Four, tanned, aging men were what greeted me as I entered the café before my first kermesse. After a gentle chat it was established that it was my first time racing abroad and I was set up to race. With a wish of “good luck” from the organisers I pinned on my number, warmed up and got to the start line. Late. And facing the wrong way. After forcing my way through the 100 riders, I slotted myself into the middle of the pack with 3 minutes until kick off.
I’d heard they were hard and with 115 km to race I thought I better behave and tuck in for a bit. Paddy didn’t plan the same and attacked from the gun. “I was nearly sick” was one of his comments after the race.
The course was 17 laps of an extremely flat circuit with and a narrow cross windy section which was by far the hardest part. While I could compete, the race was just constant attacks. There was barely any let up, with almost every rider driving the pace and forcing everyone to ride hard and chase. The way to describe it would be like trying to establish the breakaway in a Nat B race, but for 2.5 hours.
Each lap riders would get pinged out the back and the best place to be was top 20 riders where you could pull turns without risk of getting dropped. Eventually a break was made and naturally I missed it. As did all my team mates. Shortly after I somehow found myself off the front in a chase group of 5. It was an intense breakaway with riders almost touching shoulders as we pulled turns. Within half a lap we were joined by 7 more riders including my teammate Kieran, perfect.
This group was stacked with tanks and with my climber’s body I felt a little out of place. I really tried to maintain a very easy paceline and pulled turns barely above threshold, just doing my work. With two laps to go it was clear that we weren’t going to catch the front group and we weren’t going to get caught so we eased off. I mean it was still hard but not full gas like the start. As I didn’t back myself for the sprint I said to Kieran that I’d lead him out and that’s exactly what I did. With 800 m to go some wild attacked and with 500 m to go I smashed it to close him down. I gave it everything I could and with 150 m to go Kieran jumped off my wheel and won from our group to come 20th, giving him his best Kermesse finish. I rolled in 30th place, somehow not even last in the group and won €10, not bad for €5 entry.
Second race: Sinaai-Waas
As I entered the café for the second kermesse, I was welcomed with the tour on the widescreen TV, unheard of in the UK. Around the corner I found the familiar scene of four old men surrounded by stacks of papers and a laptop to share. They signed me up for the same measly cost of €10, with €5 promised back for returning my number.
Again we didn’t really know what the course was like until we set off, but it was extremely flat again. We knew there was a substantial cobbled section over the start finish line, but it was only after completing one lap it was found that there were in fact three sections. One very hard but short, one easy and medium length but the hardest was a set medium cobbles 1.5 km in length with two 90-degree corners.
One think not mentioned in the first race was the severe dehydration we had. With no helpers we had no way of picking up bottles so really suffered from dehydration. Especially with Kieran hilariously dropping both his bottles on the cobbles in the first 100 m of the race.
Once again, the racing was hard. Drilled constantly the 100-rider peloton kept splintering and coming back together. It was definitely harder than the first Kermesse with quite a lot of time spent in the gutter. Halfway into the race it split in two with all of us in the second half. We didn’t panic and with the help of some other riders we got to the front and brought it back. After 14 laps there was still no break. With the cobbles certainly taking their toll, the group was on the limit and three riders, including a Lotto-Soudal U23 rider who won the previous race,managed to slip off the front.
Half a lap later I was towards the front as 4 more riders attacked. I didn’t follow initially but when no one else chased I made a huge move to bridge the gap. It took a monstrous effort paced over a kilometre but I made it to the four. They were all clearly strong and I was on the limit. I kept missing turns grimacing with lactic. There were points where I couldn’t muster the effort to overtake the rider in front to take a turn but did whatever I could. We kept disciplined with no shenanigans and as we entered the final tailwind section the peloton wasn’t in sight. With a final flurry of attacks I got spat on the final section of cobbles but held on to come 8th overall, 6 seconds ahead of the bunch. The effort to make it was one of the hardest I’ve ever done and a top 10 placing in a Belgian Kermesse is probably my best ever result. Turns out I’m good at flat cobbles!
Third race: Herzele-Borsbeke
Our final Kermesse was the next day and after my efforts previously I wasn’t too optimistic. The field was larger with 140 riders and the course was actually hilly! Not compared to British races but it was certainly not flat. This course only had two cobbles sections which weren’t too difficult to deal with. The hardest part of the race was moving up, the race was over narrow roads and the pace was never relaxed.
I’m not even bad at cornering but as I couldn’t move up I was towards the last third of the group and when we turned onto a long straight rode the pace was unbelievable and I was doing a full max effort (for me) sprint just to stay in touch. At least 4 laps in a row I got dropped on the same section and had to crawl back in when it eased. As every lap passed I thought it’d be my last, however I kept feeling better and better. Still not strong enough to compete like the previous day but I was there.
