Santa keeps on giving

What a guy.  Looking remarkably like my mother, Santa came and brought me quite possibly the most important cycling garment I now own, the Endura Stealth mtb jacket.  Used it twice already and it kicks ass.

Santa is my best friend

Finally got me some new shoes.  What a guy!

Bilzen toertocht = mud fest

Bilzen - the south east corner of flanders, where the flat flemish plains start to break into gently rolling hills and garden gnomes have attitude.  I joined Alex and Luc at Alex's house in Martenslinde for the pre-christmas toertocht.  It was supposed to be a nice gentle 45 km with rolling hills, perfect for the single speed.

10am start, no rain, here we are nice and clean.

The start was about 200 meters from Alex's house, we rolled down and signed up.  The Martenslinde community center was pretty dead, the cold temperatures and bad weather keeping people indoors.
Right off the bat - a bad sign, we head through a grass field that has turned into a mud bog.  Herculean efforts are required to move the bike forward.
Lo and behold - mud to make your bike stand up.  Spinning wheels and somersaults and the whole ball of wax.  It was a complete mess.  And slow.

22km in and nearing death...mud soaked through even garment.  The hot soup at the bevooradering (the halfway waffle tent) was salty and a gift from heaven.  From here it was only 16km from the finish....16 long, wet, muddy, slow kilometers...

Best investment of the year by far award - mtb booties.  Kept the feet warm, dry, and clean!  Worth every euro cent.

Swiss breakfast of champions

Picked this up while driving through switzerland, hans "no way" rey on the cover of a bag of muesli.  Is he even swiss?

Kinda cool though.  Nice product placement for Fox.

A mystery unraveled...

Why the company espresso machine espresso tastes like crap!  This must be affecting my riding.

Lummaloop night ride

It's cold in Belgium at night...

Our international crew rolled out last night in the deep dark forest of Lummen.  Conditions pure Belgium - endless mud pits and myriad consistencies of the slippery stuff.  Jo, Alex, Maarten, and I donned our lights and cold weather gear for a good slosh in the wet.

It had been a while since I had done a real night ride, and it was good to get out there.  Maarten was on his new bright orange Cobra (no brakes!), Alex with his busted-ass Blaze, and Jo on a racy carbon Ridley Ignite. 

Despite Alex's rear shock blowing up early in the ride (that's what he gets for riding a fully suspended bicycle in Flanders...), things were pretty ok until Maarten took a header into a ditch, in a spectacular fashion.

No mtbing for one month. No, more.

Ja it is kind of starting to suck.  Too long without a spin on the lummaloop.  We're planning a night ride with the belgians tomorrow but if it rains.....could be cancelled.

In the meantime here's a pic on Mike Parsell's fat chance in oakridge.