Racing with the big boys

I have some good news, I now am in the process of doing all the paper work to begin racing with the full fledged professionals. So in the next couple of weeks I should hopefully have some stories to tell you of racing with some of the riders and or the teams for which you see on television and in the magazines. Cross you fingers everthing worksout. I will be representing the same team I am on now just doing the bigger races available more often.

Till then

Matt

Exploring

Steve and myself went out exploring yesterday evening. Since it does not get dark here until almost 11pm, this means that we had plenty of daylight to use. We had heard of a place where the locals go swimming, so this is what we went in search of. After not looking too hard we found this small lake type body of water. Along with a zipline that was made for kids of a slightly lighter weight than myself, but don't worry I did no harm to the ride. There is a trail going around the lake so we ride it to see what all the park had to offer, there was a putt putt course. On the way into the park there was a few signs for athletics fields etc., along with a sign for a velodrome with Eddy Merckxs name on it. After a little bit of looking we found the building which housed the track. The front doors were even unlocked, so we made our way inside and had a seat and watched some smaller kids riding. I have to say for kids of about 12 they were very good bike handlers and quite quick. Next month the Junior World Championships will be held there so I am looking forward to having a look at those races. I have also been told that there will be a post Tour de France Criterium, that will include the yellow jersey and other riders from the tour in it, talking place on Monday. This should be fun. Even if the results are staged.

Till Then

Matt

Rest and sight seeing

I have taken the past few days to recover from the last few months of racing. I went into town to see a castle, but did not get in. So I walked around some more and ended up going into Sint Baafs cathedral. I have to say if any of you come to Belgium and end up in Gent. One place you have to visit is this cathedral. There are some world renowned paintings that have been around since the 1500s. The Architectures is unbelievable. There was even a man playing a harp for the visitors. After this I strolled around to find a bakery (brood and banket), since the usually have some really good food to snack on (i.e. chocolate croissants, £1 pizzas).
Now that my self imposed break is coming to an end tomorrow, I will be racing again. My legs have been feeling better over the past couple of days and should be back to feeling good.

Matt