Illawarra Cycle Club Velodrome/Road racing Wollongong New South Wales Australia

Leonie Burford is currently in Europe racing some of the best cyclists in the world. Catch up and read all about Leonies' exploits. Visit the Vrouwenwielrennen België team website

Leonie Burford Lives - Find out the latest News

The International Circuit, July/August

Racing with the Australian National Team over the last few weeks has definitely been a change of pace to my weekly kermese racing in Belgium. I've been constantly in 'travel mode' as I've travelled from Belgium to Czech, Italy, France, Germany and Holland, which is about 5300km of driving, 7 train trips taking 12hrs plus a plane trip all in just 6 weeks.

So from the top, I'll try a put it in a nutshell:

May Went By Really Fast - July 2nd 2008

So much has happened in the last few weeks, so I guess you are lucky to get the short version?!? The last news was that I was going off to Holland, it was unreal and a great insight into Pro team racing.Of course I incurred the mandatory crash wounds too. I stayed with Australian Josie Tomic and her Team Flexpoint, who were kind enough to let me tag along for the weekend.

A Change is often a Good Thing

Leonie Burford Wins!! The last 2 weeks have been another ten times better, as a few tweaks to my life in Belgium have occurred. I moved house, I’m training stronger, I’m learning Flemish and my friendships with my team and locals have grown. So all in all things are looking great!

I felt like a real tourist when Linda and Patrick (team mum & dad!) took me to the Ardennes for the weekend to their holiday house and of course a race. It was so beautiful there, quite similar to the Southern Highlands. Along with Angelique, Linda & Patrick spoilt us like we were their surrogate children for the weekend. We even had time to squeeze in a bit of a tour of the surrounding villages and meet the locals at the Café Beffen…. Yes that’s the town name and yes, Beffen does mean something else in Flemish, but we’re in the French speaking part! (See photos).

Le Bizet Weekend 09 - 12 May 2008

Friday 9th May, Le Bizet

Leonie on the line Le Bizet, is a small village off in the Wallone region that would be equivalent to Jamberoo with its surrounding farmlands. Some tight corners with gravel would prove difficult in the bunch with my lake of bunch skills, so it was fortunate that I got in an early break…. That lasted just one lap!

Lotto-Belisol rider Catherine Delfosse countered the move and soon later Ilse Geldhof (Deerlijk), Lensy DEBBOUDT (Keukens Redant Cycling Team) and Grace Verbeke (Lotto-Belisol) formed a chase group 200m behind. Having learnt that the early breaks seem to get away, I bridged across to the group of three and kept driving past to get to Delfosse. A lap later our group of five had 30sec on the peloton, then 40secs, then Delfosse demands to the group “one lap we go hard” to try and increase the gap, which drew out to over a 60secs.

03 May 2008

Else & Leonie Bad days on the bike make the good ones so much sweeter!

As it goes in sport, there are highs and lows both emotionally and physically. This last weekend had been a case "The Good", "The Bad" and the "The Ugly" being Begijnendijk, Bornem and Sinaai respectively.

Thursday 1st May – Bornem Criterium, 63km – 35 x 1.8km lap

35 Starters, 19 finishers. 23rd Place….. THE BAD

Today was one of those days when you know things are not going to happen right from the time you wake up, so I wasn't too disheartened when it didn't!

29 April 2008 - Roselare

If you have stayed tuned since last episode, where we saw what 'national' kermese racing was like in Belgium. Then today you are in for a treat, as this weeks' (really long) episode is titled: "Roselare"

'The race on many first but the of the wrong kind'

Guest Starring:
Team High Road, AA Drink and Leonie Burford… (Ok, so she's always in it!)

There comes a time in a young cyclist life when they must take the next step and try and challenge the 'big kids' of the world. For this little puppy, it probably wasn't the best idea to do this after being down and out for a week with the flu. But, like working in a gold mine as a contract geologist, you soon learn; if you don't work, you don't get paid.

2008-04-23

Sad to say, after my exciting debut in Belgium cycling, it all came to a massive hault Thursday last week when I came down with the flu :-( So Thurs-Mon I've just been rolling around for an hour or so, hoping that I will get better by this weekend. I've just been informed by my team director that he is due to go in for open heart surgery soon!?!?! So my little cold doesn't seem so bad. Best wishes to Patrick for when he goes to hospital.

2008-04-15

Wow what a weekend! My first two kermeses in Belgium and I came 2nd in both, leaving just enough room for improvement, to keep me driving in training!

I've adopted the ways of the Belgy's of eating pasta 3hrs before the race, it seems an obvious thing to do, as I always had pasta the night before. But the races are on at 3pm so its pasta for brunch too?!

So for the race rundown- Sunday at Incourt (town), 10 laps of 9.2km course.

2008-04-13

G'day,

Here's one of those annoying stories from the peloton, where if you don't even know what that word means, you will be bored after the first sentance! But for me, its life in Belgium on a bike and it sure beats working.

Me after my first race in Belgium! Leonie Burford - a little cold and wet.