Friday night at the local pub in Mol seems to be quite an event as their music was blaring straight through the window into the Arbitrage team house 2 doors down! Hardly any of us got a good night's rest but we still rose before 9am to have breakfast, kit up and head out on the road. Glenn stayed behind so it was up to me to navigate my way through the streets of Belgium. We decided to find a different route to normal so it wouldn't become too monotonous towards the end of the trip. Surprisingly we managed to find our way with relative ease jumping from one town to the next until we reached one of the main canals. The canal stretches for miles crossing the border into the Netherlands without so much as a road sign. We rode down the undisturbed canal for at least 30km occasionally passing commuters and cyclists. Eventually we took a few corners and following Glenn's instructions from earlier started to head back in the direction of Mol along a different canal.
We made a pitt stop at a quiet restaurant/cafe where we enjoyed an unusually good coffee and hid out of the rain for 20 minutes. The weather had been pleasant earlier with both Matt and I deciding to show our pins for once and leave the leg warmers at home. But as can be expected in Belgium the weather gradually turned and became chilly with some light rain. After thanking the friendly staff we jumped back on our bikes and headed in the Mol direction. Naturally we made a few wrong turns but we managed to correct ourselves with a bit of backtracking and arrived at our doorstep just after 1pm. Bread was a rare commodity so Brad rode down and grabbed some more from a local bakery while we chopped up some salad to make sandwiches. A few chess games were played while we decided what we'd get up to later that afternoon. Everyone was still fairly tired so Brad had a nana nap, Matt read a book, Glenn watched a movie and I had a Skype date with family back home.
A few hours later we decided to head into the town centre as up until now we'd visited Geel and Turnhout but not Mol itself (besides whizzing through the streets on our bikes). We parked up and wandered around looking in some book stores and very expensive clothing outlets. A festival was being held in the centre of town later that day to coincide with the end of a marathon race. Many stages were constructed all around the cafe we took a seat at. The waitress satisfied our Cecemel requirements for the day and we caught up on the Vuelta a Espana via a tv inside but we didn't stay for long because the sound checks of each stage were extremely loud. Martijn's restaurant where he worked wasn't far away so we popped our heads in to say hello. He knocked off in 20min so we went and picked up some groceries at Colruyt before driving back and meeting him for a drink.
Martijn had a wedding to attend at about 8pm so we went back to the house and chatted for awhile before him and Glenn left to wander down to the bar around the corner. Brad and I took up the cooking duties and fixed up a carbon copy of last night's dinner while Matt hang up the washing. Everything ran smoothly and the 3 of us sat down to a healthy meal of veges. Tomorrow's race is an U23 kermesse held in the town of Hove. We discussed how we thought the race would pan out and planned what time we'd need to leave to get there in time for a 4pm start. After washing up the dishes we hung out upstairs and watched the original classic Lethal Weapon on DVD. We are all very excited for tomorrow's race having already raced twice and gained a lot of experience we're confident we could produce some good results! Be sure to check in tomorrow morning to read the play-by-play of our 120km battle through the streets of Belgium. Thanks for reading once again,
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