Ashleigh and Hannah update

Alrighty, so we arrived in Belgium in the town of Zottegem midday Monday, after a particularly interesting train ride. We wouldnt neccesarily recomend standing the whole way. After the first international to Belg was cancelled the second became quite packed. Being the well raised children that we are we set a good image of Kiwis by giving up our seats to a women with 3 small children and a pram. Of course none of the men stood up for us, even after 2 hours in transit. Moral of the story, don't catch a train when the one before has been cancelled. We did get to meet 3 Aussies though. A retired couple touring Europe backpacker styles. They were such a hoot, we had a lot of laughs which was good for passing the time standing; we also got chatting with a guy from Western Australia who sadly was here for a funeral of a relative and knew and awful lot about ANZAC. When the train finally cleared out a little the compartment for bikes allowed for sitting space, but luckily the man who had been seated the whole trip finally had somewhere to put his bag, so much to our pleasure we remained standing. BUT! We made it! We can indeed add Belgium to our list of successful international commutes.

Tuesday we found ourselves in a ridiculously huge bunch ride, take the Taradale clock tower bunch and multiply it by the inappropriate pictures on Andy Townsends Facebook wall, and that's how big the bunch was. We also met a pretty quality crew of aspiring young riders, even though they were more Australians. They took us over an extra hour or two of climbs after the bunch ride, via thee most amazong bkie shop we are yet to experience. Due to a failure to plan Gluten Free riding snacks, Ashleigh took getting lean to a new level and rode off some rice wafers. Safe to say our wonderfully cooked dinner (the first meal we have made in Euro) went down a treat. We also got to experience the Tuesday evening nightlife of Zottegem with a few casual drinks in "The Jorris" with Michael Vink and company.

Wednesday took us up the famous cobbles in the

Oude Kwaremont-Tick

Paterberg-Tick

Kopenberg-Tick

Eikenberg- Tick

Molenberg- Tick

Cough didn't have to walk shame boys you underestimate us cough.
Enough said.
We also introduced the UK riders to the magic of ANZAC cookies, when we bargained ourselves use of the washing machine and dryer in exchange for baked goods.

We missed the Weleda cabinet on Thursday, after 40 mins in the rain and wind a neit goed Banny had to be taken home. :-( Some excessive sleeping and consumption of tea, and a drop of mothering from Ashleigh saw her back to her usually healthy self within a day or two. :-) Searching for a training partner Ashleigh paid the boys house a visit. She found an Aussie who happens to be the neighbour of one of the Australian girls in her Tour Of NZ Team last year.. Small world! He was off for four hours, so an urgent acquirement of more snacks was needed. Turns out you can fit a fair few rice wafers in a cycling jersey if you pack it right, but don't expect to be flying..

Friday morning we intended to catch the train early morning, but a failure to get out of bed ruined that idea. Our eventual arrival time after a much more comfortable journey in was much later than we anticipated but all was well in the world. We found a theme park! A Pre-Queens Day keremese in Amsterdam Square proved to be an entertaining if some what unrestful rest day.

The weekend finally arrived. Saturday was all about the self inflicted pain with a national point series TT. Ashleigh chose a disc, kindly loaned from the WV Noord Holland Club, and spent all the cross wind time not on the aero bars, and some cross wind time not in contact with the road. It was a very windy day. She missed the podium by just 9 seconds but did enough to earn another UCI start in Belg. Hannah doesn't want to talk about it, we would have to use bad words to explain her weekend.

Yes, I would like to order a crash and chase please. Actually , make mine a double. After getting tangled in a pile up early in the race Ashleigh used the TT legs of the previous day to get back in the race. Only to repeat the process. Although it did mean she got a bit more of her favourite part of cycling, with a solid TT effort. Never mind, that's bike racing.

It was a beautiful week all about the bikes. Time for bed!

Ash and Han