Ronde de Von Vlaandren

It's April, and that means the start of the Spring Classics! Claire and Shawn came in from Canada this weekend, so we drove up to Brugges, Belgium to catch the wet, cobbly mayhem of Tour of Flanders. The evening before the race we were even able to meet up with a local from Brugge whom Erik had met at a race in Portugal!

We could walk to the start of the race from our hotel. The stars were all out (Boonen, Armstrong, Hincapie, Cancellara, Macewan, Flecha, Hushovd, Gilbert), as was what seemed like the entire population of Belgium. Fantastic!Even the children were out. I liked this little invention. Low cost and kept this girl amused for a long time!

The local favorite to win was Boonen. Seemed to be very popular with the ladies, too. It's hard to see quite clearly but, in the smaller picture here, this lady has actually pasted his head onto a dog that she is petting. Not creepy at all. By the time we were going back to our car and had learned that Cancellara had won, passed this again and the smaller picture was gone. Oh how fickle fans can be.

Hanging around good friends from home was a lot of fun. I miss Canadian humour and the cycling scene.