A day at the races

Last Sunday, I piano'd a few towns over to watch Jan race. For a devout mountain bike racer, he sure has been doing a lot of "sissy roadie" events!! It was a 90km - 11-lap race. I showed up 1/2 hour into it so the race was in full action! Races here are like parades, first the road clearing guy goes past, then the advertisement autos, following is the lead moto or auto, finally the racers, and behind them the support vehicles.

As I watched them ride around in circles - while standing in warm sunshine i might add, I was painfully reminded that spectating is hard work. It took a lot of energy to keep focus on supporting Jan instead of obsessing about my designs of racing the damn thing myself. What if i just jumped in for a lap? Would they notice? I'll make myself really small by riding in the drops next to the burliest guys i can find. Can i really pull it off while keeping my heart rate under coach's orders of 120bpm? Since i'm sick right now, i thought spectating would be a breeze. Not so. Frig!

Ten seconds after the field passed me for the last lap, the sky came down in the form of clear liquid pellets. But on the way home, the weather morphed back to a sunshiney day, instantly cheering me up! The mood-altering power of sun - amazing. While meandering through Leuven, I spotted the coolest old-ass bike (see photos) and what i thought were more 24-hour tube dispensers. I was right about the bike but not about the dispensers. Turns out they are the traditional types serving up old-style rubbers - or is it new-style? I wonder which rubbers came first - the ones for bikes or for boys.

Earlier in the race, he was kicking his owBTW, Jan is the one farthest on the left of the photo - in orange with blue helmet.n ass by going with anything that jumped off the front. By the end of the race, he was licked! This photo was taken on the 8e of 11 laps.