locked. I was pretty gutted cause I was really looking forward to having a look around there. Have to go back some other time, maybe with mum and dad when they come over, I don't know if I can be bothered trying to explain to them what everything is at the museum though. I can picture them asking "Didn't they have to wear helmets in the Tour de France?"
Had a good training ride on Wednesday. Taylor did 199km and I did 200km (hitting that 200km mark is so much more satisfying than doing 199km). Taylor and I did 2 hours before we hoped on the local bunch ride. The bunch ride took us down to the French border and we basically rode along side the French border, not far from Roubaix, we didn't quite cross it though. We were riding in French speaking Belgium though cause the town names and signs were all in French. After the bunch we took the long way home to make it a 200km ride and I was feeling really good, until I had been home for a couple hours, then I crashed and burned and slept like a baby. Pretty much just did recovery rides for the rest of the week so I could recover in time for Sunday.
On Sunday, I decided to ride across to the town of Inglemunster where they were holding quite a big kermesse. There were heaps of riders, I would say over 150 starters. My legs were feeling pretty sweet. On the side section of the course we were pushing 60kmph. I was able to go off the front and bridge across to break aways pretty easily. It was just a real pain because every time I would bridge across to a break away group or start a break of my own, everyone in the break would stop working after about a km and then we would get caught again by the main peloton. This happened to me about 4-5 times through out the race and that's just a waste of energy. There was a big split of the field that contained about 35 riders. I managed to get into a chasing group of about 12 riders to try and chase them down. The group was not working well at all and I got really frustrated so I just put my head down and attacked them in the cross wind section. I don't think it was the smartest thing to do but ironically the group started working together to try and catch me. Bloody hell! Now the work! Once they caught me, they just went back to not lapping through again. There were a couple of us trying to drive it but it just kept getting mucked up by people not lapping through. I stupidly over worked myself in that group and in the cross wind section I found myself at the back of the group which is where you don't want to be in a cross wind section because there is no draft back there. I couldn't hold on to that group. I finished the race with a bunch of about 40 riders and ended up in 88th place. At least I finished which I was happy about. I just need to learn to not work myself so hard in break away groups and be able to know what break away group will be successful cause I'm always picking the wrong group, wasting my energy and then getting caught again by the main field. It's pretty frustrating but I guess it all comes with experience.
I've got another Pro Kermesse this weekend and I'm excited cause Taylor is letting me borrow his old carbon wheels, I haven't raced on carbons since I cracked mine back in April. These wheels will be a lot faster and lighter than my cruddy heavy training wheels that I've been racing on.
Taylor has gone up to London with Maddy for the week so I'm on my own this week. Had a solid clean of the house today. Spent about 3-4 hours cleaning up the place, I think it's the cleanest it has ever been cause I think I found an old shopping list under the couch  from the two guys who were living here last year. They needed kidney beans, tortillas and some other stuff, I think they were having Mexican that night. The ground was a grave yard for flies. We killed so many of them with this giant fly swat that I bought for Andrew in Oudernaarde. We gave it a test run in our house before we gave it to Andrew and their is bit of a design flaw. It's a giant fly swat with giant squares in the middle of the swat so sometimes the flies just go straight through the squares. Ah well, it was only 1.50 euro and Andrew had a good laugh when we gave it to him.
Yea that's basically my week. Nothing too special happened. Just happy with how my legs and body are going. It's a pretty nice night tonight, I'll chuck a photo up to show yous.

