55 things I learnt about Belgium.

1 - It's a dangerous place to drive.

2 - They love a good Friture.

3 - Everybody stares.

4 - I don't think they have planning permission because every house is different.

5 - They love having holidays, at least one a fortnight seems the norm. Oh and lots of places are closed on Mondays. Convenient.

6 - They have very good chocolate shops, many of which offer freebies.

7 - All the bike shops are extremely helpful but if you need something within say, a week, you're better off ordering from Wiggle.

8 - It's always windy.

9 - They have 3 languages, or maybe 4, I'm really not sure, and to be honest I don't think they are either.

10 - They eat crisps before dinner, almost like a warm up for your belly.

11 - Colruyt is awesome.

12 - Decathlon is always busy and a great place to go if you're bored and fancy a game of table tennis (or a bit of fancy dress). 

13 - There is little to no violence or crime.

14 - Cyclists don't wave, they just stare.

15 - Beer is strong. 

16 - They have a very strange logic, as if doing things simple just isn't an option. They excel at making things complicated.

17 -  Every car is either black, grey, or (for the adventurous) a light shade or grey. I can only assume this makes replacing parts more affordable when they inevitably have their monthly crash. 

18 - They're straight talking people, even if what they want to say is in no way necessary and will only be upsetting/soul crushing, they will say it.

19 - The cows/bulls are massive.

20 -  Men dress very smart when they go to socialise.

21 - 70% of the radio is talking, 20% is French rap and 10% is bearable.

22 - Waffles are fit.

23 - Don't be surprised to see most of your breakaway companions spending more time looking behind rather than in front.

24 - Parents at bike races do everything, even if their son is a fully grown man.

25 - It doesn't rain  anywhere near as much as people say, in fact the weather is generally not too bad, especially good in summer and delightful in September/October. 

26 - Stuff is cheap; rent, fuel, food etc.

27 - It's not all flat, where I live it's definitely not flat, and south of Namur it's very very not flat.

                                   

28 -  Old guys love race bikes, it doesn't matter that they don't get above 25kph, they will still ride an S-works Venge with 404 Zipps.

29 - Vascness comes easily racing in Belgium. 

28 - Kermesse volunteers are heroes.

29 - they have 58million less inhabitants than the UK but 3 more governments than us... go figure.

30 - It might not be true but I read online that 60% of Belgians wish they were born elsewhere, it's certainly believable.

31 - Their bakeries are exceptional.

32 - They will keep speaking Dutch even after you say you're English.

33 - They will stop speaking French all together when you say you're English.

34 - It's not a myth that the racing is pretty sketchy and often lined out.

 35 - They all spend more time looking at or on their phones than actually looking at the road while driving.

36 - Tom Boonen is God. 

37 - Finding a parking space in a city like Leuven or Brussels in the middle of the day is a nightmare.

38 - There's almost as many churches as bars, although I never see anyone going in and out of them. The same cannot be said for the bars.

39 - They will happily drop the f- bomb on the radio at 9am.

40 - The novelty of cobblestones does wear thin after a few months.

42 - Time passes slower in Belgium, I don't know how or why this happens, but you will find yourself doing unnecessary tasks to fill the day, like cleaning your car engine with a wet-wipe, looking at your legs, or organising a garage that will be a mess again before you even get back in the house. You will also take pictures of all these things and send the photos to relatives, friends or even house mates hoping that they will compliment you on your achievements.

44 - You'll spend a lot of time thing "what the f*ck am I doing here?"

45 - Cars aren't fitted with indicators.

46 - Staff all greet each other when they arrive at work (ie colruyt) which is really nice to see.

47 - The number of wheels and tubs you need for racing in Belgium is N+1 (N being the number you think you'll need). 

                              

48 - The phrase/gesture of thank you is difficult for them (ie holding open doors, letting them go first in traffic, you will be greeted with a confused and vacant stare.) 

*(Addition; they're also not particularly remorseful people, I found if they say sorry it's either not a genuine apology, or they're just not sorry for what they've done in any way, shape or form.) 

49 - The post office is never open.

50 - It's easy to go insane if you spend too much time living with the same people in the same place. 

51 - You might be able to fight the insanity for a little while. 

52 - But Belgium will crack you eventually. 

53 - You have to give way to cars from right hand junctions. How the people who are in charge of transport in Belgium think this is a good idea I'll never know. It's basically just a recipe for a complete disruption of the flow of traffic and rear end collisions. Oh and not everybody adheres to this rule. Some people fly out of roads from the right (I've landed on a bonnet) and some stop and look, so it really is a completely pointless rule.

54 - They really do love going to watch a bike race, amateur or pro, rain or shine.

55 - All things considered it's really not a bad place to live, just a bit confusing.

Tom.

The Constant Struggle For Success.

