Dec. 31/08

Canada House in Holland #2

Hello again,

            I’ve been away for two weeks now, and I just got home from a 6 day road trip, competing in races all over Belgium. We started our trip in Zolder for the World Cup, and let me tell you, that was a huge eye opener! Once the race was over I found myself questioning whether these guys were actually humans or some type of super-being engineered to dominate on the cross bike. I didn’t have the greatest race in Zolder but I remained positive, as I had learned lots from that race and was confident I would move up the rankings in my next race, the Deigem Super Prestige.

With the same racers as the World Cup, the race started in Deigem. Somehow I managed to get into 4th position after about 1/3rd of a lap and after 3 laps there were Rabobank, Fidea, and Palmans riders still passing me. This was pretty cool, but unfortunately, they were passing me. I guess I wasn’t going fast enough……. This race ended when I was going up a run-up and slipped on frozen ground and banged my knee on a frozen tire rut. Oh well… that’s racing.

Next race was on the coast near Dunkerque, for another big race. This race mixed the U23 and elites, so I got to race Sven Nys. YAY! However something miraculous happened. I started to get my racing legs back and I was going to finish the race without getting lapped by Nys. I know that doesn’t sound very miraculous, but if you ever saw this guy race, you’d understand. But with 3 laps to go I flatted my front tire and was forced to pull out.

Thinking my bad luck is over I started the last race of the road trip in Loenhout. Feeling pretty good, I was riding with a group of 5 other guys and with 2 laps to go I flatted my rear tire. Out again! But looking at the results, I would have finished 46th out of 109 guys and only 2.5 mins back. So I’m happy enough with that.

So that’s what my races have looked like thus far, but the really interesting part is the atmosphere of these races. There are regularly 15,000 to 20,000 spectators who have paid to watch us race our bikes, so the course is completely lined with people that are screaming encouragement. Fans have been approaching me and asking if they could take photos with me, they also ask for your rider card (like a hockey card for bikers), but unfortunately I don’t have any to give them. At the World Cup I even gave a group of people my autograph; they came running up to me shouting, “Canada! Canada!” That was a shocker; never thought in a million years that would happen. When I got my first flat tire, I was carrying my bike back to the team bus and a group of crazy Belgians offered to carry it back for me and once they stowed it safely in the back of the bus, they bought me a beer for my efforts in the race. Really nice people, but I think back home they would have been clinically insane. Oh, and all these races I’ve been doing are completely televised. So we can watch cycling almost everyday here and not just the Tour in July.

That’s all I got for now.

Andrew Thomas