TOUR OF KOSOVO with EQUIPE C.M.I.

Equipe C.M.I., a team full of surprises. Working with these guys is always an adventure. First of all the races they pick, this time Kosovo, independant since 2010. Second surprise is how to get there.
Eather you pay an arm and a leg and fly direct to Pristina and arrive in the middle of the night. Or you pay only one arm or one leg and fly via Frankfurt, Ljubljana or Dusseldorf and still arrive in the middle of the night and missing your bike. Any way you pay more or less €400 to find out that the food is s**t. But the coffee was good!

The racing himself is another case. Every day you race on the motorway.

Up and down. They block all traffic on the motorway while the race is on. You can imagine that cyclist are very loved by car drivers in this country.
The police puts you and your family, in your car, on the side for an hour. All this in a temperature of around 35°C.
But ok we had a good time, no stress no rush as all teams stay more or less in the same hotel and you have every day a convoi to start with the help of the police.
Stage one from Lebane to Qafa e Dules, in fact 142km with one right turn. Probably the only stage that started on time. (only 12 minutes behind official start)

Nothing really went wrong, boys coming back for drinks every ten minutes. So Lieve had a lot of work in the car refilling bottles. No puctures at all. Lilian in the break for a while, but it came all together for the last climb. With Dudu finishing 6th on 16" and Smytey 11th on 19" we were in the top of the race.
Stage two started at the Albanian border (Morine) and finished in Macedonia (also on the border). Again a motorway race of 144km. This time the peloton sprinted for first place and Smytey got himself a 6th and Dudu in the bunch at 24th. All in the same time of the winner.
Third stage (159 or was it 152km?) went actually the other way around from the Macedonian border to the Albanian border. Well that is what we tought. Luckely the Dutch commissaire Edwin Cruijssen was on the ball and saw the mistake in the race book. Race finished 7km earlier. So with 25km to go he announced that we were only 18km from the finish line. Never mind, no problem for Dudu who finished 5th after a long uphill sprint.
After the race it was waiting a long time for the ceremony, even tough hundreds of cars were blocked on the Albanian border. After the long (read: too long) ceremony all the riders in the bus to Prizren where we had our dinner (or was it lunch) then back in the bus to the hotel. O and our car and the one of the Dutch team and a bus with 15 riders in it had the special treatment from the police. We have been escorted by two police cars (one in front and one behind) with wailing siren for 85km to the hotel.
Once again, people in Kosovo will love cycling!!!
Our team 
Guillaume "Dudu"Duverger : 6th / 24th / 5th / GC 5th on 49" / Points 5th
Alex Smyth : 11th / 6th / 24th / GC 13th on 52"
Lilian Sanvincente : 44th / 40th / 44th / GC 43th on 17'13"
Guillaume Soula : 45th / 45th / 46th / GC 45th on 20'49"
Simeon "Sim"Green : 46th / 44th / 47th / GC 46th on 20'49"
Lieve Drieghe : soigneur and mecanic (only one wheel change)
Dirk : DS

from left to right : Sim, Alex (Maltese road champion) Guigui, Dudu, Lilian.

I was a happy DS with a five mens team. We lost two riders on the way to Kosovo, Thomas Peyroton Dartet and Stevan Kervadec, who broke his foot in the Zurich airport.
With two guys on GC and three great helpers/workers I can say we did a great Tour of Kosovo!

O, one more thing: all three stages and GC were won by Charalampos Kastrantas (Greece).

Czech Cycle race, coffee, potatoes and soup

It was sunny when Lieve and I arrived at Sittard to pick up our 6 team members form the Mike Greer Homes Womens Cycling Team. Only one girl I met before, Niamh, last year at worlds in Innsbruck. The other ones, Alana, Connie, Emma, Libby and Alecia were new to us.

The next day we left Watersley Sportpark with our teamcar and a van driven by Matias. Off to Czech. We arrived in Krasna Lipa late in the afternoon, but still time for a short spinning.

The” Tour de Feminin” had four days of racing in a beautiful hilly area, decorated with forest, fields and small villages. Four stages in line plus a TT. All in Bohemian Switzerland in and around Krasna Lipa.

