Hello from Central Washington

I am currently in central Washington along the Columbia River just east of Cascade Mountains. The reason is I am on my first business trip, and I have the weekend in the area. Tomorrow, I will probably go see Seattle and I will do some site seeing in the area I am staying in. The area is a high desert and is quite beautiful.

Last weekend, I raced the Pur Tour. I managed to stay attentive and went with every move that looked threatening. In the closing moments of the race, I was dealing with craps which prevented me from playing the finish of the race for the win. Also, I raced a mountain bike race in Lake Hope State Park. I had stale feelings from my legs from the race at the Pur Tour, and I am lacking the technical skills from lack of time on the trails this year. I had a bad start and messed up technically a lot so after a while I turned it into a ride rather than a race.

Till next time
Ciao

Finally some pictures

First off, I won my first race back in the States at the Blue Grass Games in Lexington, KY. I put myself in a two man break. I took the win by winning a the two up sprint.

Here are some photos from the last race. I tried to catch the feel of a race in Belgium but its almost impossible to catch in photos. To truly get the experience you need to be there live.

This is a typical scene at a race. Older men kitted up rolling around. Some random 8 year olds fully kitted up. Full race caravan.

Quick Post

I am back in the States and have been since Friday evening. My bike missed the flight from Philly to Cincinnati on Friday but I picked it up from the Cincinnati airport Saturday morning.

I have been busy visiting Mom and Craig and seeing Uncle Sam, who was out for the weekend from Dallas. Monday, I started full time life at Turner. Also, I have been busy settling back into normal life. I will try to post some pictures in the coming days.

Ciao

Last thoughts before leaving

I fly back to the States tomorrow (Friday).

Amsterdam was interesting and I will leave it that for now. The last race went okay. My legs were exhausted and I was not into mentally. It was the coolest course. We had 400 meters of pave (road made of large stones).

I know this is quick and short but I will try to post pictures soon and give a better details.

Ciao

Possibly last post from across the pond

This might be my last post from across the pond. If it is my last post from Belgium, upon my return I will be posting pictures on the blog some time after my return.

I can now say I have had a beer from each of the 6 Trappist breweries in all the world. All six breweries are located in Belgium, and I only visited the Abbey of Saint Sixtus. Each of the six trappist breweries are operated by the monks and are considered some of the finest beers of the world. Personally, I agree with the statement. The 6 trappist breweries are Westvleteren (made at the Saint Sixtus Brewery), Chimay, Orval, Westmalle, Rochefot, and Achel (made at the Saint Bernardus Brewery). The beer from Westvletern is best of them all but unfortunately it is only available at the brewery itself. Unfortunately for those of you back home, I will not be taking any home with me.

For the latest tourist action, I went and saw Brugge, again. Brugge is simply an amazing city to go visit because most of the architecture is still stuck around 1400. I saw some of the Primitive Flemish artwork this time in Brugge. Some of the artwork was kinda of disturbing but really cool to see at the same time. With the amount of time spent in Brugge, I am going to have to watch the movie "In Brugge" when I get back to Cincinnati. I did see Ghent and was impressed with the city. The architecture is more modern by a couple hundred years. I did visit a castle in Ghent which was pretty cool.

For the racing, I have discovered it takes me about 2 solid days to recover from each race I enter. During the latest race in Gistel, near the coast to the north sea, it felt like my legs were laughing at me. It was the worst race I had over here so far. After I got done racing, I rode over to the sea and checked out the coast in Oostende. I did another race close to Brugge on Saturday. It didn't go so well but I am hoping for a good race on Monday during my last race over here.

My plans for the rest of the trip is to race one last time, and visit Amsterdam. I get back into Cincinnati on Friday evening. I might try to catch a juniors (17-18 age group) before leaving but I will have to wait and see on time.

