Haven't been on here for a while so I'll give you a quick update on the last couple weeks.
On Saturday 13th, Taylor and I rode out to a local Kermesse race that was about 15km away from home. The race was over 100k and I think about 12 laps. It was a pretty difficult course, a lot of sharp corners and a big hill up to the finish and another big hill half way round the course that goes into a block headwind once you reach the top. I started off pretty good, trying to break away early with some other riders but then when we came round for our 3rd lap it felt like I just hit a brick wall. I was trying pretty hard to get away from the peleton but the bunch just wouldn't let me get away and kept chasing me down so I had worked pretty hard early on in the race. I decided to sit in the bunch and see if I felt better as the race went on... I didn't. I felt crap the whole race and just had no power, especially coming out of the corners I found it difficult to accelerate back up to speed. The dropped group that I was riding with got pulled out with 5 laps to go because the breakaway group of two had put 3 minutes in to us. It was good timing to because it was just starting to rain. Managed to pick up 40th place out of the 120 starters and got 10 euro prize money so that paid for dinner.
I decided not to race the next weekend and instead have a solid training week of big K's. On Wednesday 17th I had a real solid training where I did 185km. It was a beautiful day, sun was out, wasn't super windy and I was feeling good. I did a ride by myself earlier on in the day and then came home and had some food then went back out and rode with a big bunch of about 30 riders. We rode along the French border for quite a long time and it was pretty awesome ride, really enjoyed it.
On Sunday, it was another great day to go for a ride. Managed to clock up 150km.
On Wednesday, the whole team got together for a training ride. We all meet at a Café that loves it's cycling and loves the Terra Footwear team. We ride all over the place, some places familiar, some places where I didn't think we were in Belgium anymore. It was pretty cool meeting the whole team and chatting away to them. There were about 30 of us riding in the bunch and we would always move around the bunch and meet someone new. It makes life a lot easier when everyone speaks English, including the very few Belgium and Dutch riders. There are a lot of international riders in the team such as a few Poms, an Irishman, a couple Aussies and the three other Kiwis. Managed to clock up 200km with a 34k average which is pretty good and do you know what is even more awesome? We did over 1000m of climbing which is bloody good for Belgium. We rode back to the Café that we started at and the owners let us use there shower and they cooked us up a mean feed of Spag Bol and were giving us plenty of drinks. Was a pretty sweet day other than the fact that pretty much everyone, including me, were sunburnt as. Gonna have some pretty sweet leg tan lines now. I was smart enough to wear gloves and arm warmers to protect my arms and hands from the sun but there was a gap between my arm warmer and glove where my wrist is so now I have a nice red wrist band for the next few days.
That's about it really. Nothing too exciting has happened since. Oh actually, a couple weekends ago Andrew, the team director and the guy we stay with, took his daughter, Taylor and I to a big carnival that happens every year in the big town of Kortrijk. It was the first real nice day in ages so we were keen to head out. There were so many weird and ugly looking people. Some people honestly looked like trolls, no offence to them. Belgium is a weird place, well, where we are it is. It was pretty good fun though. Went on this sketchy as looking roller coaster that just breaks your spine around the corners. I fully underestimated it. I thought it was going to be this small, slow kiddy ride... It wasn't. We started to climb up a bit and then we came to this short downhill bit and I was like ok this looks kind of pathetic then we go down this small hill and it was a lot steeper than I expected and I nearly smash my face on the seat in front me, it looks like that back of the seats have had a few facial impacts in its past. Andrew's daughter smashed her head on the seat in front of her, she was fine though. Went to a café there and Andrew bought us a drink and then came back home and sat outside in the backyard in shorts and a shirt and sunglasses and had a couple more drinks. It was a good day.
Yea, that's about it. Nothing else has really happened. Tour of Romandie is on at the moment until Sunday in Switzerland so when we come home from riding we flick the cycling on and next week the Giro d'italia starts and goes for about 3 weeks so it'll be awesome watching the cycling live on TV everyday and at a reasonable time unlike back home when you have to stay up till 3 in the morning to watch the finish. Doing a local Kermesse on the weekend so I promise to update this and tell yous how it all went. Choice
Thanks for reading
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