That is what has been offered to our four New Zealand girls and

one Australian. All this would have been perfect if the rain didn’t come down buckets full, thunderstorms, flooded roads. That made it very dangerous for crashes and the chance for punctures increased. The girls battled through some unlucky crashes, mechanicals and truly horrendous weather to come away with sprint and QOM points, some great finishes and demonstrated incredible grinta in this conditions.

In stage one Libby came down getting around a roundabout but still finished the race. Altough two minutes before the start of stage two I made the dicision to withdraw her from the race. I did not want to take a risk of another crash with her already injured knee. There is no doubt about that our best climber was Niamh staying with the best in every stage resulting in a awesome spot on GC and KOM. Connie finished almost every day in the main bunch and finished well on GC, while Alana and Emma lost some time due mechanicals and also lack of experience. So they learned a lot in this four days.

And all this on a diet of potatoes and soup in a “half star” hotel. I don’t complain about the rooms but it was all very basic. The beds not more then a plank and a foam. In the shower you had to run around to get wet, a little brownish kindy water came out of the sprinkler. No new towels for 5 days and like I said, apart from the breaky the lunch and diner was poor. But that was the same for all teams. And it was even worse when the mecanics, soignees and yes the DS’s too wanted to sit down for a cold Pivo, the bar shut at 9PM.

But ….. the coffee shops were great. Lieve and I and “coffee runner” Alicia found a few ones with high quality coffee and cakes.

KAVARNA U TADEASE what I guess means coffee bar.

In Chribska Lieve and I went to the main square and found our first surprise. Hard to believe but a cappuccino, a espresso macchiato and two delicious cakes for 99CZK = €4.

Same happend in the oldest house of Krasna Lipa where we had nice coffees while waiting for the take away ones for the rest of the staff.

Alicia found super brew for the staff in Rumburk and Varnsdorf.

Was the food a minor point, the racing and the coffee was superb!

Directly after the finish of the last stage we drove 250km to a small village in former “East” Germany where everybody enjoyed a well deserved hamburger in an awesome American Bar. On the tunes of YMCA we all finished a great journey. After a good sleep we dropped off some riders at Dusseldorf airport and drove back to Sittard. From then on it was in relax mode on the square of Sittard for a feed and a beer with Matias, Alicia, Ritchie, Lieve and meself

The next morning we had a lovely brunch (thanks Alicia!) and drove back to Gent.

·         Niamh FISHER-BLACK – NZL                      

·         Connie O’BRIEN - NZL

·         Emma SMITH - NZL

·         Libby ARBUCKLE - NZL

·         Alana FORSTER - AUS

·         Matias FITZWATER – NZL – mecanic

·         Lieve DRIEGHE – BEL – soignee

·         Alicia EVANS – NZL – soignee

·         Me – BEL – DS

Results

Stage 1 – 25/Niamh 36/Connie 84/Alana 118/Emma 145/Libby

Stage 2 – 29/Niamh 47/Connie 92/Emma 126/Alana DNS/Libby

Stage 3 – 39/Niamh 70/Connie 77/Emma 92/Alana

Stage 4 – 14/Niamh 22/Connie 88/Alana 118/Emma

Stage 5 – 20/Niamh 63/Connie 68/Alana 92/Emma

GC – 26/Niamh 44/Connie 92/Alana 103/Emma

KOM – 5/Niamh

Teams – 12/Mike Greer Homes Womens Cycling Team (27 teams in the race)

OR COFFEE and ZWARTWIT

 OR COFFEE

In fact I am a bit late to introduce (or should I say re-introduce) the Or Coffee Bar.
The Or history goes back to 2001, when two coffee lovers started up their own roastery in Aalst. After some hard times Tom and Katrien decided to open a coffee lab.
The best place, and lucky for us, was Gent, simple, that is where they were living.
And it became one of the first places where you could drink real good coffee. I think I went to this place the first time in 2010, not long before the Australian Drapac Cycling Team discovered the place too. One of the riders in those days was Rhys Pollock, who told me that this was the best in town. And even their sport director (Italian short black drinker) asked me a week before they came back to Belgium in 2011 to go and buy coffee beans in the Or shop for their staying in Oudenaarde.
When professional bike riders tell you that the coffee is great, well you better believe it. It is a kinda marriage, coffee and bikes!
Many years Or Coffee was located in the Walpoortstraat on the corner, only few years ago they moved to a building across the road of the rectorship of the Ghent University.
A nicely decorated place where you find lots of students and young people working on lap tops. Yes, I hear you saying that this is not the cosy atmosphere you expect of a coffee place, but you are in the University area so..... young public and lots of computers, cell phones etc...
But it doesn't

mean that the barista's aren't friendly! Just check it out, you gonna love it!
And more! you can follow courses to become a barista. Interested?, well have a look at their website

