Graham was the world amateur road race champion in 1967. He was born and grew up in Birmingham but has lived in Belgium for most of his adult life.

Blog June 2008
Hi all,
First of all I must apologize for any delay in my blog this month but I have been very busy trying tot tie up a lot of loose ends before I can go on holiday, there is so much happening in my life at this moment but maybe more about that another time. Also these past three weeks I have been busy with my French exams. One of my dreams has always been to get my French up to the same standard as my English and Flemish. So three years ago I embarked on a 6 year French, day school course; how’s that for being optimistic at my age and with my health? Once I’m in the exam period I don’t like to be distracted and only get on line in-between sessions when I’m relaxing with a coffee break. I have a wonderfully patient French teacher, Lies (Griet) Delarivière from Ghent. Some of you will think this strange, as you know in the 60’s I was in a professional French cycling team, Mercier, but my French was far from good. It’s the same with everything I undertake; I have to get right down to the nuts and bolts of the things that interest me. Had my exam results this week and I passed for
next year.

When Chris asked me to write on ‘Crazy About Belgium’ I was determined to write about things that are only typically Belgian or Flemish, and this month will be no different!

What could be more typically Belgian than ‘frieten’ (French fried potatoes)? I can remember an article in an English cycling magazine some time ago where they ‘tried’ to sketch a picture of life in Belgium and had Allan Peiper initiating British cyclists into the occult art of making ‘world famous’ Belgian French fries. Well I can tell you he didn’t have a clue!

History would have us believe that the Belgians invented chips so it is only normal that they have a reputation to uphold. The story goes back to the year 1680 when the poor inhabitants of Namur, and other towns in the area, used to fry whole small fish that they had caught in the nearby river Meuse, this to supplement their meals. But when the river was frozen over, or in times of flooding when it was too dangerous to go fishing, they would cut potatoes into fish shapes or cut them lengthwise and fry them as an accompaniment to their meals. By the year 1900 frieten were a staple diet of the Belgians, but were still almost unknown to their Dutch neighbours. It is said that the first Dutch ‘frietkot’ appeared in 1905 at the Bergen op Zoom fair ground and then travelled all over the country so spreading the fame of the ‘friet’, or ‘patat’ as it is known in the Netherlands.

The English name for friet, French fries, is said to have originated from the allied British & America soldiers of the First World War who tasted Belgian ‘frieten’ for the first time. Because in those days the official language of the Belgian military was French, the allied soldiers called these ‘pommes de terre frites’ French fries. Probably originating from the French verb ‘frire’ meaning deep-fried and it’s conjugation in the past participle ‘frites’ and used with the plural feminine substantive as in ‘pommes de terre frites’ (deep-fried potatoes). But there is evidence from American cook books that the term ‘French fried potatoes’ was in use long before the First World War. In 1860 the first ‘chips’ were fried in England at Tommyfield Market in Oldham, and the first town in Scotland to succumb to this temptation was Dundee.

Cooking good French fries is an underestimated art, one that many Belgians are familiar with, and proud of. Good ‘frieten’ starts with good potatoes and the ones most preferred are called ‘Bintjes’ and are harvested in early to late Summer. If you can’t find Bintjes then Russet potatoes are a good substitute but they must not contain too much water as this will result in sloppy droopy fatty chips. Most Belgian fries are done in beef fat or palm oil, the better establishments use palm oil for the first fry and beef fat for the second fry. Some use a mixture of both and percentages will vary depending on what strain of potatoes are available depending on the time of year. The really top notch taste is only to be experienced from a mixture of beef fat, horse fat and a dash of pig’s suet! And even then only after 10 kilos of potatoes have been fried, fresh fat doesn’t give that ultimate taste. The fat in Belgium is renewed about three times a week and is very strictly controlled by the ministry of health. Most busy places take no chances and renew the cooking fat or oil every day. The potatoes must be cut only just before the fry and not be washed. The first fry is done for about 6 minutes at 140° Celsius, and then it is best to let them drain and cool right down. The finishing fry should be done at 162° Celsius for about 2 minutes. For those visiting Ghent, the best French fries are to be found at; Frituur Xantyp, Keizer Karelstraat 4, Ghent.

Recently in Belgium (where else?) the first French fries museum in the world was opened in the West Flanders town of Bruges. http://www.frietmuseum.be/en/homeeng.htm and I have permission to display their logos here on Crazy About Belgium.

Blog 22 April 2008
In Belgium this week there are many celebrations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair opened on the 17th April 1958 at the Heysel. It is as if they are still under the spell of those events that took place half a century ago.

