the start of a strange year

It took me three months to get back at the keyboard and try to put some words on paper, or better on my screen. Not that nothing happened in the cycling or coffee world but I just didn't take time. First of all I had not a lot of time, or maybe too much time to do other things.
I was super excited when I arrived on New Years eve in Melbourne and got to celebrate this lovely night at the Iron Bar in Rosanna. Don't look it up on Google as you won't find it. I am not even gonna tell ya where it is. If you are lucky enough you might get an invite of the owners!
The reason I was in Australia is simple, I had to fly to New Zealand! Why? Well, we are part of a new Continental Cycling team with a license in Guam. (of all places)
A good friend (he drinks beer and coffee and wine and...) Sim had a wonderful idea to set up a cycling team and they needed a DS (me) and a soignee (Lieve). So what do you do if you like this kinda stuff, you join. Not even knowing what you really roll into. But never mind, the combination of being travelling, going to cycle races, meeting people and more of that sounded like a great idea. And so it was untill ..... some Chinese bat (or whatever) decided to put the world on a hold!

January: Melbourne, Rosanna, Grovedale, Fairhaven, Ballarat, Torquay all in Australia and Masterton and Palmerston North in New Zealand. In these places we found a bed and so much more.
First coffee shop to mention: Terror Twillight @ Collingwood




After a two days of celebrating New Year with Wazza and Karen Docker, Josie and Ago and other Italian friends we moved on to the Bay Crits series in Geelong, A VIP pass was handed out by long time friend John Trevorrow and gave us the chance to spend three lovely days in the peloton. Three days of meeting some old friends from Leongatha, but also former bikies that we used to meet in the 80's and later in Belgium such as Gary Trowell, Ollie Kent
Spark, Dave Sanders etc...
After the Crits we got this great offer of the Burt family (Patricks mum and dad) if we wanted to stay at their place in Fairhaven (Great Ocean Road), from where we could do rides with the bikes Ago Giramondo and Greg Griffiths from Ivanhoe Cycles organised for us.
If you ever been to the Great Ocean Road you know exactly what a nice area this is, and if you imagine waking up every morning with this view from your breakfast table.... mmmmm

Next stop Ballarat, for the yearly Nationals, no need to tell ya that we again had many brews with many cyclists and other bike fanatics. One evening stood out of all the others when we had a lovely meal and a great chat with Alana Foster and her parents. We know Alana since last year and she really feels like family. So I forgive her that I had to eat with chopsticks that night. The dim sim were the best I ever had tasted.
The 2020 road champs in Ballarat are always good for a big crowd, great racing and great winners, Cam Meyer, Jarred Drizzners, Amanda Spratt (of course!). Enjoyed every second again.
The evening after the pro championship we went back to Rosanna and decided to order pizza with the Dockers. Wazza and I picked em up, but in the main street of Ivanhoe we bumped in to Mark O'Brien just returning from his Nats. Time for a beer we'd say! So we walked into this bar and talked about some Belgian beer. Three bar guests picked up our conversation, came over and : You from Belgium?, euh yea, o we had some gigs on the Dutch and Belgian TV (Toppop) back in the 70's. So we ended up having a beer with the band Sherbet (they had a great hit in 76, "Howzat"- Youtube has good version).

And then it was time to fly. Off to Wellington, time to meet our new team.
The official name is : EuroCyclingTrips - C.M.I. Pro Cycling Team.
Our first UCI race of the year, The New Zealand Cycle Classic. A five day tour with some good teams at the start, Bridgelane, Kinan and Black Spoke. With Simeon Green, Guillaume Soula, Jake Klanjblat, Boris Clark and Matias "T" Fitzwater, we had five keen guys at the start. Result: yup, two day in the Polka dot jersey with Boris. But unfortunatly had to retire the race in the 4th stage due to mecanical problems.Wearing the KOM leaders jersey!
The second race, Gravel and Tar, was a brutal one, riders suffered, dust, punctures and two great winners, Hayden Mc Cormick and Niamh Fisher Black (in the ladies race). Our own Boris had an awesome 10th place in this hard race. (Nathan Bunn replaced Guillaume Soula).

Our stay in Palmerston North was made easy by Stephen Stannard, organiser of the Gravel and Tar and owner of the Espresso bar "Cyclista". A nice place with great brews, some awesome memorabilia on display and ye, heeps of bikeriders of course. In the Gravel and Tar race we had also the great support of Mathias parents. Tony in the car as mecanic and Donna with Lieve in the feed zone.

From then on it was back to Australia for a holiday time.

The first month of the year was great. Tomorrow I will bring on February! See ya.