Valeir

Wednesday morning, warm and sunny and 10.30am, time for a coffee. Our first choice was to pedal direction Lochristi where Lieve had seen a new coffee shop. Double check opening hours on the net told us: closed on Wednesday and Thursday! Just don't get it when after being forced to close down your business because of Covid-19. Two days of incom down the drain??? It must be me.

Never mind enough places that keep their doors wide open. Didn't we bought a nice ice cream the other day near the swimming pool Van Eyck? Yep let's try that one.
Only 15 minutes ride to Portus Ganda, another upgraded area few minutes from the city of Gent.

From the corner we could see the terrace bading in the sun and some people had the same idea as us. A chalkboard welcomed us on the footpath. Most tables occupied, but still one left for us. It only took two seconds before the friendly hostess brought a menu (? is this ok in Corona time?), never mind, a smile and a few words got us in the right mood. Yes a cappuccino and for Lieve a doppio espresso macchiato.

And I was so happy to finaly find a place where they serve the coffee hot! A lot of coffee bars serve great coffee, taste wise, but just not hot enough! This one was the right temperature and the coffee tasted fabulous. Together with the nice little home made coco-bickies made it worth to stop at this place.


Now don't think this is all you can get here. Last week we enjoyed a nice ice cream, flavour choices enough, the usuals like vanilla, chocolate but also tangerine, "blood"orange and some veggie or mojito ice.

 

For breakfast you can make the choice between a simple coffee, Danish + bread up to four different breakfast menu's. The names of the different choices already make you hungry. You can choose between Healthy, Kickstart, Boost and Guilty pleasure. mmmm. Non of these? no problem. breakfast à la carte also available.

A quick look on the menu tells me that they serve "Valeir" beer too. Maybe next time I can ask them what the connection is with the Contreras brewery in Gavere?

A great place where you be welcomed with a smile and get your brew at the right temperature. Finally a bit of competition for my number one coffee bar "Take Five"

VALEIR Icecream & Breakfast - Sint Joriskaai 1 - 9000 Gent
open daily from 9am till 5pm
www.valeir.gent

CUP coffee

Five years ago noone would walk along this canal road unless you really needed to be there for .... yea for what? Can't think of anything. Serious you didn't want to go there for a walk or a bike ride.

But now the neighbourhood has been upgraded with new walk and bike paths, new apparments and lofts, a nice dock for house boats. It will soon be the place to be. Call it "The City meets the Harbour".

Easy to be reached from the Dampoort or the pedestrian bridge from Dok Noord. Two and a half kilometers away from the city centre.

And in a new trendy area, you must find a trendy coffee bar. The CUP bar, is a place where you enjoy a coffee along the bike path, five meters away from the waterside.

But not only you drink a brew or get your breakfast or lunch, you bring your bike to the shop behind the cafe for repairs or even better to buy a brand new one. I know cycling and coffee is our thing, but you can also start running, kano or yoga. So they can call themselves a sportsbar too. 

No outfit?, no problem eather, they have a small sports clothing division too on the same address. And of course you can sit outside on the terrace enjoying your coffee and cake. 

The very friendly staff is very helpfull but....

Maybe the only negative point was that the espresso macchiato can be a bit stronger, same issue with the ice caffé latté, a bigger coffee shot would be perfect. Now I had the feeling drinking a milkshake with coffee taste.

Bikeking is the shop in the back where you can buy bikes, the home brands are BMC, Moustache & Benno. Mountain bikes, race bikes and E-bikes are available.

  
Cup Coffee- corner Bataviabrug and Schipperskaai - 9000 Gent
closed on monday - https://hello.cup.gent/landing

EuroCyclingTrips.com - C.M.I. Pro Cycling Team

Put some weird bike riders, a few cycling lovers and some crazy ideas together, and you have the perfect mixture to set up a professional cycling team.
Weird bike riders are easy to find, there are no others! But maybe the most extra different ones, you find around a French town, named Toulouse. Hard to understand cause of their accent, it sounds like French, but they understand each other, so that is a bonus. Good thing is they speak English too, well kinda.
Cycling lovers you can find easely in Belgium, no doubt about that. So that is where those two Frenchies found two volunteers to be called from now on : Staff !
Ideas, 100s, 1000s or even more, no problem, but none seems to work, so we will see what comes.
And then you have those strange guys that wanna ride for the team. You can not imagine what funny reasons they find out to become member of the team.
O just one problem, money. There is hardly any money.... so far. Not important, sponsors will line up the moment the results are there. But again ..... but...... no races. Some Chinese bat or some idiot or whatever created a virus. No need to give any explanation about this subject I guess. Unless you been living under a rock or been flying in from another planet.

