Racing bikes and……………Go Karts!

That’s right after spending too many nights around the house we decided to find some Belgian excitement. Wednesday night Ben, John and I drove to a near by town which has a movie theater and saw The Dark Night the new Batman movie. I was skeptical at first about paying 7.50 Euro to watch a movie that I might not enjoy, however it turned out to be one of the best films I have seen in a long time, and it was a nice change up from the standard routine.

The following day was a long and wet one and my motivation was low, so I figured that another rest day wouldn’t hurt. That night we got the erge to do something again, and on the back of our movie tickets from the night before was an advertisement and discount for two euros off go karting in a town just 10 km south of Izegem. Again the three of us got into the van and went out to have some fun. The karting track was home to the Go Kart World Championships earlier this year so we knew it was going to be challenging. The 17 Euro for 12 minutes of driving was a downer at first but once I got the jumpsuit on and went out on the track my heart started pumping ever so quickly. Once in the Kart I was ready to go, when I first hit the gas the kart went zooming away. The first few laps were scary as I got use to sliding and going faster and faster through the turns. Then 4 laps into it Ben who is a great go kart driver (I don’t know about his skills on the road he’s the one who put the van in the ditch) passed me up and then I was really ready to drive. From then on I got the hang of it and was getting faster every lap. Before I knew it the 12 minutes was up but the 17 Euros was well worth it.

Yesterday I did my final Belgian race of the year in Kooigem. A very demanding course with one good hill and a lot of wind. Things started splitting up from the gun, the combination of a strong cross wind section and then the climb made for some big gaps. Groups got away and I was to far back to make the split but got into a good group of five for the last 30 km. I finished 18th which wasn’t great but feel like I have some good form which I hope to carry over to Italy and Croatia.

Now I’m off to the train station where I will take a train to Brussels airport then a plane from there to Milan this evening.

I’ll keep you posted and will also try and keep the CMG junior blog updated as well. The link is at the top of my blog.

Ian