I'm planning on going to Walibi this weekend, it's a theme park not far from where I live. It's been a while since I've been on a rollercoaster but after the season I've had I shouldn't have any trouble coping with the ups and downs. If I remember correctly you often get quite wet at theme parks and always end up spending more money than you intended. It's just dawned on me that Walibi theme park is a perfect metaphor for my 2015 cycling season.

There have of course been quite a few positives; as I've said before I do love where I live and I couldn't have asked for better housemates. I've loved the racing and have often surprised even myself on the bike, it's not until after a race when you've finished and look back, retrospectively speaking, and realise all those guys you feared on the start line are the same guys who finished behind you.

I think my favourite race so far this year was Tourinnes St - Lambert 1.12b; mid way through the race in a crosswind section I was last man in the line, I was swinging violently from side to side trying to hold the wheel in front. My legs felt like they were full of battery acid and my lungs quite literally hurt, I didn't even know lungs could hurt. Ten minutes later it started to rain and I found myself up the road, out of sight, in a three man break driving it on the front directly into a thunderstorm. I was actually smiling. The conditions were very similar during the first race I ever did in Belgium back in 2013, I didn't last 2 laps and watched from the car as Connor Dunne came past lap after lap off the front, pressing on into the rain and I wondered how the hell he was doing it. Two years later and I was the one being chased by the bunch, a group of riders bridged up to us, but the peloton didn't, and I finished 4th.

Shortly after this I managed to finish 13th at another race in Herzele. There were around 150 guys signed on and the start line was littered with conti, top comp and devo team riders. It was always going to be a difficult race to read, and so it proved, I missed the break but managed to bridge up to it after crossing the gap with a small group. By the final the break had swelled to 30 plus guys, it was pretty chaotic and I was a bit of a spent force, but again I proved to myself that I was capable of more than what I thought possible.

Prior to these races I headed back to the UK where I spent just under a week with friends and family before heading to Lincoln for the British national champs and then back to Belgium for U27 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 1.2. Both races were a massive learning curve. Omloop more so than Lincoln, everyone seemed nervous, the previous winner (for the past two years) came past me on the mad run into the first climb and even he looked a little tense. Everyone knows the run into cobbled sections or climbs are fast, frantic and bat shit scary, what I learnt at this race however was that the cobbles and bergs themselves were carnage and over the top/all the bloody way to the foot of the next berg it never slowed down, it didn't calm down and it didn't cease to scare the bejesus out of me. Looking back, I didn't drink enough; it was 35+ celcius, but in between trying to figure out why I felt freezing cold and trying to remember how to breathe I just didn't seem to have the time or composure to reach for a bidon.

Sadly however towards the end of July I picked up an injury during a race that would prove to be quite a set-back. I developed an acute from of pes anserine tendonitis in my left knee and was unable to train for around two weeks. After speaking to a number of physios and doctors I eventually got booked in at GRIT sports clinic, in Leuven, with whom I since been getting treatment. The clinic works closely with a number of Belgian pro riders as well as the Etixx world tour team so I had every confidence they'd be able to diagnose the cause of my problem and fix it. It turns out the knee injury developed as a result of a problem in my left gluteus maximus and minimus, which led to a lack of flexibility in my hip. This lack of flexibility in my hip also explained why I'd been sitting off centre all season which has resulted in some rather unpleasant saddle sores. The source of the problem for this lengthy list of inconveniences? Roughly 15km into my first race of the season back in March I came down hard and landed on, you guessed it, my left arse cheek. Luckily as I'd hoped GRIT have been exceptional; I've had two weeks of decreasing the tension and increasing the range of motion in my hip and am now onto a new program which involves exercises to strengthen the tendons in my knees in order to avoid similar injuries in the future.

I began light training on the bike a few weeks ago and had more intense training last week and due to the absence of any pain whatsoever in my knee I was given the all clear to resume racing. I raced in Gijzenzele last Sunday and as expected it was quite a shock to the system. I managed a solid get round (34th) running on nothing but my sheer will to finish as my form seems to have all but deserted me. After another very light week to let my knee fully recover I'm racing again this Sunday in Perwez where I'm hoping to feel a bit more like my old self. I intend on staying in Belgium until the middle of October to make up for fact August has been a complete write off. I'm confident with 5 weeks of racing remaining there'll be time to relocate my form and more than enough opportunities to taste success. As always a big thank you to all those who have supported me through what has been an especially tough period of the season; The Dave Rayner Fund, Pedal Potential, GripGrab, my family, friends and coach and above all GRIT sports clinic. Check back in 5 weeks time to find out whether I finally managed to bring home flowers and trophy,

Tom.

19th GP Etienne de Wilde. (38th)

 

Namur.

Climbing the Citadel in Namur. (got round)

Sinksenkoers Scherpenh IC. (23rd)

Skyping the famalam.

Birkenhead park circuit race back in the UK pre-nationals. (3rd)

Watching Le Tour finish on the Muur de Huy.

Herzele kermesse. (13th)

Just a little project to pass the time.

Visiting Brussels with my parents.

GURPS!

