FAEMA and KOFFEINE bar

Coffee and bikes. Two wonderful things that go together very well. Is it a fashion fad or is it a tradition? If it was only a trendy thing it would have been gone by now, I suppose. But when you stroll in the city of Gent, (or any other town in Europe) you can’t ignore the amount of new coffee bars and thousends of bicycles in the streets. And still more bike shops and coffee cafés or combination of the two open their doors. No wonder so many coffee related brands use cycling as billboard. Few months ago I listed on this blog some of the biggest sponsors in that line of business. Coffee bars open their doors with annex a place where you can clean or even repair your bike. Some sell cycling equipment or clothing! The bar I talk about below uses one of the famous coffee machines that sponsored two of our Belgian number one cycling icons!

KOFFEINE

Two weeks ago I enjoyed a brew in  the “Wander” coffee bar, after the Ghent 6 days track cycling race,  and saw opposite the road another place. But it was closed. I went back this week and found the door open! Koffeine is the name of the small bar. The first impression was an untidy set-up.  After all this is only because the place is very small and you have to put your things somewhere. Yes you can see some empty beer crates in a corner. The solution for the small room is that they build a handy mezzanine. But no matter how the place looks like, we always try the hot drinks. A friendly guy (Zoran, with Macedonian background (Skopje)) took our orders and the brews were perfect, rich taste and right temperature. A perfect cappuccino and a strong espresso macchiato. For the hungry (breakfast, lunch) there is not a big variation, this could be better. The conclusion, a good place to escape from the tourists with great brews, but maybe a varied food menu would be an extra. I will certainly visit again soon however it is hard to find the opening hours on social media.

KOFFEINE – Lange Kruisstraat 6 –

9000 Gent 

http://hipsteadresjes.gent/nieuw/koffeine/

FAEMA, stands for Fabbrica Apparecchiature Elettromeccaniche e Affini, founded by Carlo Ernesto Valente, Milano. It doesn't surprise anybody this is 100% Italian.

Since 1945 one of the best coffee machines on the market.

But also since 1955 Faema has a long history of sponsoring professional cycling teams, acted as main or co-sponsor.

When I was talking above about two Belgian cycling icons I meant not only Eddy Merckx, but also Rik Van Looy. Both riders rode many years in the red/white colors, Rik, 7 years and Eddy, 3 years.

Faema was main sponsor in:
1955 FAEMA - GUERRA (with Koblet, Poblet and ...)
1956 FAEMA - GUERRA - VAN HAUWAERT (with Van Looy, Bahamontes, Gaul, Schotte and...)
1957 FAEMA - GUERRA - GRANOLLERS (with Van Looy, Gaul, Koblet and....)
1958 FAEMA - GUERRA - CLEMENT (with Van Looy, Bahamontes, Gaul and....)
1959 FAEMA - GUERRA (with Van Looy, Impanis, Sorgeloos and....)
1960 FAEMA (with Van Looy, Bahamontes, Impanis, Sorgeloos and....)
1961 FAEMA (with Van Looy, Gomez Del Moral, Impanis, Post and.....)
1962 FAEMA (with Gomez Del Moral, Jimenez and.....)
1963 FAEMA - FLANDRIA (with Foré, Gomez Del Moral, Jimenez, Planckaert, Stevens and....)
1964 FAEMA (only two Spanish riders had Faema as private sponsor)
1968 FAEMA (with Merckx, Adorni, Reybrouck, Sercu, Swerts and .....)
1969 FAEMA (with Merckx, Reybrouck, Sercu, Stevens, Swerts and....)
1970 FAEMINO - FAEMA (with Merckx, Huysmans, Stevens, Swerts, Zilioli and....)

they also were co sponsor in following teams
1961 EMI - FAEMA (only in Giro d'Italia)
1962 FLANDRIA - FAEMA - CLEMENT (with Van Looy, Foré, Planckaert, Post, Stevens and ...)
1978 BIANCHI - FAEMA (with Gimondi, De Muynck, Van Linden and....)

1979 BIANCHI - FAEMA (with Gimondi, De Muynck, Van Linden and....)

                                                                    

WANDER Coffee Bar

Ghent 6 day cycling festival is done and dusted, time for some quality time. And quality time means for Lieve and meself, a nice coffee in a relaxed atmosphere.
And being a week at the Gent track with a whole bunch of bike riders aka coffee lovers, I got a hint of a Danish rider.
He told me, when you walk out of the big church into a street on the left there is a great coffee bar with lots of light! Asking what the name of the street or bar was, was asking a little too much.

