Links afslag

On Wednesday we made the drive up through Antwerpen to Mol to recon the course for Saturday. The Clinckspoor's GPS got us to Mol (in Dutch [Rechts afslag...]), but we had to go into a cafe to get directions to the course. Coincidentally, the man running the cafe with his mother happened to be one of the volunteers or organizers for the race. He scrawled out some directions on a napkin and I also located the park on the iPhone, which I'm sure only cost, like, oh I don't know, $10 bucks to look at Gmaps for a couple minutes (thank you Amanda for twisting my arm and forcing me to get an iPhone . . . okay okay, I admit that it's pretty sweet). Most folks are pretty interested in us when they know we're bike racers and want to chat a bit--they always seem especially amazed when we tell 'em we're from San Diego, Canada.

Cool old house in Mol from 1695:

The course in Mol consists of a long paved start/finish section, transitioning onto the beach through deep sand, along the shoreline of pretty lake, back up through some deep sand, and into Ardennes forest. Speaking of which, I kept an eye out for Germans as it is about time for another visit from the Belgium's favorite Teutonic friends--but I'm sure they wouldn't come through the thick, impassible Ardennes . . . again. In a way, I guess you could say that Maginot was right; the line worked. Anyway, the track was through the woods was getting nice grooves in the corners already, some nice mildly technical bits, and a couple more sand pits. The track was short, which will require us to do a lot of laps; considering that our race is only 40 minutes, that's going to be a lot of power to put out through those sandy areas. Luckily, Bailey and I were getting good at railing the sand and not dismounting (most of the time); we didn't see anyone else ride the whole distance to the beach, so we'll see how that treats us. I imagine during the race, it will be much more of a brute force game as the lines through the sand get smashed and broken.

Bailey on the beach:

The Belgians are passionate about their car diving:

On the way back to Schellebelle we stopped at one of the bigger markets to get some "provisions" and replace the Nutella, Speculoos, and coffee that we were rifling through at the Clinckspoors. The only excitement being the four-pack of Orval for 4.92-Euro--a single bottle costs the equivalent of about four Euros in the US.

Cool road in Wetteren on the way to the market:

We stayed in tonight and had another fine Belgie meal from the Mrs. Clinckspoor, which usually includes potatoes, boiled and/or mashed, cheese, and some kind of meat. Tonight we had leeks (or leeks as they say in Flemish) wrapped in ham then baked in a bath of some béchamel type sauce with cheese over it. Quite tasty; quite heavy. As the night went on and the wine, Orval, Maredsous 10 (10% abbey beer--Ouch!), Leffe, and conversation flowed. Of interest is the story of the missing panel from Van Eyck's Ghent Alterpiece (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghent_Altarpiece). The missing panel was stolen in 1934 and has never been found. Several researchers and experts had traced clues to the previous owner of the Clinckspoor's home. Every year or so, some arty detective types will come out and want to inspect and poke around as they're sure the panel is buried or hidden about--at one point, just prior to their ownership of the property, all the internal walls were torn out in search of the panel. Fun stuff.

For Thursday, after an easy spin-out, we're heading to Ghent. I'd love to see Arnolfini Portrait, but that unfortunately is housed in London; but like everything else here, isn't that about an hour away?