Living on the border of Brabant Walloon on the edge of the Meerdael Forest certainly has its advantages. Lots of hills and lots of forest just next to my door. One disadvantage is that I need to really make an effort to get a recovery ride in. Either I stay on the rollers, ride at 20kph or I ride to the North. Through Leuven and then further on towards Mechelen I can follow the Vaart canal which makes for a nice pannekoek ride. For those not familiar with the term, pannekoek means flat. In the week I tend to shy away from the traffic in the city but during the weekend Leuven is a quiet town and I have no trouble riding through it on my way to the canal. Today I set out for a short recovery ride - revovery for me means an average of below 109bpm - and I got in a fine ride averaging 106bpm. Only the first and last stretches of the ride had some denivellation in them , the sides of the pannekoek as it were.
Ride Stats : 30K and 100 heightmeters in 1h18mins
4723/39190
UCI Cross Country World Cup #2 , Offenburg, Germany
Definately NOT pannekoek was the 2nd leg of the UCI Mountainbike Cross Country World Cup at Offenburg. The girls had a dry race save for the last 2 laps, and Irina Kalentieva grabbed the win with a sizeable gap between her and Canadian Marie Helene Premont. Multiple World Champion Gunn Rita Dahle-Flesjaa was third.
all pics Copyright Adri Haine 2007
The Chinese delegation , which surprised us all at Houffalize earlier this year, could not pull that off again, but still Blue Jersey World Cup leader Ren Chengyuan got a solid 7th place. Marga Fullana got in another good ride finishing a strong 4th. Full story and some pictures at Canadian Cyclist. The full result can be found HERE
Here is the moment of glory for little Irina Kalentieva, when she wins after the race was rendered very tough and super-technical due to torrential rains.
 Pic Copyright Rob Jones
 Pic Copyright Rob Jones
to end, here is a video interview with one of the sports greatest : Canadian Alison Sydor. Video was shot in Offenburg before the race.
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