Belgium

You can listen to this while you're reading, if you like:

Good Morning Slaves - The Fantômas-Melvins Big Band

So today I had two big meetings. The first was the management committee meeting of the AIOC-Cross, and the second was the general meeting of all the AIOC-Cross members. The AIOC-Cross is the Association of International Cyclo-Cross Organizers. It's a private association that every UCI race organizer around the world is allowed to join for a small fee. There are generally two meetings per year, sometimes three, and one of them is always at Worlds. Once I started coming over to watch worlds, I started attending the meeting, and was eventually asked to join the management committee.

I can't decide. I suppose results speak for themselves, to a degree, so perhaps that's a good place to start?

Ardooie Results

This might be a massive entry, since I have a lot to catch up on, and a lot of pictures to post. I could break it up, I suppose, but you can just decide how much you want to read. I'll start with today and work backwards. Or rather, I'll start with tomorrow and work backwards, since tomorrow is my first race.

Start Lists - Kalmthout - BEL (19.10.2008)

Pray for me!

I have avoided talking about this publicly, for the most part, because I've been in denial for a while that I'm actually going and that this trip was going to come off. But I guess it's official; I leave for Europe on Monday. I'll be racing in Belgium, Holland, and the Czech Republic, and combining the trip with some meetings as well.

Here are the details:

October 11-12, Gloucester, MA
October 13, Fly from Boston to Brussels, stay with Sten Raeymakers in Lille, Belgium
October 16, Kermiscross Ardooie, BEL
October 18, AIOC-Cross Meeting, Brasschaat, BEL
October 19, World Cup, Kalmthout, BEL

No sooner do I start the beer log then I decide to cut my beer consumption down to 1 beer per week. Seriously. It's cyclo-cross season, I've trained really hard, I have some big goals, and it's just dumb to weigh 5 more pounds than I need to because I'm drinking a beer every night. So now, it'll be special. I mean, I even have a Westvleteren just sitting in my fridge in Boston waiting for me to drink. It's going to have to wait.