Lots to do and no time to do it

It's been a long time since I last updated, the sad thing is that I didn't even realize it had been that long. A lot has happened since then, a few races, lots of training, and plenty of adventures to Brugge.

The best race that I had was last Monday. As a team we had a great weekend in France. We had a couple of podiums, and a team win. The criterium that I did was great, a perfect American style race. Lots of open corners, and no wind. We attacked and made it very hard for everyone through the technical course. Blah blah blah. Long story short our teammate took 3rd and I ended up hurting myself. My back seized up with five to go not allowing me to breathe, that forced me out of the race. It made me so angry because I was in the group that was bridging to the leaders without having to do very much work, I already had 2 guys in the break so why work? I'll get them next time, but still so frustrating. Out of 100k I finished 72 of it, so not a bad day, just painful.

I'm ok now, a little tender still, but I was able to ride today no problem. Nothing is torn, luckily, I stopped before that happened. Right now I'm taking it day by day, tomorrow I have sprints so we'll see how that goes. I'll listen to my body and if I need to stop I will. It turned out that my cleat had moved back a little bit on my right shoe. I must have done it in the crash I had on Saturday and didn't notice it. It took me awhile to figure it out, I had been doing yoga for awhile to keep my back from hurting and then it dies something wierd like that. I'm fixing the cleat tonight so it shouldn't be a problem anymore. We'll see, I race again this Saturday.

Other than that I have been trying to relax. I had the best pizza of my life (short of homemade from Heather) at this place called the Flandrian. It was an aged ham and parmesan pie with a beer from the local brewery. It was sooooo good. Then we went to Cabrinus to relax before heading to de Midici for coffee. There are no Starbucks here, so we have to pay an hefty price for a cup of coffee. Average is 3 Euro (about $5), but most places include a small pastry of some sort, and this place gives you a small bit of ice cream. It's nice to be able to relax and enjoy a coffee in a place that doesn't get too crowded.

It looks like the weather has finally decided to turn. It's still a bit rainy in the morning, but today was awesome weather. Twenty-four Celsius and sunny. We couldn't have created a nicer day. The awesome thing about this place is that if it's nice outside everyone takes a day off and goes riding. It's the coolest thing. Last week there was a national holiday and it happened to be nice too, which meant lots of riders. We had a rest day from the bike and decided to count riders out our front window. We happen to live on a popular ride route, and within an hour and a half we counted 230+ riders. Where else are you going to see that but Belgium? I love this country and if I could pick one place in the world to live it would be here. Maybe Heather can get stationed here, there is a UN base here, so there is a chance.

If you ever plan a trip to Europe, skip France (it's dirty and the people aren't very nice), and come to Belgium. You won't be dissapointed. Hit up Brussels, and Gent, maybe Amsterdam, but definately bring your bike. It's the only way to travel here. You can get a list of all UCI races and see those, of which there are plenty, or come during the spring and watch the Ronde.

Anyway, there are so many things to talk about, and believe me I could go on and on, but I need to go. I need to sleep and recover from all this training and racing. Talk to you all later, thanks for reading.