Penny on Trains, Spaghetti and Belgium

I’m from Sheffield in Yorkshire but this weekend I went to the weird and wonderful Belgium where Bryan Taylor took a group of us.  He’s taken female cyclists over to Holland/Belgium numerous times with the help of WCRA supplying some funding. Giving us girls the chance to get stuck in to some proper racing.

The two Hannah’s and I had to get down to London. I’ve actually never been on a train before, so with a bike bag it was going to be fun! The journey was too eventful to describe but basically I got on the wrong train with no ticket, missed the next train because of a delay, was late for the taxi, and my bike got to stuck in the train doors! On the bright side I managed to get 4 helpers to carry my bike whilst Hannah had to struggle by herself!!

Finally we got down to some hardcore racing on the Saturday, unfortunately the course was very windy so wasn’t suited for me but I gave it a crack and found myself in a small group. Worked hard, and stayed with them long enough to find out how the Dutch do it.. ride behind a car, ambulance, motorbike (even someone’s dad riding his bike on the course!) and you’ll get towed to the next group of riders ahead.

Obviously within the first lap the race was smashed to pieces and there was nothing left of a peloton, so my race was pretty much over by then, but it was a good experience and interesting race to say the least!

Cause Bryans a regular over in Belgium he took us to the ‘Fat Cat Cafe’, Fair ground, and the Tour of Flanders museum where we had ‘spaghetti Boonenaise’ before the big Crit race.

Sunday was a massive smash fest! As soon as the gun went it was full on from the start! No attacks managed to stay away because the pace was so high throughout. Really enjoyed it, with tight cobbled corners, i got stuck in with the race but blew with 2 to go and found myself in the worse position.. at the back! I reckon due to early season lack of fitness! But gave it my all and managed to finish a very tiring but respectable 23^rd

Back home in Yorkshire at 1am, then to school today, write my first blog, then off to Mallorca tomorrow..  good stuff

Cheers
Penny

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am. It is filed under Penny Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.