Christmas Time

Some cool shots that we got of Gent all dressed up for Christmas...

Chainring Tours

Gregg and I have decided to start a new company called Chainring Tours, a bike and cycling tour company offering vacations, trips and holidays in Belgium and Europe.

I say decided, we thought about this a couple of months ago and have been planning toward it's launch for some time now. Gregg has been bouncing around the idea in his head for a couple of years after receiving many positive remarks with his "Homeboy in Belgium" series on PezCyclingNews.

To mark the start of our company and the start of Chainring Tours we are now offering a discount of 150 euros off the price of the 2008 Spring Classics Tour. All you need to do is mention the code "150OFF2008SC" when booking and your set.

You can read all about our 2008 Spring Classics Tour here:
http://www.chainringtours.com/2008_springclassics.htm

and you can read all about Chainring Tours here:
http://www.chainringtours.com/

Tot Ziens,

-Gregg Germer-

Happy Birthday Gregg!!

Yesterday we celebrated Gregg's birthday with a special breakfast made by Holly with the help of Belle. Unfortunately Gregg had to work, so the fun stopped there :(

Here is a great photo of Belle and her surprise for her daddy...

No better way than to start the day with some Irish Coffee ....

....some crepes stuffed with mascarpone cheese, berries, and orange zest, and a warm chocolate pot on the side

Time for a change...

Like a new haircut, this blog has gone from dull to fab.
With the change comes a renewed commitment to post. So check back shortly for an update, and some new stories.

All the Best
Holly & Gregg

Long Overdue Update

Good news is that we are in fact still alive. Bad news (for us that is) is that we have a good bit of updating to do.
Since the last blog we have moved all of our things from our container into our new place in Olsene (nothing broken!!!) and have been settling in nicely.
Our place is located on a side street of a small town, jut around the corner from the church. There is no need for clocks as the church bells are so kind to tell us the time 24/7. We have two bakeries within 400m of us, so we will never be in short supply of bread. After just over a week of living here we went from the two of us to living with five people!
We have one of Gregg's old team mates Alex Coutts living with us for the season, an American cyclist spending a month with us to race the amateur scene, and Kim a friend from Canada spent some time visiting us here. At the moment things have calmed down with Kim leaving last weekend, and Matt the American cyclist heading down to the south of France for a different cycling experience.

Holly's dutch classes are now finished until September, and we are happy to say that she passed the 1st level at the top of the class (not that it is really brag worthy since she grew up with hearing it, and had a little bit of a base to start off with). She now is a little bit more comfortable with the language, but not quite comfortable enough with the intricacies of the Dutch grammar.

Of course there has been lots of racing. To keep things brief Gregg has been racing alot since the last blog entry. His form has been really good, and is only improving. Most notably he placed 20th in an amateur kermis in Dronegen, 53rd in an interclub race near Leuven where Gregg helped to keep the peloton in line while three of his team mates were up the road working hard to secure 2nd place team (tied for 1st in points, lost out on 1st by the tie breaker of 4 seconds). He also had some excellent form in the Pro Kermis in Gullegem (which included riders such as Boonen, and McEwen) staying up front with the big guys for the majority of the race, and in Halle-Ingooigem (including the same big names as Gullegem) where Gregg rode strong until one of the last climbs of the day. Not bad for a rider who prefers the flat races!
The following weeks sees Gregg racing every 3 days or so, he is bound to have some good results soon!

The next few weeks also sees us spending some time with Holly's family who has made the trip over from Canada to visit family (currently they are on a cruise in the Mediterranean...lucky!!). Perhaps a little bit of birthday celebrations for Holly and catching the Tour De France as one of the stages finishes in Gent, and the following day starts in Warregem (a very short trip from our home).

We will leave you with a few pictures to make up for the lack of updates lately.

Gregg Riding strong in Gullegem.

Tom Boonen in Gullegem on the left.

Gregg and Holly in Brugge

Holly and Kim in Oostende.

Gregg climbing well in Bertem (near Leuven).

Where to start....

