I woke up this morning after 3 hours sleep. I wasn’t moving that much slower than everyone else. I drove back to Belgium with Trudi, Noel and Els Dejonckheere, Gavin Chilcott and Laura Charameda. I wasn’t too talkative. I was asleep most of the 3 hours. We ate a quick lunch and took the train to the Sheraton at the Brussels airport.

I could have slept all afternoon, but we decided to take the train back to Brussels and walk around for a few hours. It was great. Brussels is a beautiful town, especially in the evening. We did most stuff foodwise in Belgium in just a few hours-ate frites, drank beer, and had a waffle with strawberries and chocolate sauce. Pretty great.

So, It’s approaching midnight again. We fly back to the US tomorrow around noon. Hopefully I can sleep in tomorrow morning. It’s been a pretty crazy 3 days. My body really has no idea what time it is. Hopefully it thinks it’s closer to US time than European. We’ll see I guess.

The BMC truck heading off this morning in Paris.

Cadel's Mountain jersey was in a pile at Noels house.

Wouldn't it be awesome if all the races had these numbers that just stick on. Comes with name and nationality too. It is amazing they sublimate the jerseys right on sight for whatever team holds them.

A shower in Noel and Els backyard by the jacuzzi.

Trudi with all her stuff from the whole season at the Tielt train station.

The Grand Place in Brussels.

Beer.

The Manneken Pis.

Replica Pis' in all colors.

Waffles with about anything you can image for toppings.

Brussels is pretty spectacular at night.

We’re staying just across the street from the Brussels airport at the Sheraton. I pretty much passed out last night. Trudi was running around the room this morning and I couldn’t understand why she was up at 3 am, but it was after 8 in reality. She went across the street to try to get us seats together on the flight. She came back with two business class seats. Turns out that the plane was super full, she is elite premier and the lady saw that she had a BMC jacket on and knew Cadel had won the Tour, so there you go, bike racing rules in Belgium.

I could eat breakfast in Europe every meal. Croissants and espresso. Muesli and fruit. It is great. So, the whirlwind travel to Europe is nearly over. It has hardly been 65 degrees any day I’ve been here. I can hardly wait to get back to 105 in Kansas.

And each hotel I've been at the last 3 days has had fresh squeezed juice.

And super nice coffee machines that produce excellent coffee.