The Way You Would Imagine It...

Today was one of those great days used for relaxing. The team is still recovering, physically and mentally from the past week of racing, so today's training was limited to two hours of soft pedaling. We rode to the canal and followed it to the town of Kortrijk. Kortrijk is a little bit bigger town than Izegem and it has some more "touristy" attractions. We sat down at a small cafe and sipped down a warm cappuccino while we watched old clips of the Tour de France on a huge outdoor T.V. set in the middle of the town square. We get a lot of glances and points from pedestrians that walk by. Whether these glances are in envy or despise, I don't know, but wearing a jersey that has USA printed on it brings me a lot of pride. We finished our coffee and then headed back to Izegem, wear we showered and prepared for a trip to Roeselare. We stopped at a local bakery and ate a fresh sandwich and croissant. We then trekked to the train station and took a short train trip to Roeselare. Roselare has "city status" and is the location of the closest movie theater and better shopping according to the older riders. We got off the train and walked down the main street. I think women would enjoy the shopping we saw more than we did, but it was still cool to walk around the streets and see the different types of people and hear the different languages. We wound up in a sports store, which was cool because the focus of the store was soccer, and not football or baseball. Later we found ourselves in another cafe, which seems to be a reoccurring theme. We drank more coffee and watched as rain and then sunshine and then rain again passed over head.

I think I am beginning to figure more things out over here. You don't really train over in Europe, you race and then on the days between races you try to recover as much as possible. This makes for interesting rider personalities. Right before riders leave for races they are antsy and excited, nervous and focused. Then when they come back, they are speechless zombies set on spending as much time as possible in bed. Then when the next race approaches they begin to get excited again.

I hear Lance Armstrong is supposed to come to the house next week, so I am pretty excited about that....