Belgium

Hi Guys

Jut an update on how things are going over here.. I am currently based in Blauberg Belgium at the Bike NZ house training and racing up to 3 times a week. I won another race the other day so the road form is coming back and starting to feel road strong again.. The training around here is pretty boring and I needed a break from the house so went and stayed a few nights with my friends Rauraidh and Sean who live in Zweveregem which is a 2hr train ride away on the other side of Belgium. I wanted to do a kermesse that was in their region so decided to stay a few night and do some training up there also.

The Kermesse was on Tuesday and was 23 laps of a fast 5.5km circuit. It was good having nobody there to look after me or give me any bottles during the race so I had to rough it for once which is always a nice change from getting things done for you all the time. Anyway the race went well I stayed at the front the whole race and attacked a lot then came 3^rd in the sprint finish which I was quite happy with.

That night we met up with some other kiwis and went bowling in Kortrijk. It was a nice change from staying at home on Facebook then going to bed.

The next day I met up with my partner in crime Alex Frame and went out on a mini tour of Flanders. He took me up the famous Koppenberg which has a length of 600m, an average gradient of 11.6% and a max gradient of 22%!

The Koppenberg

 The the Muur van Geraardsbergen which has a length of 475 meters, average gradient of 9.3%, max gradient of 19.8%. We had lunch at the top of it and watched young Belgium hopefuls tackle the steep cobbled ascent. It was a good hard day on the bike in some Belgium sunshine for a change...

Muur van Geraardsbergen Tour of Flanders 2008

I caught the train home the next day and now I am back in Blauberg training hard for the Junior Road Worlds which start for me on the 20^th with the time trial, and 24^th with the road race.

Thanks for reading will update soon..

Fraser