The Belgians are still very proud, and quite rightly so, that they were allocated the first World’s Fair to be held since the end of the Second World War in 1945. The previous one had been held in New York, 1939, and would be a hard act to follow. But the Expo 1958 at Brussels was a big success; and some 6 months after the opening more than 42 million people had paid a visit. More than 80% of the Belgian population had
attended before the gates closed in October 1958.
One of the biggest attractions was in that television was still in a childhood stage and yet here you could see that whole world in a nutshell.

The theme of the Fair was dominated by the ‘new’ nuclear age, and was the direct inspiration for building a centre piece based on an iron crystal enlarged 165 billion times! They called it the ‘Atomium’, and although it was only built to last for six months it soon became THE symbol of Brussels and the whole Belgian nation. And in 2004 restoration was started on the 9 spheres and connecting tubes of this 102 metre high 50’s monument, in readiness for the 50th birthday of the ‘Expo 58’.

What that the Belgians didn’t know then was that they might have been better off without the 1958 World’s Fair! As a result of the Second World War one of the main ‘Expo 58’ themes was human rights. Yet one part of the Belgian exhibitions had a whole replica of an African village complete with African natives brought over from Belgium’s only colony, the Congo.
These natives and their mock village were built behind a high fence of Bamboo bars, no one was quite sure if these bars were to keep the natives in or the visitors out! These natives torn away from their beloved home land and forced to re-enact the daily life of their jungle village, couldn’t even raise a smile for the visitors. These sour faces were greeted with boo’s and jungle animal sounds made by the visitors who even threw handfuls of peanuts through the bars. This was a big shock to many of the people from the Congo that had been shipped over to visit the Expo, making them realise for the first time, that they were just being exploited by the white man for their countries natural wealth. The Congo is very rich in minerals. Just two years after ‘Expo 58’ he Belgian colonists and all their families had to flee in fear of their lives from the Belgian Congo, leaving all there homes and possessions behind.

Another negative effect of the ‘Expo 58’ was that everything was done in the French language, this caused a lot of protest among the Flemish speaking people who were rapidly becoming the financial
backbone of the Belgian economy and they, the Flemish, demanded a Flemish only day. They got their way and after a lot of Flemish flag waving ceremonies at the Expo the definitive foundation was laid for the language war that still goes on even to this day and was the direct cause of last years failed attempts to form a government.

Also in 1958 a whole generation of Belgians lived intoxicated by the success of their ‘Expo 58’ and the easily gained riches from their one and only colony, the Congo. This intoxicated ‘trip’ lasted so long that Belgium completely missed the fantastic new age that was just dawning, the swinging sixties. The greatest icons of that whole era, ‘The Beatles’ were only discovered by the Belgians in 1970, Belgium must be the only country in the whole wide world where the ‘fab four’ never gave one single concert during their heyday! What a World’s Fair can do for one country.

Blog 22nd March 2008
Nine months have passed since the general elections and at last Belgium has a new government. The discussions between the different parties (Flemish/French) reminded me of the present struggle in our own cycle sport, between the UCI and ASO. No one here thought that the Belgians could resolve their differences but, with a lot of good will, they did. Let’s hope now that our sport can be served in the same way, with a lot of good will and common sense.

Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico are behind us now and have served their good purpose as training grounds for the ‘Classics’, with riders emerging from both these events to show their form in Milan-San Remo, Philippe Gilbert, 3rd, and winner Fabian Cancellara. With full coverage of all these races on Belgian TV the Flemish people are nicely warmed up and looking forward to the coming cobbled classics, the Ronde van Vlaanderen, 6th April and Paris-Roubaix, 13th April.

The Flemish cobbles have always enjoyed a sort of love/hate relationship with cyclists and they’ve always fascinated me. After living here for so many years I have actually grown to love them for the challenge that they provide in a race. It’s only when you get over loathing cobbles that you can actually ride them well and turn them to your advantage in a race. You may think that I’m going nuts saying “I love cobbles” but I can’t be the only one as more and more cobbled climbs and streets are being classified as a ‘monument’. In fact the cobbled roads in Flanders have always been called, in Flemish, ‘Monumenten van de kleine man’ (Monuments to the man in the street).

The history of Flemish and northern France cobbles goes back many hundreds of years, to a time when Flanders, and the Flemish speaking people, reached right down to Calais. Even when I moved here in the 60s there were still some French people in the north of France that could only speak Flemish! Dunkirk, from the Flemish ‘Duinkerke’ (church in the dunes), and many north French towns still have Flemish names.

