Day 13 - Shopping at Van Eykes

Written by Stephen Hall with Brett Schnitzerling & Glenn Harris

We didn't get to sleep til late last night so we were all more than happy to have a sleep in. Glenn woke up and saw both Brett & I dead to the world so he went back to sleep himself. Eventually we all got up and had some breakfast before driving to the local bike shop Van Eykes. We'd ran out of time the last week but we needed a few things desperately after Brett's crash in Montenaken. The fall had destroyed Brett's rear wheel and his break levers needed some attention. Since we arrived I'd been riding a rear wheel with a buckle from a missing spoke so we thought today might be the day to fix that also. Prices are incredibly cheap here so we took the opportunity as a bit of a shopping spree. Brett bought some new tyres at a ridiculous 10 euro, as well as a new pair of vermarc leg warmers. Glenn stocked up on undershirts for the rest of his life and managed to find a new seat post stashed out the back. My shoes had done their dash so I bought a new pair of Laser Vernice Sidi's (for you bike nerds out there) at an amazing price as well as some arm warmers and new training tyres for back home. Glenn knew the staff so we managed to get an even greater discount.

By this time it was well past lunch time and we were all pretty famished. As soon as we got home the chopping board came out and we whipped up some of our now famous salad rolls. That kept us happy for awhile and we jumped on our bikes for a roll before dark. Brett thought he might be okay having a few days off after his crash but his stomach was still causing him a bit of strife and had to turn back after only 5km. Within the next couple of days we will try and get him in to see a local doctor. Glenn and I kept going for a few hours and had a long stop at a coffee shop in Geel. It started to rain lightly so we got comfortable and had several hot chocolate cecemels between us. We rode along the canal back to the apartment with a beautiful tail wind the whole way.

Dinner consisted of a big bowl of tuna pasta to give us the energy to get through tomorrow's 150km race in Retie. The weather forecast predicts the rain to hold off for another day or two but the wind is expected to be a nuisance for most of the day. Racing with such a big field tomorrow will keep us on our toes as their can be a wide range of expertise throughout the bunch. The race will begin in Retie where we will complete a 70km loop before returning back to town for 12 laps of a 5.8km circuit. We'll do our best to stay out of trouble for the first 70km all the while trying to keep a top 40 position within the peleton. The Retie Classic kicks off at 3pm here in Belgium, hopefully we will have some positive results to post by Thursday morning Perth time!