Day 12 - Schriek Kermesse

Written by Stephen Hall with Brett Schnitzerling & Glenn Harris

The rain was washed away over night and the sun returned bright and early on day 12. Besides Glenn we all had trouble getting to sleep the night before and ended up waking up relatively late. Glenn woke up and went back to bed whereas I sat around the apartment and ended up cleaning my bike for an hour. Brett pulled himself out of bed feeling a bit worse for wear the pain in his stomach getting the best of him. We went for a short walk hoping to get milk but the deli / supermarkets here don't open on Monday until 1pm. Glenn watched a DVD while we waited for the supermarket to open as the fridge was almost completely empty by now. The shops were only a short walk away so we stocked up on the usuals and came back 15mins later for lunch.

Brett's bike needed some serious TLC but he was also still too sore to ride so Glenn and I went out for an hour or so around town just to roll our legs over. We had a coffee in Mol not far from home and watched the tour of spain on the TV from a far. When we got back to the apartment we packed up our things and left within the hour headed for our next kermesse. The race started at 6.45 in the same town as Fridays (where Glenn & I finished 4th - 5th) but on a different circuit. We arrived half an hour before the race and had enough time to get changed, nominate and pin our numbers on. Ten minutes of instructions from the commentator and we were off. The race was run over a flowing 4.5km circuit with nothing tricky about it besides the off camber roads. They weren't too bad in the beginning but as the race went on it became fairly uncomfortable in the saddle. For the most part of the race it was very uneventful with the usual breaks trying but not succeeding in splitting the bunch. I floated around the back of the bunch while Glenn went with everything and launched a few attacks of his own. Brett watched from the sidelines and snapped a few photos as we went past each lap.

My kermesse good luck nearly ran out when some numpty bunny-hopped a chicane around a corner and bumped me off the road. I used my new found cyclo-cross skills to conquer a patch of long grass, fly straight through someone's front yard water feature, over a hill and then back onto the course via a cobblestone drive way. Besides the 10-15 positions I lost and the few grey hairs I was relatively unharmed and re-entered the bike race shaken but not stirred. A break containing Glenn and 5-6 other riders had lasted for 4-5 laps but was eventually reeled in. The race was reduced by 3 laps as the sun went down quicker than expected and the conditions became almost dangerous. Most of the field removed their sunglasses as the sun disappeared from the sky. With 5 laps remaining Glenn and 9 other riders launched another attack that finally worked and caught the peleton napping. The pace dropped from 50kmph to that of an u/15 girls scratch race and it was all it took for the break to stay away.

Uncharacteristically Glenn worked hard with the break to ensure they stayed away while hoping he could get up for the win and score Arbitrage Wormall's first international victory. With 3km to go in the bike race the race was theirs and the attacks began. Glenn chased down a few dangerous moves but had to allow another to go 1.5km from home. The solo attack was timed perfect while Glenn had no choice but to wait for the last possible moment to open the sprint and take off after him. But it wasn't to be his day, coming up 5m short at the finish. While he was extremely disappointed we were all proud of his solid effort all day and our first top 3 placing for the trip. Back in the bunch it went up shit creek in a real hurry. Riders were bombing it up the gutter and cyclepath trying to gain position before the sprint. There was a sweeping right hand corner 200m before the finish which everyone was battling to be top 3 for. I made an executive decision to not risk my life for 11th and instead backed out of the carnage. A rider even went to the lengths of jumping a curb as he went around the corner, cutting 15m off everyone else. I caught a few riders when the road straightened out probably finishing 15th or 16th in the end.

After the race we got changed, returned our numbers and collected prize money. We had planned to have dinner with a friend of Glenns so we left Schriek and were seated at a nice restaurant 20 minutes later. We enjoyed a beautifully cooked steak with mash and vegetables while we talked bike racing. Desert was pretty incredible and we probably had more than we should have. The Garmin decided to lead us on a wild goose chase on the way home but we eventually found our way and we were tucked in bed as soon as we walked through the door.