Come rain or shine...Its bike racing time!

Since Monday of last week I have been getting constant reminders that the upcoming weekend was to be the start of the Belgian racing season.   The most noticeable example of this is a scene that I’ve dubbed midnight beans... After a hard day on the bike I felt hungry after tea (or dinner as my southern housemate would call it, but we won’t get into that debate) and reached for a can of beans at around 10:30pm, the look on my team managers face was that of sheer surprise with a hint of disgust thrown in.  ‘This is no good for you at this time of night, you will pay for that this weekend’.   And with that the hints kept on coming that the weekend was the start of the Belgian season. 

Belgium has also started to have a distinctively Anglo tinge to it, on Wednesday I was emptying my washing basket in the evening when a man and woman knocked on my window and told me to open it…in English.  In an attempt to open my window I pulled my blind off its hinges and was left with the thing in my hand.  The pair turned out to be Jocelyn Ryan and a New Zealander who never managed to introduce himself.  My efforts with a tub of tubular tyre glue seems to have had limited effect, our blind stays up but it’s definitely a D.I.Y disaster waiting to happen! We also have several notable riders in our local area, Dan Mclay lives a few doors down, Matt Bramier lives 10 minutes ride away, Adam Blythe is in the next village and we recently came across a couple of under 23 riders in Mark McNally and Andrew Fenn, quite a group when we finally get a ride going.

I’ve also decided that a Belgian café can be judged by the freebies that accompany a coffee…a free biscuit on the side is average, a second chocolate is a good sign, but so far the winner is a little café in heist op de berg which gave us all a free ham sandwich!

Sunday came around soon enough, I awoke to light rain, a stiff breeze and hopefully just a chance of victory in the afternoon…if you’ll pardon the pun.  I signed on for what I’d hoped to be a small kermisse race, unfortunately 186 other riders had the same idea.  The race was run off under heavy skies but the course was rolling at best and the wide, tree lined roads prevented the havoc that I was expecting from my previous Belgian experiences.  A small group slipped away late on in a soft move, our team was represented with two riders so I was no longer on for the win, I salvaged some pride with a bit of elbows out sprinting to take 23^rd, but more importantly 10 euros prize money! At just 109km it wasn’t the longest race but it has boosted my confidence without being the baptism of fire I feared.  Afterwards we were taken to a fundraiser for a local cycling team, a novel idea that is common in Belgium whereby a club hosts an evening in their clubhouse, invites all the local town to come and eat some home cooked food.  We paid 10 euros each (so my prize money lasted about an hour) and had a cracking chicken casserole with the obligatory frites.  The food is expensive for what it is but apparently every club has them and they are all well supported by fans and riders alike which help cycling keep going in this part of the world. 

A couple of Flemish phrases I’ve picked up this week…

Totziennes- goodbye

Lekker- tasty!

'It's Belgium eh'

When a Belgian wants to sum up a situation that’s utterly crazy they say “its Belgium eh” and usually accompany this with a casual shrug and a little chuckle.  I have been greeted with this attempt to justify Belgian madness several times this week.  Firstly, I must say a big thank you to the nurse who patched me up beautifully after my latest scrape, but one thing is becoming, at times painfully clear…Belgium breaks bikes.  I live and train with two team mates, between us we have broken spokes, rims, had countless punctures and I topped it off by snapping my handlebars in my latest tumble.  Whenever I ask our mechanic about this he simply shrugs and give it “that’s Belgium ey!” .  This week has been the first time I’ve turned a pedal in anger.   Saturday was a pre-race ride, normally this would consist of a leisurely couple of hours…unfortunately we had to do a reconnaissance ride for an upcoming race.  For me this meant a first taste of true pave, a 3km stretch of cobbles.  I won’t go into the details, my mechanic summed it up best as he drove past me in the car, wound down the window and announced I ride cobbles like his grandma, and that he will have a look at home for some stabilisers for me! Still, at least I kept upright.  At the end of the Saturdays exertions a brief look down at the computer revealed we had clocked up 5.5 hours and covered 164km, that’s 102 miles. 

Sunday was to be a ‘Practice race’.  These are events where riders complete 80km training as a group before a 70km race, with a brief 10 minute period in-between to strip down to race clothing.  With heavy legs from the previous day’s efforts I set off with the aim of using it as training.  The race itself was run off at a fast pace on a tight circuit.  Within a kilometre I was ‘in the gutter’, this is a term used to describe fighting for your place in a race when the pace is very high and every rider is looking for some shelter.  On the flat stretches I was looking for more gears with speeds of over 55km per hour putting the field under serious pressure.  It was a mixed day for our team, my younger English team mate, Mike Gregg did an excellent ride and finished well up the field in his second race, I was in another group further back and rolled over the line in the mid 50’s.  the win went to a local favourite, Sean De Bie.  We capped the day off with Frites, a Belgian favourite as a treat.    