Now serious, we have done two races in New Zealand (The New Zealand Cycle Classic and Gravel and Tar) and three in Greece (The Tour of Rhodes, GP Rhodes and some criterium). And that was it. We had races on our program in France, Belgium, Swiss, Spain, Macedonia, Kosovo, South Africa, Indonesia, etc...
Now it is waiting for? For what? I donnu, hopefully soon we get green light for a start.
We our ready, we have kit, bikes, team cars, even post cards!

                        
 

Before I introduce the riders I have to tell you that our team is registered in Guam. "Guam?" I hear you say.
Guam is a U.S. island territory in Micronesia, in the Western Pacific. It's distinguished by tropical beaches, Chamorro villages and ancient latte-stone pillars. Guam’s WWII significance is on view at the War in the Pacific National Historical Park, whose sites include Asan Beach, a former battlefield. The island’s Spanish colonial heritage is evident in Fort Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, atop a bluff in Umatac. The capital is Hagatna and has a population of approx. 166000 people. It is about 540km²!
I have never been there, but it is on my bucket list!

these are our 16 riders:

Simeon Green, (Great Britain, 12 December 1979), alias Sim, the founder of the Continental team, lives in Albi in France. Started in several tours all over the world, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Serbia, Greece, Morocco etc... Loves a Chimay! Hates track and criterium races. British.

Guillaume "GuiGui" Soula, (France, 29 October 1980 in Toulouse) co founder of this team. 6th on GC Tour du Faso 2009, 4th on GC Tour du Faso 2010 and of course a globetrotter just like his mate Sim. Loves a good (French) red wine.

Romain "DuDu" Guillaume Duverger, (France, 2 March 1985), can climb, can sprint, can ride GC. Placed 5th on GC and Points in Tour of Kosovo 2019. The quiet man in the team, always happy!
The man you count on (and can!). Lives in Poitiers.

Thomas "Perotte" Peyroton-Dartet, (France, 9 July 1985), this man makes an unbelievable comeback after a horror crash in the Tour de Tahiti, September 2018. Good climber and is working hard on his return. 5th place in stage 5 in Tour du Maroc 2010.

Robert Orr, (Great Britain, 1 October 1980 in Nuneaton), From 2017 till 2019 pro with Memil Cycling Team. 5th place in stage 7 Tour du Maroc 2013, 28th Omloop v/h Waasland 2015. Strong rider in stage races.

Boris Clark, (New Zealand, 28 January 1995), Probably the best rider on our team in the New Zealand races. Had to pull out the Cycle Classic, due to mechanical, in the KOM leaders jersey. Finished 10th in Gravel & Tar too. Was 8th in the New Zealand ITT championship 2016.

Matias "T" Fitzwater, (New Zealand, 29 March 1998), together with Boris our big hopes in the team, performed really well in the New Zealand opening races. Was really keen and ready for Europe, but must wait a bit longer to come over to Belgium. I know "T" since he rode with us in the New Zealand national U23 team. Finished 3th in the U23 GC Tour du Maroc 2019, 30th in GP Criquielion in Belgium.

Alexander "Smytie" Smyth (Malta, 10 December 1988) Alex is the current National Champion of Malta, but lives in Melbourne, Australia. Rode for different conti teams in the past (2011 Worldofbike.com, 2015 African Wildlife Safaris CT, 2016 State of Matter-MAAP CT, 2017 NSWIS, 2018 Drapac CT). I know Smythie since 2011, and is a regular visitor in Belgium to race the kermesses. Is a good GC rider and sprinter. Finished 3 times 6th in stages in Tour of Indonesia 2010, 5th in the Oceania Championship 2011, 3th in stage 2 Tour of Singkarak 2012, Came 13th on GC in Tour of Kosovo 2019.

