First Race in Europe 7/10

Again, please stay with me as I attempt to catch up on the past couple of weeks.

My first race in Europe took place 3 days after I arrived. An Interclub nonetheless. In Belgium, Interclubs as they are called, are races made up of entirely teams; no individual riders are allowed. Subsequently, the support(team cars, wheel cars, trailers and buses in some cases) is ramped up quite a bit. I didn't really know what to expect going into this race; I had only ridden twice since I arrived and honestly, my legs didn't feel that great the first two days. No pressure however-the team made it clear to me that the goal was to finish with the main group.

  It was pretty cool at the start. European to the max! Team cars, tents, soigneurs, dialects occurring in French, Dutch, German. However, what really caught my eye were the number of people, old people in particular, hanging out at the local bars and cafes, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, waiting for the race to start. All the races here start and end in villages/towns where the start/finish is usually located right outside of a bar or cafe. Also, I was surprised to see the number of people, especially in the cycling community, smoking. The officials, some of the team managers, parents of the riders-all smoking! Talk about ironic.

Anyways, we signed in on a pretty cool stage where the race announcer-speaking Flemish, was commenting on all the riders approaching the stage. Shortly after, the race started and off we went!
The race was fast but not too physically hard due to the lack of wind and relatively flat course. What made the race difficult were the 1000+ obstacles in the road such as traffic circles, signs, road islands etc. I would be going down a hill at 45mph in a field of 200 riders where all I can see are the 3 riders in front of me when suddenly, WOOP, dodge right. Luckily, you can usually hear a whistle signaling an obstacle a couple of seconds before you see it. And, riders are pretty good at pointing stuff out. In the beginning.

After the race. Notice the soap, buckets and water. So we smell good afterwards!

A break got away of about 6 or 7 riders. I finished in the field so I was pretty happy given this was my first race in Europe and after only arriving 3 days before. Did I say it was fast? We  covered 160km in 3.5 Hrs.  The team is pretty nice and although only a couple of people speak English, I can understand for the most part what they are trying to say. 90% of the time.