Over the pond!

So after a bit of stressful travel, including one returned trans-atlantic flight due to engine generator failure, I've finally made it to the small town of Oostkamp, Belgium and have almost completed my fist week of the Euro racing life. Being true to form, the Belgian weather upon arrival was a spritely 38 F with a nice constant drizzle/mist and a fairly steady breeze, and I could not have had a bigger grin on my face for worse weather. After a fairly short train trip and drive, two of my other teammates and I arrived at the newly built team house in Oostkamp. The team so far is a mix of a few Aussie riders from Team Rush out of Melbourne, a couple of Canadian riders, a few Americans including myself, and a handful of Belgian riders to round out the mix. So far the majority of riding has been easy and aimed mainly at getting used to the different riding conditions, environment, and ways of the road. However, towards the end of this week we have quickly tried to get back into real training mode to rapidly prepare for our first real race, Paris-Troyes. This is a real deal race. A UCI 1.2 rated event with pro Continental teams including Agritubel and Katyusha totaling roughly 168k in distance or about 105 miles. It's a bit of an early leap into the deep end but I honestly can't think of a better way to do it :) I should be posting up some pics tomorrow of the week so far and there should also be a fair amount of pics to come. Thanks again to everyone who has helped me get here and encouraged me to go. I made it.