Cross Worlds Y3 Report #2

Report #1 posted on our Blog already: http://frontrunners.blogspot.com/

Wendy and I stayed over in France one more night after the World Cup to try to settle the sleep monsters down. It did not work! Of no help was the fact that you can not get any food in France on a Sunday night....nothing is open at least in a small town. To our HUGE dismay we ended up hitting Mac D's and then hitting the bed at a late 8:45pm. Of course I was again awake at 3am.

Heading out on Monday we did a little detour to Vimy Ridge. This was a place that every kid in Canada learns about in WW1 History lessons. Canada was defined by the actions of our troops at Vimy Ridge. We did a tour of the grave-sites and then some of the trenches and information center. As Wendy said you don't really get it from reading it in a book. you really have to see it. One thing that was amazing was how close the front line was between the Canadians and the Germans. It was about 20 meters. Crazy to live that way for so long. The historic site is still pock marked with craters and mounds from explosives from 90 years ago. They are still digging out explosives out of the ground so you can not wander around too much.

Tour of the Bike Shops.
We checked out one of our favorite shops in Bergan-Op-Zoom on the way to Zeddam. This was a cool shop that we looked at with Corey last year. It is 5 stories high and has so much clothing that all the bike shops in BC combined would not match it. Driving around Zeddam we found a stand alone shop called, De Pedaleur, which was pretty cool. Probably close to 15 thousand square feet of retail space and everything really nicely displayed. Between the first two shops we thought we had seen it all. Then at the end of one of our rides we met a local guy who told us about this shop in Germany only 20k away. We hit it yesterday and it was not hard to find with lots of signs pointing you in the right direction in their town. Well this was the HUGEST bike shop I have ever seen. Probably close to the size of REI in Seattle or 2 times the size or MEC in Vancouver. It was CRAZY. They had pretty much every small part or wheel that you could think of. The only disappointment was that the bikes were all a house brand, Red Bull, and were not that great. One more bike shop....we headed to Hoogstraten after a pre ride of the Mol course on Thursday to visit our friends from the past 2 years, Frank and Johan at Ciclo Morello. This is a cool shop in the back of Johan's house. They did not know we were coming so it was a great surpize. Not as much gear as all the BIG shops but way more heart and we all know how important that is!

The Week.
It is amazing that our days can be so full during a week that did not have too much training but we have been busy.....riding, me fixing the bikes, shopping for food, looking for "Broodjes", checking out the worlds course, checking out the Mol course, reading business books, Wendy planning her comeback tour, a few runs, no sit ups to contribute to the FR monthly quota (I promise next week), checking out local run stores, getting the new laptop to work with the internet, trying to figure out local shop open and closed hours, testing chocolates, and licorice (wendy spit one out into the sink....it failed) thinking about beer and two full days gluing, stretching and mounting 6 tubulars....still glue on my hands right now.

Tomorrow we are off to Mol for my race. I don't feel too prepared having not raced for over 2 months but I did get a boost in confidence with riding the crazy sand section 6 out of 8 times yesterday. Wendy made it look so easy that I had to try harder and I nailed it. I have ridden that course 4 times over the past 2 years any never made the sand section until yesterday. I am excited to race the bike; new bar tape and new tubulars.

Sunday Wendy races her second World Cup up in Hoogerheide.

We will write when we can.

Thanks to everyone at Frontrunners for taking care of everything while I am away (I am working on what I can over here...honest) as well as Brodie and Helly Hansen for the support they have given me over the last 2 years.


We will try to upload some pictures on Monday but with the new computer it is hard to say how that will go...will keep you posted.