French Logic

I did another kermesse yesterday in the South yesterday. It was semi hilly so our team manager got the climbers to do it. There were four of us on the selection, but Derek unfortunately hurt his hamstring and couldn't race. The drive down was long, however we did go through Brussels and Gent so we got a bit of sight seeing in. Arne, one of the Belgians on the team got his father to drive us through. He was incredibly helpful, putting on pre race rub, strapping our numbers to our bike and making sure we were well fed. As usual the inscription was held in an alchol smoke spewing pit, only this time the race officials were French. The first thing we get told about racing in France or any French region of Belgium, is that all logic falls away. There are no race markers or barricades like in West Flanders, so checking out the course before the race is not possible. Another thing I noticed is that riders fill in from the front and not the back like in the West.

There were about 170 riders at the start line with two groups at right angles to eachother, arguing over which direction the race was going to start (pure chaos), eventually the race official crawled out of the smoke pit and spoke some french, and with that the convertible lead car came out of nowhere and started the race. Again it was pure chaos with the two groups colliding to form one while following the convertible. It was a neutral start, the convertible hitting a long flat and and accelerating away from the group. From that point the riders hammered it in the front hitting an average of 48 to 50 on the flats. The first break went, one rider from a local team, then another three and then another 2 all to find themselves sucked back into the ravenous peloton after half a lap. Amazingly there were no break aways that made it during the whole race, apparently because there was no wind. Then came the cobbles, being a small rider I had to throw myself at the cobbles to gain a bit of speed at the start of the section, it went on for about 400 m and then on to a small hill which threw som unlucky souls off in the first laps. The lap was 12km long with a massive downhill stretchthat formed a funnel into the narrwo winding streets. Again, it was chaos, with near crashes and handlebars touching, people shouting. A dog jumped out of nowhere and leaped inot the peloton causing some riders to sprint for there survival in the race. After that another car parked in the middle of the road causing a close call.

It took about three laps for the riders to get used to eachother. Unfortunately on my 7th lap the group went into a gutter formation, a person pushed in front of me and cost me my race when the gap he formed was impossible to close. However it was by far the most tense Kermesse I've done so far. Apparently it's the way the South does it. It just adds that extra bit of excitement, I like it.