Legs get going

Hi Everybody.
Update from last week is that we had a few major things happen like finishing 6th in dienze then 2nd today with a 12th place in Sundays race and 11th last tuesday, team had a night out and I watched the first post tour crit in Aaslt which pretty cool atmosphere.

On Tuesday 20th we had a race in Westkapalle which was up and towards the east of Brugge I didn't have to bad a race finishing 11th but good on my team mate Martin from South Africa taking the win from a bunch sprint.

Wednesday we had a the first race of a 3 race series in Dienze photo of me ready to race. Started the day with a nice we warm up ride to Dienze then raced and rode back home. Ended up 6th in a bunch sprint that invovled a nice we roundabout that you had to navigate your way through every lap an unfortunately got a we bit boxed in.

Thursday had a well deserved nice easy 2hour spin

Friday had a nice easy long ride over the roads of Flanders towards France loved getting lost an just riding, found a way back to Ghent eventually.

Saturday was nasty as it was raining in the morning and didn't really feel that inspired to ride so just went for a nice easy couple of hours in the afternoon once it had cleared up a bit.

Sunday had a horrible race in Nederzalm which is sort of more central Belgium we drove the course had a we little bump in the middle of the course but was predominently on small narrow nasty roads and hailed in one part of the race so made for lots of crashes which I managed to avoid 5 of them as was near the front of the race the whole time ended up 12th in the sprint as didn't want to lay my life on the line on the risky 7 corners leading into the finish.


Monday was due for a rest day as had a pretty full on week, I went to Aaslt an watched the first after tour crit which none other than Fabian won which was pretty much certian him or Pettachi were going to win.
As well picked myself up some new bits an pieces for my bike, so apart from alot of walking was a pretty cruisy day. Got this pic of them on the first lap before my camera battery died.


Tuesday 2nd Race of Series in Dienze. Well started off with a we ride out to dienze and legs were feeling pretty good. Got into the break on the second lap and stayed away until about lap 12 or so picked up 4 primes and as you can see wasn't hurting myself to much. Once the bunch finally caught us I just made it look like I was suffering as much as possible. On the last lap pretty much quite alot of breaks went until Mario my team mate got off up the road then about 500m later I decided to ditch everybody and ride across solo to him where we ended up taken 1st and 2nd me 2nd unfortunately couldn't out sprint him. However that does put me in top spot on the 3 day Classement tough leading into tomorrows last race so with a good rest tonight we will have to see what happens tomorrow.

God Bless
Chris

Settled into racing.

Hi Everybody

Had a awesome week really, getting over that jetlag and settling into the way things run over here.
Raced twice since the last update.

2nd race i did was a Criterium Friday night. It was definately a step up from the crits back home, this was held on a circuit 1.6k long which had 3 corners which were definately far from flowing I would say, we did 46 laps which made for a good 150 sprints out of the corners ouch. However managed to pull a respectable 9th for my second race.

Saturday was planing on going for a nice 2hours, went out on my journey to get to the other side of Gent altough a few horrible Tram lines lay in between getting there so it all turned to custard when bang goes the back tyre as i cross the tramline which slashed my back tyre, oh deah least I didn't crash just made for a trip to the bike shop to get another tyre which was a change in direction on where I intended on going. On the way back cruised through a few cool old towns got a cool we pic from one of the we towns I rode through.






Sunday had the 3rd Race which was a race out of Borsbeke which was held on open roads and had 150 starters making for a fast race despite a nice little hill on the 9.1k circuit which we had to do 13 times. This was far from my best race but deffinately not my worst finishing 29th just in the prize money as they only payed top 30. Then we had a nice we ride back home.


Jazz Stage

Went out and had a look around the town as the Festival of Gent is on at the moment. Man there was alot of people out an about on the cannals and Streets, they had all kinds of things happening, from Jazz, skits, bands and maybe 6+ stages all round the centre of Gent. Was pretty cool evening though didn't understand a word they were saying.

Cannal

God bless
Chris

First Race in Belguim

Hi everybody the last week has been a bit of kaos.

Left NZ on the 9th to depart on another stint racing in Belgium
Flew to Amsterdam via Kuala Lumpur which was a pretty good flight managed to get to sleep on the last flight. Once I got to Amsterdam had a nice we train ride to Gent where I am now racing for Kingsnorth Wheelers for the meanwhile.
As for the first race in Belgium was a we shock to the system as haven't raced for a few months so was pretty happy with blowing out the cob webs and just finishing this one.
Only up from now.

God bless
Chris