I need to stop bad-mouthing Belgium.  The Karma is catching up with me…  Despite the bashing, I actually really like racing up there. Racing up north is crazy dynamic: you always have to be on your toes, riding the front, heads-up, and ready to go - no relaxing.  I like that. And the fans - it’s unreal. Unfortunately this year racing in Belgium hasn’t agreed with me so much.  Sick for the first two races, then crashed and whacked my knee in De Panne, forcing me to spend the rest of the week in bed pretty much, then I got out there yesterday at Flanders.  Considering all I actually felt pretty good. I was part of the crew going like hell for the break that never went, and then as it calmed down and the field sat up I got tangled up in two crashes.  After the Koppenberg, about 200k in, having been split off 1 climb earlier and thoroughly cracked I couldn’t have been happier to see the team car up the road and the soigneurs standing there with a bottle of tea.  That was my day.  Back in Girona now to get the knee fully healed up, bang out a few days of training, and then head back up north on Thursday to preview a bit the Roubaix course.  So…  Although Roubaix is France and hopefully that’s enough to change my luck, it’s close enough for me to scream out the window  ”I LOVE BELGIUM! IT’S AWESOME!!” 

Must be this one… Gotta love the creativity expressed in restaurant bathroom art. After a few too many coffees pre ride, and then at the cafe, we all got a good laugh from this one.

Still feeling the knee a bit more than hoped for on today’s ride but the day off yesterday hopefully kept it from getting too bad. One more day to heal and hopefully be good to go for Flanders on Sunday…with sleet and snow on the horizon. Gonna be epic.

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Turns out the knee got smashed a bit harder than I thought yesterday and after the first 50k today we decided it was better to stop and let it heal rather than aggravate it further.  So a day or two of rest now and hopefully it’ll be good to go for the weekend.  Steve unfortunately walked away from the stage today with a broken collarbone and has a slightly longer recovery period ahead - poor guy just can’t get lucky with the crashes.  It was another crazy day with a lot of crashes out there, but in the end was a big bunch kick for the line.  Tomorrow the guys face a double day with a shorter RR in the am and then a 14k TT in the afternoon. I’ll face the challenge of finding the end of the internet once again and trying to locate a good cup of coffee.  Think I win on that one…  Until I remember that the guys are racing and I’m not.  There are few things harder than stopping a race when you could have continued on, even knowing you did the right thing.  Heck, (as a cyclist, at a race) there are few things worse than quitting a race period.  Hopefully it pays off this weekend as I’ll be good’n fresh for Flanders.  

Youch.  Belgium is always a shock.  Today started out on a surprisingly mellow note considering the rain spitting from the sky and trees blowing in the wind, cross-wind for clarification.  Nobody really threw down, one guy attacked, the rest of us stopped for a pee and that was that for the first 95k.  Yet, somehow, there were still crashes everywhere. Between the dreaded “Belgian Gap”, the line between seams of concrete that somehow up here can grow to inches in width, and swallow bikes like nothing, and the gutters on the side of the road filled with cow shit, it’s always a bit hectic this time of year up here.  At some point a genius from Tinkoff came from the bike path on the right and instead of hopping the gutter like most do decided he could ride right across it.  Bad idea.  I was on the brakes before he even started pile-driving himself into the pavement.  Still managed to get smashed into a car pretty well center-punching the patella on my right leg, but fortunately didn’t actually touch down.  Did manage to fire of some words at the dumb ass along with the rest of the guys caught up in the crash - a lot of em.  At least he got pretty hurt for his genius move.  Managed to narrowly miss a couple more good stacks and chill in the front big split until about 20k to go when I was a bit too far back over a small roller and got split off with a good little crew to ride in with.  Feel a bit like an idiot, but pretty-much reaching my goal of keeping it upright today with a only slightly gimpy knee I can’t be too bummed I guess.   Tomorrow is a 220ish flatter day and the weather man says we should be seeing shadows - any day up here with a shadow is a bonus for sure.