Surprise!

On Sunday I raced another kermesse, but this one had 153 starters!  My goal before the race was to make it into the winning breakaway.  Mission accomplished!!!  I only finished 8th from the break of 12 riders which sounds not so great.  I was very pleased to finally make it into the right move and I just didn't have enough speed in the very fast tailwind finish.  After a lot of missing the break, making it was a big success in my book.  One step at a time.

Riding in the break.

That's it and that's all for the kermesse racing though, because now we've moved into a small castle a ways South of Namur, Belgium.  This is where we will stay for the Tour de Namur which is a 5-day stage race beginning tomorrow.

The house we are staying in has 32 beds.  This must be what medieval kings feel like.  Except they didn't have Muesli with chocolate. Suckers.

Last night we went out to dinner.  They speak French rather than Dutch/Flemish in this region of Belgium.  Either way I couldn't truly read the ingredients on the pizza menu.  So when they offered the "Surprise" pizza as a choice I went all in.  The anticipation after ordering this was incredible, especially after repeated winks from the waiter.  This was either going to be great, or I was going to get a pizza with a whole fish on top of it.

Today we did another incredible ride brought to us by Garmin Connect and the Edge 500 mapping abilities.  Just map something out and follow the black line on the little screen that sits on your handlebars.

There are a few things going on in the photo above that I took in Dinant, Belgium, located on the River Meuse.  I'm standing on a bridge over the river, so you might have to imagine just how majestic this place is.  Front and center is the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame which was first built in 1227!  Hard to see in my photo, but sitting atop that cliff is the fortified Citadel, first built in the 11th century to control the river valley.  That is a lot of heavy rocks being moved without any bulldozers and cranes.

Were you wondering how the "Surprise" pizza came out?  I really wanted to try and share with you the same excitement I had while waiting for my food last night.  It turned out to have fairly normal pizza ingredients inside: mashed up tomatoes, cheese, meats, peppers, artichoke hearts, onions, olives, and overall goodness.  Note that I said ingredients, not toppings.  This pizza had a roof, so you couldn't see what was inside! Surprise!