Home for a Holiday

Lindsay and I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and hope you had a great party to bring in the new year. For us, christmas was very quiet, just the two of us at home in Belgium. The week before christmas the temperature plummetted and bough some snow with it. It wasn't to last however, as the temperature rose above zero again (much to Lindsay's delight) for christmas itself. It did allow us to get out on christmas day for a first ride of Lindsay's mountain bike. My bike didn't arrive in time as Ridley are out of stock of the one I ordered. I still use Gil's for the moment.

About the week before christmas Lindsay and I went to the local Cyclocross race. Not on the points calendar, but heavily billed as the most prestigious race because of it's age and history, it bought all the big names to battle it out. This was our first live cyclocross, and it blew us away! Held in a recreation reserve, the course had hills, stairs, cobbles, mud, road...you name it. It is renowned as the most difficult course because of all this. The riders are quite crazy really, they go at road race speeds, with the bike handling of mountain biking, slipping and sliding over the icy grass, wet cobbles, everything! Always going round the corners with one foot out! The courses are circuits, with the paths folding back on themselves so spectators see the riders most of the time, not like the road. It's more of a very windy crit. The crowds are huge, and very rowdy. Makes for a great atmsphere. You can see some photos in the next few days when we get our own computer online.

Back to Christmas.

Unfortunately we weren't able to fulfil mum's wishes for us to be home for christmas as we couldn't get flights, but we did almost give her a heart attack yesterday when we walked in the front door! We flew home on the 30th Dec, in time for the scorcher that was NYE, then travelled down to Warrnambool yesterday (NYD) to surprise mum and dad.

For those like mum who don't/didn't know (that's most of you), We're in town until the 18th Dec, for a much needed holiday and some sunbaking. Just today we couldn't get over how white we both are! After an hour in the sun (at 25 deg) we're a little burnt. We do plan on attending the two Sandown races with a Glenvale in between, so go easy on me guys, I haven't raced in a while!

With the team getting organised for this year, I'm going to try and make some changes to the blog to reflect the new sponsors etc. So be sure to stay tuned. It'll get done when I get around to it (or when I get around to asking Lindsay to do it).

I'm not sure how many of you read this blog, since I hardly get any comments, but I like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have supported us this year. We look forward to catching up with you in the next few weeks!

Keep riding and wave when you see me!

Funky