And Now For Something Completely Different...

Guest blog by Andrew Nichols

Never having ridden in Belgium before and having not raced at all on the road for two months, it was with some trepidation that I lined up in Wambeek for the start my first kermis. As had been immediately obvious from riding up the cobbles of the Kauterhof the day I arrived, Belgium is certainly nothing like Essex. I had no reason to expect the style of racing to be similar either. Taking Dave's advice, I adopted a strategy of hiding in the peloton for the first few laps to avoid expending too much energy. Within seconds of the race starting it became clear that even this is easier said than done. Unlike in British racing, the lack of a neutralised section provides the opportunity to attack from the start line. An opportunity that it appears is seldom missed in kermis racing. Having survived the opening laps, I reached for a gel. Struggling to open the packaging, the wrapper split leaving most of it's contents over the bike. Being aware that I would have to spend most of the next two hours chewing my handlebars to stay in the race, it was comforting to know that they at least now had some nutritional value. As the race progressed, the bunch began to split over the cobbled climb and with three laps to go I found myself in a small group off the front of the peloton but some distance behind the race leaders. Believing that we would surely be pulled from the race before the finish I began to attack more and broke away from the group on a climb before riding over to two other riders a little further up the road. Despite numerous attempts no one was able to ride away from this group and I remained there until the end, finishing in 27th place and looking forward to the second part of the race two days later. As it turned out, this was considerably shorter than expected with my chain breaking just one lap in.

Disappointed by this, we decided to ride again the following day in Jauche, a race that was characterised by a long, exposed, drag and it's accompanying crosswinds and fast decent. At 5'4” and 58kg, it was always going to be a struggle but spurred on by the possibility of a top 20 finish I kept pushing only for a slow puncture to cause me to stop 2 laps prematurely in 29th place. My final race was to be the following day in Ruiselede. Feeling quite exhausted from the previous days efforts and knowing it was likely to be one race too many, but costing only three Euros to enter and being on the way home, it seemed worth giving it a go despite the bad weather. Three quarters of an hour of holding on to the back of a fast moving peloton later and sprinting out of a corner proved one acceleration too many and I was dropped out of the back of the group. After a few minutes, I was joined by another dropped rider and as I perhaps should have expected by now of kermis racing, he attacked and raced me for what must have been about 60th place. (Somehow don't think I've ever seen that happen at Hog Hill). This move typified the attitude of riders fighting for every place, that seemed a fitting summary of my week in Belgium.