Here

Hi there

Got here fine and dandy, flights went well etc etc.

My new Family is great, they are very hospitable and treat us like one of the family.

It has been Christmas every since we(Michael and I) got here, this is what I have been up to in the first few days;

1. Rode out and watched
   
2. Rode the climbs of the Tour of Flanders in the morning, then in the afternoon went and got team kit followed by a visit to meet with Allan Peiper of Team Columbia to pick up TT bike, Zipp 404's, to many PowerBars's(250+) and a few tires... big grins all around.
   
3. Meet up with Rolly and most of the Columbia classic's squad including Bernhard Eisel and Erik Zabel for a ride!!
4. Went for a few hours on the road, as race the next day, here is a little update if you like;

Yesterday was the first race, there were 226 starters on a 6.1km circuit that we did 19 times. So I got quite familiar with the course. We got to the start a with not to much time to get ready, so after getting kitted up and sorting out my bike with a 10min warm up I rolled up to the line(actually 100 meters back from the line as I was last to line up).

The whistle went and bang it was off, lots of stop start for the first few laps, you would find yourself half way down a straigh then allof a sudden you would skid to a stop... thos was because the front of the bunch had reached the corner 500meters up the road. It took me a while to work this out, I thought people were just checking their brakes something cronic.

So four laps later I had managed to find the front, which worked out well because I soon found my self trying to jump to the front group, and which I stayed in for the remander of the race. Lots of time spent in the gutter, just missing cars etc, but it was great.It was Belgium.

So I was in the front group along with Michael, he decided he wanted to go for a wander up the road with 60km to go or half way if you like. He was out there for a about 5 laps with a few others, while I rolled in the front group. His group came back with about 5 laps to go. I was feeling quite good and I tried a bit near the end to get away, but I found myself lacking that really top end stuff, but with this kind of racing, it wont be far away. In the final lap I tried to jump with just over 1km to go, but It didn't last long and the bunch got on pretty quick, at this stage there were 3 riders up the road.

So I was not in the best position, then Michael got on the front and soon after the sprint for 4^th began, it was messy, I didn't hold my own and ended 13^th with Michael in 11^th and our host brother was 2th leading in the peleton.

So It was an exciting race, all new stuff, different road serfaces's(cobbles, gravel and roads that would be called footpaths in New Zealand).I am looking forward to this weeks race already, we can race on either saterday or sunday, I guess we will just do what Dirk(team manger) has in mind. The Zipp 404s were great, really strong, and you need that here!!

Mike and I did a warm down after, just to take the lap total up to 20.

I got 15 Euro for 13^th, so a we bit of pocket money.

Today we went to the Columbia service course again, while we were there a big commotion broke out, it sounded like someone was robbing the place but it was Bernhard Eisel and the Columbia boys.He was in good spirits, along with the rest of them. We are going to recon flanders with them on Thursday, so it just keeps getting better!!

At this stage I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported me on this trip and in the past, there are so many to thank, but you know who you are.

I will sign out now, and its a day off the bike so I will get into some core work and Dutch.

My spelling has gone to the dog's, so don't worry about that.

Bye for now.

Ruaraidh or Roarie as they say here

ps- all the paragraphs are because I typed it up in a different program, It's not an obsession