Today was day two of being pissed at with the management of the team.  Yesterday I was counting on a ride to the race, but found out last minute that there were only seats for two people  Jack and Steve went.  Jack crashed out, breaking his bike and his borrowed wheels, and Steve finished in the group.  Today I went to race with the team, only to have left my foreigner letter of permission at home.  Typically they only ask for this letter when you first get your Belgium license.  Today they asked for it and three of us were without.  They said that the owner could vouch for me and they would allow me to race.  We found him, and the race officials were already discussing the situation.  I didn’t understand what was being said but one of the guys who lives at the house said he didn’t want to vouch for the American, so none of us got to race.  What the fuck?  I’ve crushed myself for 5 races for the team and then get shit on.  I do have to remember that it could’ve been prevented had I brought my letter with me.  Guess who won’t be making that mistake again…

Noglass, who lives at the house, (pronounced like necklace, but with a “nog” at the front), is a former pro from Lithuania.  He is regularly seen tanning in his underwares in the front yard at the farm house where all the Aussies and Kiwi’s live.  Jack saw him walking out of the shower, which is in the kitchen, and said that he has the largest penis he had ever seen.  When asked what he was doing, laying face up spread eagle tanning in the yard, he responded, “letting my fucking balls dry”.

There also seems to be an influx of the Macarena being played in my neighborhood.  There was a little Turk-town festival the past two days of which I attended.  It was more like a garage sale on steroids.  Mostly people selling things, old and new, but with bands and music.  No rides to be seen.  I walked the length of the festival twice, which was about an hour of my time, and I heard (and saw once coordinated dancing to) The Macarena.

Tomorrow the Russian and I race for the win!!

Andrew

Michael Jackson Dies.

My sister Jenifer says it well enough:

I’m about 7 years old, “Thriller” is on the tape player. My brother is about 5, and as the song opens (as the casket opens in the song) and Andrew “rises” out of the huge drawer that he was laying in and we proceed to “Monster mash” and dance like zombies to Thriller. That’s the Michael Jackson I will remember. Stellar entertainer.

Building Karma

Last night I was woken up by a loud two stroke engine scooter cruising up and down our street.  I thought it was “the student” who lives in our building.  Wanting to get a good look at him, I realised it was multiple scooters, and there were some kids walking around with a set of cable cutters in their hands.  Five boys and a girl were headed toward a covered scooter with intentions of making it their own.  I woke up JD and we began to watch.  They unveiled a bright green scooter and began to try to cut the cable lock.  I threw a pack of fig newtons at them and JD asked what they thought they were doing.  It must have been somewhat intimidating coming from a dark third story window.  In extreme panic, they put the cutters down and moved quickly to their three scooters parked up the street.  So quickly in fact, that one almost was left behind!!

I went downstairs and into the street.  Sure enough, the cable cutters were still there.  I took them and went back into our building.  No less than three minutes later, we heard the sound of the approaching vandals.  They had come back to retrieve their cable cutters, but found them to be missing.  We laughed and wished we had beer bottles to start throwing.  They left.

The Turkish family who owns the scooter came out to find their cover on the sidewalk.  I heard them talking and decided to tell them first hand what had happened.  I gave the owner a set of slightly used cable cutters as consolation that he may need to buy a new cable lock.

The police later were called, and as I had fallen back into a deep sleep, JD gave them the 411 on what had happened.

I was so excited to stop a crime from happening, I feel like a superhero.  Good dreams for me last night.

Fight for your right to party!

What ever happened to throwing pies?  In the music video Fight for your right to party, and Double Dare?  They were all about throwing pies back then.  Anyway, I was fighting for my right to party last night.  Good idea/Bad idea?  Stay out until 4.30 hitting the beers hard in the discotecka district of Gent?  Running around after the university girls who just finished their exams?  Big parties this week.  Here is a photo from the plaza that everyone met in.

It was a great idea.  The only thing on the schedule for me was 60km of riding, and enjoy a pita on the main canal downtown.  And do laundry.   So getting up at 12.30 wasn’t really a deal breaker on my day.  And i got my new team shorts today as well as scored a local townie bike to do various errands on!

So good race tomorrow in Zommergam.  Long uphill cobble section.  Its a race I did two years ago and got axed early.  I love second chances….and third chances…..and fourth chances…..

One of the local girls bought and made dinner for the whole group tonight.  Jack and i did dishes, while my roommate and some of the Aussies showed the locals how to hacky sack.  Then we all tried to ride wheelies on our townie bikes….and drank some beers.  It fucking stays light until 10.30 so staying up late comes easy.  Laundry done.  Back to the apartment.  Blog blog blog.  Bedtime.

We also went way beyond are allowed downloading quota so our Internet is running at half speed. Nice.

Sunday I plan to see the Belgie national championships.  Devolder The Destroyer is who my money is on!

There are some guys revving a motorcycle outside my window.  It is as if they have a new toy.  They are driving it up and down Chicken Street, and hitting the brakes quite hard.

I rode home from the race with the Russian guy, Cleb.  He doesn’t talk very much, which makes for a perfect riding partner.  I stopped at a small store to pick up some eggs for dinner.  The women who worked there was from Pakistan.  She said she was very happy with Belgium, but has no friends, and no family here.  She has been here for several years away from everything that was familiar from the first 40 years of her life.  She learned English when she was 42.  She fears that she would not be allowed to leave Pakistan if she was to visit.

