Kermessy

On Saturday I raced a kermesse in the town of Ledegem.  I had three goals: 1. Have fun 2. Learn as much as possible 3. Get some good training in. The loop was about 8k long and we were to do 16 laps.  For you Seattle area racers, imagine if they put an extended version of the Kirkland crit course together with the Skagit Flats circuit race course.  Oh, and they also cut down that single right lane you are allowed to use on the Skagit course to about half that width.  For you non-Seattle racers, about 2k of the circuit wove its way through town and the rest took place on some narrow and windy farm roads.  This picture isn't from the kermesse, but I rode this the other day and lots of roads around here look like this.

There were only 46 starters, which is a bit on the small side for these races.  The first lap was tough, but the second lap was absolutely ballistic through the crosswind sections.  By the end of the second lap I was in the third group on the road wondering how these guys could possibly sustain this pace for the rest of the race.  Things calmed down a little bit, my group turned into the second group on the road and we were working reasonably well together.  We caught some of the guys that blew themselves out of the front group, but there were still 14 guys in the front group which was making much better progress than my group was.

The officials determined that eventually the lead group would lap us, so out of the kindness of their hearts they rang the bell for us early and shouted "laatste ronde".  I was excited and rode real hard as our group split up through the wind.  I managed 2nd place from my group and was given 16th on the day.  Good enough for 10 Euros in prize money!  While it was a bit of a bummer not to complete the full distance I think I learned a lot and got some good practice riding in the wind.

I thought these guys below were my friends.  It turns out we are worst enemies though.  I spent all day yesterday in bed unable to keep any food down.  My leading theory regarding the cause of this is that my former friends have poor hygiene and while I thought I was racing on a road the other day, I may have been racing through their restroom.

So, to all the cows in Belgium that are far too muscular to be eating just grass, screw you.  Good news is that I'm really light now!  I've been trying to eat a lot of snacks today and so far that is going okay.  Tomorrow we start the 5-day Tour de la Province de Liege, which I will never again call by its full name because what are they trying to prove?  Hopefully I'm able to pedal bikes well again in time for the start tomorrow.  For now though I'll leave you with a few photos that don't fit in anywhere else.

City of Ieper

WWI Memorial in Ieper