As you can see I even gave the windows a good clean

Thanks for reading

Nick

A Pretty Sweet Week

Well the good news is that I'm feeling good again. After going on the red meat and spinach diet, I feel heaps better. I think I even feel better than I did before. We had a Kermesse on Friday night that started at about 6 O'clock. It was one hell of a windy day with mega crosswinds all around the course. I would say there were about 120 starters at this race and I think after the first lap the field was cut down to nearly half that. The aim for this race was to always be near the front because most of the time we were riding single file. There was one section of the course that was cross tail wind so everybody was sitting in the gutter on the left hand side of the road. This road was a main road too so there were oncoming cars that had been pulled off to the side of the road while we came through but they weren't completely off the road and it was shit scary trying to hold the wheel in front of you because you were almost riding on the grass trying to get protection from the wind and there were parked cars you had to keep an eye out for. We were doing over 50kph on this section, it was all single file and all of a sudden I see the rider in front of me swing out to the right and I'm heading straight for a parked car so I swing right too and just miss this car so now I'm just waiting for the sound of a bike hitting a car. And BANG! There's that sound. It sounded nasty as and I made the mistake of turning around to see the carnage and by doing that I drop the wheel in front of me. It was bloody hard to get back on with the mighty crosswind blowing a gale but I managed to get back on. It was a bloody hard race. It wasn't a Under 23 race so there were some older guys racing which made it that much more difficult. I got dropped with 6 laps to go out of the 16 lap race and I felt pretty good which I was happy about. It was a real hard race with the windy conditions and the amount of good riders that were racing. I was pretty happy that I wasn't just hiding in the bunch the whole time too, I tried a couple times to bridge across to break-aways and drove on the front probably too many times to try and catch a big break-away of riders. All in all I'm feeling pretty good on the bike now. Boiled spinach with a little bit of butter and pepper is my new favorite meal now.
Taylor's girlfriend, Madison, is over here for about a week so we've gone a done some sightseeing. On Saturday, it was a rainy cold day so we decided to go catch the train up to Bruge (The Chocolate Capital). Bruge is a pretty cool town, it was packed, especially with tourists. The have heaps of old buildings and canals and chocolate shops. This one street was covered in chocolate shops. We went into all the chocolate shops and wow! So much chocolate! We just wandered around the place and looked at all the old buildings and we got fresh waffles with cream on top. You could easily put 5kg on if you spent a whole day in Bruge, it was so tempting to buy all this bad food that they had on offer. They had a triathlon on so we sat down at a cafe and got ourselves a cherry flavored beer and watched the triathlon on the big screen. It was a good way to kill a rainy cold day.
Today, Taylor and I decided to go for a ride earlyish so we could catch the train back into Ghent. We were pretty desperate to go back to that nice cafe that sells all the good coffee and have a flat white. That was the first thing we did as soon as we got off the train and then afterwards we were buzzing because that was the first coffee we had had in a while. We explored the town a little bit more because it wasn't raining like the last time we were there. We walked along the canal and found this big old castle that was built I think in the 1100's. We went inside a very old church as well which was pretty amazing with all the marble art and the stained glass windows. It was a huge building and there are heaps of big churches all around Ghent. Everywhere is really busy now because it is the school summer holidays so there are heaps of kids out now. Just had a look around the shops as well and then headed home. Pretty fun day out, a lot better than sitting around inside.
We went into Kortrijk the other day with Andrew and we popped into Andrew's work (it's called Sports Direct which is basically a Rebel Sport and they are opening a Sports Direct back home in NZ) and we saw a rugby ball so Taylor and I went half on it, only payed about 3.50 euro each for it. Bargain! We had our first mini touch game yesterday in the backyard until the rain had stopped play. We saw a poster in Bruge advertising a Beach Rugby tournament so we might have to head back to Bruge when it's on and watch. I think it might be a bad idea to play because I've already pulled a muscle in my ass from playing touch yesterday.
Went a different way on our ride on Sunday and headed towards Ieper which is a famous war town. In the area surrounding Ieper are heaps of World War 1 cemeteries. There are so many scattered around the area, it's really cool to see so when mum and dad come over we'll have to drive around and have a look at some of them.
It's been a pretty good week, sleeping well, riding well, doing stuff outside like going to different towns. Made some banana bread the other day but it didn't turn out too well. The sides and bottom were burnt, especially the bottom, because we have a gas oven so the heat is all from the bottom so I think next time I won't put the heat on full blast and I'll slowly cook it. The middle was still pretty good so I just chopped the bottom and sides off. So yea that's about it. The weather has changed again, just windy and quite cold now, it's going down to single digits at night but yea all is good. Supposed to warm up in the weekend. So yea. I chuck some photos up.

