Friday, May 13, 2011

Index Ster van Zuid Limburg (the April trip)

Here is some more info for those of you who want to learn more about our April Ster van Zuid Limburg trip. I left for Belgium on April 13 and arrived on the 14th with John Piasta, Alex Howard and Addison Fuller. The first blog entry for the trip was on April 14.

The four of us stayed at the Chainstay in Oudenaarde and the guys rode their first race in Belgium on April 17 in Geluveld (Zonnebeke). They rode another kermesse race in Beernem the next day. On April 18 we moved to Tongeren to the Begeinhof youth hostel where we met up with Alistair and Erik who arrived that morning in Brussels and were picked up by our former au-pair Ann Kathrin. That night the boys went out with Ann Kathrin. I went back to Oudenaarde to pick up gear and to visit my mom the next day. I joined them in Tongeren two days later.

On Wednesday we went to see La Flèche Wallonne in Huy. On Thursday Hunter Grove joined us and on Friday we started the Ster race in Borlo. The first road stage was a wild adventure. In the end Hunter was the only American (both on our team and the National team) who would survive the three day ordeal and be ranked. All the others were lost due to crashes, flat tires, and other mayhem. The officials were exceptionally strict this year and only about a third of the field survived in the end. On the last day we lost Alistair due to illness, and Erik due to a crash. We returned on April 27. Alistair was quite sick by then and I suffered the same fate shortly after returning home. All that is detailed in the daily entries. Enjoy!

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