"If you could slow down just a little Mr Van Hooydonck that would be swell"



Adapting to life abroad.

There are many challenges to living and racing away from home in a foreign country; first of all there's the languages. As if one new language wasn't hard enough to try and understand, living on the Walloon boarder means having to juggle a very basic understanding of both Dutch and French with a little bit of Flemish thrown in for good measure (I spoke to a man after a race in Kortrijk and he said even people who claim speak Flemish struggle with Flemish). Then there's doing all the cooking and cleaning for yourself, it doesn't sound like much, which is maybe why I always took this for granted at home, but it turns out it's a lot harder than Mums let on. There's also the shopping but to be honest I rather like food shopping here in Belgium. For those of you who have never shopped at Colruyt, it's like B&Q mixed with a primary school party bag; The isles are massive, the checkout is a strange experience and the whole store is full of free surprises and you just don't know what you're going to get, it could be cereal, or it could be steak. That said it's still a bit tiresome (and expensive) traipsing round buying food for yourself and two other cyclists with equally high metabolisms knowing full well you'll probably have to come back in less than a week to stock up again.

Kleine Langeheidestraat, a little different to Mardale Crescent.



On top of this is of course the reason I'm here; the racing. Having been to Belgium twice before I thought I knew what to expect, but I was woefully mistaken. I've found out that racing in different regions of Belgium is very similar to racing in different regions in the UK. I'm sure this won't win me any friends down south but I have to say in my experience heading up the M6 to a race makes for a much tougher day out than heading down the M6. And this has nothing to do with the 'Northerners are harder than Southerners' stereotype, which just isn't true, it's simply because the competition is completely different, and the same can be said for kermesse racing here in Belgium. Oudenaarde seems to be the Mecca for aspiring young Brits looking to test themselves abroad, which is exactly why I went to stay there 2013 and 2014. The truth is though that racing over here in East Flanders and in the Walloon is on a whole other level to that of the racing in the West. Where I raced the past two seasons (and the few times I've raced over that way this season) you get maybe a handful of UCI continental riders, often on different teams, meaning the racing is still hard but fairly easy to read; if you have the legs to go with the conti riders and do so then chances are you'll find yourself in the break. So far this year however the majority of the kermesses I've been doing over this way have felt harder than the interclubs I've been racing in. Sint Lambert 1.12b for example saw Color-code, T-palm, Vastgoedservice and Veranclassic all turn up with full teams, not to mention the likes of Lotto U23, Profel and Van Eyke who also had strength in numbers. This calibre of riders along with the rolling, twisty nature of the roads and an average speed of 44kph made for one of the most horrid races I've ever done.


Mal - Tongeren Kermesse.

Despite the new challenges of having to be completely self reliant I'm loving living in Ottenburg. At first I felt like the locals (neighbours, postmen, café baristas, Decathalon staff, Panos sandwich makers and Colruyt checkout workers) just saw us as the weird English boys who wore lycra. But now after a few months living here they seem a lot more approachable and appreciative of the fact that although our Dutch/French is pretty crap, we are at least trying.

As I say the racing has been tougher than expected, when you prepare for a whole winter, become stronger, smarter and the results don't come immediately it's frustrating. I had a nice start to the season with a criterium win in the UK but since then have struggled to perform how I'd have hoped. I've had my fair share of bad luck what with a couple of crashes, illness, a puncture and a wheel that had a lot less spokes in at the end of the race than the start of it. However having seen the misfortune of others who have suffered broken bones and amongst many other things I'm counting myself fairly lucky. I'm learning a massive amount from every race I'm at and something I've started doing this year is to log down everything I learn at each race in an empty old school book. This way I'll avoid making the same mistakes twice and hopefully as the form and knowledge improves so too should the results. Next up for me is a team kermesse tomorrow (Friday 15th) over in Morbeke, then another kermesse on Sunday followed by two team races the following Sundays; The Sinksenkoers interclub and the GP Etienne De Wilde Belgium cup interclub.

Thank you for reading, below is a selection of pictures from races, training and everyday life during my first few months here in Belgium. I couldn't be here without the support and backing of my family, friends, coach, The Dave Rayner Fund, Pedal Potential, GripGrab and my team so thank you for everything,

Tom

Between writing this post and it going live I finished 6th in Morbeke kermesse after
 making the winning break, more on this race and the ones that followed in my next post.

Leuven/Louvain

Scheldeprijs Interclub.

Home-sweet-home.



Having a go at Heule Kermesse.

In the bunch.

Suffering with cramp at Heule, finished 21st.

 

 



Watch out Michel Roux Jr.

Myself and Josh being filmed pinning on the numbers.

Breendonk Kermesse.

Locked out after a race.

Possible new paint job for Fabian...

Mal - Tongeren Kermesse



Looking forward to doing this race again later in the year.



 

Heading to a post race fritture on the way home.



Colour co-ordination score - 1000.



Training together.

Racing together.