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