Today was exactly like I expected the weather to be. It is rainy and cold. It is more like November than June. We didn't ride all that much today but it was a great day to rest with a race coming up in two days.
The picture above is the bike parking outside the St. Pieter's Station, the main train station here in Gent. That's only a small part of it, it stretches halfway around the plaza and spills over onto other streets. Bike really do rule here. They seem to have even more right of way than pedestrians. There are also bike lanes on almost every street and along the canals as well. The canals serve as bike paths linking the entire country together.
Because nothing exciting happened today aside from feeding the chicken all of the kitchen waste that we would have otherwise composted, I'll fill this post in with interesting bits about Belgium and racing here.
First, Belgium is split in two, with Flanders in the north and Wallonia in the south. Flanders speaks Flemish, Wallonia speaks French. There is talk of the country splitting but I haven't gathered anything about any nationalistic movements here. I think there is even a different cycling federation for each.
At races, there is always a changing room for the riders. No changing in the car or with a towel around you. Sometimes the room is a full locker room with showers but in the case of the last race, it was the party room of a pub. Everybody staked out territory at a table and changed into their cycling kits.
An important skill here is the hand sling. If you open up a gap and can't close it, you offer your hand behind you. The rider behind you grabs it and you throw him forwards. I gave and received my first hand sling in the middle of a race since I've been here. It's a pretty cool thing to be able to do but I guess for all you track riders out there it's already second nature.
I've gotten to race against some pretty high powered teams and riders. The other day the Quick Step development team was there along with the Belgian amateur national champion. There are some serious older riders too; guys that have ridden at some high level races and are now stomping on guys twenty years younger than them. There have been Dutch, Lithuanian, Australian, New Zealander, and of course Belgian and American riders. I'm expecting to see a few more nationalities before I go.
The picture above is the bike parking outside the St. Pieter's Station, the main train station here in Gent. That's only a small part of it, it stretches halfway around the plaza and spills over onto other streets. Bike really do rule here. They seem to have even more right of way than pedestrians. There are also bike lanes on almost every street and along the canals as well. The canals serve as bike paths linking the entire country together.
Because nothing exciting happened today aside from feeding the chicken all of the kitchen waste that we would have otherwise composted, I'll fill this post in with interesting bits about Belgium and racing here.
First, Belgium is split in two, with Flanders in the north and Wallonia in the south. Flanders speaks Flemish, Wallonia speaks French. There is talk of the country splitting but I haven't gathered anything about any nationalistic movements here. I think there is even a different cycling federation for each.
At races, there is always a changing room for the riders. No changing in the car or with a towel around you. Sometimes the room is a full locker room with showers but in the case of the last race, it was the party room of a pub. Everybody staked out territory at a table and changed into their cycling kits.
An important skill here is the hand sling. If you open up a gap and can't close it, you offer your hand behind you. The rider behind you grabs it and you throw him forwards. I gave and received my first hand sling in the middle of a race since I've been here. It's a pretty cool thing to be able to do but I guess for all you track riders out there it's already second nature.
I've gotten to race against some pretty high powered teams and riders. The other day the Quick Step development team was there along with the Belgian amateur national champion. There are some serious older riders too; guys that have ridden at some high level races and are now stomping on guys twenty years younger than them. There have been Dutch, Lithuanian, Australian, New Zealander, and of course Belgian and American riders. I'm expecting to see a few more nationalities before I go.
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