Weekend Warrior

Y'ello Summer!

Ok, some MTN propaganda, but look at the poster below: Summer in Hasselt



It is summer time which means time for a summer holiday. Even the boer takes a holiday!



That would explain why almost every shop is closed at the moment - Belgians have gone on their Summer holiday and tough on anyone stupid enough to stay at home. I just want bread, but I think that is asking too much. Ok, it is not that bad - they have these funky bread dispensers on street corners. Imagine a vending machine that pops out any 1 of 6 types of freshly baked loaves - sliced nogals too, ek se!

So I wanted to ride to Eindhoven, Holland on Saturday just because. It would have taken me into Holland and given me a nice long ride. I carefully planned my ride and found a road running almost straight there - perfect, I won't get lost. So I hopped onto it and first thing I noticed was that the bike lane (which is EVERYWHERE) had disappeared. Not 200m on the E314 and every 2nd car starts hooting at me. This continued for another 10kms before I decided I should probably get off the road, just now someone stops and we have some rage - them hooting and me waving back at them. Turns out that is a road you not to ride on and could even end up in the cells for!

So my epic 180km ride became an 80km tourist ride with 2 bakery stops, as evident by the photos below:




Part of the reason for the ride also being cut short was a sore knee I woke up with on Saturday morning with. So bizarre. Friday involved a short ride and it was fine. I blame it on the lateral movement associated with mopping from Friday and have thus made the scientific conclusion that it is detrimental to your health and thus an occupational hazard to mop and should thus be avoided completely.

A request to sort my knee out to the Man upstairs helped and I didn't have the faintest of niggels when I woke up this morning. So race day was on!

Races were scarce today so I had to trek out to Vremde, some 5kms from Antwerpen and 50kms from home. I managed to find the place and avoided any "E" roads. The race was a 1.18, so it was (1) shorter and (2) open to all kinds of riders - those with hairy legs, some old strong toppies and a number of VERY annoying Juniors. A break went in the 1st lap of 15 and I decided to leave it. Bad move, as that break stayed to the end, argh! There was not 100m in the 6km course which was straight, it was unbelievable! Turn after turn after turn jumping back up to 60km/h after every turn. The route also included a 500m stretch of cobblestones, conveniently placed in the last 400m of the lap. I will inspect my bike tomorrow to see if it is still complete. The race came down to a sprint for 7th place (I thought more guys had slipped away) and I decided to opt out of the sprint - looked why to dangerous and involved way too many paloekas. Well, it was a safe bet as the bunch piled down into the cobbles with forks, wheels and other bike parts flying through the air. Made it across the line safely in an embarrassing 34th place, handed in my number and headed home for a total distance of 190km for the day.

Week ahead
This week I race on Tuesday some 16kms from home and Saturday in my home town. Sunday is a race in Duvel I might go out for, again around 45kms to get there. The rest of the week the races are far away, so either we will do some long training rides or catch the train to 1 of the races.