Race weekend in Belgium Part 2 - The war museum and Izegem

Saturday night we travelled to Ypres, a town made famous during the 1st world war for the number of servicemen that died there in the war. We ate and then watched the Last Post at Menin gate a memorial to 54,000 soldiers who lost their lives during the 1st world war whose remains were never found. Every night at 8pm since the end of the first world war this 15min remembrance service is performed. It was very, very moving.
A Youth Hostel in Kortrijk provided an interesting overnight sleep with Johan waking us insisting we show for breakfast. Germain Burton is a regular we see in Belgium and he told us he got 10th same as me on the Saturday.

After breakfast we went to a war museum which explained what had happened in the local area and the horrific conditions the soldiers fought in (a full scale mock up of an underground dugout where soldiers lived for many months). We then found some original trenches right in the middle of an industrial estate which had been recently discovered. It must have been absolutely awful for the soldiers.

The next race was at Izegem was 30 minutes from the trenches and I wanted to be at the race 2hrs prior to the start, the Sat Nav ensured that arrival was fine despite a number of roadwork's on route!

Izegem was the European centre for shoe and also broom making until 20 years ago when manufacturing moved to the far east. Sundays race was a much shorter course round a city centre with barriers – rather like the City crits in the UK. Two cars were unceremoniously removed from the course by low loader and the racing began. Prizes every lap kept speeds high and the short laps meant that the 34 laps made me dizzy! I felt great and took most of the primes (lap prizes), thinking that the prizes were euros. What I actually won was:
A blank CD, a pizza cutter, a tee shirt, another tee shirt, a rucksack, another rucksack, a Sudoku game, a shoulder bag, a set of glasses (with one missing), another set of glasses, a box and a Pyrex dish! I did also win a rather nice watch (confirmed as not from the market but from a high class town centre jewellers) for winning the most lap prizes.

Into the bell lap and I was placed about 6th. Around the course I hit the front with half a lap to go. Into the final bend I was still on the front. I was on the front with 100 metres to go, 50 metres to go there's a rider alongside me, I sprint like mad. Over the line there's a rider in front of me. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Still I got 2nd place which is my best result in Europe so far.

40 euros prize money, a box full of tat (apart from the watch and maybe the Pizza cutter), a top 10 and a 2nd made for a really good weekend and roll on A level results on Thursday, the track nationals next week followed by another European adventure in two weeks time!