kermes- dont underestimate them

This week has been my first week of proper racing as a full time cyclist.  I always looked upon this lifestyle as an endless stream of café stops, podium girls and glamorous stage races in exotic destinations.  Down at the elite amateur level life is anything but this, café stops still exist but podium girls are reserved for the winners of races and my calendar is filled with hard and fast kermes racing as I can only watch races like ‘Paris-Nice’ on my television.  A quick mention before I continue for my new found ‘guide to Belgium’-Mr Gyles Wingate.  As well as knowing every bike path like the back of his hand, he also knows the best cafes and he seems to command celebrity service.  Having just ordered a Cappuccino, out trotted the café owner to give us some complementary chocolates and free croissants at the latest café in Diest!

Anyway down to racing.  Wednesday was a midweek kermes.  Kermes translates to ‘fair’- the celebratory type like a village gala.  There are often small rides for children, tepee style tents filled with the local brewery produce and the highlight of these outdoor parties is a bike race around the town.  I am particularly fond of this idea as it guarantees plenty of support (often 100’s of people at various stages of inebriation) and means the race starts at 3pm, very civilized then until the racing starts.   Wednesdays race kicked off with rain unfortunately, my legs felt reasonable for only my 4^th race so I attacked early on lap 2 at the bottom of the finish climb…this was a brief bid for freedom and lasted only a matter of minutes.  Having been brought back I settled for what seemed an inevitable wearing down process of crosswinds and hills.  My race ended prematurely however as, with 25km left I wasn’t attentive and struck a traffic island, fortunately for me this particular island had been newly planted with this seasons daffodils so I had a soft but wet landing, I was fine, the front wheel had took the impact and was damaged beyond repair. Better look next time…quite literally!

Saturday was a similar idea to Wednesday, a kermes of 113km near Ghent.  There was probably no more than a speed hump in terms of a climb so fast and flat was the order of the day.  On the plus side though the sun was out and the mercury read a dizzying 15 degrees, for the 2^nd week of March that’s not bad.  You know a race is going to be cramped when you line up next to number 234 so with that in mind I had to be attentive.  No sooner had I got started then the first break went.  A good group of 20 guys had slipped clear and I was angry at myself for missing the move.  I was sure that the race was over in terms of going for the win as the gap shot up to 2 minutes to the peloton within 20km.  After lap 4 of racing the bunch had slowed just a little too much, a touch of wheels close to me brought maybe 15 riders down.  When this happens in a race one of two things happen, either the race is unofficially neutralised to allow the riders a chance to get up, dust themselves off and regain the group.  Or more likely the proverbial waste is about the hit the fan.  The latter happened… a number of teams moved to the front and with the conditions blustery it became apparent that they would ride fast on the front with the aim of getting rid of the weaker riders from the rear of the group.  The next 50 kilometres went by in a painfull blur.  I was at one point in the third echelon however some canny riding (or as my scouse team mate would say ‘I reached into the suitcase of courage’) saw me ride across a couple of groups and back up to the front of the bunch.  Having almost given up at the halfway point we went through the bell lap at breakneck speed with the breakaway now insight.  It was always going to be a cat and mouse situation but with just 400 metres to go the bunch swallowed up the breakaway, paving the way for a big bunch sprint…tour de France style.  With a strong tailwind and 200 motivated riders all looking for a good result I decided to play it safe and stick near the front but not so close that I contested the sprint.  I rolled over the line in 50^th, good speed work even if I wasn’t up there at the end going for the win.  To my surprise I handed my race number back in at the end and was handed an envelope…envelopes mean prize money at the end of a race and I was quietly amused when I had won 10 Euro for 50^th.   




Just a quick picture, i'm 2nd in from the right.  This was Saturdays race.