Christmas shopping and Loenhout

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James Driscoll wins the Collegiate Nationals for the University of Vermont(Image credit: Mitch Clinton)

Belgium, January 1, 2008

We of course stopped in to the chocolate shop to feast our eyes upon what we have been told to avoid. Across the street was a trendy women's clothing store, which I had to stop in for a certain someone. At first, the prices scared this student/travelling amateur cyclist, but just as I had seen in other stores, the more reasonably priced items were in the back. It was quite the scene, just imagine getting advice on what to buy a girl from people without girlfriends in a foreign country, with the storeowner coming over offering help (I assume) in Flemish, getting three blank confused stares back at her. Hopefully with three cyclists' fashion wisdom combined will be moderately tolerable for a girl. Then it was back to the house for our pre-race meal.

Parking for these big European races is much trickier than the average USA race. You have to slowly work your way through the sea of people into the team parking area, much closer than where the spectators can park. Loenhout last year was a real mud course because of a tractor pull section, which was wide, and the further you got into it the harder it got. This year's Loenhout was not nearly as bad, with a short section being very muddy, which went from tacky slow grass to Jif peanut butter mud.

This is different from natural peanut butter mud since Jif is significantly more viscous. You were forced to run about 50 metres then up a flyover. The rest of the course was very fast and just a little slick around the grassy corners. From a racing standpoint, it was difficult to move up if you had started at the back because the finish straight is long and into the wind, while the rest of the course is tight and has a zillion turns too close together to pass riders. I played it somewhat conservatively, not gassing it too much on the straights into the wind. It paid off a bit by the end of the race when the group I was in caught racers falling off the pace.

Steve Fisher, 18, Rad Racing NW, Lynnwood, Washington
Gavin Mannion, 17, Hot Tubes, Dedham, Massachusetts
Eric Emsky, 17, Rad Racing NW, Fall City, Washington
Andrew Llewelyn, 18, Papa Johns, Louisville, Kentucky
Clayton Omer, 18, Papa Johns, Louisville, Kentucky
Jeremy Ferguson, 18, Team Spine, Rocklin, California
Zach McDonald, 17, Oberto/Redline, Bainbridge Island, Washington
Ian Terry 17, Rad Racing NW, Seattle, Washington

For its fifth consecutive year, the Euro 'Cross Camp will travel to Izegem, Belgium for two weeks from December 20, 2007 to January 3, 2008, with some of America's most promising cyclo-cross talent. Euro 'Cross Camp Director and US National Team Coach Geoff Proctor selected 16 male riders to take on some of the toughest courses and strongest riders abroad and to prepare for the world championships in late January. This year's camp is taking on a more youthful feel with just two elite riders, Ryan Trebon and Tristan Shouten, joined by eight juniors and six espoirs. The riders were selected based on their performances throughout the USGP Series. Coach Proctor and his riders will take turns contributing diary entries.