It is Tuesday here. Tuesday in Blauberg, Belgium means one thing – group ride day. Karl and I waited until 1:15 and rolled out to meet up with the group ride. We went to the same place as last week. And we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally by 2:00 (after waiting for 30 minutes) we left and went on our own ride.

We had a great ride. Hit up some new roads. Did some climbing. Did some descending. Pedaled along roads that to Karl didn’t “seem like” roads. At one point we thought we were super far from the house – turns out we were in Zichem (a mere 10 km away…). We ended up in Scherpenheuvel and found a small little bike shop to get Karl’s crank tightened. The old guy there wasn’t convince that Karl knew what he was doing, but finally Karl got his hands on the tool and sorted out his bike. We hit up more twisty roads. Got turned around a bit. Warmed up and just enjoyed being out on our bikes. Quick detour to the Mie Moon Cafe to pick up my MEC waterproof pants (I ditched them while waiting for the group ride…) and we were finally back at the house.

I think we rode for just under 3 hours. I’m happy to say that I didn’t slow Karl down. At times my tongue was dragging on the pavement but I managed to keep pace with him. It was a good day out.

The funniest part was when we had sheep on one side of us, horses, a peacock and chickens on the other side of us. We called this the “zoo”. Yes, I think I’m still riding the wave of post-ride endorphins. Fun day on the bike.

Tomorrow I’ve got a double day. A road ride with some tempo efforts in the morning. Then it is off to Floreal Lichtaart for some riding in the woods. Tomorrow Ignace is meeting up with us to “train” us. Not sure what this will involve – I’ll be sure to let you know….

Many thanks to Alex for changing my brake pads and helping with my minor SRM issue (don’t worry Marc – All is Good). Oh, I’m going to start riding the rollers…. Alex and Denise picked up some rollers at the second hand store for 10 Euros – so I figure it would be good to get on those every day to get used to them and to work on spinning.

Next Tuesday we’re going to be sure to ride with the group… We’ll go to the start and do the entire loop – this way we’ll know it. Tim and Jos are pretty sure the route has changed – this is why we didn’t see the group. Tim says it was “IMPOSSIBLE” that there wasn’t a group ride today…. Mind you Tim also wants us to wash with cologne….