Category Archives: Life in Belgium

A cycling country for hard riders – where cyclocross is a major sport

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I always knew Belgium was mad for cycle sport and that it is the main home of the winter variant of the sport – cyclocross. It’s a much older offroad cycle sport than mountain biking, carried out on adapted road bikes.

But I have been highly entertained as for the second week in a row I have bumped into cyclocross on live TV as a major event of the day and the Dutch speaking radio station I had on while cooking a meal led with the cross results as the lead sports headline. A nice bonus, I had been anticipating watching some of the Belgian road classics later in the spring but I had forgotten all about the cyclocross.

Today showed why this has always been an event for hard riders, historically mainly men. The kind of rider who likes to keep a clean bike and mechanical perfection would recoil in horror from the pouring rain, the ankle deep mud and the grinding sand. Perfectly suited to the image of Belgium as the country of riders on and off road who like conditions really horrible.

Today’s Superprestige series race at Diegem had the added twist of being run off under floodlights and street lamps only enhancing the sense of being closed in by the storm. And despite the conditions it appeared to attract a good crowd. All the pictures are on copyrighted sites so I won’t put one here, but try here for some good ones.

I loved cross when I was a kid, I was absolutely useless at it because I lacked the power and strength to be any good. But when it turned really horrible I was always worth a few extra places just because it put off some of the speed merchants. So in the middle of the wettest winters ever in northern Europe I am very happy to be tucked up indoors and to salute the kings of the mud. I guess before the season ends I had better get myself out there and actually watch one.

Today’s music to ride bikes by: “Slip sliding away”. Must change that tyre!

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I haven’t updated my “Music to ride bikes by” blog page in ages, I think my head has been too full of other stuff for songs to sneak in and take over.

Not today!

Within minutes of starting to pick my way through the fresh fallen snow even my intense concentration was taken over by Paul Simon’s “Slip sliding away”.

There is little doubt that it was prompted by my two wheeled behaviour. The Belgian schoolboys trudging alongside the road were highly entertained by the chap doing a 180 degree spin in front of them and wobbling off down the hill sliping from side to side.

No real risk, a friend has given me an almost car free back route to the station. But I am a victim of my own complacency. I am a huge fan of the puncture proof Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, over 10 years since I first reviewed them for the CTC magazine and still puncture free. But this does mean I put them on the bike and completely ignore them until the carcass completely falls apart. This is exposed at some point each year when the bike becomes mysteriously unstable on mud, snow or ice and I finally look down to discover the rear is completely bald.

Today appears to have been that day, thus Paul Simon is now in my head for the rest of the day.

Over to you Paul.

What else would today’s Belgian train be made of other than chocolate?

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Brussels Midi stationBrussels Midi stationBrussels MidiJust walking through the main Brussels station, not really paying attention because it was early in the morning and I was off to the Netherlands.

So I did an almightly double-take when my path was crossed by a huge model train, in fact two model trains with absolutely wonderful detailing. Made of chocolate! And a world record apparently, over a tonne in weight and 30 metres long.Brussels Midi station

Now that is how to celebrate your national obsession with chocolate. I’ll have one of these for Christmas please Santa.

Mysteriously fewer cyclists at the station yesterday morning?

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Rixensart station December 2012This platform normally full at this time – and the bike shed too!

First snows of the winter – probably would not have put off the Danes or the Dutch. But I made it down from the country lanes, although not without a few wobbly moments.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

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Autumn skyBeautiful skies on Sunday’s walk.

And the temptation – because the tiny sign to the left of the trees means there is a path up there. One I haven’t walked or ridden yet. One for the future.

A long and winding Belgian road starts here

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Wallon BrabantInternet access has finally arrived chez Mayne so I can begin to blog again. And it allows time for some musings about where we might be going, just as we and our dog Murphy explore the landscapes of our new home.

So it’s time for a new category of posts to go alongside the cycling and travel that have made up most of the year so far.  Until now I have been blogging about Belgium from the perspective of a visitor, a bit of a tourist in Brussels.

And now, at last, I am suddenly catapulted into the life of a Belgian resident after a year of talking about it. Perhaps we are a bit conservative because we have decided to live about 20 kilometres south of central Brussels, just as we lived 50km from London in England. We know it’s not Berkshire, but there are some comparisons in its relationship to the big city up the road. We considered very seriously living in the city and going for the metropolitan life but we fell for the network of small towns and villages to the south of Brussels in the province of Wallon-Brabant (Walloon Brabant), the French speaking area closest to the capital.

But it is very different from the city of Brussels and it is very much part of country life in Wallonia, or at least we hope so.

So alongside the cycling and travel posts that have featured in the blog to date I will be  embarking on some new “Life in Belgium” posts which I hope readers will enjoy and if nothing else they will add to the diary element of the blog. Click on categories to choose similar posts, or indeed to ignore them and stick to the regular material. And there will be lots of cycling mixed in as I go exploring.

Author Peter Mayle set the standard for this sort of writing years ago with his brilliant “Year in Provence” books. I hope I don’t fall into the trap of offering detached amusement about local personalities and contractors just because they do things in a different way and we are in a rural area, but we did enjoy the fact that the chap delivering the wood turned up yesterday in his tractor to dump a huge pile on the drive. That’s how it should be in the country.

So in the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”* welcome to the first of many posts from Wallon-Brabant. (*Keats)

Trees in countryside, BelgiumMist, trees and moon, evening in Belgium