So, we’re in the French speaking part of Belgium now. I’m working on my French daily. I downloaded a pamphlet titled ‘crash course to French.’ It’s actually saved me a couple times now, I can’t say I’m slaying the French women with my 12 words of French, but at least I’m working on it. Merry Christmas / Happy New Year to everyone who’s been reading my blog. The racing over here has been interesting so far. Last week we hit the race in Zeddam, Netherlands, where I raced the world champs back in 06′. I was completely shelled in 06′ when I did worlds and ended up 35th. I’m a lot happier and fresher these days. I was able to make it to the front of the race and was really happy. I accomplished a goal of mine that I’ve had for the last 4+ years. It wasn’t a world cup, but it was an amazing day for me as a rider. With that said, tomorrow is the world cup in Hofstade, Belgium. I usually don’t love the course in the sand, but I’ve been working on my running, staying positive, we’ve got the right tires glued and the support is top this year, so with some luck I’ll have fun and get in there again. What else? The euro camp guys are awesome, it was nice to re-unite with a lot my Belgian friends and give everyone a big Belgian style hug and a Flemish hellow! Mario took my dad up to the beaches of west Flanders and Brugge since he’s never been, which he loved. Last night Matt Pacocha and his wife Cathy came over and Tim, Lyne, Matt, Cathy, our host family and my father and I all had an awesome Christmas eve dinner and opened a couple presents, it felt awesome, we have a huge tree and the fireplace goin’. So thats pretty much the update. I’m here, I’ll be updating, thanks for coming through. If your looking for that motivation to get on the bike, just download Clinton Sparks new mix tape, its un-real, thank you Clinton Sparks for that Christmas present to all. It is the sickest mix-tape ever. For free, for me and everyone else. Here’s the LINK, just download it, trust me.

Seeya.

Alright. Made it to Belgium a on Tuesday. My man Mario picked my dad and I up and brought us back to where I’ll be staying for the next 5 weeks. My flight was okay despite my ribcage looking like someone took a baseball bat to it after I crashed on the ice in Kansas, which made the sitting a little uncomfortable. As for the race, I know everyone read the report, but, quick recap would be. The race was going well. I made it to the front, was battling, had a couple error’s but, who didn’t, we were racing on ice! Looking back on it, I could have done a couple things differently, especially in my glove selection. I should have worn something water proof, when I fell, I put my hand in a big puddle and it got pretty frickin’ cold, thats putting it light. My hand was frosted over like morning dew on grass. Along with breaking a shifter clear off my bike when I fell and smashing my chest on the ice, it was tough to get back going. I managed to make it back to Wicks in fourth, but my mind was playing tricks, it didn’t want me to push it on any more corners. Rightfully so. I don’t know how long bruised up ribs take to heal, but the doctor says nothing is broken and its just pain, which was music to my ears. It’s one thing to hit the deck, lose a big race, but to end the season with that crash would have been a real drag. So I am extremely grateful for my luck (in a weird way). I am staying in a new location in Belgium this year. It’s more in the woods and has a lot of rolling hills. Very similar to my training grounds in Massachusetts. They do speak French though, not my best language. It’s been cold in the mornings but warms up through-out the day and I’ve been getting in some good rides, better then back home even, so thats good. A video of Tim and I, pre-nationals has been up-loaded to the internet. Tim’s eating an ice cream cone, doing doughnuts in the rental car. I’m laughing way too much, but its funny, my laughing actually makes me laugh. Check out Neil from Road Mag’s BLOG to see it. So, I’m off for a training ride, it’s finally warm enough. Look for some more updates after my first race on Sunday. Seeya.

Excuse my absence from blogging. You can all thank Apple for my lack of updates. My laptop and I were cool and then the battery died so I had to get that fixed. Then the hinge on the screen cracked, so that had to be replaced too; somewhere in between, Apple thought it was going to be cool to try and put the charges on me for those repairs. I told them pretty simply. ‘Why would I buy an extended warranty if I didn’t want this fixed for free?’ They tried to blame it on this minuscule sized blemish on the corner of the case for the hinge breaking. righhtt. They went on to tell me how it was made of titainium dioxide carbonate hoopla whoopla. So my response to that was…”whys it broken then?” I got it back, finally. So here we are. Re-united. A lot of people were wondering what happened in Portland. First off, Portland hates me. Last year I felt like we called a truce, wrong, I ended up heading out the race sick! Head cold sick. I think my Niece Carolyn might have been the culprit for my mis fortune, she’s only 4, and extremely cute, I couldn’t help myself from getting a smooch after my race in Sterling a couple weeks back. With the illness 95% gone, I am happy to have bounced back and grab another win this weekend in Rhode Island. I raced most of the race with Wellzy and there were a couple sandy sections, one lap T-$ flung a serious hunk of sand in my mouth, I mutter’d. ‘blah, you got sand in my mouth and he told me to ‘eat it up’. Thanks bud! He’s a good guy and right after the race, we’re both happy to congratulate each other and joke about what sections we were good and bad in etc. Nice to race a people like that. I was sorry to have find out Jon Baker crashed and broke his collar bone. What a long year for him, taking lumps in Europe and now a busted c-bone. To Baker: a speedy recovery! Wu-Tang has a new album that just dropped and a mix tape out thats out now for free. yep. free, I’ve attached the link below so you can chek-it out. I used to pump a lot of wu-tang and the new cd ‘8 diagrams’ won’t disappoint, I’m sure of it. I did order a coffin case for my turntables the other day, so they are officially going to be carted across the world to follow me around in my quest to be the only cross’ racer who spins the clubs after the races. Massage, hah! I’m hittin the club. (just kidding) It’s off to nationals on Friday, As many of you know, its been typical KC weather, ice storms, power outages, pretty much the most treacherous conditions known to cavemen who roamed the tundra before we had power. So you bet we’ll be out there making it happen. Thanks to everyone who’s written e-mails, text messages, called, myspaced/facebooked me, whatever! I appreciate every little bit of it. Seeya,

http://www.loud.com/downloads/Wu-TangReturns.zip