 

OR COFFEE BAR - Sint Pietersnieuwstraat 126a - 9000 Gent
https://orcoffee.be/en/bar/espresso-bar-ghent-city-center / open daily

ZWARTWIT

Not really a coffee shop, but I was a little surprised cause the quality was excellent. You ask me why I walked in to a restaurant to get a coffee? Simple, this new place (former Chess Cafe) is in fact on the finishline of our bike ride along the canal to Oudenaarde. Hundred meters away from the Gent soccer stadium Ghelamco.
So it happened that one of our New Zealand riders stayed in Gent and was out on training, he called us if we were up for a brew. Sure why not! We told Matias to meet at the Ghelamco Arena (everybody knows where that is). And twenty minutes later we enjoyed a nice cappuccino.
When the sun is out, it will be a great place to have a coffee while waiting for the bunch to go for a ride.
The place is kinda split up in two different businesses, Zwart (Black) is the restaurant and in the arvo a coffee and cake place, while Wit (White) is a big hall you can book for after work parties or dance nights, a place for 400 hundred people.
Can also be used as a conference room, with big companies, hotels, sport arena in the neighbourhood not a bad idea for this kinda set up

ZWARTWIT - Ottergemsesteenweg Zuid 802 - 9000 Gent
https://www.facebook.com/zwartwitgent / closed in the weekend

BELARUS with CMI

With C.M.I.tours on tour. That is how you can describe a bike race with this American team. C.M.I. is a team that travels to race and race to travel.
After our pleasant journey on the Isle of Rhodos few weeks ago, Lieve and I were looking forward to the invitation of the manager Sim to meet him and the other riders in Belarus.
Meet "them all" is probably to much to write as most of them didn't make it. The appointment was to see each other on thursday 9 May. But that is not what the airport crew in Toulouse or was it Lufthansa tought. Most of the flights were cancelled.
So it happened that Lieve and I (and with us two Dutch riders) landed in Minsk Airport somewhere in the afternoon on thursday. A phonecall and fourty minutes later and we sat in a bus towards the centre of Minsk.
If you have no idea of Belarus, you would think of grey buildings and boring streets. Of course the road from the airport is the same all over the world, big boulevard with screeming billboards.

But the city looked nice, clean and busy.
Once in the hotel, we met Thomas, one of our French riders who made it. And an hour later Kento from Japan arrived too. Our other riders would arrive late at night or even on Saturday.
The next morning, Lieve and I had to go to the permenance to pick up numbers, accreditations and a car. All this happening in the afternoon. Good to see my Chinese mate Zhe Suen aka Alex, with his Chinese team Ningxia.
Because the other guys haven't turned up, we had a full day to stroll around in the city. The beautiful boulevards, the huge buildings, the street art, the beautiful riverbanks of the Svislach and the pleasant streets of the old town, all this was really enjoyable to discover.
Lots of things we didn't expect in a former Russian state, such as brown caffees, coffee shops.

The first race, Minsk Cup, we had to start with three riders, Thomas, Kento and Mathieu (who arrived after midnight the same morning). We missed him at the airport (48km away from the hotel) cause we got completely lost in the darkness of the night and a deviation who took us into a forest and further not one little sign directing the airport. We got back at Bonhotel at 2am !!

The first race, five laps around the lake just out of Minsk. And a final straight to the city centre.
Kento finished 15th, Mathieu 88th and Thomas 102nd, all soaked wet after the rain came down buckets full.
The other side of the (friendly looking city) medal, we experienced the day of race number two, G.P.Minsk.
The circuit was stretched out over the city, A 15km loop that the riders had to cover ten times. The whole city was blocked off. And when I say blocked off it is blocked off. Even us team managers with accreditated cars and staff could not get in. We tried first at the main "entrance", two hundred meters away from the teams parking. The police on duty didn't say no he screamed NO and GO while his eyes nearly popped out of his face! Sim and I argued a while but the cop turned pink, red and by the time purple came up Lieve told me to move.

