Europe's city of sin - Checked out Amsterdam yesterday... Space cake started kicking in about halfway through the Van Gogh exhibit. Some of those paintings are pretty darn cool - I knew it was going to be an interesting day when they started getting 3d. There were also several works by Monet, Manet, Gaugin, and Picasso. It was a nice exhibit, but the crowds just line up against the wall and walk along looking at the paintings from two feet away - Apparently, they don't understand that you look at Seurat and friends from a little further back... You're not supposed to see the points of paint... After the art exhibit, we walked back across town to find the Red Light District. That took awhile - I think we were walking laps around it before we actually managed to get aligned with the map. It was pretty interesting. Its pretty deserted on Monday afternoons, so alot of the booths were for rent... It's not really all that impressive - Guess I have been in Europe for so long, that I am becoming accustomed to the culture. The three-story girlie-windows were pretty extreme, I guess. At one point, I had to take a leak, so I told Jacob - "Let's hit that noisy bar" - On the way to the WC, I was getting ready to buy a beer - Took a look at the tv screen... Queen video - OK - Look around the bar - All dudes... The it hit me - "Jacob! Let's get out of this gay bar quick!" We beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of the outdoors. They seem to have as many canals as streets in that city - If I ever go back, I might rent one of those paddle boats to cruise around. That's the first Euro town that I have heard more reggae than techno. We went into this "coffee shop" called the Tweede Kamer - They just had a few tables, Bob on the stereo, lots of funny smelling haze, and about 40 different types of weed for sale behind the counter. Actually, the whole atmosphere of the town reminded me alot of Bourbon Street.
8/11/02Another sunny day in Oostende - Weather is about perfect! Unfortunetly, I've got a bit of a cold and more achilles tendonitis... Decided to skip today's kermis - Don't want to risk further inflammation of the tendon before the four races next weekend. If I can't kick this flare-up without time off, I'm going back to Phoenix. Did a kermis in Kortrijk on Thursday - It was a 7km course going slightly uphill one way and slightly down the other - We were cranking out a steady 60km/h on the downhill side. After our race, the local fans, and the brat and beer salesman were crowding the sidewalks for a pro criterium. Alot of the guys did a kermis yesterday - They called it off at an hour-and-a-half when some guy ran into a concrete pylon or something - guess he was unconcious - Don't really know what his fate was, but I haven't read about it on cyclingnews... Kind of a bummer when somebody crashes that bad.
Tomorrow, I think Jacob and I are heading over to Amsterdam to check out the Van Gogh museum - maybe have to try a space cake and shoot a photo of the famous red-light district. Kinda convienient that you can buy a space-cake and check out Van Gogh artwork.
8/5/02Raced down around the French border on Sunday. The rain started as we were changing and continued on and off all day. The race was several laps around a fairly techincal course with a 300 meter cobbled climb at one point. Needless to say, it was pretty exciting - Especially with my extremely worn out rear tire pumped up to 150 pounds sliding around all day! Pete and Jacob made it into the first 10 man break. A couple of strong teams missing that break doomed it from the start. I managed to roll off the front with a couple of guys, and with two more bridging the gap, we ended up with a 5 man break that got up to about a 1 minute lead. Our break was a little under-powered and was also missing several of the strong teams, so we were brought back with a couple of laps to go. I was caught behind a crash and gapped off the back before another selection was made on the smaller climb and then didn't get into a group that jumped just before the last time up the cobbled climb as I was exhausted and Matt was in the group. Matt was having some trouble getting to the front group of 9, so Ben and I tried to attack and motivate the disinterested peleton to no avail. I finally got away with a couple of guys in the last km and managed to survive for 18th. Matt ended up 13th and Ben was just behind. Scored a couple or primes while I was in the break, and the finish was worth a bit, so at least I ended the day with a bit of cash. I seem to be a pretty consistent 20th since about Nationals... This week, we just have a couple of kermis' on tap before the four race weekend of the 17th.
Today, Jacob and I traveled to Brugge to check out the Dali exhibition. It was pretty cool. There were about 350 of his works from the mid-60's to mid-70's - Not alot of the really famous stuff that everybody has seen in college. That guy definitely saw things in a different way. My favorite of the exhibit was probably the illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy.
Hope that update is semi-coherent - Had a beer after dinner, and I am a bit tired, so the words are not flowing as smoothly as I might hope...
8/1/02Brugge - went over to Brugge to wander around on Tuesday. That's a really cool town - kind of crowded with tourists, but I guess that just makes more stuff to do. We rode some boats around the canals - It was a cool tour. They have some very old churches - we went into one of the oldest - It had some really nice artwork and things going on inside - I didn't feel right snapping photos, so if you want to see it, look in a book or swing over to Belgium someday. Just make sure you schedule a couple of days in Brugge. Lace is one of the big products in that town - I'll tell you what - I have no idea how to shop for that stuff! You can spend $5000 on a tablecloth if you really want to. There are alot of nice places to eat there - all kinds of little alcoves to find.
Just finished a kermis in Deerlijk. Didn't feel so great, but still managed to make the main split. We almost caught the front breakaway, but the group quit chasing just as we caught up! After some more action, I ended up in a group of 6 with Ben. I think we were the second group and we ended up going for 21st. I smoked'em with an attack at 5km. I am feeling consistently average in the last few races, but maybe also consistently improving... We'll see on Sunday.