Mud dominated the cyclocross races yesterday but there was so much more … people, for instance.

1.  On the train from Gent, I researched how I was going to get from the Dendermonde station to the race.  I could take a bus for awhile and then an hour’s walk.  Not the greatest, but so what?  I was going to watch my heroes give everything.

I heard some young men talking about “Wout” in Dutch.  I approached them and asked how they were getting to the race site.  English smiles came my way … “Come with us!  We’ll show you.”  No generation gap here.

2.  When the bus arrived at the station, we crammed in.  Most of us were standing, with scarcely room to breathe.  I looked past the standers to three men.  They took up two two-seaters.  Their backpacks were piled on the fourth seat.  I watched them talk merrily away, apparently unaware (or unconcerned) about the press of humanity standing.  I sighed … sadly.

3.  Google Maps had given me the wrong info.  Turns out the walk after bus was thirty minutes or so.  Yay!  It was me and a flood of cycling fans.  The humbling news was that hundreds of them passed me on that half-hour walk.  “Oh well,” I muttered.  “I’m still a happy human being.”

I did pass one person.  He was limping.  I made sure to say “Goedemiddag” (Good afternoon).  He smiled.

4.  During the men’s race, I could tell when Wout van Aert was approaching.  The murmur of the crowd became a crescendo.  Then it exploded in raucous decibels as Wout rode by my spot.  What a rush!  The man is an icon in Belgium as Maurice “Rocket” Richard used to be in Canadian ice hockey … revered.

5.  The funnest spots to stand during a race are on a hill, where you see the athletes grunting upwards, near the end of their reserves.  Sadly for spectators like me, that’s also where the footing is uphill or sidehill.  Yesterday I knew that me standing for hours hurts a lot, and if I add a tilt to that, I’ll never last.  So I chose a flat bit of ground to call home … and ignored the Bruce protests about advancing age. 

And so I had fun.

And isn’t that what we’re all supposed to be doing?