A day in the life...

Since I have a couple of days off(a week) between races, I thought I would share some details about life outside of bike racing in Belgique-how it is pronounced in French.

First off, the weather in Belgium is ambivalent. It's almost like when you(or I) can't decide whether to wear long pants to San Francisco in the summer. One day it's 30 degrees and hot and the next day 20 degrees and raining. Not that I'm complaining as today was a cool 18 degrees, but warm and slightly raining.

The last few days are a perfect example of this very endemic and unique climate. As I found out, it never gets above 35 degrees and it is almost rare to observe a completely blue sky without any clouds. However, the past two days were the exception. After almost 3 weeks of completely stormy weather, it was finally "summer" here in Wallonie. So nice that we actually had to turn on the AC in the car.

So this is what they do in Spain when the sun is out? Matias getting his tan on.

Summer in Belgium means BBQs outside and our neighbors(Luc's brother-in law) are more than happy to invite everyone over for some great food. Speaking of food, I don't think I've eaten this much meat in my entire life. Apart from the very unique cuisine of cheese and bread, a lot of our meals have consisted of chicken, sausage, more chicken, pasta, vegetables and more cheese. Fromage, as it is called in French, is held in very high regards here in Europe. There is even a book in our house written entirely about the different types of cheeses and what they go best with. One of the gems I recently was introduced to is melted Camembert from the Normandy region of France. It can be eaten any time but I first had it after it had been taken off the grill; with bread and some vino, bon appetit!

When in Belgium

Lunch with Matias:

Did I mention my house mate Matias is crazy for pasta? He thinks I eat a lot of food but that's only because I don't have two dinners a day. Every single day for lunch-Pasta, ham, cheese.
"Sometimes rice, but pasta tastes better" according to the Spaniard.
I indulge every once in a while(when he offers to make it for me), but usually I like to stick with my sandwich, which seems just as foreign to not only Matias, but to my host family Ingrid and Luc, who have a more traditional lunch of bread and yogurt. I told Matias(from Spain) that most riders back in the U.S. have a burrito after a race or ride. He thought I was joking.

Every. Single. Day?!

And today, it rained of course. However, it wasn't too bad. Matias thought it was freezing but actually I enjoyed it. Matias introduced me to some new roads, which were awesome-nice and smooth with relatively no traffic, and we rode part of the road race for one of the stages next week. It has a hill! I think I finally found my terrain-only 60km away from the house!

Enjoying the summer weather

One last note about food; the portion sizes here are extremely small! Well, small compared to those in the U.S. And I'm not talking about McDonalds food either. The bread or juice here is distributed in containers and bags about half the size of those in the U.S. That means one thing-purchases of large quantities. I went to the store today with Ingrid and by the end of our 2 hour excursion in the largest grocery store in Wallonie, our shopping cart looked like an emergency storage container, filled to the brim. I wish I had my camera with me to snap a photo because it was impressive. What's also even more impressive, and a bit disconcerting but expected, is that amount of food will probably only last a week. AHH, I wish I had a photo of it all!

Here are some photos from the last race I did on Saturday. A bit late but still good. 

With two days to go before Tour de Namur, it's pretty much taking it easy. It's pretty hilarious watching French TV, or should I say Belgium. In the end, it's all the same because of the language. We get House, The Jersey Shore, Lie to Me and Desperate House Wives-all in French. Too bad there's no Office on BBC anymore(or the U.S. Office here). Michael!!!! 

Thanks for reading. I'll try and update during the race. Enjoy your sun!