Thanks for reading

Nick

One of the canals in Bruge

Big tower in Bruge and Triathlon finish line

A cool little hallway thing with golden bits on it in Bruge

Found a New Zealand war memorial on our Sunday ride

A big French and Belgium WW1 cemetery. That's only 1/3 of it. Couldn't fit the rest in

Maddy and I outside the castle in Ghent

Pretty Short Blog

This week hasn't been such a good week. Been feeling and riding really average. I wasn't sleeping good at all, I found it really hard to get to sleep. While riding, I didn't feel like I had any power in the legs and after about an hour and a half I would pretty much hit a brick wall and become really sleepy, I just wanted to close my eyes while riding. I was told to have a few days off to try recuperate which I did but with no one at the house I was pretty bored. So on Thursday I decided to pack some of my things, chuck 'em in a bag and ride over to Zottegem where the other boys from the team are staying.  Zottegem is about a 75km ride and lucky for me I had a tailwind all the way. Living at the house in Zottegem are two kiwi's, two aussies, an Irishman and a Manx (Isle Of Man for you non-geographical people). One of the Aussies had gone to France to compete in the Tour that Taylor was doing so they had a spare bed. The guys are all a real good laugh. Had a pretty good time staying with some different people. The riding in Zottegem is pretty nice too, there are quite a few steep climbs you can find and we managed to find a massive man-made beach so I might have to go back over there one day and go for a swim. They have a big camp ground by the beach and an indoor swimming pool with a big as slide and you can go mountain biking or walking around the forest that surrounds the beach.
I'm still not quite feeling right with my riding, struggled a bit to ride home from Zottegem into the headwind but I survived. I think I could be lacking in something like iron so I decided to cook up a good feed for dinner tonight. Bought myself a big as steak and dad suggested to get some spinach as well, cause we saw how strong Popeye got when he ate it, fried up some sliced potatoes and boiled up some eggs. Cooked up some choice kiwi Kai tonight, it was good as aye bro. Sadly didn't have a BBQ to cook the steak on though.
Nothing else too interesting happened last week. Watched the second half of the All Blacks game, that last try was awesome! I don't know how he off loaded it! Pretty excited to have mum and dad come over here to see me. Really excited to have a look around London with them and go see all the war sites around Belgium and France, hopefully we'll go to Normandy cause I really want to see that. Supposed to be over 30 degrees tomorrow the weather is forecasting. Looks like back home you guys I getting smashed by rain and the South Island is going to be pretty white, guts for you. The one thing I hate about living in the country over here is the amount of flies, and these are some ruthless flies. They buzz all around your face and ear. Sometimes there's a fly that stays in my room and it wakes me up cause it either lands on my face or buzzes in my ear. I found a ruler in one of the drawers and now, the flies are dropping like flies... Hey yo! Also, they have air powered canon on the farm paddocks to keep the birds from destroying the crops, and these canons are loud! Scares the shit out of you when they go off while you are riding past. I wonder if it scares the old people who made it through World War 2?
So yea, that's about it. Going to try do a small race this weekend to see how the legs are doing. Hopefully I get some form in the old legs again soon.

