Zegelsem was a race of extremes. It was one of the most challenging races I’ve ridden in a long time — due mostly to deep, sticky mud over most of the course — but it was also one of the prettiest courses I’ve ever raced on. Maybe Gloucester, by the water, or the Downeast Cyclocross at Pineland Farms can compare, but not many courses, especially in the US, offer as nice a setting as Zegelsem did.

I’m not kidding about how pretty this course was.

The course covered two sides of the road just outside the little village of Zegelsem, and was built up on a hillside, so you could look up from the course and survey the low rolling hills of the Flemish farmland that surrounded the town. It was the kind of view you just don’t get very often back home. Unfortunately for me, there were more immediate problems, namely: mud.

The race started on the road at the bottom of the hill, towards the center of town. Once again I started in the back — as I suspect I will for the rest of the season, since they seem intent on not awarding me points for overall series standing. After a quick climb to spread us out, we made a hard right up onto the course and into the biggest and deepest of the mud pits on the course. I don’t think of myself as a great rider in the mud, but as soon as we left the road I passed probably 10 people, who, apparently, had no clue whatsoever about how to ride in mud. (Kind of a surprise, given that this is Belgium, where it’s mud season all year!) While they ground away in too high gears, basically going nowhere, I gunned it in a lower gear, spun fast, and ride right through.

Out of the mud the course made a quick left around the visvijvers (fishpond) and up some stairs. Then back into the mud, through a couple of technical turns and ups and downs, then climbed a couple hundred meter hill, where I was able to put some more distance into my competitors. Then it was across a farm field and down a really steep and muddy hill in to yet more mud, some of which was unrideable. And that was just the first half of the course. Across the street was a real maze of course tape, and a fantastic view of the countryside.

The maze of course tape

After things sort of settled out, I realized I was actually in very good position (for me, anyway) and was moving well clear of everybody I had passed in the mud. Up ahead was my nemesis from the past few races, Kris Maes, but every time I started to close the gap to him, he’d open it back up on the more technical sections of the course. Shades of the race in Zingem, where the same thing happened. After the first couple of laps, not much happened, nobody passed me, I passed nobody, and just rode hard and practiced handling skills in bad conditions, which, I suspect, I’ll need for the rest of the season. Usually I’m not all that happy to be lapped, but this time it was almost a relief to be finished with the race, which was very, very painful. Plus I got to go to the pits and wash my bike before the hour-long line formed.

End results were some of the best I’ve had this season, and I didn’t feel like I gave it 100% either. So I’m pretty happy — hopefully I start to turn it on just in time for December and January, which are the months that count the most here anyway.

As an added bonus, today was a really nice, if extremely windy, day, so I had a chance to do a really nice 50 &nbsp km loop that I just dreamed up in the farms to the west of the city. Yet more really beautiful country. And, even though I was probably not more than a short ride outside of downtown Brussels, I was just surrounded by green, rolling fields for almost the whole ride. AndI get Monday and Tuesday off as well! This weekend’s a winner!

Photos of the race and beautiful countryside around it are here. And don’t forget to check out our expedition to Jeu de Balle from a couple of weeks ago while you’re there.