Let's try the next street, two big trucks blocked the road, but I saw a gap big enough to drive thru, which I did, but same scenario, police officers didn't want to open the fench. Again I argued, same result, angry officers, yelling and screeming. In the meantime more team cars lined up behind us.
And suddenly two giants turned up. You know the kinda fellas, two meters tall, black suit, one finger on their ear (former KGB someone said to me). They started a discussion, more police cars turned up and yep the door went open. Finally! Fiftheen minutes before the start. That we got body searched and had to open every bag in the car and someone searching underneath the car with a mirror are only details.

The result of our race, a bunch kick with again Kento in good shape (19th)
Not a surprise that we had a few beers that evening to talk over all our stories.
Thanks again to Simeon "Sim" Green, Guillaume "GuiGui" Soula, Thomas "Peyroton" Dartet, Mathieu "Giby" Gibaud and Kento "Old Bobby" Omachi.

See you soon guys!

WASBAR

Tuesday, afternoon,
I'm just beginning to see,
Now I'm on my way,
It doesn't matter to me,
Chasing the clouds away.

We've been out for a short coffee ride. Cloudy sky, dry, 11° and perfect cycling weather and The Moody Blues on my headphone. The clouds were gone in the afternoon. And now it is not only me anymore who wants a warm drink (read: coffee) after a ride. Lieve wanted to go to a kinda new place (for us tho) in the middle of town. Only foot steps away from my favourite "Take Five" coffee bar.
Anyway, I followed the misses and ended up in a place called Wasbar. Bit scary when you know a wasbar in Flemish means laundry.
But if you stroll in town you find more places where they serve coffee on the side. A bookshop, a jeans store, a barber shop ..... they all have coffee while you wait or shop.
So also in this wasbar, that is situated on a lovely little square, busy little street full of pedestrians.

And the clouds disappeared while we sat down. A nice afternoon sun, just what we needed.
To be honest the drinks were great. Because it was a little late in the afternoon I got meself latte caramel and Lieve a Matcha tea, both served the way it should be by friedly staff.

This place is part of a business group that combines coffee and bagels and salads,with a laundry service. Do your washing while you enjoy breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea or a quick espresso.
Inside there is lots of choice to find a calm spot to do some work on your laptop or even reading a magazine.
I guess I will need to go back to try out their bagel burgers cause they really look delicious.

O, and for those who want to organise a little party, also that is possible!

WASBAR - Kalandestraat 3 - 9000 Gent
open every day from 9am till 7pm

http://www.wasbar.be

CAFE BARISTA

Probably the most pleasant terrace to have a coffee in the center of the city. A traffic free alley, cobble stones, view on the old part of Ghent. On sunny mornings it is great to sit at the front of this beautiful building and watch the town wake up. If you come later you will see tourists passing by, walking from the shopping mall towards the old part of town crossing the wooden bridge.

 

The house was build in the 14th century and was successively a brewery (from 1383 untill 1612), a place where the flour for bread was treated (till 1847), a flour mill (till 2008). And finally in 2009 it has been transformed to a coffee bar.
Inside is a work of art to admire from the Belgian/Spanish artist Emilio Lopez Menchero.
A minor point are the very uncomfortable chairs and tables. Together with the unevenness of the cobble stones it is not easy to keep your coffee under control.
From the terrace you have a great view on the famous cannon "Dulle Griet" and also the old wooden bridge that lead you to "het Patershol", the oldest part of Ghent.

Everybody can find a great coffee of his taste on the menu, they also serve quality cakes.
For early birds there is breakfast served and nice sandwiches and pies for lunch.
Today I ordered a vanilla macchiato, and I must say it was delicious.
A coffee card for the regular visitor is also available. Your thirteenth coffee is free!
Despite all these wonderfull hot drinks, delicous cakes and the cozy spot, the service could be better. It depence a bit on the young girls working behind the bar. But who am I to complain, I enjoy the coffee, they are working.

