Back in Belgium: Oplinter Kermis

Closed roads, passive smoking with commissaires and more prize-money for winning than it costs to enter. Yep, I was back in Belgium, and the real bulk of my season had begun. With exams finished last Friday, I headed to Kumtich for the Sunday, highly motivated for the racing ahead but it was not until Thursday for my first test back on the Belgian roads.

The race was an evening one, in Oplinter, just a few kilometres down the road from here. With about 100 riders signing on we departed for 117 kilometres of undulating roads at the later time of 6pm. Content to sit back in the peloton to find my race legs again, I was quickly offered a rude awakening. This is kermis racing, and “to sit back in the peloton” isn’t really much of an option. It was not long before we were singled out and groups of riders disappeared up the road, and although many were futile efforts, soon enough a large group of some 22 riders broke the pelotons elastic.

They quickly built up a good lead of a minute, and feeling stronger than anticipated, I offered a hand in joining the chase effort before throwing in a couple of attacks of my own. With 4 laps remaining I managed to sneak clear in a group of 5 on the main rise of the circuit, and settling into a good rhythm we set about closing the gap to the leaders. As we pushed on, the front group came back into sight, and slowly but surely we were making up lost ground. However, we were quickly running out of laps and as the bell rang, we were still down 20 seconds, and noticeably slowing, feeling the effects of the tough roads and strong winds. As the gap stretched out again, we capitulated, conceding the chase was over. Comfortably clear of the peloton, we all began to look at each other and prepared for the sprint, a slight uphill long head wind drag. With no-one willing to take it on we crawled toward the finish, and opening up the sprint from 200metres out I kicked hard and held it to the line, taking the sprint and 23^rd on the night.

It’s a solid start, and it was good to see where I stood after so little racing over the past few months. It was a result I could build on and yesterday reaped the rewards already after a 3^rd place finish in Zwalm-Rozebeke, full report to follow soon.