Frohe Ostern!

Happy Easter to everyone...I hope everyone had a good weekend with friends and family. I have had a full weekend (and that's not just my belly!). On Saturday morning I drove to Belgium for the notorious spring classic...Tour of Flanders. It is hard to describe this race to people who don't know of it or haven't seen it before. It is an absolute minefield of potential disasters...crashes, punctures, broken bikes happen on more numerous occasions in this bike race than any other. The race begins in the town of Oudenaarde in the Vlannderen (western) region of Belgium...it winds its way over as many cobbled, hilly roads as possible to end in Ninove 120km later. It was my first 'big' race with the team, this being the second World Cup of the series...and unfortunately all did not go to plan. I have started this race four times (including now) and only twice made it to the finish...I was determined to get there but a crash at 30km which took out a lot of the field, and a puncture on the cobbles 25km later put an end to my day. I changed the wheel and chased but I was already minutes behind after waiting for the wheel change.....another 'Flanders' in which the Gods did not smile upon me.

Lil sister was there at the end of the race, she came to watch and was my lift back to Germany so we packed the little hire car and set off for the 650km trip back 'home'. We nearly made it home in 5hrs but were stopped by a 'stau'...traffic jam due to an accident...luckily we hadn't seen each other in awhile and had plenty to chat about.

Easter Monday started with a lovely breakfast and Easter egg hunt, nice 'training ride' in the wind and then a ride to lunch on the MTB's.....Kate has found her new time trial position we think :) We had a great lunch with the Kabisch's and the whole experience was enhanced by the roaring tail-wind to push us home.

I didn't get the Easter weekend with the whole Bates/Boyton clan but I was fortunate enough to have Katie and my German family. It was good to have Katie here, show her where I live, where I train and she got to meet the lovely Kabisch family who were as hospitable to her as they are to me every day. Its a great place to live :)