Oh Yeah!

So good to see your team mates rocking your kit design. Geeeon! Hup The Belgians!

Dig...

Seriously digging the photos by Cheryl King at the moment.

See more of her stuff here or over at flickr

Go and buy some of her stuff, tell her The Belgians sent you.

Spot the Difference...

Leverhulme Park, Bolton.

First cross race of the season after a few weeks lost on a trip to Canada.

First lap and a serious case of ham fisted overshifting sees the left shift lever snap cleanly in half and fly over my right shoulder. I let out a wail.

Not for any injury caused but the thought of money hemorrhaging from my wallet.

Idle Hands...

Idle hands make quick work of screening your logo on the ubiquitous neoprene chainstay protector.

Sweet.

We're going for a ride...

Simply put, we're* going for a loop around some of Cheshire's finest secret spots, unpaved, gravel, broken and a healthy dose of cobble (at least 10 sectors of cobble squire!). A leisurely pace for a few hours soul riding. Catchups and laughter mandatory. Join us if you fancy it, 30 - 40 miles, a couple of hours or more. Social.

Were riding through Romiley (here) at around 10.30 a.m. Two cafés there if you're coming along, grab a coffee keep an eye out for us.

Last word. I have a petit Arenburg, proceed with caution. Lightweight carbon equipment may quake with fear, dress your bicycle accordingly.

*(we - Me, Crossjunkie, Mark Sportsart)

ROSSO CORSA...New Team Kit

If you were thinking of joining the team now's your chance. We're putting an order together for Summer Kit and were going RED.

Items available (supplied by Champion System) are:

Short sleeve jerseys: £38.50 + postage

Long sleeve jerseys: £45.00 + postage

Gilets: £37.00 + postage

Summer Caps: £8.00 + postage

Short and warmers are your own choice as long as they're black.

Remember once you buy a jersey, you're on the squad with access rights to blog to your hearts content.

If your interested drop me and email at herecomethebelgians@gmail.com and I'll forward you an order form.

Orders close 5.00 P.M. Monday 26th April

Haute Crossture...

Maybe you're buying team kit, maybe you're not. Maybe you're just interested anyway. New post here about our team kit buying habits...keep an eye out, there's new stuff on the horizon.

Service Course...

I'm doing some general housekeeping of the Team HCtB's service course and have some items to move out.

First of all Team Caps.

Italian made (same manu as the pro peleton's) black cotton caps. One size fits all. Screened in white on either side and top peak by my own fair hands (waterbased yet washfast ink to be good to the enviro and myself). I have 5 prototypes left (ink has slightly bled on some prints) hence the price of £5.00 plus postage to wherever you are.

Secondly, T-shirts.

I have 2, size medium, black t-shirts with the team logotype centre chest. Haynes Slim fit so small fitting. £15.00 each plus postage to wherever you are.

Interested? Drop me an email and we can sort it out, no hard sell.

What's next...

Our cold season is over, well it would be if someone had told the weather gods.

Our cross season is finally over. We've raced hard, slipped & slithered, crashed, broken bike parts yet never had broken spirits. Best of all we've laughed hard and had a great time. I'll try and recap some of our experiences over the next few weeks and posts.

So here's looking forward. The Classics.

I'm genuinely excited. I've suffered a couple of weeks of post cross blues, luckily reinvigorating myself by putting together a single speed to train on through the foul weather, just a little nod to the training tactics of our all time heroes. Add to that the discovery of Roubaixesque country lanes (yes, cobbles) and I'm primed for the spring.

So to something that's inspired me. It maybe an old clip but the monochrome kit and hard riding have given me inspiration for my own single adventures, especially on the uphill at the breakdown (minus the downhill jellyleggedness).

Merry Crossmas!!

Just a quick post to wish everyone out there a Happy Christmas. May Santa bring you good form to battle through the snow in your local cross outing - I hope he brings me some, yet I feel my rendezvous with liquid Christmas cheer may scupper that (see you all at Macc Supercross).

The holidays are soon upon us (we're counting down the hours, minutes, seconds) and I can't wait for the festivities to begin (bread sauce anyone?). I'm also feeling a little excitement for the coming Belgian cross races as I think a head to head (can you have that between 3) battle will erupt, the protagonists being Nys, Stybar and Albert. It throws me back to the excitement I had as a child scanning the TV guide (pre digital print kids!) to plan my morning viewing of BMX Beat and waiting for Andy Ruffell to go into raptures as Pepi Winder pulls a Cherrypicker.

Stoke.

So have a good one, eat, drink and be merry, I'm searching my SKY planner for Worlds Strongest Man.

Juggling...