Cobbles became very widespread in the area after, in the 15th century, a rich seam of igneous Porphyry rock was found on the right bank of the river Dender at Lessen (Lessines). This volcanic rock, formed some 500 million years ago from fluid magna, turned out to be perfect material for chiselling into cobbles. This combined with the sometimes ‘free’ labour provided by criminals convicted of long sentences to ‘hard labour’, soon had the whole of Flanders covered in a network of cobbled streets. In those days cobbles were a perfect solution for paving roads as they were cheap, easy to put down, none porous and virtually impossible to wear out. Cobbles are still made today out of all kinds of hard rock originating from the four corners of the Earth. They can be very decorative but also a hell to cycle over, ask anyone that’s ridden Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders!

Blog 22nd February 2008
This last week my good friend Peter Murphy, president of Kingsnorth International Wheelers and Nico Sport clothing's UK agent, came over to visit me in Belgium. On that day I also had an invitation to go and visit Albert Beurick and his wife, Arlette, in their new home at Wondelgem. To kill two birds with one stone I asked Albert if Peter could come along with me. For Albert that was no problem as he knew Peter well, he had been a regular customer at Albert’s café in Ghent, De Hoed. Albert is such a nice bloke who loves everything and anything to do with English speaking cyclists, even when I speak to him in perfect Flemish he will always reply in English! So this chance to have more than one English speaking cyclist at his new home was more than welcome.

We had a very enjoyable evening reminiscing over those great years in the Café den Engel and the Velotel Tom Simpson. I told Albert that I was researching those days, trying to get everything recorded for posterity. He promptly gave me everything he owned right down to his families history going back a hundred years or more. You couldn’t dream of a more typical Flemish family, with a great combination of dealing in horse meat beer and cycling!

I now have a unique collection, including that of Mrs. Deene’s, a collection that is second to none in importance to British cycling history. I feel very honoured, but this is a great responsibility that I have taken on to get this story right.

Soon Belgian TV will be inundated with all the early season ‘Classics’ starting with the ‘Omloop Het Volk’ or Ghent-Ghent. At a recent track meeting in Ghent I had the pleasure of making acquaintance with a young Russian rider from Kingsnorth International Wheelers, Kirill Pozdnyoikov, winner of last years junior ‘Omloop Het Volk’. This young rider struck me as someone that is very serious about his racing, and I think that he is a talent to be watched in the future. Here is a photo of me at the Eddy Merckx track with this young up and coming rider.

Last weekend in Ghent, at the Belgian track championships, Eddy Merckx donated 220 brand new track bikes for use in the velodrome! This will be a great start and incentive to many young Belgian track riders.

4th Blog February 2008
The confetti and the dust, (maybe that’s where today got the name ‘Ash Wednesday’), from Carnival are still settling on this early morning, at 2 a.m. Yesterday in Belgium was ‘Mardi Gras’ or ‘Fat Tuesday’, pancake day in Britain. It’s strange that this year it coincides with that other strange carnival across the great lake, ‘Super Tuesday’! I hope that they, the Americans, have more luck than the Belgians, as even though voting on Election Day here was nearly a year ago, we don’t yet have a new government! Once again it all boils down to the language issue; one half speaks Flemish and the other French. But this has been blown up out of all proportions by the English press and the BBC; they would have the rest of the world believing that we are in chaos and crisis, but this we are not. This negative publicity has cost us some investments, shortly you will see on BBC World and CNN television spots sponsored by the Belgian government to assure foreign investors that all is well in this wonderful country that I love so much.

On the cycling scene we are bracing ourselves for the new season with a great kick-off on the first of March with the Omloop Het Volk returning, after a 12 year absence, to a start and finish, where it should be, in the heart of Ghent. Starting at the S.M.A.K. (Stedelijk Museum Actuele Kunst, municipal museum of contemporary art) opposite the Ghent six day indoor track, Het Kuipje. http://www.smak.be/ the finish will be the same as last years T d F Ghent stage finish on the Charles de Kerchovelaan where Geert Steegmans beat Tom Boonen into 2nd place.

Other good news from the Flemish ‘front’ is that the Koppenberg is back in the greatest one day cycle race on Earth, ‘The Tour of Flanders’ on the 6th of April. Only this week the organizers managed to get the last stumbling blocks (cobbles) straightened out ensuring a trouble free passage of this Tour of Flanders monument. This of course means that the Kortekeer will be scrapped in favour of the dreaded Koppenberg. This will make no difference to the race distance of 240 gruelling kilometres. The Koppenberg will be the 7th climb out of 17, and comes after 185 kilometres of racing, just after the Old Kwaremont and the Paterberg.

