Kalmthout WC

First race in Belgium is now under the belt. Luckily my bikes arrived and I was able to race the Blues. Todays unsung hero is definitely Josef. I think he has already made 15 trips to the airport. And each trip he is battling baggage claims and waiting for hours for someone or somthing who might not even be showing up. Today he was the man and left for the airport at 4:30am and delivered my bikes to Kalmthout by 12:00. We arrived about the same time.

It was a crazy snowstorm. You know you are in Belgium when you get rocked out of your sleep by someone pounding on the door and yelling something that ends with "we leave in 30 minutes." The rush was on because of the 4" of fresh powder. The news was in the my bikes had arrived, but I wasn't so sure they weren't someone elses.

So we arrived to the craziness of a Belgium cross race. Troy and I went on a mission to find the WC

and Inschription. We suited up and went out for a lap on the snowy icy circuit. It was like doing a lap on a frozen tundra. Driscoll went down on the pre-ride. I didn't but it was sketchy. They had a salt truck on the start stretch and they were brooming the slush of the pavement sections.

After a lap it was back to the warming van for a change of clothes and a little time on the trainer. I was called to the grid in the 6th row. I think 85 guys started. The start was a little crazy with a left on icy pavement and then a U on icy pavement and then to the course. Pretty much the whole course was single file. It was crazy with 85 guys fighting for one line. Snow was flying and all sorts of guys were sideways. I had a bad start. After that there is not much you can do....ride single file and wait....or try to pass in the deep snow and risk crashing and losing 5 - 10 spots. By the middle of the race I was moving up as guy were getting cold and dropping out. Page was 17th Driscoll was 38th, Wells was 50th and I was 63rd. A little dissapointing.

Now that my stuff is in order I can focus a little more...less time in Skype with United, more time thinking about racing. Plus a race in the legs after close to a month of no racing and a little jet lag. Should only feel better and better as time goes on....thanks for reading....