What luck (for me), there was a world cup cyclocross race in Zolder the day after Christmas. Cyclocross is a completely different animal in Europe. It draws big crowds, and even more so for a World Cup event. Even at €14 per person, there were easily a few thousand people there.
Cyclocross races are known for their tough conditions. Snow and mud are par for the course, but ironically this was the first day we saw the sun in Belgium. The course was damp, but not muddy. Just tacky enough to make from some deep ruts and give the riders a little grip. The course looked fast and fun. There was a sick run-up (a hill that you run up with your bike), and some tricky steep stuff. It would have been awesome to take a lap on the course.
We spent most of our time just trying to stay warm. The sun was out, but it was still damn cold. We had an amazing vantage point for the women’s elite race and watched American Katie Compton finish just off the podium in 4th. Fort Collins local Georgia Gould started further back in the field but managed to work her way up to 10th. Since we were freezing, we gave up our good spot in search for warmth before the men raced. During the men’s race, we wandered around the course and watched from different places. The American men didn’t do great, but I tried to make sure they heard me cheering as they zoomed by.
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| Part of the CX course. Massive runup. |
There was a huge traffic jam as people were leaving the race. The cars around us didn’t move for 30 minutes. Normally, that would be annoying, but we took the opportunity to plan our next destination. After much flipping through books and maps, we decided to go to the university town of Leuven before heading back to Brussels, where we’d stay for the rest of the trip. Christine had some free nights at the Marriott and it was a convenient location for us since we’d be leaving in a couple days.
Brussels part der
We spent our remaining time in Belgium by covering the major food groups:
- Beer – A stop at a store called Beer Mania helped us collect our favorite beers to take home (Liquid Cargo)
- Frites – Another stop at Fritland
- Chocolate – We stopped in a ton of chocolate shops to pick up gifts
- Waffles – We made a second trip to a place that served us the tastiest waffle. (Sucre Sale on Rue du Marche aux Herbes)
We also made our way to a quirky tourist attraction: the Menneken Pis. It’s pretty much what it sounds like: a statue of a small boy peeing. It’s unusual, sure, but the large crowd that gathers to photograph it is equally unusual. We walked by it and walked into a nearby bar. For being so close to a tourist attraction, it’s a pretty sweet bar with a great beer list and atmosphere.
All good things must come to an end, so we went back to the hotel and started the long process of packing all of our clothes and acquired goods. I don’t think we finished until around midnight and we had to get up around 4AM for a long day of traveling. It was by no means a quick process trying to pack beer and chocolate safely, but we got it done and amazingly everything made it home in one piece.
So that’s the trip, in long drawn out form. It was a great time and I’m glad we got to explore Belgium. I hope we can do it again sometime.
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