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.