3rd blog January 2008
Another New Year has started and here in Belgium the hangovers are still ringing in many a Flemish head, but already we are looking forward to and planning the next big blow out, Carnival. Carnival, also called Carnaval in French, Portuguese and Spanish, is a festival season. It occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February or March. It typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus and public street party. People dress up or masquerade during the celebrations.

Carnival, or as we call it here ‘Karnaval’, has been around for some 600 years now and is the last big blow out before ‘fasting’. Carnival is always held 40 days before Easter, not counting Sundays, the often worn grotesque masks and costumes are meant to scare off the evil demons of Winter. This year Carnival in Belgium starts on Sunday the 3rd of February, then ‘Crazy Monday’ and Tuesday’s ‘Mardi Gras’.

One town in Belgium has gained a very special place on the UNESCO Heritage list for it’s colourful character with the famous ‘Gilles’ orange tossing Carnival figures.

http://www.visitbelgium.com/mediaroom/BincheCarnival.htm

On one of the nets cycling forums there has been a lot of interest in one of Belgium’s legendary cyclist’s lodgings, Mr & Mrs Deene’s of Zomergem. Some of the postings suggested that it would be a good idea to write a book about this place. As I seem to be about the only one well enough placed to write the real story, I have committed myself to compiling a history of this place that is so well known to English speaking cyclists. If anyone has a story, an anecdote or memory, please contact ‘Crazy About Belgium’

2nd Blog December 2007-12-13
It’s that time of the year again and I would like to wish all ‘Crazy about Belgium’ readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008.

Christmas time in Belgium is not too different from that in Britain, so I guess that they have the same meaning and roots from days long gone. Father Christmas for the kids, or Saint Nicholas here, has, by Christmas day, long been and gone having arrived on December the 6th. But the kids, and the shops, have caught on and now also await the ‘Kerstman’ on the 25th. For the Flemish, Christmas time is family time, and family values are held very high. But we celebrate on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas day as you do in Britain. Mums are then busy in the kitchen all day with the traditional Turkey, but I’ve had to re-educate them in different variations of stuffing and sewing up birds.

Christmas pudding, mince pies, crackers with useless toys and jokes are unknown here, that is to all but my family. Peter Murphy always makes sure that I get a plentiful supply of these three ‘foreign’ products so that we can all sit at the table with silly crepe paper crowns on our heads and read out meaningless jokes. The crackers toys, hats and the mince pies go down well, but the English Christmas pud is an acquired taste that has not yet found its way onto Flemish tables or pallets!

Big time celebrations are reserved for New Years Eve. Everyone eats themselves silly before the traditional midnight fireworks display extinguished with magnums of Champagne, then it’s kisses for everyone and dancing until daylight. If your home by 6 a.m. then you just haven’t enjoyed yourself, my kids usually roll in at about 10 a.m. Needless to say no one works on the first of January, but they do all get a days pay for doing nothing!

1st Blog December 2007
Graham says: This site is called Crazy About Belgium, and that sums up my feelings about this country. When I made my first trip abroad in 1963 it was to Belgium. It was a great adventure and a great holiday. Four years later I moved here and forty years later I’m still here with a Belgian wife and seven grandchildren, and I still feel like I’m on one big holiday. I live in a small village 20 kilometres north of Ghent, one of Europe’s hidden gems.

Ghent was by the 14th century one of the most influential cities in Europe and was the cradle of so many English Kings. Not many people know that Ghent was also, in the 19th century, the cradle of the 'plastic age', and in the 20th century the cradle of the 'world wide web'. But I'll write more on that later.

Blog: 29 November 2007
I had great fun at the Ghent indoor Velodrome last week watching the riders in the annual six-day race there. I go every year and the people from my village booked a coach to take a load of us. This year was very special because 40 years ago I managed to win the amateur six-day with a Belgian partner, Daniel Goens, a French-speaking Belgian from Brussels who went on to win a bronze medal at the Mexico Olympics. That was the second ever amateur six-day race in Ghent and what made this year extra special was the fact that two young British lads, Peter Kenaugh and Adam Blythe won the 42nd edition of the race. Afterwards Kennaugh said: “These were tough days and we were very happy to have won this Ghent six. We hope to be back in a few years time and ride with the real six-day greats that grace the boards in Ghent.” I hope they
will too.