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!