Thanks for reading
Nick

Just Another Week In Belgium

Nothing too exciting has really happened this week. Thought I would have bit of training week this week and do some big rides in the weekend but that didn't really happen. I felt pretty average while riding this week. Felt good on Saturday and did a fast 90k ride. I wanted to do more but I had skyped my friends back home and watched the rugby with them. A bunch of my mates gathered at Sam's house to watch the rugby and they put the computer in front of the TV so I could watch the rugga with them. Go the mighty All Blacks! I went out for my ride quite late and I had to get home so I could go shopping because I had nothing for dinner and the shops are closed on Sundays. I whipped a pretty good chicken lasagne and I munched on that for Saturday and Sunday dinner. My roommate, Taylor, has gone over to France for just over two weeks for a big 3 day tour in the mountains. It's a pure climbers race so I didn't get chosen for that which I am kind of happy about because they do about 90km a day and that normally takes them about 4 hours! I am going to head back over to the house in Zottegem either tomorrow or Wednesday and chill with the other guys in the team because it is quite boring living and riding by myself. There's wifi at the house too! None of this internet cable stuff. I have moved my laptop over to the couch for a change, lucky the internet chord is so long.
The weather here has definitely warmed up. We had about 3 days of sun and warmth which was bloody nice to ride in. It felt good to ride in only shirts and shorts again. I had to wear shorts and singlet for one of the days because it was that hot.
Last Monday, Taylor and I rode up to Kortrijk on the town bikes and met up with some kiwi riders that are over here. It's quite funny how many kiwis there are over here. Yesterday I saw a Jeep that had three big silver fern stickers on the boot and on both doors, I've also seen a few random people wearing New Zealand riding kits and there is a house near Oudenaarde, I think it could be a B&B, and it has the NZ flag and a silver fern flag on flag poles just in front of the house. We have more kiwis coming over here now with the Junior track team that are going to Worlds arriving very soon.
I got a bit bored on Friday and I had a few brown bananas lying around so I decide to make some banana muffins. I bought a muffin tray and bread tin from the supermarket and I decided that I would try out my new muffin tray today. Mum had sent me an awesome banana muffin recipe and I think they came out pretty awesome. They tasted damn good too. I put a heap of chocolate chips in them so they were awesomely chocolaty. Managed  to make nine muffins and I ate them all.
The picture below is of the Izegem Canal.
We went to Andrew's parents house for dinner some day last week (I just spent about 5 minutes trying to think what day we went over there but I can't remember) and they cooked up a mean feed in their outdoor fireplace cooker thing. They cooked up two sets of big ribs and some other kinds of meat and sausages. It was quite nice to try some different meats and not have to cook because that night I was on cooking duty. I had a try of Duvel beer which is quite a fancy Belgium beer, it's 8% too which is quite a lot for a beer. Tasted good though.

That's about it from me. Wasn't too exciting of a week over here. I think it will be a good week living with some different people. Oh yea, got my haircut the other day too after about 2 and half months. It was about a month and a half over due but I got one so now mum can stop nagging me. That's all really. Hopefully the warm sunny weather stays and my legs feel a bit better.

Good Legs, Tough Race

On Saturday I had my third Pro Kermesse and my goal for this one was to, again, just finish and gain experience. Tom Boonen was racing again and as we were walking to sign-on we see him pulling into a driveway in his flash new Ferrari. There were a number of Pro riders racing from a couple Pro teams just to make the race that much harder. The course was pretty difficult but not as technical as Tuesdays race. There were two small climbs in the 10 lap race but the hills were hard enough for people to start going backwards after a couple laps. The last hill had a cobble section at the top and then went to a downhill cobble section just to make things interesting. After the first lap, as we crossed the finish line, we were hitting 70kph in the tail wind but legs were still feeling strong. I was able to go into the red zone and then recover quickly and my legs were still feeling great which is a feeling I haven't had in a while so I'm hoping I continue to feel like this for the rest of the season. After 5 laps in the crosswind section of the course, a group of 45 riders managed to ride away from the bunch that was all pretty much single file. I was near the front when it happened but wasn't close enough to make the split. I was riding in a small chasing group of about 10 trying to chase but there were just too many strong riders in the split group. They're Pro for a reason. We then got caught by the remaining bunch and tried chasing for about 20km but the split group was just getting further and further away and smaller. Boonen was in the front group and was just destroying everyone. In the end, only about 7 riders finished out of the 200 or so starters. It was one hard race but my legs felt great. I was gutted that I was so close to making that split but overall I was pretty happy with how I felt.


