Sorry for not posting yesterday. By the time we got home from the race, shopping adventure, and got rid of the layers of mud, I was pretty much wiped out.

I’ve written race reports for the Saturday and Sunday races. All in all, a couple of fun and challenging days of racing. Two totally different types of courses with totally opposite conditions. Just what I want out of a double-header weekend.

Raced with the junior boys again this weekend. Did think of going to Holland to race, but the temptation to race mere minutes from the house was too great. Glad I decided to stay here since the race course in Averbode was a blast and it served me well to race on a tricky technical course today.

Saturday was all about surviving the woods which was essentially a BMX track with hub deep mud. Insane. The key to success was rhythm. Well, if you’ve seen me dance, you know I don’t have much rhythm and I had even less yesterday… I spent most of my time picking myself up off the ground from crashing. I think this is the first race where I crashed pretty much twice every lap! I’ve got some serious bruises and contusions to show for it – but this just is part of the battle! The race on Saturday did an excellent job of putting me well outside of my comfort zone. Good. This is why I’m here. I didn’t have a great result, but I did gain from it. Marc had about the same kind of day as I did…

After the race we decided to go to Antwerp to hit up the Decathlon and Saturn. Whoops – we forgot it was the day before Saint Niklaas day… The stores were packed with parents buying last minute gifts. Sigh. Oh well, we both got what we wanted at Decathlon – I got a really smooth new fleece jacket and Marc got a fleece jacket and some track pants. We ended up getting home quite late and spent a solid two hours cleaning bikes, doing laundry, etc.

Today it was super nice to race close to home. Got there early so that Marc could get in a good warm-up. This is fine with me because it just gives me more time to get comfortable. Super warm today – I raced in short sleeve skinsuit! Pretty cool to do this on December 6! This race was a ton of fun. Lots of twists and turns in the Averbode woods with only one race line to follow. Made it super fast and really tested your abilities at taking corners in this loose loamy soil. Marc had a good race and got faster as the race went on. It was fun to watch him race and cheer him on. My race was pretty much the same. I had a slow start but each lap got smarter, faster and more confident (can’t ask for much more).

Many thanks to Jos and Marc for all of their help today. Also thanks to my cheering section. I stopped off in a tent by a bar before the race to pull on the top of my skinsuit and got talking with the people there. So then every time I came by they would really cheer me on – very cool. There were also quite a few people scattered around the course cheering me on. This is so nice. There were actually quite a lot of people out today to watch the race. Suppose a nice day combined with a downtown location brings out the spectators. Good thing about the dryish weather meant there was much less work to be done cleaning bikes.

We’ve got everything sorted and cleaned, had some tasty red curry chicken for supper and now it is movie time. Another good weekend in Belgium is in the books. This was an extra special weekend as it was Marc’s first time racing here this season. Doesn’t get much better.