Racing and Brugge

Race #5 – Beernem
So I mentioned I would go to the West of Belgium this week to (1) see the country (2) go to Brugge and (3) chase after some races. Well, my 4hr journey brought me from Tielt to Beernem via Brussels and Gent. It was getting overcast and the weather looked miserable. Then it started raining, 20mins before the race. It did not stop.

We were racing on a lap with way too many corners again and on a single track road, max 2m wide. Add railway lines. Add speed bumps. Add road markings. Finally add 200 crazy Belgian cyclists. I was really scared and thought all the time that 1 second of lost concentration would result in you being in the ditch on the side of the road. Miraculously enough I have not seen a crash yet. I raced well considering I raced the previous day but all of a sudden with 3 laps (out of 17) to go my legs stopped. There was a small section of guttering and my legs couldn’t respond. I got waved the chequered flag for being 150m behind the peloton – game over buddy.

Dieter gave me a lift back to his B&B. What a lovely place. I highly recommend it. There is no TV or internet, so you just sit outside and relax. Some well needed rest!


Race #6 – Evergem
Part of the reason of coming to the West of Belgium was that I would be able to do 2 races while here – makes the trip more worth it. So I set off at 13:15 for my 40min ride to the race starting at 15:00. Wow, did I get lost. Every Belgian I asked on the side of the road looked at the GMaps printout, turned it around 4 times and then said they had no idea. I got so frustrated. Eventually, at 14:55 just as I thought I was going over the bridge to the town, I saw a sign “Evergem 10”. I was livid. Seriously upset. Well, not much I could do now so I rode home to drop my bag off. Only to discover that I hadn’t paid sufficient attention to where I stayed..so some more circles in trying to find home. Dropped off my bag and headed to Knokke. I thought the sea would calm me. Ha ha.

Knokke is a stunning place. It is apparently the Monte Carlo of Balgium. Porches, X6, and a myriad of sports cars litter the streets filled with luxury clothing stores. The European beach concept is very different to ours. We grab a spot and share the beach with a few other 1000 people. Europeans seem to rent their little cubicle and can’t even see the sea. They may as well dump some building sand in their backyard!



So a race day turned into a 7hr riding day. My legs were tired, so it was probably for the better not to have raced today.


Brugge and home
I got dropped off by Dieter at 8 at the closest bus stop. Some serious backstreet driving to get there – I was NOT looking forward to finding my way home. I got to Brugge at 9 which was great. The city only wakes up at 10:00, so I got to walk around and see all the sites, rivers and buildings with only being surrounded by ducks and a few delivery vans. By 11:30 the place was swarming like Sandton on a December Saturday morning – terrible. Brugge is a small town-they say only 20,000 people, but I think it is more 100,000: 20,000 locals, 10,000 students trying to make money off tourists and 70,000 tourists!


Brugge was amazing. You feel like you have been time warped to somewhere in the 1400’s. I did a boat cruise on the canals, bought a super good waffle, visited a cathedral or 2 and that was the sum total of things to do in Brugge. A lovely city but not much to do besides drink coffee, eat swartz seeuse mozzels and eat/buy chocolates.


After a good 40min run to get from the bus stop to the B&B I headed home. The plan was to ride to Gent (30kms) and catch a train home. I got to Gent and ended up in the Hillbrow area of Gent. Dogs running around, people with jeans around their ankles and baseball caps, rundown cars and houses, eish. In trying to get the heck out of there I ended up en route to to Aalst (30kms) and thought I'd then get the train. I got to Aalst and my brain stopped working, so I decided to continue riding to the next unknown town and then end up in Brussels city centre.



I spent an hour in the city trying to get out of the city without going on the motorway but to no avail. I kept running into the tunnels taking the traffic under the city! Notice the cars disappearing in the picture below.

Eventually I succumbed to the city and caught the train from Brussels North Station to Leuven and then cycled (25kms) home. Another cracker of a day. Starting at 15:00 and getting home at 21:30.