ZOLDER

When Alex asked if I wanted to do the Zolder toertocht, I thought, why the hell not? I had imposed a mtb moratorium on myself until the trails dried up...one can wash a bike only so many times in one's lifetime. But, ever since I moved to this crazy little country, everybody was talking about Zolder this, and Zolder that. "Did you know Roel Paulissen trains in Zolder?" So how bad could it be, right?


Sad to say, it was MISERABLE. Ok, riding in the dirt with a friend is always ok. But the course. Oef, the course. The picture above is really the highlight of the day. A short little climb where we tested ourselves to see if we could climb it without getting off. We made it.


The rest of the course was like this. Cold. Dirt roads. Muddy. I'm falling asleep just writing about it. To give the organizers some credit, apparently it's a new group putting this on, and there was some reason why they couldn't use a bunch of the normal trails. But still.

Fortunately, the bicycle dinosaur museum was especially powerful today. Look at this! I don't even know what it is, except it's probably almost as old as me. Full carbon fiber with an elevated chainstay. Magura HS-33! And what is with the strange, sea-foam green bar-ends pointing up to the sky, as if to receive special instructions from the mothership?


Here was another beauty. And I'm not laughing at these riders. I think it's cool that they are still shredding belgian singletrack on them. But you must admit...this one is also a little peculiar. The frame, combined with the wheels. V-brakes on a carbon Specialized-branded Rockshox. This was the sexiest bike in Belgium in 1994.


Anyway. Highlights were few and far between this day. But that's all right. Bike wash. Beer. Home to watch a cyclocross race. It was all good.