So Monday we had our good friend from Australia, Craig Neiwand, as a guest. As usual we show our foreign friends around in our lovely home town.
So I dragged Craig around 2.30pm to the St Baafs Cathedral (cause the Dane said, a big church) and 20 minutes later we walked out, in to the street on the left. Let there be two coffee shops! But..... One jumped out because of the clear lights, and the other one was closed, haha.


First thing that took my attention, walking through the door was the awesome drawing on the wall, a nice work of art on the white wall. Together with the white/black/grey/chrome colour combination it creates a youthful appearance. Must say that also being welcomed by the staff as soon as you open the door is for me a bonus.

This said we still had to try the brew. The coffee machine, a Nuova Simonelli promised good things!
Lieve ordered a  "house" coffee, Santa Colomba (Brazil) espresso macchiato and I went for the "guest" Kochere Boji (Ethiopean, from the Yirgacheffe region).
Craig's a Latté lover.
Both the "house" and "guest" coffee were delicious. Served with a glass of water.






Definitely I will come back to this place, as I rate it the same as my other favourite "Take Five".
Great drinks, excellent service and friendly boss and staff.

The place is not only open for coffees, but also serves breakfast/brunch/lunch. Can't wait till next spring to enjoy the first sunshine on their terrace. Maybe with one of the nice cakes I've seen. But won't probably wait that long, cakes are nice in wintertime too!
Thanks for the hint, Arne!

WANDER COFFEE BAR - Lange Kruisstraat 7 - 9000 Gent
open daily, 8.30am till 6pm - www.wandercoffee.be

CMI / John SIOTAS

It has been a great summer, with a successfull campaign at the Junior Track Worlds, with gold and silver medals for our New Zealand team in Frankfurt an der Oder. And great Tours with CMI to Belarus and Kosovo, Meeting some great girls in Czech Feminin Tour with Mike Greer Homes Cycling Team.
Was also lucky enough to be part of the last road campaign of Drapac Development Team.
The red/white team of Michael Drapac and Agostino Giramondo will no longer be seen in 2020.
At the moment we work at the Gent 6day race with U23 team Michael Steyaert and Siebe Deweirdt.

And the future looks bright too for next season, as per first of January 2020 I will be Sport Director of the new Euro Cycling Trips - C.M.I. Pro Cycling Team. This continental team has a Guam licence, which is an island in Micronesia. Lieve, will be soignee/assistent DS too.
Our riders will be, Simeon Green, Robert Orr (GBR), Guillaume Duverger, Thomas Peyroton, Guillaume Soula (FRA), Matias Fitzwater (NZL), James Mowatt (AUS), Gorgi Popstefanov (MKD),
Lars Pria (ROU), Derek Horton, Peter Lombard, Jonathan Martin, Dan Aponik (GUM).
Bring on the new season.




Coffee and bikes, well next week we go back on the road for new coffee shops in Gent. But in the meantime I have the intension to talk about some (former) pro cyclist that came across my path over the years. And as you probably already know is that I rolled in to cycling thanks to my good friend Gary Wiggins (1952-2008). But the very first pro rider that actually stayed at my place was the Australian John Siotas.

JOHN SIOTAS
John was born in Athens, Greece 12 October 1957, 

1981 individual
1982 individual
1983 Ramon Cycles - Nissan
1984 Ramon Cycles
1985 Rare Spares
1986 Rare Spares - Mobil
1987 Rare Spares - Mobil and Gold Seal
1988 Gold Seal
1989 individual
1990 individual
1991 Cicli Monti

A morning in March 1985, my mother rang Johan De Moor's phone, as I lived on the same block of land as Johan, to tell me that an Australian guy arrived at Gent railway station and was waiting there for me. Who? donnu, why? donnu. Ok will have a look. I jumped in my car and found a guy with a bike in the station. Must be him. 
Hi my name is John Siotas and I got your number of Gary Wiggins. O I see!

Ye I come here to race and Gary told me I could stay with you. Ah well suppose that will be the deal then. So he stayed few months to ride "kermesses".
On one of the kermesses, people tought sometimes that I had Claude Criquielion in my car. And yes he looked a bit like Claudy.
Another day Gary and I tought, we should take him out for dinner to a Greek restaurant, we tought this would be something special after being born in Greece. So we did take him to a famous Greek place in town. And after the meal we asked him if he liked it. His answer: I eat this food everyday from mums kitchen in Australia. Bugger!
He never won any race of importance. He returned one more time to Belgium to ride again, some "kermesses" in 1991.

 
pictures,
1) Gent 6 with Michael and Siebe
2) Simeon Green
3) John Siotas (1985 at Voordries in Gentbrugge)
4) John Siotas (postcard Jos Van Hamel)