Wow. Here I am, finally in Belgium. The trip went fairly smoothly; just a bit of a communication issue after landing in Brussels.
Already, our first day has been crazy. I arrived at 6:30 am Belgium time, and proceeded to wait at baggage claim to wait for my bikes to appear. I met up with Danny Summerhill and Cody Cox, and continued to wait. After about half an hour I went to the baggage claim desk, and asked where my bikes were, turned out I should have asked before hand; because they were oversize and overweight I had to ask the woman at the desk for the bikes. She took me into a back room, where I had to find my cases amongst an array of obnoxiously large luggage.
I then met Hermann, camp masseuse and assistant, who took Cox, Summerhill and myself down to one of the USA Cycling Dodge Sprinters. From there we drove to the team USA House in Izegem, where we ate lunch and began building the bikes.
Geoff, the camp director, told everyone to be ready to ride at 2:15. We rolled out of the house, and down busy, tight and twisty urban Belgian roads. The ride was surprisingly high speed, especially considering we had just stepped off the plain a couple of hours ago... and it seemed to be continually ramping up in speed. Soon enough, we were flying around round-abouts, bunny-hopping cobble stone ditches, and weaving in between the aggresive Belgian traffic.
Over here, you really have to keep your eyes peeled while your riding down the road in a group. There are many changes in surfaces: cobbles, brick, pavement, dirt, plateaus, train tracks etc. As well as many confusing road blocks placed in akward places on the road. However, today there was one part of the ride I was totally not expecting. We pedaled just outside of town, when Geoff and Troy Wells pulled a hard right hander onto a 'Cross course!
Here I was, riding with slick road tires, goofing around in the mud at a local cross race. We rode a lap, and then we pulled to the side just in time to watch the elite racers take off. Definitely an exciting ride.
One of the neat things about racing over here is that there are multiple races everyday all (including during the week) within riding distance of the House. In Belgium, you could essentially race everday of the week without traveling more than an hour from the house.
Tomorrow, we will shake out the legs with a local Belgian National race. Should be fun.
--
Joe's Euro Cross Camp Diary is sponsored by 53x11 Coffee, who is donating 15% of all GamJams coffee sales to Joe's fund. If you like Joe's journal, or you like coffee, buy some and help him out.
Fan us.
Follow Us.
Network.
Comments