Recovery

Today was an easy day. We got up to see the sun for the first time since our arrival in Belgium. We quickly ate breakfast so that we could head out on the bikes and enjoy the weather. It very windy and of course still cold. We rode to the town of Kortrijk and found the town square area. We decided it would be a good idea to get something to eat. We found a bakery and they made us these great sandwiches that only cost about two euros. They were really good. We might have to go back.

So after filling ourselves with some quality fuel we headed home. The ride back went pretty fast. We didn't do much this afternoon. It was a pretty relaxing day. Tomorrow we have another day off and then we race again on Sunday at Diegem. Sorry, no pictures today. My camera batteries were dead, but we got some more this evening.

-Steve

Loenhout

Yesterday we had a race in Leoenhout. It rained the night before and a little that morning to make for a greasy race coarse. The course was awesome, it had at least three wooden bridges made just for spectators to easily move about the course. The other unique part of the course was that there were BMX jumps and a rhythm section. This made for a different but fun course than I have ever seen. It originally was a very fast coarse but with the mud it made for sludge in some spots then fast muddy straight sections into plenty of slick greasy corners. It was a hard yet fun day on the bike. After our race we headed back to the house and watched the elite race on TV. It was an unbelievable race because two of the top five were not even in the pro category, they were under 23 racers. Including the winner by about 30 seconds over Sven Nys, Neils Albert. It wasn't the most exciting race because Albert was of the front about the whole race. The unbelievable part is he is only 20 years old and has another year as an under 23. Other than our race and watching the elite race we didn't do too much. We once again had a great big and delicious dinner cooked up by our great "house mom", Els. Just to show how laid back today was me and Steve went to bed watching Leave it to Beaver. Well now we have two days of no racing so we will go out and get lost riding our bikes. Next we race on Sunday in Diegem. Before I forget the picture below is Steve's front carbon wheel that he literally shattered in two places while preriding the course. Apparently he was warming up on the rhythm section and turned his wheel slightly sideways and crunched his wheel sending him over the handle bars. Good thing you got that taken care of before the race because he had a great race afterwards.

-Sean

Spider Man goes to a World Cup

My post was gobbled up by the computer last night, so I will try to recreate it. Yesterday we raced the World Cup in Hostfade. The night before we were given our USA skinsuits that seem to resemble Spiderman. Some of the Belgian kids at the race even cheered us on by shouting "Spiderman". It was an amazing experience getting to take part in a race of such high caliber. We got to race with the fastest juniors in the world. We got home in time to watch the elite men's race live on TV.
You may have been wondering who we are staying with and where. We are staying at the U23 National Team house in Izegem, Belgium. The house is run by Noel and Els. Noel is in charge of the U23 national road team. We are very fortunate to get to stay here in the winter. We will try to get some pictures of our hosts and the house up soon.

-Steve

We woke up this morning to the arrival of Jim Lennon, Danny Summerhill, and Eric Tonkin. They were snowed in at the airport in Denver but finally arrived this morning. Steve, Jim Lennon and I went out for a ride soon after their arrival, and it was cold outside. It was all the moisture in the air that killed the face, ears, hands, toes... and just about everything else. This ride was a little different from all the others because we rode today without someone who knew where they were going. We rode into the neighboring town that I can now pronounce but we still have no idea how to spell it, so we are not even going to try. We liked the lamb in the picture below so we got a picture with it. On the way back we only go lost momentarily but we asked a random Belgian guys and he spoke Flemish but we were able to get the direction of our town out of him and we made it back and out of the cold. Other than our ride there wasn't much going on today. The town was shut down for Christmas, but it was still fun to cruise around. We were watching the crazy Belgian TV in our room when a random Belgian old man came by and began looking into our window. So, Steve opened the window and Steve, Nick Weighhall, Jim Lennon, and I attempted to have a conversation with him. But it was hopeless the man just rambled in Flemish and laughed at everything, he was very cheerful, he said "Merry Christmas" finally and departed. It was the high point of our Christmas in Belgium. Other than that today was a relaxing Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Belgium,

Sean

Laundry... and Christmas Eve in Bel-hizzle

Our day started out with breakfast and massages today. The massages were a first for both Sean and I. Eventually we got going and went for a two hour ride with Ryan T showing us some roads. Then we came home to be greeted by Joe and Paul Sales. It was very nice to see some friends all the way over here.

So we moved onto doing our laundry at the local facility for this purpose. We were told to stay there and keep an eye on it. Below we have Sean's wonderful slippers as we lounge around. He picked these bad boys up for only four euros at the local clothing store named "Promo Fashion". We got a little bored while waiting for the clothing. So below I am inside a dryer. Check out that grill.
After our laundry ordeal we took the cruisers out on the town of Izegem. We were looking to find some cruiser posses, but I guess the kids go inside at night? Or maybe just on Christmas eve? Anyways we did manage to find our boy SantaC hanging out. So we chilled with him for awhile.
We had to rush home for dinner. Our house "mom" Els had prepared us a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with all of the normal American foods. Sean managed at least five helpings of mashed potatoes. So now we are watching Christmas Vacation on TV. Last night they even had Home Alone 2. It is strange, the sound is in English, but they have subtitles for the locals. The Belgians really seem to embrace some of our American culture. Tomorrow will bring us Christmas overseas.

-Steve

Race Day!

Today was our first day of racing in Europe, it is very different from the racing in the U.S.. Our Kona bikes were dialed in by the mechanics and handled well. Even though this race was sort of like a local Seattle series race to the Belgians, there were race crowds larger than those at an U.S. Gran Prix race. Racers like Sven Nys, Richard Groenendaal, and Sven Vanthourenhout were present. Oh and also our home boy Johnathan Page (below) racing for his new team, Morgan Blue. These Belgians don't have the cheering skills that we have back home, there are thousands of them spectating but they all just stand there not making any noise until Sven Nys comes flying by, then they ramp it up. However there are always a couple old Belgians smoking cigars point out the what they think is best line to take in the mud, and if you take that line they give you a smack on your butt as encouragement. Watching the elites race was really cool, the glue like mud that was dead slow for us was like pavement for today's winner, Sven Nys(below). Below we see a standard Belgian "man toilet pole", it consists of four separate slots with a hole that feeds into the middle for a functional yet portable urinal. Only about a third of the men actually chose to use these urinals, the others just picked there favorite spot out in the open.
-Sean

The Belgian Cruiser Posse

Well we both made it to Belgium. Airplanes are so much fun! Sean got stuck in Amsterdam for 9 hrs but he did eventually make it to Brussels. Today we rode for about and hour and a half. The roads are pretty cool. Most are very narrow and here and there are some cobblestones. Tomorrow we have our first race. It is pretty sweet driving places like back from the airport. All the cool Belgian dudes listen to Fergi, Akon and my man Justin Timberlake. I just feel so at home when Justin's "My Love" comes on. Then we started "Smack(in') That" with Akon. We went to a store today and the top CDs were things like Paris Hilton. There was also some Dolly Parton. These Belgian peeps listen to some crazy tunes.Here is Sean at the wall last night. We bought some pretty sweet waffles.
After our training ride today we took the cruisers out on the town. As you can see Mr. Worsech found himself some pretty sweet footwear and glasses. So almost everybody in town owns a bike like this. We saw a lot of kids cruising around on these together. So we tried to join with this one posse of guys cruising down the street, but they just were not feeling our vibe. So we looked for a more accepting cruiser posse, but we had no luck. I think sometime this week we will be able to find a good posse to roll around with.

-Steve