Superprestige Gavere - Prerace

The walk to the race led me to the entrance of the race that it turned out was at the bottom of the hill. The people at the gate said something to me like I should understand it, but I had to be ignorant. I got there towards the end of the women's race.

I had prepped my visit to Gavere by looking at the start list. In the women's list, there was an American listed, Christine Vardaros. I knew Jon Baker would be there, but Jonathan Page wasn't at Hasselt, but he was on the list for Gavere. I wasn't certain who Christine was, so I used the internet.

I acutally remembered reading an interview with her on race.cx. She seemed pretty cool. A kind of high powered business background abandoned for bike racing. She was on the Breezer team of women that started back in the 90s, but was currently racing for Van der Kitten. "Clothing for women that kick ass." Yeah, right.

It turns out that she had spent time in NorCal, and mentioned knowing Andy Jaques-Maynes. I'd met him a few times on the arm of Josie Beggs - my homegirl from Tacoma, and the sweetheart of the cross racing circuit.

I was there in Colorado when Josie had her eye socket smushed in an accident. Well, I wasn't really there. I saw her at the start. Saw the big pile up not 10 meters from the start line. Saw Andy get her going again. Chatted a bit with Andy, and then watched the women's race. No Josie. It's unclear what happened next, but word is that she was charging hard to catch back onto the race and hit a kid crossing the course. Eyesocket smushed. Ouch. I thought she'd never be pretty again, but she actually healed up great and regained the bloom of beauty that she's always held. If it weren't for pix, no one would ever know how ghastly she was.

So anyway, I dropped Andy and Josie's name on Christine's blog and suggested that I might drop by to hang out.