Jake Klajnblat, (Australia, 22 March 1994 in Melbourne) Strong Aussie, been racing many years in Belgium as Elite rider. Finished 20th in Omloop der Vlaamse Gewesten 2012.

Nathan Bunn, (New Zealand, 30 March 1989) Hopefully he gets the chance to come to Belgium soon.

Peter Lombard, (Guam, 24 May 1976 in Mong Mong Toto Maite) one of our four Guam riders. Looking forward to meet these guys.

Gorgi Popstefanov, (Macedonia, 19 July 1987) Macedonian National Road Champion in 2010, 2016. Lives in the U.S. Represented his country at the Worlds 2014 and 2015.

Dan Aponik, (Guam, 17 May 1972) Current Guam National Road Champion.

Jonathan Martin, (Guam, 9 October 1985) represented his country 3 times at Oceania's Championship

James Mowatt, (Australia, 28 May 1990) Former Conti rider of Peter Bauwens's team in Belgium Colba-Superano 2012 and 2013, In 2015 he joined the Aussie Conti team Data3-Symantec. Finished 9th in the GP Nogent sur Oise 2012, 18th in Antwerpse Havenpijl 2013, 7th in stage 2 Herald Sun Tour 2015.

Joffrey Degueurce, (France, 24 August 1997) In fact Joffrey is a track rider, but finished 15th in the U23 ITT championship in France. Will have a go on the road with our team.

Derek Horton, (Guam, 26 September 1972) represented Guam at Oceanias in 2005.

Staff members: Lieve Drieghe (soignee) and Dirk Van Hove (DS)

Feb 2020, holiday in Australia

Torquay, Heathcote, Nagambie, Moroopna, Bright, Table Top, Wangaratta, Mansfield, Carlton North, Hepburn Springs, Dixon's Creek, Mt Evelyn, Leongatha. Great names. Most people think, where the hell is this! I can tell you they are all little towns in Victoria, Australia. One bigger then the other but all cozy, with at least one hotel (read: pub), restaurant, coffee bar, bike shop, bottle shop, an I.G.A. and a R.S.L.
So no problem to find food, drinks or spare tubes.
The main goal of the second stint in Australia was The Herald Sun Tour and the Melbourne to Warrnambool race but....

But first things first. When you stay in Torquay for the Cadel race and it is 44°Celsius, don't ride your bike! It is crazy, it is not done, it is irresponsible! Not that we did that, or actually yes we did but...
We leave the accomodation with a nice 25°C and sunny, direction Queenscliff for a 70km ride. Beautiful day, nice ride along the ocean. Arriving in Queenscliff, plenty of time, lunch and a hot-rod car show. We hang around, way too long and start our return way too late. Halfway our return ride we had a cold drink with Liam White, warning us for the heat, but too late! The temperature went up to 44°, no shelter, no wind, no nothing. We stopped at a surf club, where they had an outdoor shower. O so nice for another 10 minutes !! We finally got back with the help of Wazza! Thanks mate.

How good is it when you can meet a rider from Gent in Australia. Iljo is also the godfather of our sunday morning cycling club WTCDK, with a base in Gent, café De Karper. The worldwide famous sportsbar in Belgium run by his father Ronie Keisse! Those who travel to Flanders for the classics or Gent 6 must get a beer in this great bar.

Another spot we visit every year is the suburb of Melbourne called Essendon North. There lives a family we know since 1984 or is it 1983. The Neiwands, a family of cyclists, Ron, an ex pro married to Barb, a real cycling mama and their sons Gary (world champion and olympic medallist) and Craig (envolved with Melbourne 6 and Darebin track). It was great to catch up again with them, having a nice meal at the hotel and a few sherbets!


On our way to Heathcote, we had to stop in the middle of nowhere, cause a herd of sheep had to cross the street. The shepherd (on a motorbike) and three border collies where guiding 100s of sheep into a smaller fold. In the shed next to the pen the scissors were waiting. While the sheep crossed the road the farmer ask us where we came from. O Belgium, wanna see some sheep shearing? Drive 2km up that road, we'll meet ya at the shed mate. (good advise when you travel to Australia, do not plan a lot in advance, as before you know you spend an hour in a shed where some young male and female shearers do there jobs with loud music). Great entertainment and amazing handy people making a sheep a few kg's lighter then they walked in.

