On Saturday I was just back from a hectic week at Eurobike – which means an awful lot of talking about cycling and not a lot of doing, followed by 7 hours on the train home from Germany.

And I have my half million mile dad staying with me, manfully guarding house and dog so I can go gallivanting round Europe, but we have hardly ridden together since he got here.

And the sun was shining.

And then I discovered that a top pro bike race was going to whizzing round the roads just an hour’s ride away across some lovely countryside.

Its not exactly hard to work out what happened next.

Out to the race via the Ravel and minor roads.

Back via a loop along the Brussels-Charleroi Canal with a convenient cafe stop at the boat club.

And of course home to watch the race on TV – Tom Boonen winning the sprint for the Brussels Classic right under the iconic Brussels Atomium.

Perfect cycling Saturday.