With Nine Mississippis to spare...

This was how long it took for the hail storm that chased me and my bike the whole way home to smack against the ground after I stepped inside the house. Running from dark clouds is an even more unneverving experience when having to be done at a piano (recovery) pace. OK, let's see just how fast i can ride the bike while keeping the heartrate under 90bpm? This time i won the game. Tomorrow may play out differently. It is supposed to rain straight through to sunday. Monday's promised 20 deg C sunny day cant come soon enough.

(Here is a photo of the sky just after the hail storm passed.)

Guess who is considering to ride the 2012 mountain bike Olympics in London? Bart friggin Wellens! He and Fidea teammate Stybar want to qualify for it if it works in with their cyclo-cross plans. Since Sven Nys has already declared his intentions in competing, that leaves theoretically one spot available for Wellens given that Philippe Meirhaeghe has announced his retirement.

Last year, Nys competed in a bunch of mtb events to get extra points for Belgium so they may send three guys (instead of 2. the third spot was taken from USA when nobody from USA showed up to the last qualifying event to ensure their extra spot.) This means that Raul Paulissen, Nys and Wellens all have to chase UCI MTB points leading up to the Olympics to earn Belgium three spots again. AND what this means to cross fans is that we now get to see our favorite rockstars playing in the dirt during the summer as well!

Speaking of Sven Nys, my interview of him is set to be published shortly in Cyclocross Magazine (as well as my regular column that includes a few surprises.) Click HERE to subscribe.

They are also putting a lot of content regularly on their site. They update it more often than i do my site - which at times is not too hard to do. It seems everyone is finally linking up to them so they are getting cyclo-cross feeds from everywhere. It is about time cross fans have a site to call their own. Anyway, check it out HERE.

And don't forget to add them as your facebook friend to gain access to yet another source of cyclo-cross happenings.

Yeah, I have an ulterior motive for increasing traffic and subscriptions for Cyclocross Magazine. If they grow quickly enough, they can pay me a trillion dollars to write for them so i can sponsor myself for cross season.

What a hectic weekend...

filled with riding and talking, my two favorite activities.

Last Saturday started early with a 9am flemish language class. It was my first class so i was really nervous. The three days leading up to it, i used all my free time to study hard - for at least ten minutes a day.

When i walked into the building, I asked the secretary where the class was (of course in my best dutch.) As she got up to walk me to the classroom, she turned to a guy who was sitting in front of her and said, "this one was easy" in dutch. She deposited me in a room filled with 5 students and a teacher. I immediately introduced myself and told the instructor that i had to leave early for my first cyclo-cross race of the season (all in dutch). When he responded in dutch and continued with the class in dutch only, I realized what the woman meant when she said "this one was easy." She was referring to which class I belonged - beginner or advanced. Somehow instead of going to the beginner class which was where I planned to go, I ended up in the advanced conversational class.

It was scary at first since the majority of my conversations thus far have been with little kids and old people. But it went well. Everyone spoke real slowly so it was relatively easy to follow. I even found myself talking a lot. I owe most of what I knew to the Simpsons TV show, the same way that Belgians learn English - reading the subtitles. Every time i watch tv, i read the subtitles in hopes of learning some Dutch. I guess it worked. It did feel funny saying the words aloud that I have only read on TV subtitles.


After 1 1/2 hours of language class, Jonas picked me up and we headed directly to the race. That class gave me enough courage to speak Flemish to everyone at the race site and I swear I understood more that day than ever before. If only i could get everyone to speak as slowly as they do in class.

The course was laid out on a cow pasture. The trails were almost completely covered in bumpy ditches and cowpies. Even the one "good line" around the course was only slightly better than the rest of the course. This made it very hard to pass people. But it did give me lots of practice on that type of terrain that seems to pop up often in races.

They ran the womens race with a mens 35+ Masters, as they sometimes do. My start was a little slow because i got caught up behind a guy who refused to be passed by a girl. By the time i got around him on the second lap, I had exhausted myself both physically and emotionally. I had forgotten how exhausting frustration can be - never again. With 2nd place (Anja) only 10 seconds behind I focused all my energy on pushing myself as hard as i can to build a significant gap on the hard-charging gal.

