Sorry, This post may be a bit choppy and poorly edited as I’m running low on connection time and battery power – I’ll come back and edit it later adding links and such.  Again, I apologize.

Wednesday was a bike race – which was the reason for being in Belgium.  The race was from Deinze to Wevelgem.  However the race is called Ghent-Wevelgem.   We stayed in Ghent the night before and the night after.   Ghent is a really great city if you get the chance to visit and I think Belgium is my new favorite country in Europe - having previously been Ireland.  There are similarities that I don't have time to get into now.

  The night before the race, I was walking around trying to find info on the start and I walked past a laundr-o-mat and saw two guys inside with bikes and one was wearing a CSC cap so I figured they'd know.  Turns out they were from Los Angeles CA.  One is a bike messenger and one is a wheel builder for Easton.  I spent the evening drinking Belgian beer – Westmalle dubbel! -  With them (ouch, I don't normally do that!).   The next morning dawned bright and dry - BAH!  This can't be Belgium! 

My wife, 4 yo son, S-I-L and I spent the morning hanging around in Deinze which is about 30 minutes from Ghent.  As the Start time neared, we were watching the racers head for the start and some would come past and then head back the other way and so on.  We asked an elderly gentleman with a big Flanderia flag which way they departed at the start and he said 'they come right past here'.  The trickle of racers slowed and then the church bells started going off like crazy and nothing happened.   I say to my wife, 'boy, they sure celebrate the half-hour in fine style here' as it was 11:30, the start time.  Then a nice gentleman in a yellow G-W jacket comes by and says, 'you can go home now, they've gone'.   AAuugghh!!!  The old guy with the flag was wrong, they went the other way!!

So we head back to the car - stopping along the way to the way at a patisserie for some croissants and 'oh, those éclairs look good!'...and they were.  :-)

We head straight for the Kemmelberg thinking that they go up that twice so the viewing will at least last longer.  The Kemmelberg is one of the hardest climbs in the race.  I’ve heard parts of it are at 20% incline.  I can say walking up it with a 40lb kid on your back is pretty hard.  Oh, and the road is cobblestone so, it’ll vibrate your teeth out if you they’re not attached well.

During the walk from the car, my son, sitting on my shoulders wearing his Quick-Step jersey, yells 'hey, what's he doing?' at a guy who is walking in a small field behind some cars.  He yells back, 'hey, you speak English?' and it turns out to be a guy from the Jamison tours so he positions us up at the top of the Kemmelberg just below their group.  Nice guy.  I was supposed to be on the tour with them but they don't make accommodations for kids under 8y so, I decided I’d act like my family was more important than riding during Classics week in Belgium...what was I thinking??!!

Anyway, as we're standing there, we meet two guys from Liverpool and a Belgian guy.  Turns out one of the Brits had actually ridden in Ghent-Wevelgem in the 60's a few times.

According to the Belgian guy, who spoke with authority, Tom Boonen, current World Champion and winner of nearly every race he’s entered in the past 9 months wasn't going for a win - it was just a training ride for him in prep for Sunday's Paris-Roubaix.

Then the helicopter comes into view and the cars and motorcycles race by with blaring sirens and horns and the crowd rallies!  Then you see a helmet bobbing through the crowd and then the whole peleton is grinding up the hill - it was dry so, no one had any problems.  Hoste was leading by a dozen meters or so with Boonen and Hincapie at the front of the main field.  The next time around, about 30 minutes later, there was a break and Tom had dropped way back in the field while Hincapie was sitting up near the front of the main pack.

They go by so fast; it's hard to identify who's who.

Anyway, that was it.  Long way to go for an hour of hiking, 2 hours of standing around in the cold and 3 minutes of race watching.  Definitely more in touch with the progress of the race watching on TV but, standing next to the course with all the people is something I won't soon forget. 

Now we're in Paris.  Today will be spent visiting my favorite bike shops and hanging out in cafe's and the Jardin du Luxembourg which is right across the street from our hotel. 

Take care and ride safe.

Duane

Connections aren’t quite as prevalent as I’d expected.

Sorry for the delay, I haven’t been able to connect.  I’ll post more shortly.

DATELINE: Sunday, April 2^nd, 2006

So, this is springtime?

For the past week the skies have been trying to make up their minds whether to rain or snow.  Leaving for dinner last night, we walked out into a snowfall of the largest snowflakes I’d ever seen!  Naturally, Will and I tried to catch them in our mouths and after a few missed attempts – it was windy too – our faces were soaked.  At the restaurant and looking out of the window we noticed the flakes getting smaller and smaller as dinner progressed to dessert and finally when we left it was raining and all of the snow had turned to slush.  And because of the gravel that is put down on top of the ice on the sidewalks, it’s a nice muddy slush.  Springtime in Finland is much like a snow day in Seattle – but it lasts for a month. 

Winter is really the best time to visit Finland – unless you don’t like beautiful white snow.  There is a lovely white blanket covering the whole country and it muffles all of the sound so, even in the middle of a fairly large city, it seems quiet and peaceful.  It can be bitter cold (as in -30 or -40 F) but my mother-in-law still rides her bike to work.  She has studded tires on her bike so she says she’s ok. Wonderful lady.

Road tripping with an experienced companion

We spent yesterday driving the 150km to Helsinki to visit IKEA for some furniture for Tanja’s brother’s apartment.  Tanja called around to find a car rental but the only one we could find was a VW Passat Wagon.  Well, that’s fine we thought – perfect for carrying our bounty back from IKEA!  We arrive to find that it was their only car and we weren’t the first to drive it.  The car was one of the first generation Passat Wagons – from the mid 80’s.  It appeared to have been driven continuously since being built – as in non-stop, possibly at freeway speeds.  It had approx. 400k kilometers on it.  Needless to say, I was a bit concerned that we were going to be driving it on it’s last 300km trip!  I needn’t have worried – we made it just fine.  But boy, you get her up to freeway speed, you can’t hardly hear yourself think!

IKEA is just like at home – lucky for Will there was a play area that we could drop him off in and  he could play for an hour or so while we wandered around.  They didn’t have a cafeteria so, we headed back to avoid driving too much in the dark.  We were really wracking our brains trying to think of someplace to eat other than one of the freeway flyover truck stops – let’s face it, I can eat at AM PM Market any time!  Then we remembered this restaurant we had eaten at on a previous trip.  So we headed straight for Hameenlinna and this great old place near the castle ( ‘linna’ in Finnish).  Whenever you’re in Finland and have a hankerin’ for reindeer stew, you can get it here.  I’ve had reindeer before and it’s much too gamey for me.  Dinner had, we were back on the road. 

Favorite thing from Finland (other than my wife …probably)

Black Licorice!  There are more types of black licorice in Finland than microbrews in Seattle.  My favorite is called Panteri (as in Panther) so then end up being called panther candies – usually in a feverish snarl.  They are quite strong – not nearly the strongest by a long shot – for black licorice compared to what you find in the US.  But they are coated with sugar granules for a nice sweet gritty outside and a salty strong anise inside.  Yum.  If I can make it home with a bag, I’ll bring them to the office to share (not likely!!). 

Tuesday, we head for Belgium to see some bike races!