Sorry for the lack of updates as of recently!
Just to bring you up to speed...we are both now in Belgium, have both been busy settling things up with our new place, and Gregg has been busy racing.

Currently we are still staying with my aunt in De Pinte, as our new place is pretty bare. We are still waiting on our container to arrive. It has made it to Belgium, it is now going through the customs phase. Hopefully we will be able to move into our new place in Olsene sometime next week!
Then you can be sure that there will be some photos posted on here.

Gregg is off for a race in the Ardennes region at the moment, and is starting to settle into some decent form.

As for me I am spending my time learning Flemish, I have class 4 times a week in Gent at the moment.

Aside from that there is nothing much else to say, all the best.

Holly & Gregg

Packing, and Shipping, and Moving OH MY!

For the last many weeks my life has been consumed by the daunting task of packing. It seemed like packing would be never ending, but the light at the end of the tunnel is shining through. Tomorrow all of our stuff will be packed into a container to be shipped, and to be contradictory this will put an end to the endless packing. The shipping will be a long and tedious task of its own, box by box down three flights of stairs at a time...oh what fun!
Finally to top off all of the excitement, early next week I am doing all the legal closing on the apartment.

Good news is, that by this time next week all of this will be a thing of the past! By this time in two weeks I will be in Belgium already for two days. Hopefully enjoying the nice weather that they have been having lately!

Aside from the big move there hasn't been a whole lot going on here in Hamilton. Just over two weeks ago 2 fellow high school cross-country runners and I ran The Around the Bay 30km relay to form a team to reunite some of "The Slow Ones". I think I speak for all of us when I say that each of us suffered through our 10km relay leg, as training conditions this winter were less than ideal! None the less Devon, Alicia and I had decent runs considering our training and finished as the 5th Open Female team. I'm just happy that my expectations of the worst did not come true!

Today Gregg raced the G.P Gilbert Glineur race in Belgium. He had a good race, finishing in 25th position.

Hope everyone is well
Tot Ziens
Holly

Meanwhile back at camp Hamilton....

My last postings have all been based around Gregg's racing in Belgium, as there hasn't been much news coming out of camp Hamilton. Finally there is a bit of news, unfortunately no I haven't won the lottery. I have just booked my flight to Amsterdam, I will be leaving Hamilton on the 24th of April arriving the 25th. Life in Hamilton has been carrying on as usual; work, packing, dealing with the sale of the apartment, and knotting up loose ends. The apartment is looking strange with most things in boxes already, I only have just enough stuff unpacked so that I can stay here until mid April and live somewhat normally. Much to the fear of Bram after closing on the apartment I will be staying with my parents for about a week or so before heading overseas.

Over in Belgium Gregg is just starting to get over that cold that I left you with last time. He hasn't raced since his unfortunate mechanical, but will be getting back out there soon. I have a few photos of him from his first race Brussels - Zepperen, taken by team assistant Romina Teirlinck.




Tot Ziens
Holly

Rrrroll OFF the rim to win?

Perhaps Gregg had spent too much time living in the founding city of Tim Hortons? It is possible that Gregg heard the famous phrase "Rrroll up the rim to win" and confused it with "Rrroll off the rim to win". This may have seemed odd for him at first, but he must have decided to try his luck because that is just what he attempted... unfortunately his rim said "Please Play Again".

On Wednesday at his race in Wanzele Gregg's rear tire rolled off the rim while taking a corner 40km into the race, naturally causing him to crash. Fortunately he can play again, as the crash left him with only some mild road rash. He has been quite sore for the last few days, and with that came a bit of a flu. He should be fine by Sunday, but regardless opted not to race that day thinking that it is too early in the season to be pushing yourself while still recovering. His next race will now be Nokere-Koerse on Wednesday. Lets hope that he has figured out that you cannot win by rrrolling off the rim!

By the way I already know that I am a bit odd and that was my weird sense of humour at its finest. I even hope to bring you some more odd ball stories in the not so far off future!

