Making Friends (and Breakfast Tacos) in Belgium

The Team for Europe
(Matt, Chris, Sven, Brecht, Max, myself, Cortlan, Clay. From left to right)

Since landing in Belgium, I cannot stop smiling. I've always dreamed of coming to the country of bike racing, fries, beer, and overcast weather. As a Junior racer, I have watched many close friends go on racing trips here to get their fix. Every single one always returns speaking of the wonders racing in Belgium has done for them, and how it has strongly changed their perspective on how to ride and race a bicycle.

We all landed on time and with bikes!

Many of the Belgium stereotypes quickly surfaced within 10 feet of exiting the airport,  such that I could confirm the following:

- no one smiles

- everyone smokes 

- there is a constant feeling of bitterness and anger in the air.

Are these the ingredients to make a world-class cyclist? Possibly.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, I met up with my teammates (Clay, Chris, and Cortlan) as well as our team director for the month Gilbert. From there, we moved into our quaint little home in Aarschot where we would all be staying for the month. Our home was nothing like the dungeon I imagined sleeping in. Instead of a leaky faucet and a bucket to bathe in, I found myself in an “Ikea home" (as my girlfriend would call it). 

Coffee, Waffles, and no Sunshine

Note: I will dive more into my Belgian experiences in other posts, but now I'll just get down to the description of my first race here. 

In Belgium, the local races are called Kermesses. They are typically a circuit through a town and we accumulate laps, much like an American crit. Biggest difference is that these courses are several miles a lap. In Belgium, the racing is age-based. It goes from the Junior ranks until you reach the top-level ranks. Once you get past the age-based racing, you are one of two categories: elite with contract (pro) or elite without contract (amateur). These pro kermesses in Belgium are the only place in the world where a top level pro (world tour, pro continental) can register and race as an individual. At any given race, I could stumble upon Fabian Cancellara or even Tom Boonen at the start line!

Heading to our first PRO-Kermess together our team roster included myself, Clay, Cortlan, Chris, Max, Brecht, Matt, and Sven. Other then Brect, Matt, and Sven this was everyone’s first race in Belgium. Sven would be our guest rider for our time in Belgium. He has raced and finished in top level races in the past, including a top 10 in the Tour of Flanders.

We were going into this race with very little pressure. Fresh off of a 7-hour time zone change, many of us were still jet lagged. We were also acquainting ourselves to a peloton of new faces and new rules. 

This first pro Kermess was in the town of Buggenhout consisting of 20 laps around a 5 mile circuit, totaled up to a 100 mile race (162 km). My first fear going into this race was sheer distance. I have not done a race over 3.5 hours this entire season as 95 percent of my races have just been fast quick American style criteriums. The majority of these races have been completed in less than 90 minutes. My second fear was not knowing what to expect. This would be my largest field size of the year with 180 starters. The only thing that was going through my head at the start of the race was wondering what to expect in the race. I have heard stories of the craziness in these kermesses. Riders jumping up and on sidewalks to move around the pack, cutting through roundabouts at full speed and using any means necessary to stay near the front of the race.

At staging, I was lining up with my Belgian teammate, Brecht, who was telling me how the races typically play out. He could see the anticipation on my face and he started to tell me that it is not as bad as the rest of the team made it seem. I nodded my head and started to focus, preparing for the start of the race.

Gilbert, our Team Manager

When the gun was shot, I clipped in and started to move up the left hand side of the peloton. Within moments, I was pushed off of the road and onto a narrow brick sidewalk. I decided to just follow the flow of the race and do just what the guys in front of me were doing. The turns were coming fast as we were racing down the narrow roads in Buggenhout. We were racing through parking lots, main streets, narrow side roads, and everything in between. The first thing I noticed in the race was how everyone in the Kermess cornered. Everyone would slam on their brakes heading into the corner and then shoot out of it like a cannon ball. It was the opposite of the smooth cornering I was used to from all the American Criteriums I have gotten myself used to over the years. When I needed to move up I was able to use my cornering techniques to pass up dozens of riders entering and exiting certain corners. Even with my cornering, I still found myself accelerating very hard to keep up with the wheel in front of me. I was able to keep tabs on my teammates fairly easy in the large field thanks to the bright neon Rudy Project helmets we all wear! As the race continued on, I started to get more and more comfortable in the new peloton. Part of this has to do with the race finally starting to thin out as tired legs were starting to set in. After about 90 minutes of fighting around in the riffraff of the peloton I was able to make it to the front where Matt, Brect, and Sven were. From there I was able to put in a small attack and get a little bit of separation. My time off the front was short (maybe 5 minutes if I round up the time). Once I was caught I was able to hold my position at the front of the race for a few laps. While I was up there, I did my best to follow attacks and accelerations for as long as I could. Before long, I found myself slowly falling off the front of the group, soon after I was back in the back half of the group.

I fought valiantly to try to get back towards the front again, but I used too much energy in the first hour and could not get any sort of legs under me to get towards the front. I ended up losing connection with the field going through the 40 mph start finish straightaway with 6 or 7 laps to go. This was about two hours and forty minutes into my race

Once I finally got off the back, I got into a small chase group where we chased for a lap, but there was no hope. The peloton was riding away into the sunset at full speed.

I pulled into where our team soigners were to get a coke and sit down and think about the race. Within 2 laps the rest of the astellas boys rolled in, minus Brect who was racing for a top result.

After the race we all got together and started the post race talking. We did not go too deep in each racers performance in the actual race. Individual performance was not the main topic of today’s race. This race was being used more as a way to dip our feet into the water of Belgium racing. Moving forward, we will all have a week to acclimate to the time change as well get used to the flow of things in Europe. I only plan to get faster, stronger, and smarter here and use my racing experience in Europe to return home as a new racer.

You can take the Texan out of Texas, but you cannot take the Texas out of the Texan