Boonen's flash Ferrari

The other day, Andrew took us to the town of Ieper which is a very famous and historic town in Belgium. The town was completely destroyed by both WW1 and WW2. They have a big arch memorial thing that you can drive through. Every night at 8pm, people gather around the memorial and they start playing 'Last Post'. I'm hoping to head back there at night and watch this. It's a pretty amazing town and all around the town is big moat. There are hundreds of war cemeteries surrounding the towns too.

 So yea, that's pretty much it. Saving Private Ryan is on tv right now so we are just watching that. I don't think anything too exciting is happening this week. I don't think there is a team race this weekend so I'll probably just do a local Kermesse. That's pretty much it.

Second Pro Race and a Trip To Ghent

On Friday, Taylor and I decided to meet up with a couple other Kiwi riders in Ghent. We caught the train from the train station up the road in Izegem. It was a pretty cold rainy day so going to Ghent was a lot better than spending our Friday indoors. It's only about a 45min train ride to Ghent. We met up with a Christchurch  rider, Josh Atkins, at the train station in Ghent and we caught a tram into the main centre. It was even colder and raining more in Ghent so we sought shelter in a surfing clothes shop, it was a bit like Amazon, just full of expensive summer surfy clothes. Here's a little fact; this month has been the coldest month in 126 years and the day we went to Ghent, one year ago it was 30 degrees. I picked a great year to come to Belgium. Anyway, Josh new about a café that does really good coffee. They have so many different and good coffees and that is hard to find over here. It's pretty much the only place in Belgium that they do flat whites so I ordered up one of those. I also had a try of a Macchiato which is a double shot of coffee with a small amount of milk, it was pretty good. We were meeting up with Sean Joyce, who rides in the team I'm in and is from Taupo, and Clinton Avery and his girlfriend. Clinton rides for a semi pro team called Champion Systems and he races in a number of top Pro races and his girlfriend works with the NZ track team. We meet them at the café and had a few coffees and then we decided to go see Iron Man 3 at the movies. Didn't really get to do too much sight seeing because it was pretty cold rainy day and we had to make our way home before the last train took off. Got a couple pictures of the place while walking to the café.

 Sorry about the way the pictures are. They weren't moving to where I wanted them to be.

On Tuesday I had my second Pro Kermesse and the current World Champion, Philippe Gilbert, and the current Belgium Champion, Tom Boonen, were racing too. It was pretty awesome to see and ride with Pro riders like that. There were probably over 200 starters and it was pretty technical course with a lot of tight corners. There were so many people watching as well. There was one tight corner that had a wall of people as a barrier so if some stacked it round the corner... The atmosphere was pretty cool. The whole team lined up on a stage and there were heaps of photographers taking photos.

 My goal for the race was to pretty much finish. It was 170k and we were averaging 45kph. I was feeling pretty good until we hit 85km. I got a small knot of cramp in my right hamstring that took a little while to unknot but I managed to ride through it until about 95k when we came round a tight corner and when I pulled up the pedal to get back up to speed, my right hamstring completely knotted and it was so painful that I was pretty much stuck and I had to jump up on to the footpath so I wouldn't hold everyone up. I managed to finally stretch it out but I had to chase back on to the bunch. I managed to last another 10k but when we hit the cross wind section, I was still on the back and that's the worse place to be when there is a crosswind section. My legs kept cramping up and I dropped on the crosswind section. I was so gutted cause I was feeling good enough to finish. I'm starting to stretch a lot more and I'm getting a massage tomorrow which I am looking forward to cause my legs are so tight.
Got another Pro Kermesse on Saturday so I'm hoping for a better result.
That's about it. I'll write up another blog on Monday. I was pretty slack this week.

 Here's a picture of some cleaning product at the supermarket. The Bain's are pretty bad.

