After a few days of wandering around with a massive case of jetlag I can now say that i have settled into Belgian life.
My first few days I spent sleeping and getting to know the area where i will be based for the next 6 weeks.
I will be based in Mere which is a tiny town around 25kms away from Brussells, i have to say that the house in which i am staying is a very European house which i think is actually older than Australia
And the house comes equiped with a typical Belgian view of paddicks and Cows.
THE RACE
I was in a bit of a hard place when i lined up for Wednesdays race in Kerksken. Kerksken is my old hometown from back in 2007 when i was quite a shy friendly young lad.
Mainly the reason i was in such a bad place at the start was because of the hammering i got in playing Paintball a few days earlier and i believe it was shoot the Aussie day and I have so many bruises I am beginning to look like my ex wife.
The Kerksken Kermis was 13 hard laps of a 9.1 km circuit which included 2 climbs and some crazy technical roads which would even test the best of the Fat Bastards.
With a few pro riders lining up at the start i begun to think that my first race back in 12 months was not going to be a walk in the park.
Bang as soon as the whistle blew the race was on! and starting on the 2nd climb I felt as though I was already on my limit, as usual a group formed on the first lap which meant that the whole ^peleton went crazy trying to catch up and we began to spend alot of time over the 60kmh mark.
After about 30 minutes i was feeling OK but the race pace was just so so fast i couldnt seem to get into a rythym and begun to hurt like a mother, the only place that i felt comfortable was on the main climb which went for about a 1km and the pace would slow to about 35kmh.
Feeling good did not last that long and soon it was clear that the lack of race days and lack of speed training was not on my side and I pulled the pin at the 53 minute mark and with around 45 kms on the clock.
To say I am pretty happy with my first race this season and believe that I will hit some good form in the next few weeks.
Here is a good photo of my Belgian brother JoJo in the white and myself hurting at the start,JoJo went on to finish in the bunch for another strong performance.
Here you see the bunch as we hit the base of the main climb,i am at the back in my Duro kit
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So my first race is down as is my first week, I plan on racing again on saturday and sunday and will then go and watch the Tour de France criterium in Aalst this Monday which should be good for a perv.
Cam
