Merry Christmas - Holy Sh...

The calm before the storm:

A good night sleeps. A 10am wake up. Some morning coffee. The last training ride of the season??? We cruised out at 1:00pm for a good warm up ride to prepare for the Zolder World Cup tomorrow. Down the canal, cross the canal, and back up the other side to a small forest for some off road practice. All systems go on the way back with a couple of tough openers. Cross the canal and back towards home, we see some young Belgies sledding down the Koppenberg and....'HOLY SH....what was that??? We better go back...was that what I think it was?'

Sure enough a sheep in a wheelbarrow? Not what I would want to look out my window and see on Christmas morning. Was it a gift? Was it dinner? Is it a Belgian Christmas tradition? Or did the poor Sheep go in the night? Either way it was pretty crazy...

The highlight of the day came when Hilde came knocking at the door and invited us over for ice cream and coffee! Hilde is the owner of the Hof Ter Kammen where we are staying. It was awesome that they invited us over for some holiday company. Her husband is a promoter of the Koppenburg Cross and he gave us a copy of the 2010 race which we are now watching! This is the Belgium way to celebrate Christmas for sure. They had all sorts of crazy chocolates and were also pumped because Page was over the previous day to deliver some home

made X-Mas cookies something Euros don't do! I was way more into the traditional Yule Log...this one was made from Ice Cream and was carved with an electric knife!

Tomorrow starts Part 3 with the World Cup in Zolder....I hear there is a ton of snow on the course. Just like riding the beach....be sure to check it out at www.cyclingfans.com 3:00pm EuroST. 9:00 eastern and 8:00 central.

Thanks for reading and again Happy Holidays.