First of all, thanks once again to tedvdw for all the generous help with directions and so forth. The drinks are on me anytime you’re in my neck of the woods or vice versa.

I arrived in Flanders with a miserable virus courtesy of Germany, so with a head full of snot and around 30% of my usual energy levels I had to strike a few tentative plans from my programme – no Ghent Six Days or stalking Tyler Farrar (kidding! (mostly)). Happily, by Saturday I was feeling marginally less comatose so I headed out to the coast.

My first impression as I got near to the course was surprise at how little separation there was between the riders and the fans, in that there was none whatsoever. One of the guys riding by looked suspiciously familiar, I thought. Just then it started raining cats and dogs and we both ducked under a nearby tent where one of the women was warming up, and it turned out that I wasn’t dreaming, it was indeed Bart Wellens. I just about managed to mumble out a request for a picture.

Wellens (via darkest peru)

I’m rather shy about these things and I guess my puny brain was too busy processing the fact that I was standing one foot from Bart Wellens because I didn’t think to ask for a picture with him as the lady who came up after me did. In any case, he was really nice. You’d never for a second finger him as the kind of guy who’d kick someone in the head. He was also quite good looking in person, in a very Belgian, VDB-ish kind of way.

After that I bought my ticket and got in just in time to see the last lap of the U23 race. I know that my teenage years are starting to recede into the mists of time because they all looked about twelve years old to me.

U23 (via darkest peru)

After the U23s I wandered around the course a bit watching the Elite warm up. Stybar almost hit me with a loogie, which excited a brief conversation with my neighbour until my Flemish ran out.

The crowd was interested but fairly quiet during the women’s race. I knew there was a Canadian on the women’s circuit, but unfortunately I didn’t know what she looked like to cheer her on. I did see a Canadian flag in the crowd later, so hopefully she had some support. I did see Australians too, but they were not visibly intoxicated as I had been lead to expect. I assume they were connected to the Australian competitor – and can I just say, what has to go wrong in your life to make you leave a land of sun and barbeques for winter in the mud? I guess that’s dedication, passion, and possibly a touch of mental illness.

For the women’s race I was standing on a straightaway and saw two women on two different laps go arse over teakettle when their front wheels stuck in the sand. The sand was really soft, like brown sugar, and even pouring rain didn’t do much to pack it down. The women’s race strung out pretty much right from the start, with Vos and Van den Brand duking it out for most of the laps and Kupfernagel playing catch up behind them.

Vos and Van den Brand (via darkest peru)

In the end Vos took it.

For the men’s race I found a spot partway up the big hill, which was actually a sand dune. The sand was so loose underfoot that I spent a good amount of effort trying not to slip slowly downwards, so it must have been a real laugh trying to run up it. The men’s race was more competitive and the crowd atmosphere was at a much higher level than the women’s race. You could feel the buzz building for about ten minutes before the start, and when the riders first charged into view everyone went a bit mental.

(I’m not going to lie, I think that might be my own maniacal giggle of delight you can hear at one point there.)

First dropped were the two Mongolian riders, who were off the back of the pack pretty much from the get go. The crowd was really supportive of them, which they clearly appreciated, but I think they got lapped by about halfway through the race. Otherwise there was lots of support around me for Wellens. I didn’t realize until afterwards that this was his comeback race after a layoff. On one of the last couple of laps the kids behind me yelled "Bartje!" for the umpteenth time as he was slogging up the climb and he shook his head in response. He looked pretty good for someone who’s been off for four months though.

Wellens in action (via darkest peru)

Despite the earlier loogie incident, I was mostly cheering for Stybar (although I may have gone in for a "Bartje!" or two myself). Thanks to an afternoon at a local mountain bike race with my Slovak roommate, the words for "Come on!" and "Let’s go!" form part of my runtish hodgepodge of Czech vocab so I’d like to think I was a motivational factor, but clearly Stybar’s been on a run of good form with two victories the previous weekend.

Stybar (via darkest peru)

He came out firing and took a nice lead early on, but by the midpoint it was going back and forth between him, Nys, Albert, and Vantornout. On the last lap I joined the crowd running down the back of the dune to the finish. Stybar came in with the lead at about 200m to go and no one ever came by him, although Nys kept things exciting and almost got him at the end.

And to finish, let’s not forget a photo of the lovely Niels, who didn’t make the podium, but had some very artful 5 o’clock shadow happening.

Albert (via darkest peru)

Sorry for the photo quality, btw. I know it’s not fantastic, but I’ve just got a point and shoot and I was jostling with two old Flemish guys, for whom this was clearly Serious Business.

To sum up – I think that the bike I’m saving up for just might end up a cross bike. And I left sort of wishing I lived in Belgium - not just because of cross, of course – there’s also the bikeable cities, the beer, the food... and there’s always the rain, the ridiculous language politics, and all the Canadian shows on tv (so strange!) to make it feel a bit like home. :)