Did we mention you can race every day here?

Hi all,

Ryan here with an update to try and catch you up on all the madness in the last few days. Poor Mitch has been sick as a dog for the last two days and hardly able to get on the bike, let alone race a Kermis. I told him not to make out with Sickly Judd, but I guess he didn't listen. Hopefully he'll turn the corner and be out racing in two days time.

I skipped out on the Paris trip and here's an account of my last 4 days.

1. Race in East Flanders. Scott let me take his car and go race in a different province. I was the only rider, which was a little strange, but sort of nice as I could just ride my own race without worrying about helping or hindering my teammates. This was a larger than normal field with over a hundred guys. It was kind of slow at the start which is really strange for belgian racing, and the early break came back. I was making a few too many jumps and when stuff finally went I didn't make it. I found myself working in the third group and in the end I lost the sprint to the fattest human I have ever raced against. It was some 260lb 18 year old and he just ripped past me, with a few others in tow. Belgium is flat, remember. Not a particularly great ride, but I learn something new each time and I did manage to just slip into the prize money, so chalk another 10E up for the kids.

Day 2. I was burnt from the race the day before So I did a long ride up to Bruges, which I had missed the first tiem around. The farm roads are so beautiful, and every now and then you find yourself riding down a tree lined road with not another soul in sight and castles and churches poking up from the horizon. ALso, as you approach Bruges you ride through a verdant forest. Its a striking change from the wide open farm roads. It had just rained and the pavement was steam, the leaves were driping and that unique smell of a wet forest was overwhelming. It was a like a taste of home and it was invigorating.

Bruges is indeed beautfiul, but its chalk full of tourists and they sort of spoil the scene. Also, Americans are the loudest people in the world. I was having a snack in the main sqaure when two older couples came out basically screaming. The men were riding rented bikes and the women photgraphing them. I dont think they realized Iwas also an american because the were yelling, "Watch me teach this expert cyclist a thing or two. I'm gonna run down these pigeons!" True to his word we went weaving through crowds of people and birds, all the while yelling ot their significant others to "get this. honey!"

The ride was going really well, but on the way home the skies just opened up on me and I got rained on like I've never been rained on before. I could barely see and was riding through veritable streams on the side of hte road. Normally I'd just fina a cafe and wait it out, but i was late to pick up Scott and his family returning from Venice. Scariest point: Having a tour bus pass me about six inches away and rocking me with a wave you'd expectg on the north shore, but not in Belgian farmland. I made it in the end, but it was quite a ride. I now feel like a true belgian cyclist.

day 3. 120k race in a town 4 mi away. It is so nice to be able to ride to races. In California you sometimes find yourself driving for hours to get to a 60 min crit, while here you can pretty much pick from 10 races a week within riding distance of your house. Alas, the weather of yesterday had stuck around and the drizzle on the ride over turned into a downpour. Luckily Evan brought some flexpower, which is an oily rub which makes your legs feel like they're under a heatlamp. Absolutely incredible. Belgians don't mess around with their cycling, and they're are none of hte frills the we have in the states. INstead of reading a long list of rules and such at the start the Belgians just get you on the line and then send you off. No gun, no whistle, you just roll when everyone else does.

This race was also kind of slow for the first few laps, I think due to the rain, and it stayed together for the first few laps. This was Evan's first race and he was really aggressive up front. (its good to brun matches to stay up front in your first race as insurance. You don't want your first race to be less than 3 laps). I should note at this point that European paint is about a hundred times more slippery than us paint. Maybe its that its so thick, or maybe its that its covered from soap from all the Belgians constantly washing everything (they've got to be a close second to Germans. They're constantly sweeping, and spraying and weeding and painting). Anyway, I had a few moments of terror when my rear wheel went sliping out from under me and I just barely kept it together. I finally decided that it just wasn't worth it and I stopped trying to accelerate whenever I was near the paint.