Next, the Sun Tour, always been a big favourit race for me. Since the 80's I kinda love this race. Maybe because I knew so many riders who rode it. Mc Farlane, the Hammonds, Bulldog, Delongville's, Vennie, Provis and other Vandeperre's, all names and friends. And it took untill this year to be part of what they used to call the "Fun Tour". Anyway this edition we followed with former National Road champ and former Sun Tour stage winner David Mc Farlane and his wife Maree. We booked accomodation in Bright (close to the brewery!) and stayed with friends of Macca in Nagambie. Only few km's away from the official start in Mitchelton (the winery of Gerry Ryan). The plan was to be at the start of the Warrny as well, but our complete travel scedule had to be re-organised to be on time in Avalon. Lieve and I decided to cancel this plan and keep in holiday mode for the rest of the weeks in Victoria.
We drove up to Albury and Wodonga to meet Ashley Humbert and Rhys Pollock, two former Drapac riders. A visit at the local brewery and a morning ride the next day with Ash and Rhys made it a special one. Lucky they ride also a bit slower then few years ago.

A great stop on our trip was Wangaratta. Home of Barry Burns, a Vietnam vet who was a pro rider at the age when most retire. He rode all the big races in Australia, came over to Belgium to ride kermesses, would have been member of the Italo/Australia pro team Polli-Mobiexport but a nasty crash stopped this plan. Later in the 90's I met him again at the Tour of Luxemburg as a staff member of the Giant - AIS pro team. And yes now we had a nice diner, some beers to bring up heeps of stories and memories.
Just accross our accomodation we found one of the best restaurants we dined at, "Watermarc Dining". A beautiful outdoor deck, friendly staff, great food and very nice wines.
From Wangaratta we rode to Eldorado, a 62km loop on a nice bikepath and very calm roads. A lovely sunny day out on the bike.

A place I love to bring up on our way to Beechworth, the home of Ned Kelly is a little coffee house. A young girl opened this little place on a not so busy road in a not so busy town. But man I was happy that I stopped here for a coffee. I think I could come here every morning to have my brew. Can't explain what feeling I had, but it was fantastic. The few people going in and out, friendly, talketive. Even know now the whole story of an old lady who told me she had to go home as her dog was alone, she took 10 minutes of the time of a DHL courier at the way out, and he apologised after five minutes that he really had to go. The sun was gently shining in the meantime and the coffee was perfect. And Lieve saw that it was good. The name of the coffee bar: Ineeta Cafe.

Carlton North, another catch up with lifetime friends, David & Susan Mc Kenzie, Alby Iacuone. Macca (yea, all Mc.... are Maccas) organised an unforgettable evening at the Bodriggy Brewing Company. No need to tell ya the beers I tasted were yummy, so was the food and the company. Again stories from our IteamNova period came up. David, who we usually see every year at the spring classics or at the Tour, Allan, we only see every few years.
The next day we went for a 40km ride around Melbourne with David as a perfect guide and finished it off with coffee on the Southbank. Like Susan said later: still living the dream.


Lieve and I travelled towards the Yarra Valley, staying at the Devine Escape, then continuing to the Healsville Sanctuary.
The last visit before heading home was Leongatha, since 1985 THE town (I call it the capital of Australia) were I have been staying almost every time I flew over to Aus. So must be around, pff 10 times. It is the place were I spent my first night in Australia ever. March 1985 at Brown Street. Over the years I know more streets such as Parr Street and Gray Street, lol. Who lives there?  The Mc Farlanes and the Watchorns. Leongatha is part of Gippsland, a nice and windy place to go for a ride, but it can be hot too. Had it all over the past years. They have a hotel (read: pub), a R.S.L., a milk factory, a news agency, an I.G.A. But above all this, a lot of good friends!
It was great catching up again with Terry, Yvonne, David, Maree, Jordan, Tom, Leon, Lois, Bec and Ben!

Back in Melbourne we also catched up with Jamie, brother of Shane Kelly. A rider I met in Belgium in the 80s, but had enormous bad luck few years ago. Jamie ended up in a wheelchair. Need to find a signed picture of Eddy Planckaert for him!


To finish the whole 2020 trip Down Under we had dinner at a Japanese resto with the Giramondo's and Docker's.

pff that's it for Feb, talk to you soon. Cheers!