10 days in- Embrace the Belgian way

10 days in: Embrace the culture

I’ve now been in the small Belgian town of Westmeerbeek for 10 days now.  Its fair to say I’ve already had ups and downs but I’m learning how to fit in better by going about life more like a Belgian.  Pretty much all week I’ve had a niggling cold which forced me off the bike for a couple of days, however, my team manager Guido took me to a local bike shop called  ‘Van Eyck’ to stop me feeling sorry for myself.  This was an absolute Aladdin’s cave of a bike shop stacked with everything from ‘Pinarello’ to ‘Museeuw’ all lined up and ready to test.  The pick of the bikes was the cyclo cross bike of former world champion Neils Albert, hung up to be admired and photo’d by me and the many other middle aged men that keep Belgians bike shops going!  I could have spent several hours in the shop quite happily. 

I rounded the day off with a true Belgian supper, Frites and battered sausage from the local frituur, a chip shop to us Brits.  Asking for Ketchup in there got me a funny glance from the owner, it seems it is completely true that Belgians always have mayonnaise on their chips!  Saturday was team presentation day.  I set off in the morning for a quick 3 hour spin with my two English housemates.  That was about as good as the day got unfortunately, 40 minutes into the morning ride I managed to crash on a small cobbled section, crashing is all part of bike racing but of all the days to decorate myself with some new scars…team presentation day! Having sourced some bandages from my team mate Adam, I patched myself up and headed to Tremilo for our team presentation.  We were all called backstage and were presented with a smart suitcase.  This was stuffed full of new kit.  I only just managed to get changed on time and burst out of a backstage curtain onto the stage and nestled myself between a couple of big lads on the back row in order to hide my bandages and pasty legs.  The presentation itself was amazingly high profile, 300 or so people packed into a local drama hall to watch both the junior and under 23/elite team be presented.  A local celebrity comedian made a speech and the television cameras covered the event for a local channel.   You can just see my head 3rd in from the left on the backrow! .  We toasted success for the year ahead with a ‘pintjeur’, basically a half pint of Belgium’s famous local beer. Many handshakes and, to be honest a couple more ‘pintjeur’’ later and we finally got back home.  I hope your all enjoying the blog, if there’s anything about Belgian life you want me to cover, just post in the guestbook. 

Welcome to Flanders

Welcome to Flanders…

Day one was to be a baptism of fire for me and my two English flatmates.  We were woken at 7am and, with a belly full of muesli and pockets crammed with brioche we set off just after sunrise to go and meet our new team mates in a nearby town.  Having been told team training was a steady five hour ride I settled down for a long haul.  The winds gusted at 40mph, considered breezy by the locals but a mild 10 degrees meant the ride seemed easier than my home roads of Yorkshire.  I can’t say Belgium could hold a candle to Yorkshire in terms of views, but in terms of a cycle friendly approach the Belgians are way ahead.  It seems possible to ride on good quality cycle paths everywhere here!  After an eventful 5 hours with around 15 other riders we were greeted by soup and pastries at our local café who sponsor the team as well as making sure we were well fed.  Just as we were ready to ride home the barman switched over the television to ‘Sporza’.   A few more locals sat down and we were obliged to watch the local heroes: Sven Nys and Neils Albert duel over an hour of cyclo cross.  All I can say is it was fantastic inspiration and a refreshing change to see so many people on the edge of their seats and shouting at the television whilst watching cycling.  By the time we were home we had over 6 hours on the clock, not bad for a first spin.  The following 2 days saw 5 more hours clocked up and a trip to a suburb of Brussels to Ikea.  A set of shelves later and my room was complete, it may be missing a poster or two but I’ve got seven months to make it feel like home. 

So far I’ve learned just a couple of Flemish phrases, here they are for your benefit (excuse spelling)

Lynx-Left

Rex- Right

Rektor- straight on   

Vudvordomme- ‘God dammit!’

Danku- Thank you

Dakh- bye

Belgium bound

Welcome to my racing blog.  The aim of my blog is to give all my supporters, sponsors and my team some good publicity aswell as a riders insight into the world of bike racing in the heartland of cycling...Flanders!
My first post is just abit about what I would like to get from the experience, along with an outline of my plans for 2011...so here goes.

Its been an ambition of mine for three years now to finally plunge myself into the life of a full-time competitive cyclist on the continent.  Finally, at twenty, I have secured my finances with some hard work and the help of the Dave Rayner Fund.  I last tasted Belgian competition (and Rice tart!) in 2008 in my days with Glendene cc as an under 18 rider.  I have fond memories of those days and that is one of the reasons why i'm heading to Belgium to hopefully make a career for myself as a professional. 

The hard work began back in November.  Finding a team was the first port of call. A couple of emails to Dominic Schills and i had myself an email address to send a palmares to.  By early December my new team wanted me to meet them and they were already offering me accomodation!

My team is called 'Hand-in-Hand Baal', a good Belgian amateur team with an under 23 focus and ambition to help riders like me improve and reward them with victories.  Our team launch is the 12th February 2011 so I shall be uploading the photos and more information like a full calendar when this becomes available.  I aim to produce a weekly blog throughout the season (until October) keeping you upto date with my progress, some results, photos and maybe the odd anecdote along the way!

Enjoy