Tot ziens
Holly & Sore and Sick Gregg

Reunited With The Peloton

Gregg took to the line of his first race of the year today for the 147km race Brussel-Zepperen. With the weather a beautiful 13 degrees and sunny, he said that he could not have asked for better!
I wish that I could go into full details on his account of the race, but unfortunately I had spoken with him around 11:00pm his time. With him having an early start to the day, I figured sleep was better than finding out all of the juicy details of the race. Juicy details meaning tough sections of the course and attacking, not peloton gossip.
From Greggs personal account of the race he said there was a group of five riders that finished off the front, with one of his team mates finishing in 2nd position. About a minute back was the peloton, with Gregg finishing amongst it. He was part of the peloton sprint, but did mention that it was a bit of a ridiculous sprint with all sorts of crashes. With this being a smaller race, he does not know yet where he finished in the scheme of things, but figures he placed somewhere in the 30's-40's. All in all, not bad for his first race of the year with a start list of 160 riders.

Gregg was very pleased with his race today, saying that he did not really get to any points where he felt like he needed to dig down and push himself. So his form is coming along very nicely, so after a few more weeks of training and racing we could see him tap into some really good form. His next race is on Wednesday, followed by another on Sunday. I hope to get a few pictures to share with everyone in the near future.

As for me in Hamilton. Well we have accepted an offer on the apartment, and hopefully will be signing the paper work early this week. Once the official closing date is set I will have a better idea as to when I will be venturing over. Oh and I saw the movie Music and Lyrics this past weekend, I did not know what to expect from it as the trailers didn't show much to be desired. However my friend and I ended up seeing it for the sole reason that it stars Hugh Grant, and I will say that I really enjoyed it....a very good chick flick!!!

Hope everyone enjoyed the extra hour of light as much as I did!
Take care

Holly

Men in Yellow

Just a quick note today. For those of you, who have not been frequenting the website for Gregg's team there have been a couple of team photos posted from Monday's team presentation. Check out the boys in yellow at www.wielersportteam.be .
You cannot miss Gregg, since he is standing dead center in the photos!

There is nothing new here in Hamilton. I am just very thrilled that the mountains of snow from last weeks dumping are starting to melt. Bring on the Spring!

Tot ziens

Holly

An Ocean Away

With two large check-in bags, and a carry on in hand Gregg and I drove out of Hamilton towards the Buffalo Airport yesterday afternoon. The beautiful steel factories are the last memory that Gregg will have of his time spent living in Hamilton. From Buffalo Gregg boarded a flight to NYC's JFK International Airport where he met his connecting flight to Brussels Belgium, officially leaving North American soil for quite a while.

Now as I sit here looking out the window, I think to myself how fortunate he was to have his flight booked for yesterday and not today. Otherwise I assume that he would be reuniting with the Buffalo Airport for many hours, less than 2 months after already memorizing every square meter of the worlds most boring airport. Oddly enough my brother was on his way yesterday from Miami to St.Johns NFLD after spending 3 months working for Royal Caribbean. He unfortunately was delayed and missed his connecting flight, forcing him to spend the night in New Jersey....I wonder if his plane got off the ground this morning?

So across the pond Gregg is being welcomed back into Belgium with 8 degree temperatures and clear skies, while it is snowing and minus 12 here in Hamilton. That nice weather has got to do something for a cyclists' motivation after spending many frozen days outside in the saddle, or down in the basement on the trainer. Which is just what Gregg will need as after a few days of recovering from the jet lag, he will be riding with his team for the first time. Next week the team will have their official team presentation, introducing all the riders and staff. He will then have a few short weeks to prepare for the fast approaching racing season in March. So until all the action starts up for him, there is really not much else to be said about Gregg's Belgian adventures...aside from the fact that he seems very positive about the team, and the motivation of his Team Director.

As mentioned here in Hamilton it is snowing, and quite hard at that. I am currently spending most of my time working, trying to sell our apartment, and trying to convince myself to go out for a run. Although I must admit that the latter is proving to be difficult, but I must as I am running a leg of the relay for the Around the Bay Road Race at the end of March with friends from high school.

