Wrap up

Home now and as always there is no place like it, especially on a brilliant sunny morning with our views.

Flight home was uneventful and shock horror my bike, in its new travel case, actually arrived in the baggage claim area before my bag which in itself arrived in the first ten bags on the carousel. After the trauma of the trip out that was quite something, I'm usually resigned for oversize baggage, my bike or my golf clubs, coming through after any other baggage.

Upon reflection this may have been my best racing trip ever. The weather was generally superb, I met up with some old friends, made some new friends and was more than happy with my race results. Certainly if you'd asked me before I went what sort of results I would have been happy with I would have said I would be happy with less than I achieved. The championship was a bit disappointing but that's my own fault and the best I could realistically have achieved was a top ten anyway. The key thing for me was that I could compete in the races rather than just hang in, I believe I achieved that in spades in the second half I just got stronger and stronger, I definitely needed a few races to bring me on.

As always my hotel was brilliant, I couldn't recommend it more highly. If anybody wants accommodation in Belgium as a base for racing or holiday, then www.bovendael.com is definitely the place. Jurgen and Inga will look after you, they have always been super helpful to me, the accommodation is great, Wim the chef can cater for any dietary needs, even bike riders. I should mention that the hotel hosts many pro teams from Sky and BMC, down to some of the smaller Italian teams, so they are well used to bike riders. The location is great, easy to find, close to motorways but located in a quiet village surroundings. Importantly it is very convenient for all WAOD and VWF races being pretty much central, no races are more than 45 minutes away.