euro report: andy finds a silver lining

...inside the warm car of a stranger:

[note: this is not andy racing in the race, this is garret, but it sounds similar, and i don't have a photo of andy under similar circumstances]

.....

Dear Mostly Reverend,

My first race was this on sunday, Deinze Ieper uci 1.12. It was raining at the start so that made things fun. The first hour was fast and pretty easy actually. Moving up isn't too hard, it's just maintaining your postion that is tough. Everyone is trying to move up to the front and with all the hazards in the road it is dangerous. So 50k in after the first cobble section everyone started crashing in front of me and I locked em up and fell onto a bunch of guys. Then a shit ton fell on me. I think about forty guys went down in that particular event. After we untangled the mess, I said to the mechanic who had wheels with him to grab a new bike. So while he got that I started eating a bar and watching the other guys get going. Some people really panic. There were riders running around, screaming, and fighting. Besides the fact that I had crashed, I was amuzed. So I got a new bike and started chasing but after 10k of going nowhere I got in the broom bus. Really disappointed but that shit happens.

What followed sucked even more. I was wet and really cold so the bus dropped me off at the finish line where I went to first aid to get warm. They gave me one of those metallic thermal blankets, those things are amazing. Withing 5 minutes I wasn't shivering anymore and was just sitting in this tent talking the the paramedics. But after an hour I was really bored so I went to find the parking for the teams. I stuffed the thermal blanket inside my jersey and took off. I must have looked like I had the biggest beer belly in the world but I didn't care, because I was kinda warm. So after finding the team van locked and nobody around, I went back the the startline to sit in the first aid tent again. This really nice lady saw me shivering and offered to let me use her car to warm up. Of course, I accepted. Inside, it was a paradise: The heat was blazing AND she had hot honey tea AND cookies. I couldn't stop thanking her. When the riders were almost there, I thanked them again and took off to find our soigneur and get changed. The race sucked but the day was saved by this family's kindness. There are some really cool people in this world. -Andy