As we approached the final 5 km I got to the front and followed one guy as he attacked. I backed myself for a 5minute effort but not for a sprint so went for it. I gave it what I could but with 2 km to go I was caught. I let everyone pass me and rolled in towards the tail of the peloton in 59th place. It was the biggest “get round” I’ve done but it’s still good fun getting my legs blown apart in Belgium.
I’d heard they were hard and with 115 km to race I thought I better behave and tuck in for a bit. Paddy didn’t plan the same and attacked from the gun. “I was nearly sick” was one of his comments after the race.
The course was 17 laps of an extremely flat circuit with and a narrow cross windy section which was by far the hardest part. While I could compete, the race was just constant attacks. There was barely any let up, with almost every rider driving the pace and forcing everyone to ride hard and chase. The way to describe it would be like trying to establish the breakaway in a Nat B race, but for 2.5 hours.
Each lap riders would get pinged out the back and the best place to be was top 20 riders where you could pull turns without risk of getting dropped. Eventually a break was made and naturally I missed it. As did all my team mates. Shortly after I somehow found myself off the front in a chase group of 5. It was an intense breakaway with riders almost touching shoulders as we pulled turns. Within half a lap we were joined by 7 more riders including my teammate Kieran, perfect.
This group was stacked with tanks and with my climber’s body I felt a little out of place. I really tried to maintain a very easy paceline and pulled turns barely above threshold, just doing my work. With two laps to go it was clear that we weren’t going to catch the front group and we weren’t going to get caught so we eased off. I mean it was still hard but not full gas like the start. As I didn’t back myself for the sprint I said to Kieran that I’d lead him out and that’s exactly what I did. With 800 m to go some wild attacked and with 500 m to go I smashed it to close him down. I gave it everything I could and with 150 m to go Kieran jumped off my wheel and won from our group to come 20th, giving him his best Kermesse finish. I rolled in 30th place, somehow not even last in the group and won €10, not bad for €5 entry.
Second race: Sinaai-Waas
As I entered the café for the second kermesse, I was welcomed with the tour on the widescreen TV, unheard of in the UK. Around the corner I found the familiar scene of four old men surrounded by stacks of papers and a laptop to share. They signed me up for the same measly cost of €10, with €5 promised back for returning my number.
Again we didn’t really know what the course was like until we set off, but it was extremely flat again. We knew there was a substantial cobbled section over the start finish line, but it was only after completing one lap it was found that there were in fact three sections. One very hard but short, one easy and medium length but the hardest was a set medium cobbles 1.5 km in length with two 90-degree corners.
One think not mentioned in the first race was the severe dehydration we had. With no helpers we had no way of picking up bottles so really suffered from dehydration. Especially with Kieran hilariously dropping both his bottles on the cobbles in the first 100 m of the race.
Once again, the racing was hard. Drilled constantly the 100-rider peloton kept splintering and coming back together. It was definitely harder than the first Kermesse with quite a lot of time spent in the gutter. Halfway into the race it split in two with all of us in the second half. We didn’t panic and with the help of some other riders we got to the front and brought it back. After 14 laps there was still no break. With the cobbles certainly taking their toll, the group was on the limit and three riders, including a Lotto-Soudal U23 rider who won the previous race,managed to slip off the front.
Half a lap later I was towards the front as 4 more riders attacked. I didn’t follow initially but when no one else chased I made a huge move to bridge the gap. It took a monstrous effort paced over a kilometre but I made it to the four. They were all clearly strong and I was on the limit. I kept missing turns grimacing with lactic. There were points where I couldn’t muster the effort to overtake the rider in front to take a turn but did whatever I could. We kept disciplined with no shenanigans and as we entered the final tailwind section the peloton wasn’t in sight. With a final flurry of attacks I got spat on the final section of cobbles but held on to come 8th overall, 6 seconds ahead of the bunch. The effort to make it was one of the hardest I’ve ever done and a top 10 placing in a Belgian Kermesse is probably my best ever result. Turns out I’m good at flat cobbles!
Third race: Herzele-Borsbeke
Our final Kermesse was the next day and after my efforts previously I wasn’t too optimistic. The field was larger with 140 riders and the course was actually hilly! Not compared to British races but it was certainly not flat. This course only had two cobbles sections which weren’t too difficult to deal with. The hardest part of the race was moving up, the race was over narrow roads and the pace was never relaxed.
I’m not even bad at cornering but as I couldn’t move up I was towards the last third of the group and when we turned onto a long straight rode the pace was unbelievable and I was doing a full max effort (for me) sprint just to stay in touch. At least 4 laps in a row I got dropped on the same section and had to crawl back in when it eased. As every lap passed I thought it’d be my last, however I kept feeling better and better. Still not strong enough to compete like the previous day but I was there.
As we approached the final 5 km I got to the front and followed one guy as he attacked. I backed myself for a 5minute effort but not for a sprint so went for it. I gave it what I could but with 2 km to go I was caught. I let everyone pass me and rolled in towards the tail of the peloton in 59th place. It was the biggest “get round” I’ve done but it’s still good fun getting my legs blown apart in Belgium.