Anyways until more news comes across from Belgium I will leave it at this.
Tot Ziens

Holly (& Gregg)

Du Pain Delicieux!!!

Today I have decided to post one of my favourite recipes, after receiving several requests for it. The recipe is quite easy to find online, but I have found small variances to work better than the method which I started following. It is a recipe for a "No-Knead Bread" which I first saw on the Martha Stewart Show. There were some small differences between the recipe found on the website and the method used on the show, and found it best to follow the taped version over the written recipe. The great thing about this recipe is that you do not need to set aside several hours at a time to make it. In fact the time spent working on the bread is very low, and all the time frames can be followed fairly loosely.

The ingredients that you will need to make a 1 1/2 pound loaf:
3 cups of all purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
Olive oil, as needed
Cornmeal or wheat bran, as needed (optional)

To start you will combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and give them a quick stir to mix everything together. Next Take 1 1/2 cups of water (temperature does not make a difference) and stir until all the ingredients are equally blended. *Side note: It is a no-knead recipe, but sometimes I have found that all of the flour does not combine as nicely as expected. In that case it is ok to give the dough a quick kneading, just make sure that you start off with plenty of the flour on your hand to prevent sticking.* The dough will now be shaggy and sticky. Next you will want to coat another large bowl with olive oil (I find that ceramic mixing bowls work best), transfer the dough into this bowl, and cover with plastic wrap.

Now you wait. The dough should rest at room temperature for at least 12 hours, preferably 16-18, but the beauty is that if your schedule is not flexible you can leave it longer. On one occasion I had left it up to 24 hours from starting and it turned out perfectly.
You will know that that dough is ready when there are visible bubbles on the surface, and the dough seems "wetter".

Now you will lightly flour your work surface, place the dough over the flour, and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself a few times, and loosely cover the dough with the plastic wrap that you had over the bowl. Allow it to sit for about 15 minutes (loose time frame).

Uncover the dough and sprinkle more flour as needed on the work surface and your fingers. Now you will gently and quickly form the dough into a ball. (I generally make four folds of the dough onto itself). From here you will want to generously coat a non-terry cloth towel with flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran (the choice is up to you) and then place the dough seam side down onto the towel. Finally dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran and cover with another towel (or you can fold the original towel over if it is large enough). You will want to let this sit for about another 2 hours, or until the dough does not spring back when pocked.

When the dough is close to being ready (usually after 1h 45min) preheat the oven to 450F. Place your baking dish (covered cast iron pot, or covered glass baking dishes) in the oven as it heats. * I have read that many of the knobs on the enamel coated cast iron pots are plastic, and can not stand 450F temperatures. Most knobs can be screwed off, or covered with foil. I have not had this problem since the handle of our dutch oven is cast iron itself.* When the dough is ready carefully remove the pot from the oven. Remove the top towel from the dough, slide your hand under the bottom towel and turn the dough over into the pot seam side up. Give the pot a quick shake to even out the dough and shake off excess covering. Place the lid on the pot, and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover, and continue baking until browned, I usually bake for an additional 10 minutes. Finally cool on a wire rack, and ENJOY!

Final notes:
-The original recipe called for 500F baking temperatures, I found the bread to be too dark and too thick of a crust.
-The recipe also called for slightly longer baking times, again finding too thick of a crust.
-The time frames are all pretty general, so if you need to leave the house between steps (obviously with the exception of the steps involving the oven) and can't meet the exact time frames it is ok! Although typically I would not use less time between steps (especially with the initial rising).
-I have not yet tried using cornmeal or wheat bran, but have heard that the wheat bran works well.
-One other thing that I have done is substituted 1 cup of all purpose flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour, I enjoy this much better.
-Lastly I had one occasion where the flour I used didn't absorb as much water as all other attempts and was sticking far too much in all steps (especially to the towel). I'm not sure why, but it was a different brand of flour. The bread turned out ok, but I would assume just to add extra flour as needed to prevent the sticking if you find yourself in a similar situation.


