Not only is it Christmas Day but for us cyclo-cross racers it is also Zolder World Cup pre-ride day. This means it becomes a rather and hectic day. The day started off in typical bike racer fashion – slow to rise and then some quality time in front of the computer. And of course since it was Christmas Day, we did make the trip to the bakery to get some Christmas treats for everyone.

The pre-riding went really well today. Marc was super patient and gave me some very good tips and encouragement. It can be a challenge to do this with your spouse… But each time we go through the pre-ride we get better doing this. We did one lap nice and easy to check out the lines and then we sectioned the course piece-by-piece. This was the best way to learn how to tackle the various sections.

So, this course is challenging. But super fun. I actually like this course. Last year I was intimidated by it. But this year is a different year. I can ride everything. I can get down the descents. The descents aren’t graceful or blissertingly fast, but at least I can get down.

Had a blast today out there. Got to see lots of people. Wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It was just plain old fun on the bike.

The only twist today was that we couldn’t get our parking passes before the manager’s meeting… So Marc stayed behind and picked up the passes for the Canadians. I hopped in with the Hoppner’s and they dropped me off here at Blauberg. Marc had a long night at the meeting and is now slaving away in the garage cleaning the bikes.

Looking forward to a fun day at the races. I’m thinking of wearing the red leg warmers tomorrow. It is Christmas after all.