After having been in Belgium for just over a week, I can truly say I have a greater appreciation for sunshine. It's been raining on the bad days, and overcast and cold on the "good" days... But that's Europe and I'm coming to like it.

The daily rountine has been: getting out of bed at 8am, heading to the kitchen for breakfast (muesli, rolls with chocolate spread, coffee) and thinking about the day ahead. We usually leave the house at 9 or 10am and head out on one of hundreds of marked circuits. From cobbles, to laneways to open roads - we have it all.

Now to the racing! The racing is all criterium racing, 120km in length (10 x 12km laps) The laps are pretty intense with the riders going through city centres, past endless pubs and the most insane corners you could imagine. Each circuit usually has a "gutter section" - a long open stretch of road with nowhere to hide from the wind and the pace reaching 63km/h!! No jokes! We have been riding 20km to the race, racing and then riding home. So clocking 160km a day, 4 times a week is definitely something new.

Hope you enjoy the photo's. I'm off to dress up for a recovery ride - racing tomorrow! (again)