Wow! Another week has just flown by and the pace of life now seems to be going into overdrive. It's once again Tour de France time and it looks like Lance is going to be getting number 4. Some say it's going to be boring, but I think that some underdog will come out to be a real challenge to Armstrong.

    This past week Belgium hasn't been a fun place to be. The sun has been as elusive as Osama Bin Ladin and it's rained just about every day. I feel like I have been training more for swimming than cycling when I get in from my rides. The temperature has also been on the cold side. It's July now and I am still using armwarmers!

    Probably the funniest thing to happen this week was at a Kermese race on Thursday. At about half way through the field shattered and left about half of the group off the back. So me and my team mate Ben rode around the course to fill in the time we were supposed to be racing. We see our teammate Brian still in the race and he is in need of water. Ben tries to feed to him, and Brian misses the feed because of speeds around 45 kph.

    So Ben goes for another try, but Brian misses the bottle again. Ben, now very annoyed at the whole situation, grabs the bottle, jumps on his bike and chases down the group of Brian. He actually catches the group and gets the feed to Brian. Ben earns the "Teammate of the Week" award for his effort. He also gets the "Johan Musseuw Never Say Die" award for racing yesterday with only one gear after his shifter broke. He made it almost 120 kilometers in a 53 x 12.

    Racing for me is getting better. My fitness is right on track and I am finding new and greater limits. During yesterday's race I kept towards the front and rode a very smart race. At about one and half-hours into the race I saw a lot of neon yellow from the two strongest teams. I started to follow riders and just kept up the counter attacks. Before I knew it I was with a break and we had a nice gap on the field.

    I looked around and there were 8 guys in the break and 6 of them were fast powerhouse riders from the two top teams. I decided right then to just follow through and not take any real pulls. This did not please the other guys who yelled "Pull Englishman!" (Yea, like I am going to pull when they call me English!). I just yelled right back "NO!" and kept to the back. I had been following breaks for the last 30 minutes and I was in a world of hurt. The pace never slowed down and I eventually was dropped from the attack.

    I remember earlier this year when I wanted to just finish a UCI road race, but now I find myself being a player in the races. I didn't have any decent end result, but yesterday's race was my best result for me this year. It showed me I can be a player in a race and not pack filler. I know eventually I will be able to hang on and even push breaks like I was in.

    Everyone keep the rubber side down ... Till next week

    -Gregg Germer-