Well I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as we do, the bread turns out delicious, takes up little time, is so freakin' cheap, and tastes better than store bought loaves!

Stay tuned for updates coming on Gregg's move next week!!!
take care

Holly & Gregg

The Story behind the scenes

Today is January 16th, it has been exactly 16 days since our upcoming plans had been turned upside down and spun around. This blog entry serves the purpose to explain the little tease which we left you with last time.

The story starts on New Years day as Gregg was wishing all of his friends a Happy New Year over MSN after a fun night of Wedding festivities at the Wedding of Doug Berry and Brandi Bara in Houston Texas. After wishing a friend in Belgium a Happy New Year they began discussing Gregg's racing situation for the year. At the time the outlook was non-existant as he spent months talking with American team directors, who all seemed to downplay his level of previous racing experience. This friend is working as an assistant for a Continental cycling team based out of Belgium, and told Gregg to email the team director of that team as they were still looking for a few more riders.

So to make a long story short, Gregg emailed the team director, negotiated a contract, and will now be racing as a member of the Klaipeda Splendid Cycling Team. He will be flying into Belgium on the 12th of February, and starts his first pro race of the year in the beginning of March.

The Official announcement was made on their website yesturday (January 15/07) http://www.wielersportteam.be/continentaalcyclingteam.html and for the majority who can not read dutch there is a brief mention on the website http://www.cycling4all.com/
saying
" Bart De Spiegelaere (Bel) has sigend a pro-contract with the team of manager Tuerlinckx. The team has also
and agreement with Gregg Germer (Usa) = ex-pro from the Flanders Team. "

We will keep you posted on further information as it becomes available, hope everyone has been having a great 2007 so far.
Take Care

Holly & Gregg

The start of something new...

The New Year makes way for the start of many new things, for many resolutions to lose weight, get in shape, or to try something new. For us it is the start of our new blog. It is a good way to update everyone on what is going on with us.

First off we would like to say how much we appreciated everyones support through the last extremely busy year. The beginning of 2006 had its rough moments for each of us, and at times was extremely difficult to deal with everything. While the 2nd half of the year brought so much fun (aside from the many hours of wedding planning) and enjoyment. We were so fortunate to see so many of you out to celebrate our wedding in Ancaster, and down in Texas. We also had a great time on our Honeymoon in Belgium and France. Finally wrapping up the year with a trip down to Texas once more to celebrate Christmas with Gregg's family, and New Years at the wedding of Gregg's friend Doug Berry.

Just when we were looking forward to many months of tranquility, 2007 was off to a fast paced start when Gregg said Happy New Year to a friend in Belgium. This was the starting line for something good, but something that has changed our time from being calm to extremely busy! Further blogs to follow to explain our latest whirlwind will follow in the near future.

For now we will leave it at that, simply stating that things have been busy (for the better) and will leave you with a few photos from the year gone by.

An engagement photo taken of us in May 2006. At Southam park overlooking the escarpment in Hamilton.

Another engagement photo of us.

Gregg racing in Kitchener

We enjoyed some time up North at my uncles cottage/home the weekend before our wedding.

Gregg on the podium in his last road race of the year taking 2nd position.

Gregg and best friend Tyler at the falls after picking him up from the airport.

The girls took Holly out for some martini's the night before the wedding.

Our rehersal dinner at Sortiris Greek restaurant was fabulous!

We had the nicest day that any of us could have imagined for our Wedding.
Photo credit to Mike Feswick

Beautiful shot of Gregg and Holly

Garter toss...

Us with the kids

Holly and her bridesmaids

The garter had a bike sewn on it

The Wedding party

Gregg & the guys

Chateau du Versailles

Holly and the pony at Marie Antoinettes Estate

Gardens at Versailles

Eiffel Tower

Louvre

Louvre

Holly wins the Ronde Van Vlaanderen

Out for a few drinks

Ringing in the New Year at Doug and Brandi's Wedding

The Happy Couple