Riding...lots

The square in Aalst

Its been one week since I arrived in Belgium and its finally sinking in that I will be here for a while so I am trying to settle into the routine of a full time cyclist again. The last few days have been spent doing rides with various people. One of my teammates has been doing some big miles this weeks so I have been joining him for a few hours out of his six hour days. Tino, my manager and housemate, has been out a few times as well, staying in shape for the weekend VWF series races.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of joining some pros for their easy day. We met up with a local Colba rider and headed to Aalst to meet up with his Chocolade Jacques buddies. One thing about group riding in Belgium is that the rides dont really meet anywhere, the ride starts are all rolling if you will. Everyone agrees to meet in a certain very general area at a approx. a certain time and via swift on the bike text messaging and calling you eventually all meet up, but like yesterday it can take almost an hour. Once we had everyone together the first order of business was to find a good coffee shop. We found a great little place just off the square in Aalst (about 10 km from where I am living) and all of us piled in and ended up staying for about an hour and a half. Round after round was consumed including the overwhelming ´´coffee of the house`` which included alot more than coffee. Finally after everyone had had their fill it was time for training and we hit up the roads of east Flanders for a few hours.

Today I went to Appels for some speed work. Appels is about 45 min away along the Dender bikepath. Every Tuesday and Thursday hundreds of riders come together between 13:00 and 19:00 to ride a ten km flat circuit on roads that are virtually car free. Its an incredible sight. Today I showed up at the very start of the ride. As you ride around the circuit, which is an out and back with a small loop on either end, riders start to appear alone and in small groups gradually forming a sort of peleton. I joined right in and set myself in the second row just spinning along at a a steady pace. After a lap I looked back and the group had already grown to about 50. Within the hour I was there the group was 100 riders strong with riders coming and going as they pleased. The pace gradually speeds up as the day progresses I learned, so next time I will show up a bit later. Its incredible to see riders of all ages and abilties coming together in this way. You see everyone from the local pros, juniors, cyclotourists and old veterans. The ride is always steady and dictated by the strongest riders or those who want to sit on the front. Usually last year it sat at about 40 but towards evening it is supposed to get even faster.

Other than the riding and coffee drinking I have been watching the first season of Lost. My friends here are crazy about the show, and with all of my spare time I have been catching up on the first season so I can watch the second season Monday evening with them.

This should be a good weekend with racing on Saturday, a 50th wedding anniversary party on Sunday and another race on Monday.

Hol, the second cobbled sector from the race last weekend. This was a tough stretch, the hill is actually alot steeper than it looks in this picture and it continues on after a left turn beyond what you see here. The narrow gravel path you see on the side was ridable until just before the turn, but the risk of flatting plus the dangerous feat of trying to hop back over the nasty edge back into the peleton didnt make it a popular choice in the race.