I feel like I’m trying to jump on a moving train, the time adjustment is killing me today. Crashed @ 8:45 woke up at 4 AM. Not that I’m complaining, just saying. The upside is it gives me plenty of quiet time to process images. First training ride in three weeks today, that oughta be fun.

Got home last night after a long day of travel, but it was nice getting up and having a good cup of coffee. The Belgians do several things well but coffee is not among them. Brutal, in fact. The crowds at the CX Worlds were unbelievable, especially on Sunday. Moving around the course was super challenging. People stayed in the same spot for 8-9 hours, just stuck in the mud, literally. And drunk as hell, I man really drunk. It’s a good thing a Belgian won the Elite race, it might have been sort of ugly if Page had won. here are some random thoughts, observations on what I saw from the inside of Worlds:

•The pressure on the Belgian riders was immense and pretty much cracked most of them. Sure, Wellens had some rotten luck but Nys, Vantourenhout, and Vantornout were way below their best.

•The Belgian fans hate the Dutch, I mean hate them. When they announced a crash by Groenendaal there was massive cheering and applause.

•While the Belgian fans went big, I think the Czech fans went bigger. I saw a crew of Zdenek Stybar supporters who had brought their own keg to the course, a full-size keg, and were at it hard at 8:30. The racing didn’t start until 11 and Stybar didn’t race until 2:30.

•I would have liked to see Lars Boom race the Elites on Sunday, couldn’t have bet against him medaling in that too. He looked the best to me of any rider all weekend. And that’s not just because he has an awesome cycling name.

Moe later.

Not much else to say today. Never did I think when I decided to come over here that I’d see two Americans in the mix for the wins on the last laps of the CX Worlds. But there it was, J.Page silver, K. Compton silver. Just crazy. The Belgians were bumming for sure, but they were so drunk they didn’t care too much. Big batch of images to get through, well, not that big but bigger than I can handle right now. Fly home tomorrow AM. BTW, this is as pro as it gets. Grimbergen Blond tonight, nice mellow beer.

…goes the dynamite. Lars Boom just laying down a cold Dutch ass whupping in the U-23 race at the CX Worlds today. The sandbox is like a gift from above on this course, for photographers at least, and Boom was simply killing it through the sand every time. I never would have imagined the day would be sunny and warm but it was. Go figure. It wasn’t too bad getting around the course but tomorrow will definitely be a different story, loads of loaded Belgies slipping in the mud. I’m about ready to get home, good thing tomorrow’s it.

Went over to Ieper this morning to the hotel where the Dutch team is staying, saw R. Groenendaal show up to do some “opening” work. He picked one of his 5 (!) ‘cross bikes, set it on some rollers, and got busy. That’s tough. Then it was back to Izegem and over to the course. The course is getting wrecked, which depending on how you look at it is either a good thing or not such a good thing. It is going to be plenty muddy by the end of tomorrow. Some of the drops in the course are really sketchy. You’re going across the fall line on snot slick Belgian field mud, three times within about 90 seconds. Mark my words, someone big is going to eat it hard on one of those little chutes. Negotiating the shooting is going to be interesting, there is a lot of hard fencing and with 30,000 crazy (drunk) spectators getting from place to place is going to take some pre-planning. Just counted and I’ve shot 17 rolls of film over here. Did not eat frites today, does that mean I can eat twice tomorrow? Drinking a nice lambic, a BelleVue Geueze. Lambic’s aren’t usually my thing but this one is nice and mild.

Spent last night in Brugge and got up at the crack of dawn, which is like 8:30 here in Belgium, to shoot some early morning light stuff. Got all Condé Nast Traveller on it. Just such a pretty place, it’s easy to fall into all the clichéd photos. Trained it down to Izegem, which is kinda a pit compred to Oudenaarde and Brugge, and we went over to the Worlds course check it out. It is going to be so muddy and heavy by Sunday. I was standing in one spot for about 15 minutes and could see the ruts getting deeper with each passing group of riders. There’s this one climb on the backside that is going to break so many racers, just a long, reasonably steep slog, then up and over a steep ramp, and then just as you’re recovering you go through a 50m long sand box. Nice.

Went over to Oudenaarde this AM, braving the brutal Brussels traffic with DA, to visit J. Page at his home. Oudenaarde was a great surprise, an especially beautiful mid-size town with an old central square and incredible old buildings. It also has the Tour of Flanders museum and my favorite thing, the Frank Vandenbroucke Supporters Club Bar. Okay, the guy won a bunch of huge races but we mainly know him as an unstable, drug cheat who threw most of his talent down the drain. Yeah, but he has a bar with his picture painted on the outside wall so that’s something. JP drove me over to the Koppenberg climb and while not long it is gnarly, steep and cobbled with round topped stones placed just far enough apart to eat your wheels. JP’s house was really sweet, he and Cori have spent a lot of time fixing it up and it’s the perfect contemporary Euro pad. He even showed his secret stash of Dugasts, but tell anybody. Trained it up to Brugges after lunch and it’s as nice a city as I remember. Quaint to within an inch of its life, but still vibrant and authentic. It snowed right near here, which is near the World’s course. How great would that be, snow on race day?

Got a chance to ride in the Fidea team car this morning and shoot the team on its training ride. Shooting was limited for a couple reasons but it was fun just the same. Here we see U-23 World Champ Zdenek Stybar followed by Belgian National Champ and Shawn White impersonator Bart Wellens. He rode for most of the 2.5 hour ride like that, but to be fair it was pretty cold out. You can tell Wellens is totally amped for the World Champs, he was sprinting out of corners, doing the climbs in his big ring (a 46t) and dangling off the front for big portions of time. Had some awesome bier last night but I forget what it was because it was damn strong. Is that wrong?

I could post mud pics all week from yesterday’s race, but this’ll be the last one. Gerben de Knegt after going face first into it, that’s pretty much full coverage. Trained it up to Brussels and then Diest this morning to meet with Ridley, check out their spot, etc. Hadn’t had a good Euro train ride in like 5 years. Pretty relaxing way to see a small country I must say. Going out to shoot the Fidea CX tomorrow, thanks to DA @ Ridley, should be very cool. The time adjustment has been very low impact, not a problem at all. I guess if you stay busy you can absorb things like a 6 hour timer difference a bit easier.

Shooting the World Cup in Hoogerheide today was nuts. A great course just over the Dutch border, Hoogereide was a full-on Euro ‘cross. And then it started to rain. It poured for 45 minutes before the men’s Elite race and it got cold and everything. The ‘cross scene was incredible, check out in this pic how Sven Nys has custom rainbow stripes painted on the sidewalls of his Dugasts, that is pro. Got some nice shots before it started to rain and once it did I just held on…