The race today:  Small field of 52 riders.  8km course, long straight aways into the wind.  This was the windiest I can remember.  I didn’t have the legs today at all.  Knowing I wasn’t going to be stong in the finish, I absolutly drilled it into the wind on the hard sections for two laps, and once over the 800 meter coble section.  I had my whole team on my wheel.  I felt like being ruthless today.  I wanted to make everyone feel as miserable as I was feeling.  I missed the split and was in the last group containing roughly 20 riders.  There were riders getting dropped back to us with each passing lap, but they finally pulled us with 6 laps to go.  I was happy not to have to suffer any longer.  I found out I was the last rider from my team in the race, besides Mario, who probably went on to win.  The other strong guy Jack, had a double wheel failure on the second lap over the cobles.  He is now without wheels.  My roommate had another crash today, and re-opened a lot of his road rash from last week.  He also bent both his wheels and broke his chainring.

Tomorrow I go to Oudenaarde for some training in the hills.  I hope to get in over 200km.  Then we race again Friday and Saturday.

No race afterall

So i didn’t race today afterall.  But i did find a turkish bakery that was better, and more friendly, than the Belgie bakery down the steet from our apartment.  It is conveniently placed 300 meters from the cafe that i found today, that sells coffee for 1.20 euro.  Better than the 2.30 euro i was paying near the farmer market.  We did a long training ride that went all around the city, then in the direction of Bruxxles.  It was nice to ride along the canals, by the university, and then through some other towns.  This side of Belgium seems to be a bit less affluent than where i lived before.  I like it though, very gritty.  I feel as if these are the most basic conditions in which i have ever lived.  And i love it.  I feel like i might be very tired after two months, ready to sleep in a mattress that doesn’t sink down to the wood supports, so the third month is just for the challenge.  Just to be a little bit harder.  To learn that much more about myself.  By then all but one of the other English speakers will have left, making it increasingly difficult to get along.  I’m excited though.  Finally everything is straight forward, and i have lots of Turkish made Belgie bread to eat.

Andrew – big race tomorrow!  Stay tuned.

Second Race today!

Great race, way harder than yesterday, and I rose to the occasion.  8 km laps.  Lots less guys, which meant less chances to save energy in the field.  On the first lap my teammate got caught up in a crash, which i just barely avoided myself.  His spoke broke on his wheel, and since I’m new, I dropped back after his wheel change to help him back into the field.  We were back in no problem a lap later.  Our other teammate attacked right away and was able to stay away with a small group.  Lots of attacks came and at any moment a whole team could be shooting riders up both sides of the road making it super hard to manage.  We were able to put one more rider in the winning break after and then it was a matter of survival.  Fast pace for a tired rider who was cramping with only 8 of the 15 laps down.  Another group went, that later split in half.  I attacked with 4 to go and our group almost made it to the third group.  We were still going full bore, despite racing for 25-31 position.  I finished last in my group, 31st, and just out of the money.  Not bad for my second race though.  This is Belgium, and I can only get faster.

No good stories other than racing.

Andrew

First Kermesse today.

I remember these races being faster last time I was here.  Tomorrow will be a better test….and we are going in the car rather than riding 40 km there and back!  Today was no fucking joke though, over 125 starters, and less than 80 finished.  I rode top ten the whole race, (from 13 laps) until my chain kinked on a hard shift after a corner.  I chased for a lap and half, but finally pulled out with four to go.   Bummer, then the break went, and managed to put a thirty seconds on the field in two laps.  Another group formed, and my roommate was caught up in the middle.  He finished with the third group, putting him around 40th place.

Good day for a bike race, tomorrow I do it again.

Life on Chicken Street

I am living in Belgium for the remaining three months of the summer.  I live right in the town of Gent, or Ghent which is west of Antwerpen and Bruxxles.  It should be understood that the riding here is amazing, mostly because the riding in all of Belgium is amazing.

I live on Chicken Street, or Kikenstrat, in “student” housing.  So far I have yet to see any of the students who rent rooms here.  I only met Eric, a British Alcoholic who told me to shut the fuck up, before he introduced himself.  I sort of met someone else who may or may not live here yesterday morning.  There was a person in full motorcycle gear (including full face helmet) walking around the main living space while I was preparing my breakfast.  They stood up totally erect, faced me, and then walked out the front door.  Interesting.

My roommate is JD, a cyclist from San Fransisco.  He showed me around the city yesterday and we met up with the other people living at “the farm”.  The farm is a 200 year old dirtier than my apartment farmhouse full of cyclists and cycling related people.  I gather there are 3 kiwis, 1 Aussie, 1 British guy, 1 Russian, 1 Lithuanian, and 1 other British support guy.  This place is not large.  The shower is actually in the kitchen, photo to come.

One of the Kiwi guys said he refuses to believe that there are no good looking Belgian girls.  I have to disagree, it had been 36 hours since I saw my first slightly attractive Belgian girl, only to find out she was French!  There are lots of pretty Turkish women rolling around our neighborhood though, so the scenery isn’t too depressing.

Trained normal yesterday, 60km, 40 of which was into the wind.  I have a new frame and new wheels.  I’m very excited to put them to the test today.  We are riding 35km to the race, racing 120km, and riding home.  Repeat on Sunday.  Repeat on Monday.  Repeat on Tuesday.  Rest on Wednesday.

I am grinding my teeth a bit at night, I will be wearing my new teeth grinding guard from now on when I sleep.  Thanks Charlotte Pediatric Dentistry!  And hipflexor muscles are very tight after my crazy traveling!  It should all be worked out by tonight.

That is all for now.

Kombucha again.

The Green Kombucha is my favourite, although they are all made with 100% love.  It is the last place I expected to find 100% love, but I’m continuously excited about it, as noted by how often I drink them…and we all know how hard love is to find outside of the internet.  Haha, more on “the existance of love” another time.

I’m going back to cleaning, I will post some photos of my clean house later tonight.