Fun

For the latest tourist action, I went to Ieper to visit the In Flanders Field museum yesterday and visited the Abbey of Saint Sixtus Brewery in Westvleteren. According to some people the monks brew the best beer in all the world. I must I say if it isn't it really really close. I tried all three beers (Blond, Bruin 8, Bruin 12). The best one was the Bruin 8. Lastly, you can only buy the beer at the brewery and no where else in the world. It was well worth the trip and highly suggest it to anyone who enjoys a good beer and is in Belgium. For the In Flanders Field museum, it was absolutely amazing to see. The museum is in Ieper, which is about 14 kilometers (approx. 9 miles) from Westrozebeke, and the museum is about the battle grounds of WWI. The museum concentrates on the battles that took place in the area I am staying in. In fact I am behind the German lines in WWI with Roeslare, about 10 kilometers (approx. 6 miles), being the resting place for the Germans when they weren't on the front lines. Close to 700,000 soldiers died in the area during all of the battles that took place in this area during the Great War. It is amazing to see the area today considering how destroyed the area was in 1918. Almost all of Ieper was complete destroyed and they rebuilt it to look like how it did before the war. The trees replanted were planted in a military manner. For the rest of the trip on the tourist side, I should make it to Ghent and Amsterdam, and I might make another trip to Brugge.

For the racing, I raced in Poelkapelle, on Saturday, I had my best day racing here, yet. It was the first day of racing/riding in the rain here. The trip just wouldn't have felt complete if I didn't race in the rain over here. Once again, I just missed the winning move. I blew up in a bridge trying to get up to the move as it was forming. It is nice knowing I can ride at the front of the races and try to make in the move. The next day I raced in Mooslede-Slypskeyelle, and I discovered these races are too hard to race on back to back days. I got popped early in the race, but after another hard bridge attempt early in the race. My legs didn't feel as good as they did as the previous day. Today, I managed to get in the money places again. I road away from the group I was with in the last 3 kilometers. I barely got in the money.

Racing and Paris

Since the last post, I have raced three times. I raced in Jonkershove-Houthulst, Beveren-Leie, and Kuurne. In Jonkershove-Houthulst, the course was pancake flat, strong winds, and a few turns. I got caught behind some people who getting dropped from the group and got dropped with them after I tried to get a across to the group. I managed to solo to about 26th spot out of about 60 starters. The next race in Beveren-Leie I managed to bridge up to the second group on the road, which would eventually join the lead group, but I blew up once I got up there and dropped back to the pack. I was happy knowing that I can make the group selection, but need a little more strength to stay up there. Also, I need to remember to sit back a little bit after a hard bridge. The latest race I did in Kuurne was an American style criterium, and my legs felt horrible, and I couldn't do a thing and dropped relatively quickly. One thing I have learned about racing over here is when you got bad legs the field will let you know and you will get dropped fairly quickly. Another thing is the racing is extremely aggressive. No matter how large of group you are in you are riding hard and if the group is too large you are guaranteed that someone will be attacking, its awesome.

For the tourist action, I went and saw the national cyclist museum in Roeselare. It was cool to see bikes from all the ages including some bikes ridden by some the biggest names in the sport. Also, I spent a day in Brussels. I wasn't too impressed with Brussels especially in comparison to Brugge. Almost immediately upon arrival, the group I am with got to see the start of some festival celebrating the return of a tree that was stolen by the Flemish giants. I don't know more that this other than it is a major piece of the history of Brussels. On June 30th, I got to ride portions of the Tour of Flanders. It was a lot of fun to ride some the bigger climbs of that race, Koppenburg, Murr de Huy, Bossburg, and many others. I did stop for some coffee at the cafe at the top of the Murr de Huy. On July 1st, I rode the last 80 miles of Paris-Roubaix. For those of you who don't know, its a race that goes over some of the nastiest rodes known to man. The worst sections can only be described as someone dropping rock in dirt and calling it a road. People have said riding over the roads feels like someone put a jackhammer on the front of your bike, but I don't think that accurately describes it. It is something that needs to be ridden to truly understand it. For the guys who actually race it, I always had great respect to them, but it is even greater know. By the time I was done with the ride, I was having a hard time gripping the bars with my arms screaming at me over any little bump in the road. I know believe the last 300 meters of cobbles ridden in that race is cruel and unusual punishment, even though they are smooth for being cobbles. The reason being after the beating your body has taken the small bumps scream at you. My hands finally don't hurt after three days of recovery.

The day after riding Paris-Roubaix I traveled to Paris and spent about 24 hours in Paris. I tried to hit all of the major tourist spots. I will post more pictures when I get state side again. Paris was amazing to see it. I tried to see as much as I can and I think I did a good job of it.





















I should be racing again tomorrow.

Ciao