I've been juggling quite a few things recently and in the process things tend to get dropped. Unfortunately the frequent blog posting was the the thing to fall to the floor (much like myself in recent cross races - but that's another muddy story).

So what's been going on here that's caused a breakdown in transmission?

A recipe of racing, training, artworking and working. Blend until finely chopped then add some more. Garnish with team kit design and screen printing... stop, relax (for a beer break), then repeat.

First up is poster work for Chipps Chippendale at Singletrack magazine.



This poster is the all singing all dancing infomercial and three more versions exist, which I'll upload in due course once I've crushed the files to fit.

More detail about the race can be found here.

Checking in...

Hello!

I'm still here, don't worry, don't fret, I haven't handed in the key to the blog rental, it's just that it's veldrijden season and we're veldrijding. Don't believe me? Check out some great photos here and race reports here. Whilst I'm obviously chasing form both in the legs and lungs (come on lungs don't let me down) I'm pleased to see my path to facial austerity coming to fruition.

A little bit of a round up post rather than thorny issues...although is this the beginning of one? I have an angle I wish to pursue in another post, ON YOUR LEFT!!

Great videos on Andy Waterman's blog, at last as an English speaker you get the inside story. Oh and while Andy's a Stybar fan I think I root for Albert... Does that allow us to dress in supporters club jackets, heckle each other and throw beer on our opposing rider (or rubber chicken at Stybar's chicken wing)?

Cobble addicts need to check Geoff Waugh's photo's here. Then sit back in a semi comatose state of euphoria until the next hit*... or spring. It's not far away (don't say that I'm enjoying cross too much) and apparently Lars Boom's focusing his effort on the classics. Does my Boom/Boonen showdown seem closer to reality? *Arenberg - a two hit process. The bike hits the cobble, you hit the ground.

Pavé blog have a kit. Cool Eurostyling at work.

Have a look at the 'flick through' of embrocation mag no.4 Undeniably makes me want to buy it... or figure a way of scaling the video whilst maintaining resolution to have a read.

Back home.

Simon Nurse (future HCTB rider) is promoting his race in Cardiff this weekend. Apparently the speed has gone up this year so bring the nitrous or pray for rain.

I'm putting some artwork together for Chipps at Singletrack mag for the Todmorden cross (3rd Jan) watch out for the artwork, then be there to see the craziness.

Team HCTB are soon to have some apparel...well t-shirts to be exact and if there's enough demand beyond the team bus, we may release the design for general consumption. We may also have beanie hats, but they seem to cost a fortune, so we may not. I'll keep you posted by posting, but not by post as they're on strike - I can post but it won't be delivered. OK?

Velocake slink into my bloglist. Cake + Kernow + cycling = class.

There it is, I'm spent and now need to call upon Blackalicious to round out this post with wordsmithery beyond my lowly apprentice like skill... while I return to the artboard.

Race Leathers...

We've been riding and racing in our team jerseys for a short while now, so it's an opportune time to tell you if they're working, what we like or dislike and how you could own one. Head over to the teamsite for the complete story.

Superquick post. Expect the man of the woods to head for the fields later in the week.

The Racing Post...

We're going racing this Sunday and we're logo'd to the hilt. Check out the teamsite for the calm before the storm (or shine before the soiled).

Uncle Museeuw is giving us strength (in spirit and nothing else I hasten to add).

Team Work....

I can finally come clean. You've noted the infrequent posts, the eluding to a secret space out there and the non too subtle post about something happening at Here Come the Belgians.

Well without further a do, the secrets ready to be told....Roll the drums Teppo!

I'm very happy to announce Here Come the Belgians has a TEAM.

It started as an initial hare brain idea between myself and Alan 'crossjunkie' Dorrington and now over a few short weeks has developed into a sartorially elegant team kit, uncanny choice in riding machinery and their livery and a group of like minded people with an eye for cyclocross and the cobbled classics.

So what does this mean for me? The Here Come the Belgians team has it's own blog (the secret space here) and team members will be contributing their own perspectives on riding and racing. So for me this blog remains as my semi literate artistic vent whilst any riding experiences I have will be over with my team mates on the team site.

Then what does it mean for you? Get a vibe and some aesthetics over here, then get over to the team blog to see what, how and where we've been riding. A variety of perspectives and attitudes coming together in a collective team effort. As a heads up cyclocross is 5 days away and we'll be getting dirty.

On another level, our team could be yours. This isn't an elitist exclusive effort and if you're interested in being part of the team it's really very easy. I'll deal with details when I post about our kit later.

There you go, that's it, I'm genuinely excited about the forthcoming months. Look out in the next few days as I and I'm sure Crossjunkie will be covering the kit, bikes and riders.

So then, why are you over there when you could be Team Here...