That's a Wrap

The northern Spring Classics are done and dusted! Casa dulce casa, back home sweet home in Girona right now after finishing Tour of Flanders yesterday.Oh... wait a tic. Oops, yup that's right, Paris-Roubaix is Sunday. Okay well then, I'll head up to le France and bang out another cobbled classic in a week, but my point still remains that finishing Tour of Flanders yesterday wraps up two exemplary weeks for Cannondale Pro Cycling in Belgium.In the meantime before Sunday's menacingly nicknamed Hell of the North I'll rest up with ample siestas and enjoy this quick week at home in tranquillo Catalunya. For a quick run-down, over these past two weeks in chronological orders, Peter nabbed 2nd at the race with the coolest, most robotic name since the Ster-ElectroToer, that is E3/Harelbeke on Friday. He then took the win two days later in the ragingly fast, kermess-like, wind-torn, weather shortened Gent-Wevelgem. Carrying solid momentum we won stage one of the ZreeeDaaasgeofDePa(i)n... naturally with Peter. Elia Viviani had a solid 2nd place on stage two an then he rounded out the podium on stage 3a. We decided that riding "easy" in the final time trial would be prudent with the gem of the entire week, the Ronde Van Vlaanderen taking place just about 60 hours later on Sunday, so no podium on De Panne's stage 3b. Easter Sunday, just yesterday, was RVV and Peter came up one step short of the win. Obviously Peter is a prodigious young talent and will have his day on the top step, but we are a hard working team and are still pleased with the hard work throughout this chunk of time.I'm also pleased with this picture from BrakeThrough Media. See that fellow in the green? That's me rolling to the start, whistling a lively tune, amid the 80,000 person masses in Brugge. The energy at Flanders is just mesmerizing. And if the above information and rad picture were too much to handle, I've created a nifty chart. It has both color and images, but it's neither color coordinated nor in any way congruent.My oh my, now that's a nice chart!Here are even more interesting numerical tidbits from the week:29F = Estimated average temperature for our entire stay in Kortrijk. This is spring, right?2 = Number of Trappist Westvleteren 12s that I acquired during my stay, through means I won't explain here. But I will say a sincere thank you Dave.10 out of 10 = my stoke factor for the above acquisition. Remember, these beers are perfect, 100 out of 100.3 = Number of times in two weeks that I nipped from the secretly delivered maple syrup. My Sunday's RVV was certainly helped fueled by nature's mapley goodness. Thank you Dave, Rory, and flannel clad maple sugaring man who produced this sweet prize.7,300 = kJs burned on Sunday's race.1 = # of hours of sleep that we were robbed the night before the race, because Europe does their daylight savings the inconvenient evening before RVV. This is particularly painful when we have to wake up when the clock reads 6:30am... so it feels like a 5:30 wake up.10 = lbs of exquisite Belgian dark chocolate shaped into an Easter egg that Peter won at Wevelgem. It may have been more than one meter tall, it may have shattered in transit back to the hotel that evening, and we maaaaaay have wrapped up the evening of Flanders with what I'll call "recovery chocolate".I will also add that the mysterious Kermit the Frog green Cannondale, photos of which you have have seen circling the internet, on which we have been perched the past two weeks, have been outstanding and serving us exceptionally well. More details, you ask? TBD. Patience, young Grasshopper(s).And lastly, I snapped one final photo just before leaving Belgium that I needed to share with you. It's a rare picture of the native Flemish Speculoos in it's natural habitat. Moreover, it's the even rarer sighting of the pair - yellow and red. Extremely elegant as they stand there, I dare say.None of this knock off TJ's "Cookie Butter" which just sounds misplaced, artificial, and wrong.