Well folks, I’m back. In addition to being a Planet Bike employee, I’m also a professional cyclist. I use professional loosely as I’m not paid to do it but I do hold a professional license. My coworkers were kind enough to cover for me as I went on a nearly three week trip to the heart of cyclocross country. The racing in Belgium is as tough as it gets. The competition, the courses and the weather are all contributing factors. I had a great time and learned a lot about racing. The picture below gives you a bit of an idea of what race conditions were like.
I had a little time to sight see and was absolutely blown away by the bicycle infrastructure in Belgium. There is pretty much a bike lane on every road except for the very major highways. The attitudes of auto drivers were also very different than in the U.S. I don’t think I ever had to stop to cross a road as the autos always yielded to cyclists!