CAFE BARISTA - Meersenierstraat 16 - 9000 Gent
www.mybarista.be

my own Top 5 Ghent coffee shop (April 2019)

1) Take Five
2) Het Moment  
3) Cafe Barista
4) Puur M
5) Pedaleurs de Flandres 

Mixed feelings after Ronde van Vlaanderen U23

We had a great result in Gent-Wevelgem. Could we do the same in the Ronde? Will James do it again? Can Liam ride as good as the previous race? Hopefully Paul will be awarded for the great ride last week? Is Ben in better shape? And doesn't look Ethan a bit pale? Who is Burnie, what can he do?
All these questions came up to me during the days before the race.

The logistic side was fixed pretty smoothly, hotel in Melle (Lepelbed), where I got a good deal from Ann (bed, dinner, breakfast) for the boys. Lieve doing her jobs, food and drinks. The volunteers would be present and our mecanic Darryn was keen to help us out again.
Three of our riders booked a B&B in Kalken, few days before the race and that would have been the place to think about a new hairstyle. Special, a bike riders thing.
Two we picked up at the railway station and one rider got dropped off at the hotel. Everything worked out well.
This time only Darryn came around to the hotel to meet the boys and tru a wheel.
Next morning after breaky Lieve and Darryn picked up the guys in Melle.

If you bring 150 riders together, cobble stones, 15 hills, narrow roads, speed, crashes and punctures you create a hectic race. The Ronde was not different, it all happened in this 168km circuit.
A small briefing for the staff where to go with drinks, food and material. Everybody has his job.
Lieve, Paul, Joris, Tony drove to different spots on the circuit.
Darryn and I in the car.

My last words before the start to James: "Good luck mate, I don't want to see you for the rest of the day, only on the podium tonight!". Let me tell you that he did what I said. It sound really mean, but if I don't see him all day it means that he rides in the front of the peloton, good position, he doesn't crash and has no punctures. On top of that he was gonna be on the podium..... if not a French rider decided to crash in front of James with 450m to go! Gone dream of a second successive great result. He finished 37th. Lucky nothing broken.
Liam did the race we hoped he was gonna do, he is improving all the time, I think he rode in third position over the Muur!
Paul had problems with his bike. First with his pedals, that Darryn could replace just before the start, later on in the race derailleur probs (gone in to crash mode, after a cobblestone section) and on top of that he did not see the convoi stopping when I brought him back behind the car. His head down he hit the back of our team car, helmet broken, but Paul was ok (solid bloke!). All he screamed was: "Get me back on , James needs me". And he got back on and finished in the group behind James after doing his work. (57th)


Ben had an off day in Gent - Wevelgem and at breakfast he told me he was gone make it up for last week. And you could see in his eyes he looked keen. Fresh, the Ben we know, ready to do great things. And after 9km we could hear over the Tour radio: 3 riders with 200m advange, bit later the breakaway has 40 seconds. They went out for 80km and a maximum of 4'20. Awesome ride of a reborn Ben.
Ethan was quietly before the race, he didn't say
much. You could see that he was getting ill. Which he confirmed me yesterday too. He still did his part of the work but had to let the pelo go.
And the most unfortunate man in the team was Burnie. His first Nation Cup race. Got envolved twice in a nasty crash, the second one destroyed his bike (lever and derailleur broke off), we gave him a spare bike, but we did not have the right size for him, on top the gears gone into crash mode on the cobblestones, changed bike again, (of course not the right size eather) and when we just left him we heard a tyre exploding, Darryn looked behind and yes ..... Burnie back tyre was down. Race over after 40km, no more bikes!
We only have 2 spare bikes (10 speed) and we have spare wheels (11 speed)
Lots of frustration after the finish, but again, a solid performance of James, Paul, Ben and Liam. Bad, bad, bad luck for Burnie and a not feeling well Ethan.
Could have been  our second top 10 in two Nation Cup races. We are getting there boys.
Keep up the good work!
On the other hand we had our Matias Fitzwater riding in the Tour of Morocco. A superb result for him in this ten days race: his first UCI podium, 3th on the U23 GC!


 To be continued