Having lived in Belgium for eight weeks now, I feel I should have a moment of reflection on Belgium. So here goes. You can ride around Belgium effortlessly for hours on a decent day, its countryside is pleasant enough but to a Yorkshire man it is missing something. The Belgians seem to have a national obsession with two animals…goats and chickens. My team manager tells me Belgium has 220 different species of chicken, and as for the goats, these are apparently just Flandriens expressing their reluctance to spend money on lawnmowers. The latest from spring watch Belgium is that I’ve seen a spring lamb…it was a mere 2 hour ride away! It has also come to my attention that Belgium has a lot of on-going road works, this is perhaps a generous way of putting it. Every ride I pass many cornered off sections of road, I appreciate Belgium has been without a government for 8 months now but the lack of progress is astounding.
Moving onto cycling, I have had an interesting insight this week into shed engineering. In true James May style, we visited a shed not far from my village to meet an old bloke who went by the name ‘Nest’. This man is the secret weapon of Jurgen Van Den Broek and Phillipe Gilbert, two of Belgiums finest cyclists. Before you jump to conclusions I am not about to say he is a chemist, doctor or anything to do with doping, ‘Nest’ is a wheel builder. Wheel building is a true art form, you can teach it but these gurus will tell you they have a 6th sense for building a wheel. I went there in search of a replacement rim to rebuild my wheel after my last tumble (into the daffodils if you remember). After admiring the rims lined up with names like ‘Gilbert’ tagged to them, I left knowing my wheels were in good hands. I have been limited to just training over the previous ten days, we have a group ride locally which consists of up to 150 riders on a given Tuesday or Thursday…maybe this is why there is no progress on the road works, the guys are riding their bikes? As I live in the heart of cyclo cross country, I have been privileged to ride with both Sven Nys and more Recently Neils Albert. This would be the equivalent of Wayne Rooney turning up back home for your Jumpers for Goalposts football match… you see why it’s a privilege.
As far as racing goes I have seen little competitive action recently due to being overlooked in my team for the last three big races. A week ago I travelled to the Walloon region in search of a race. Unfortunately my body seemed to still be recovering from a cold and I was distanced with 35km to go along with another 70 riders who failed to finish on what was a very challenging and selective course close to Roubaix.
Finally my new word of the month…
Passup- Move (especially useful when on a bike path)
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