When I saw things finally starting to get jumpy I decided it was time to go. Really, I had told myself that today I was going to race like my man Mitch and just ride myself into the break no matter what it took. So I did. I started to attack up to a group through the start finish and when I caught them after the first turn they were sort of noodling so I just kept going and tried to make a solo bridge up to the only two people up the road. I was pretty mutch killing myself to get there. One guy caught me and together we made it up to the front two. Those guys wanted to wait a bit and so we did, and once we were a group of 7 we started working well together. This was my first time in the lead group in a Kermis so needless to say I was pretty stoked. I had made the move that got me there instead of just following wheels and my legs felt great. Its nice to know that even in a race full of Belgians I'm still a man for the shti weather.

Alas, it was not to be. Sometime in the first few laps my pedaling action was feeling really funny on the right side and I thoguht for sure my cleat was loose. I had ROb take a look and he assured me it was Okay so I just attacked away and figured whatever it was would hold at least until the race was over. But it was not to be. It turns out my pedal was ripping out of my crank arm. This is not good. So here I am, first time up in the lead group and me foot is gyrating like its going to fly off my body with each pedal stroke. IT was killing my knee, and if you leave something like that too long you end up getting catastrophic failure, which is exaclty what I was heading for. So I was forced to pull out of the race after frinally getting myself right where I wanted to be. Lucky for me Mitch and Elliot were right there with the car so they could pick me up and laugh at my misfortune.

I managed to get a nother set of cranks from a local bike shop and Mitch, being aan absolute whiz when it comes to wrenching had them on in no time at all and the bike ready for the next day. Bum luck indeed, but as Mitch would say, "thats bike racing"

Day 4 (today) ANother race justa few miles away. I've been going for a short hour spin every morning for the last two days and it really does wonders. Wakes me up, gets the blood and metabolism going and loosens up the legs. Probelm was, I didn't quite get out of the house until pretty late and by the time I got back I was way behind the others fro race prep. I told them to go without me and then got myself lost on the way over and almost missed registration. Awesome.

The race was a doosey! Its the first race we've done with any hills, a long slow drag through the start finish and then a long nasty crosswind section, follwed byb an honest to goodness hill. Steep enough to be a climb, but only 150 meters or so. I'm sad to say that I'm such a bad climber I can even get dropped on Belgian climbs. But I can also chase on Belgian flats! Thank goodness. The first group of 5 rolled inthe first few laps and they were immediately working together and never came back. Rats!At one point I came up to Evan and Judd with 4 guys from another team and I thoght we were going to make the second group and roll it, but it wasn't to be as there were too many people from other teams chasing. I was back and forth between the second group. SOmtimes with maybe 6 guys and then we'd get caught and sometimes working with more. Finally, the second group went and I missed the boat. It was, as so much of this racing is, terribly frustrating. Its just attack and work, attack and work all day with barely a moments rest and its a total throw of the dice to see which group will actually stick it and start working. So I was in the third group of maybe 10 or so and we were noodling around with occasionall fits of all out raging on the bike, and by noodling I mean riding a steady hard pace into Belgian winds as opposed to the all out blitz which is an attack.

Some Brit finally made his way off the front and everyone seemed content to let him dangle at about 15 seconds. We were going slow enough that I feared getting caught by the leaders and having the race cut short so I figured I'd better get to it. I attacked (on the hill! Ryan Parnes attacked on a hill!) and managed to bridge up to him and we managed to work together for a few laps before they did eventually cut our race short because the leaders were catching. Its belgian tradition to sprint it out, even for 40th and even against your best friend so I lead it out but managed to stick it for 12th place. Frustration seems to be the name of the game here. My British friend and I could actually see the second group as we came through the last lap, and htey were only about 25 seconds ahead of us and we were closing. Oh well. All in all it was a good day and I'm feeling stronger with every race. Plus, another 20E for the kids! Whoohoo!

I think I'm finally getting hte hang of this crazy Euro racing and with a bit of luck and a day of recovery I'm hoping to crack the top ten soon.

Sorry its been so long since I rapped at ya, but there's a wealther of racing to do and a dearth of internet access. I do hope you'll understand.

Every time I get on my bike, every time I hear the Flemmish over the loudspeaker at a race, every time I navigate virgin far roads using centuries old church steeples... frankly, pretty much every minute of the day I am just so overhwlemed by how amazing and unique this experience is and I'm so increadibly grateful to those people who have helped make this dream come true.