Well I made it!  A great flight via Amsterdam to Brussels - thank you, KLM - and a little drive in a micro-Peugeot diesel, and here I am, in Ghent, Flanders, ready to ride the Tour of Flanders (aka Ronde de Vlaanderen) tomorrow.  I just ate the world's biggest pasta dinner and have been drinking as much as I can to prepare.  Sleep will be good too.

Most gratifyingly I have been treated like royalty for having come all the way out here from California to compete.  There are over 3,000 entrants!  Whew.  And it is raining, and windy – perfect crappy Belgian weather for this race.  I cannot wait – and I won’t have to long, ‘cause the start is at 0600 tomorrow.  It’s 260km (about 150 miles) with 15 short steep hills and 8 sections of nasty cobbles.  I think it will take about 10 hours, we’ll see how many of those 3,000 Europeans I can hang with :)

At right is a picture of me checking in for the ride, with my rented bike.  It looks pretty cool, sturdier than a standard racing bike, better able to take the cobbles I guess.  I brought my cleats and pedals and they popped right on.  Well that's the news, please keep fXf for me and stay tuned for a full report!