The inaugural ride from base camp in Barvaux to Huy and back (via different roads) was off the hook.

Props to Dennis for plotting the route. And Belgium for the scenery. So beautiful. We rode through smallish farm after smallish farm and saw very large cows, lots of corn, windmills, groovy modern stone and glass homes topped with solar panels, and luxury German cars. Happy to report that Belgium’s farmers are doing alright.

We stopped a lot to debate whether to turn right or left. Dennis said if we pay for his trip, he’ll come over a month early and pre-ride the routes so we won’t get lost as often. I said I’d contribute.

Mid-ride we lounged for a long time in the center of Huy mostly so that Griffin could get his latte. Shortly after halftime, we split up because only a small subset wanted to do the famous climb. I found myself at the front of the chickenshit subset. I stopped after cresting a longer but less steep climb so that we could regroup. One problem. No one came up from behind. Oops, I missed a turn. My mistake. I had no business being on the front since I couldn’t get the route to upload to my computer.

I descended a wee bit, followed a local through a turn, a total Hail Mary, and looked a kilometer down the road and saw Greg’s flaming yellow jersey. Reunited and it feels so good.

Things broke up on the return. Greg, Skip, Alex, and I rode together. Them boys be strong.

If someone said to me, sorry, you can only ride that loop the rest of the week, I’d say, “Cool, let’s go.” Epic start to the week.