A bit later I looked at my watch to confirm that the race is almost over, only to find that I had completed a whopping 15 minutes - 30 minutes left! Just as I was fearing that I would lose the motivation to keep up the pace for the rest of the race, I was passed by a guy who was traveling at the perfect pace - slightly faster than I. He was like a gift from the cyclo-cross gods.

As we pulled into the grassy field just before the finish line, he asked me if i wanted to sprint. At first I laughed, but then I gave it a go for fun. My sprint turned out to be exactly the same speed as our pace. We (Jan and I) finished 18th and 19th in the mens 35+ category while I got extra bonus money for 1st woman. Total prize money for the day was 10.50€ - 8€ for 1st woman and 2.50€ for 19th man. The cost of the race was 6.50€ but you get 2€ back when you return your race number. I also scored a girly Tee.


Overall, it was a blast - a great way to start the season. The organization VDN - combined with belgiancyclingselection's Ludwig Gladines efforts - put on a great race! It was lively, fun, ran smoothly, and offered De Koninck beer in their "beer garden". I am not sure if it is still called a beer garden if it is only alonside the course and doesnt have the course go through it as was the tradition in Belgian cross races up until three years ago. The UCI made this decision stating that it was unsafe for the riders due to the temperature difference inside/outside the tent and that the riders may get hit by a beer bottle. They based their info on a quote made by Richard Groenendaal that was taken out of context. Pity because they were a lot of fun.

After a shower and change of clothes, we sat at the cafe and watched the mens event. As I sat there waiting for Jonas to bring our drinks to the table, I thought about how thrilled i was to feel relatively recovered so soon after the race. But my thoughts immediately came to a crashing halt when i tried to raise the glass to my lips. My arms were so worked from all the bumps that it was an effort to lift the liquid. The pain was well worth it all.

Thanks always for reading!

I WON...

my first cyclo-cross race of the season. Yippee!

More details to come...

Got a headache from my cyclo-cross ride...

not from hitting it against anything but rather from thinking too hard. (I have actually managed to avoid trees, wooden beams and concrets awnings for ten months now.)

The weather today had come close to cyclo-cross season proportions - 13°C, overcast and rainy - so I figured I was in for a very uncomfortable ride since I am not quite mentally prepared for crap weather.

But once I reached the woods, everything changed. It was so extraordinarily beautiful and peaceful that I almost forgot about the chilly rain. The thick woods were bright green and covered in mist, making me feel like I was riding through an exotic rainforest shown on some nature channel. The only sound I heard was that of rain droplets hitting the leaves. I brought my iPod for the ride but obviously opted not to turn it on for fear of ruining a magical moment.

For the first 20 minutes of the ride, my mind was devoid of any real thoughts. I was in the moment of the ride - enjoying every aspect of it. But when minute 21 arrived, it brought with it a little bug that lodged itself on the back of my throat. It entered during an inhale, as they always do. It was then that the heavy thinking started.

What should i do? Try to swallow it or cough it out? I am a vegetarian so I really cannot eat the bug in good conscience. But if i cough it up, it will surely lose its wings and die. I tried to delicately release it from my throat with short bursts of air but to no avail. It only made its wings flutter more, causing me to dry heave a bunch. That didn't release it either.

After various attempts of getting the critter up and away, I finally struggled some more with the idea of swallowing it. If i swallow it, will it make it but halfway down only to take twice as long to re-emerge? And what if it does make it all the way down, will my body be okay with taking in non-plant protein? Will I be okay with it? Can I actively swallow a bug while keeping my feminity intact? (Girls don't eat bugs, you know!) What if only half of it goes down?

Decision time - it's going down. I reached for the water bottle in my back pocket only to realize it is still back at the house. I guess it is on to plan C - denial. Failing to fill my mind with any thoughts that can distract me from the perceived sound of fluttering wings, I turned to the iPod for help. Eminem and I finished the ride together.

As I pulled up to the house, the rain stopped and the sun popped out from behind the clouds. (Isn't it always like that.) Water never tasted so good -or functioned so well. I will keep you in my thoughts, my mini-winged friend.