Before I pulled Euro racing posters out of Winning: Bicycle Racing Illustrated, I was all about D. Dawkins and the nascent Nike machine. I liked that Dawkins made up Chocolate Thunder and Planet LoveTron without prodding from a marketing team. Nothing really compares, I don’t think. LoveTron. Seriously.

North of the PCH, BMC  Pro Cycling Team passing the lattice work of a greenhouse complex in during mid-planting.

Yessir, drink too much beer at the ‘cross race, piss at the edge of the course. Posted a digi version of this shot back in November, but when I got this 120 BW film version back yesterday I thought it was different enough to show. Luckily this race, Mouscron, was super flat, dry, and not so crowded. Steep courses with mud and massive crowds, like I shot three days later in Gavere, are the worst combination for the dreaded passive Belgian ‘cross hooliganism. Drunk Belgian Dudes (DBD), I mean hammered to the edge of unconsciousness, have a hard time staying upright on the glacially slippery mud. And then put them on the sides of hills, and watch out. At the ‘05 Worlds in Germany, run on a hillside course covered in snow and ice, I saw a couple DBD lose their footing and skid all the way across the course – during the race! So when you read about Niels Albert getting knocked on his ass by a spectator you can just chalk it up the vagaries of the DBD. That, and the credo that “the whole world is a Port-a-Potty” ethos.

On its face, winter riding in Northern New England can seem like an unremittingly sucky experience. Slushy roads interrupted only by sub-arctic cold snaps that force even the toughest riders onto their trainers. But winter riding offers just enough on the plus side of the ledger to make it fun. You get to see deep into the woods like no other time of year; you can hone your ice riding skills on any given road ride; and, you get to see people engaging in winter activities that make only marginally more sense than riding. Witness: ice fishing in Vermont. About 30 seconds after I met Ben at the local ice fishing spot he caught a 6-pound large mouth bass which he said was going to make a great dinner. Hmmm, I don’t think I’ve ever brought dinner home from a ride….maybe ice fishing does make sense. And then there’s the beer.

It was a long van ride from Kalispell up to St. Marys. And it would have seemed still longer had we not had Gary Fisher along for the ride. What started as small talk eventually turned into a demi-lecture on the history of NorCal bike racing in the late-’60s to early-’70s. Illustrated with a catalog of relevant dog eared photos pulled from a leather briefcase. If any of us wondered why he had all the pictures with him, we were afraid to ask. Along the way we stopped for a beer but no bars were open. Gary was not happy about that. But I took his picture anyway. He likes getting his picture taken. Really likes it.

Bike racing in a soccer stadium

They actually ran the race through a soccer pitch in Mouscron, Belgium. And those trees….all with the rainbow stripes in the mix.

The people, the places, the two-liter bottle of Duvel I found in a beer store (circa 2007). More about the bike racing some other time.

Some things seem pretty obvious: showers need shower curtains. Frites stands need napkins. Sadly, what is obvious to some, not so much to others. Aside from that, my first 12 hours back in Belgium have been pretty great. And they start racing bikes tomorrow.