The Molenberg

Evening Choppers and Choppettes,

What a weekend, I got to see some live cycling action yesterday watching the Omloop and today I got nice and lost for 90 whole minutes on a bicycle training ride .....other stuff happened this weekend so please do continue reading to discover more about the life of Kimmy in Belgium.

Okey dokey, I'll begin with Friday evening as that was a nice evening with my new housemates. We went into one of the cities to have a peruse (I do like that under-used word) around the shops in a shopping mall, I purchased a new battery for my Quarq Quarq as I had put too many powers through the old battery and it died on me. We then went for dinner in a nice restaurant and I got to learn some more new words and get to know my housemates better....I learnt the Kristina's boyfriend Jeroen can do foul smelling farts (or bottom burps for you posh peoples) which he kindly let off when we were in the car, I nearly puked!!

On to Saturday and the Omloop, the start of the Belgian classics. I had team training so I got to meet the rest of the team, explore new routes and have some fun attempting to ride my bicycle fast behind a car. We rode parts of the Omloop course and got to see the guys and girls in action. We rode around and then hit the Molenberg to tackle that little monster before chilling out at the top to wait for the ladies to power up it....unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see Tom Boonen, sorry I mean the guys go up it but we got to see them twice on other parts of the course so that was cool. We then had a nice team luncheon and saw the end of the Omloop on TV. Luckily it was a wonderfully sunny day so I got to work on my gardeners tan i.e. tanning my hands and face, roll on the summer heat and getting those tan lines topped up again!

Today I had a nice lie-in and rolled out of bed at a casual 9am to eat some bakery goods for breakfast before setting off for my training ride.  I think the days of me getting out of bed in time to meet my training partner at west park for 8am are long gone....actually I think me getting out of bed before 8am won't be happening anytime again soon! Unless I need a wee in the middle of the night of course. Apologies, I digressed somewhat, back to today and my training ride....I had a nice 3hour ride planned and I thought I'd test my directional skills and see if I could ride the route we did yesterday and hit that Mollenberg again and find any other decent climbs and roads....I found plenty of climbs but unfortunately I didn't enjoy them so much as they all cropped up when I was lost, hungry and starting to fear for my life and thinking I'll never see my mumsy again....I was hoping not to come across any strange men as a few friends back home have warned me about strange men - thank god I didn't and 4hours later I arrive back home completely cooked and in need of a cola and a nutella sandwich! I managed to find my way to the Mollenberg just fine and I powered up it (actually it was more a grovel) but after that it all went Pete Tong and I got lost for 90 minutes when I was already cream crackered and had to tackle more bloody hills and wind. I see it as character building and all part of the adventure...

This week sees me getting into a nice little routine with training and getting back on the core work so I can attempt to look like a beach babe when the summer arrives, doubt that will happen but it's worth a shot and also my first proper hardcore race on Wednesday. The nerves are building up just nicely, in a good way though as I'm psyched to get started and discover a whole new world or cycling and racing and trying to achieve my dreams....but yeah I'm shitting it big time!

Anywho that's enough jibbering on for now, I could do this all day as I'm very good at jibbering on about random nonsense....that's all I used to do when I was employed in previous jobs oh and make very good tea and coffee for everyone, I'm going to put that on my CV I think along with "has the ability to find her way home when lost" - excellent credentials I know.

Bonne Nuit