My second week here actually started off pretty amazing. On my first ride of the weekend I headed out and around the city of Ghent and decided on the way back home that I would check out the city’s center. Am I ever glad I did because it’s probably the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. That’s right people I said “Beautiful.” For those who have never been to Ghent, I would compare it to  Old Quebec City. There are cobble stones as the street pavement, thousands of people everywhere, street vendors, canal tours, homemade Belgium waffles, chocolate and pastries. Everything you could imagine was there!!! With all the homemade goodness right there in front of me I had my health conscious friend Yuri on one shoulder saying “don’t eat it think of the fat and the calories in it.” On the other shoulder I had the Fat kid side of me saying “try it all!!” Sorry Yuri the Fat kid side of me won this round. I had to try a couple things from the vendors and what caught my eye was a cheese and almond pastry pie. Also these very weird looking purple triangle things. The outside tasted like a Jujube candy and the inside was a jelly-like filling.

Monday morning I prepared myself for that afternoon’s war with the “Stones”. We drove to the race which was about 40ish km away and all my companions spoke in Spanish. It would be nice to have an English conversation. However, what awaited me at the race was devastating, actually I was heart broken! The Belgian cycling delegates of the race wouldn’t let me start the race without a letter from my country stating that I had permission to race in Belgium. (Bike racing is a very strange thing. First I need a license to be able to race a bicycle and now I needed a letter of permission from the Ontario Cycling Association to let me race!!) I pretty much got down on both my knees to beg and bargain for them to let me race, but it was a no go. :'( I rode a couple laps of the circuit and some local Pave sections but that was pretty much my day.

I emailed the OCA (Ontario Cycling Association) in dire need of this letter ASAP in order to race. I was very fortunate because BA and Chris at the OCA – being great lifesavers – were able to get this letter for me from the CCA (Canadian Cycling Association) within hours and I was back to the races on Tuesday.

Now Tuesday, lets try this racing thing again. The race was 117 km 18 times around a circuit. Within this circuit was farm fields, a downhill,and two punchy climbs. One of which ended just 1km from the finish, followed by flat windy roads. This was my kind of race. What I’m about to say next is something I’ve always heard from the old racers (sorry.) I showed up to this race with just enough money in my wallet for the entry fee, the car I was given to drive was literary on empty (like in the reserve tank), and I was in need of money for food for the week, cause it’s expensive here in Europe. Let me tell you, you race F’in hard when it’s for food money!! I played it calm, cool and collected for the first half, then the second half I set fire to this race. I placed a bunch of hard attacks in the cross winds and on the climbs I felt unstoppable. Next thing you know I’ve got a split with 14 others. Here’s the race down to 14 guys. One of my first thoughts “Yes were making money today” cause the prize pool goes 30 deep. Of the 14 guys left four of them where from Omega Quickstep Devo Team. If I could go back and replay the last couple laps I would because the two Devo guys still racing fooled me and looked a lot more tired then they were. I realized I had showed my cards to early because I  became a marked man. The final 3km in the headwind a couple guys attacked and everyone just let them just ride away. A few more guys attacked on the bottom of the second punchy climb and I attacked over the top and held on to 5th. Not bad as I walked away with 75 euros which meant almost 1.5-2 weeks worth of grocery’s and enough gas to get home.

    During Belgium races people will gamble on the riders. You can place bets on any rider in the race. My odds in the last race were 20-6, I wonder if the organizer of the bets was sh**ting his pants when he saw my number in the winning breakaway. The rest of my week was spent training until the double header of races on the weekend.

The bettingboard getting filled up.

Thursday night I decided that Friday after my ride I would go visit Brussels and be a tourist. Being a cyclist I get to visit a lot of cool places but we don’t have the time nor the energy to be tourists on a regular basis. However, I couldn’t come to Belgium and not be a tourist for at least one day. My Bucket List for Brussels was to see; The Peeing Boy, The Grand Place, The MOOF, and have a Belgian Waffle. Basically I wanted to see anything and everything.

Girls, All it takes is a Good Waffle or Pancake to win my heart over!!! Hint HintWink Wink;)

Up next, a fun jam- packed weekend of hard racing. I won’t let any hints away about what happens. Just that it was a good weekend aside from a little mishap that happened off the bike, which I hope never occurs again. That’s to come in next week’s blog!!!