The Kermis

In Belgium, Kermis racing is something of a national pastime as well as a towns social event. Kermeses usually consist of a 5-10k loop done up to 130k through a hosting town, the race is fast, aggressive, big, and has lots of turns. Spectators bet on riders and riders in breakaways sell races to other riders, the rules in these races are, for the most part, that there are none. So with that brief description here is the synopsis of my first.

After riding roughly 20k from our home base in Oostkamp to the town of Ichetegem (Eck-tA- HAM) and wandering about the town for about 15min my teammate and I finally found the inscription tent (registration). The funny thing about the "inscription" tent is that it is positioned in the back of one of the local pubs, which is normal. This allows the drinking spectators to observe all the registering riders and later set bets on who they believe will take the win. After taking a picture with a slightly creepy but friendly Dutch lady, my teammate and I headed to the start line in our overly flamboyant American flag kits. 

Now as mentioned earlier, there are very little rules in these races. This includes the start. My teammate and I were clued into the fact that in these races with well over 100 riders, being at the front is a must, and the best way to get there..... cheat! Kind of. In warm up we strategically rode out in front of the start, on course, and with a few minutes until start we casually rode up to the line and slid ourselves in nice and neat. Perfect. Cake. Hard part is done. And with a casual "Ja, ok..." by the official, we were off. 

Well, the hard part was done until we started to hit the turns. Belgians do NOT like to turn fast or aggressive. Brake really hard into the turn.... way into the turn...... ok a little further into the turn.... almost to a track stand..... still in your 53- whatever...... now sprint. Thats a Belgian turn. The first corner we hit was a very nasty 270 degree hairpin over a brief patch of cobbles that put alot of people in the gutter for the first few laps. Ok, the Belgian turn was justified there. Turn two, also a hairpin, but you could have taken this one with a little more heat. But turns 4,5,and 6 were all 90's or less that could easily be swept. But almost every time...... skkkkrreeeeeett..... to sprint. The first three 7k laps with this turning mentality was one of the sketchiest things I have ever experienced on a bike. Everyone is strong. Everyone wants the front. And everyone can't turn worth a damn. This is gonna be fun. 

In the hour 15min that I completed in this first race, I felt that the pace never slowed below a full attack nor did it ever really go low enough to legitimately rest. I could try and elaborate on the speed and intensity with speed and power measurements but I'll just leave it at this. It's unrelentingly fast and really chaotic. 

On the bright side though, the similarity of these races to US criterium races is very high and the only main difference seems to be the length. With this experience and this knowledge I feel that I could very easily compete in this style of racing but it will just take time to get used to the difference in style and the length with the intensity. Another learning experience to chalk up and another race to build on......

I'd go on a bit more, but the race has got the best of me along with the kilometers there and back, so until the next race or entertaining event....... later!

     

 

 

Paris-Troyes UCI catageory 1.2

Our day began with a 6:30 departure time from the team house in Oostkamp, Belgium and a 3.5 hour drive to a small town outside of Paris where the race was to start. Upon arrival to the race start and parking lot the calm and collected felling I had in the car steadily started to give way to every WRONG emotion one should have before a race.... anxiousness, nervousness, fear, ect. and this was all later confirmed with some of my Australian teammates. Not to help matters, we were also racing with Jimmy Casper who is a Tour de France stage winner and has multiple other large titles pinned on his resume'.  After a short race prep, our team of six lined up on the left side of the start and waited for the neutral start which our director and others assured us would be extremely aggressive and hectic in efforts to jockey for position.... it was. Riders (including myself) were flying up onto sidewalks, through alleys, and around cars, all while on tiny cobbled town streets. Upon leaving the town the neutral start was stopped at a seemingly random spot on the road and then started again from a dead stop. This dead stop was just as aggressive as a large crit in terms of finding position and after about 5min we started. 

Over the first hour the average speed was 46km/hr and at points the group was ripping at over 60k/hr. This was a very very fast start and for the most part the tempo never really slowed. The end speed was around 43k/hr for a 178k  race (about 104 mi) with some sustained climbs and continuous rolling hills. Basically a 4hr crit. 

My start wasn't exactly in the best position but not really the worst either, but in these races if you are not in the first group of about 40 in the front, your efforts are amplified ten-fold, and this was no exception. Having problems with my rear brake sticking and locking up on turns caused me to rapidly loose placing and soon I was more towards the back than when I had started. Towards the 40k mark I made my first real UCI race mistake. I left the safety of the group for the following caravan for mechanical help. The only reason this was a poor move was because before moving back I failed to notify out team car over the radio, and as a result had to drift all the way to the back of the caravan. Upon finding that there was nothing that could really be done for my brakes, I began to make my way back towards the front of the cars. After getting within roughly two cars of the group again I was told over the radio that one of more experienced riders was coming up behind me and I should wait for him and we should then help each other return to the group. Sounded like a good idea right? Teamwork! Well teamwork doesn't work so well when the caravan begins to accelerate and teammate flies by you at 70k/hr. Not long after this acceleration i was well off of the pace with very little explosive strength left to try and pace back on to any of the cars and was soon off the back. This experience in the caravan taught me alot. Mostly, that whenever you have the chance to actually get back in the group from the cars... take it. Moving in and out of these cars was one of the hardest and scariest experiences I've had on a bike and not knowing what you're doing makes that experience even worse. But the caravan can be used to get advantage and hopefully by the next race I'll have a much better grasp on that concept. 

After my departure from the group, I was joined by an Estonian rider and French rider who had also suffered the same fate as myself. We paced each other up to roughly 70-75k and then were told by the notorious broom wagon to jump in.... we were 15 min behind the lead group. After only about 3-5 min in the van I was a little more relieved to see my three Aussie teammates with a group of about 8 or 9 were off as well. The end of the race didn't include anyone from our team, but we all took away enough experience to fit into an entire season out of this one race.... and we get to do it again this weekend :) 

              

First round of Belgium pics....

So here are a few pics from the last week. Most of these shots are from the house and there are a few of us on a ride out to the coast to the town of Oostende. I should have many more to come, so until then enjoy!!

Over the pond!

So after a bit of stressful travel, including one returned trans-atlantic flight due to engine generator failure, I've finally made it to the small town of Oostkamp, Belgium and have almost completed my fist week of the Euro racing life. Being true to form, the Belgian weather upon arrival was a spritely 38 F with a nice constant drizzle/mist and a fairly steady breeze, and I could not have had a bigger grin on my face for worse weather. After a fairly short train trip and drive, two of my other teammates and I arrived at the newly built team house in Oostkamp. The team so far is a mix of a few Aussie riders from Team Rush out of Melbourne, a couple of Canadian riders, a few Americans including myself, and a handful of Belgian riders to round out the mix. So far the majority of riding has been easy and aimed mainly at getting used to the different riding conditions, environment, and ways of the road. However, towards the end of this week we have quickly tried to get back into real training mode to rapidly prepare for our first real race, Paris-Troyes. This is a real deal race. A UCI 1.2 rated event with pro Continental teams including Agritubel and Katyusha totaling roughly 168k in distance or about 105 miles. It's a bit of an early leap into the deep end but I honestly can't think of a better way to do it :) I should be posting up some pics tomorrow of the week so far and there should also be a fair amount of pics to come. Thanks again to everyone who has helped me get here and encouraged me to go. I made it.