First race of the trip!!!!!!!

Today was the first race of the camp. For some, it went really well, for others it went ok, and for others it went really bad. For starters it's a shame our buddy Bjorn's bag came because it would have been nice if he was racing in our team colors. His performance was by far the most impressive of the day. With major jet lag (we are all still on U.S. time) he managed to finish 8th only 2 seconds off the win in one the most prestigious (hence the name, "Diegem Super Prestige") fields in the world. Not to mention he was racing on a borrowed bike.
For team TIAA-CREF/Clif bar U.S. national champions, Troy Wells and Danny Summerhill both had very respectable rides. Troy scored a top 25 which he will most definitely be able to improve upon and Danny pulled off a very impressive 17th in his first European race ever. Very strong rides by both. However, Alex Howes and Brady Kappius did not fare so well. Alex crashed during warm up and injured his hip, severely hindering his race performance. Brady, on the other hand was forced to abandon the race after bending the laws of physics and wrapping his chain completely backwards on his chain ring. Major bummer.
Any ways life is good in the land of Flanders. The sun actually came out for Christmas eve today and we had an amazing dinner that consisted of sweat potato spinach waffles, rabbit, apple sauce and some wicked good Christmas cake. All of us are also smiling about JIM TV's Belle Perez weekend. She is a beauty that the states will never know. What a shame.

Thanks for reading and if you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas,

eurocrossers

Alright, so I'm sitting on my bed surrounded by the sounds of Europe. Diesel cars chugging in the street, crappy euro trash tunes pumped out by the JIM tv (Europe's equivalent to MTV), and Brady screaming, "Man I want some rice pudding!" Not much going on, this side of the pond today. We all went for a typical euro ride (nice and wet), Brady managed to tip it over but he's alright, and a few of us went out for some super fluffy waffles. Dang, I wish I was eating one right now! Tomorrow is our first race. The race is in Diegem tomorrow. It is a sweet course, hopefully we can get cool pictures.

Time to eat some steamed vegetables,
Alex

P.S. - We have a new team member! Bjorn Selander

P.P.S. - Not really, his bags and bike have yet to show up so he borrowed some clothes.

We made it!

Team TIAA-CREF has successfully made it to Europe! Alex and Brady made it in Thursday morning, and Troy and Danny made it later in the afternoon. Troy's bags are still in transit, but they should be here by tomorrow. The flights were fairly uneventful, the usual sardine style packing. The weather is the usual cloudy, grey, and rainy. Awesome cross weather.

Tomorrow is one day of training before our first race on Saturday.

We are all pretty tired, so we are going to bed, but we will be back tomorrow. Hopefully we will have some pictures too.