First Pro Race

As you can see I had my first Pro Race and if you read my blog last week you would know that I did my first pro race last Wednesday. It was one hell of a race. 175km, 15 laps, 200 starting riders and mayhem. I was pretty excited about the race and my goal was just to finish. Philippe Gilbert was not there though so no selfies with the world champ that day, one day though. It was a real quick race, finished the 175km in 4 hours flat. For all you non math geniuses like me that's an average of 43kmph. Not too shabby for a race with a few tight corners and narrow roads. There was quite a long stretch of road that we were doing well over 50kmph on and the team decided to set up there feed there (A feed is when the team helpers who don't ride stand on the side of the road and hold up a bottle and you ride past and catch it. This is basically what you do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TfCQ0WRyYs) and because we were going so fast lots of riders were dropping bottles. It was basically like trying to catch a water bottle that was going more than 50kmph. I managed to catch two bottles out of the two I tried for so I didn't drop any. I just managed to avoid one crash. It was quite a nasty crash where one of my teammates went down. I was behind one of my other teammates and trying to avoid the crash his back wheel locked up and started to skid towards my front wheel. I rear skewer that holds his back wheel in place clipped my front wheel and made one hell of a bang and I started skidding towards the muddy ditch on the other side of the road. I managed to stay up right and so did my team mate who was in front of me. That definitely got the adrenaline pumping and we chased back on to the bunch. But there was a massive pile up behind us from the crash so it was lucky that I didn't get stuck behind the crash. I was also pretty stoked that I was able to move up places in the bunch by moving straight through the middle of the bunch instead of wasting energy and riding on the outside of the bunch into the wind. It is quite challenging and can be quite dangerous moving through the bunch because you have to squeeze through very small gaps and cut in front of people, gotta be mongrel as, this isn't a nice man sport. I just finished with the bunch in the race but I was stoked with what I achieved and that I finished which was the goal. Some Pro American guy won the race. Because it was a Pro race there is quite a bit of excitement from spectators and they set up this tent fully equipped with a bar and beer taps, I think these races are just an excuse to get pissed during the week. When we were signing in there was this one guy who approached me holding a portfolio and a pen and he asked me what team I was in, I tell him Terra Footwear and opens up his portfolio and I see all these neatly written teams and names with signatures in it. He finds the team Terra and asks what my name is and all in alphabetical order, there's my name and he hands me the pen and asks for my signature. I'm getting pretty famous over here. Next time I'm going to charge people if they won't my signature. I do admire there passion for the sport over here. They love it and it is quite cool going to races and there are heaps of people cheering for you.
Got another Pro Kermesse next Tuesday so hopefully I can get a good result. Been raining and pretty cold for most of the week which is really unusual for Belgium... But the forecast is saying sun and high teen temperatures starting on Wednesday so definitely looking forward to some sun in my bones again. Starting Friday on Discovery Channel is An Idiot Abroad season 4 which we are stoked about. Because 7Days is taking a break we have something else to look forward to on Fridays. Taylor and I used to sit and watch 7Days on the computer in the morning but they are taking a break for a few weeks and we would look forward to Fridays so much but now they are having a break we have been pretty depressed about our Fridays so An Idiot Abroad has made our Fridays again. If you don't know what An Idiot Abroad is, you can watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpePyoqbtJ0, sums it up pretty much. Nothing really else happening. It's another random Public Holiday today so nothing is open which is boring cause we are just stuck in the house. I was pretty bored yesterday so I cleaned the bathroom for the third time since I've been here. Trying to make it a weekly habit now. Hopefully my new wheels will arrive this week because I'm sick of riding on my heavy training wheels.
Yea, that's about it from me here. Hopefully everything is going good back home. Heard the Black Caps are being useless again. Oh yea, finally got my package from mum and dad the other day, 170 euros and 3 weeks later I've got it and in it is Kristi's iPhone so now I can take pictures a bit easier and I can put them up on my blogs to make it a bit less boring. I'm stoked about that. So yea, that's all.

Nick