Written by Stephen Hall with Brett Schnitzerling and Glenn Harris
Today was eventful to say the least with Brett having a tumble out training, getting lost on the way to Aartselaar and competing in our very first kermesse race. Things kicked off early with Glen and myself up bright and early after close to 9 hours sleep. The oats didn't taste any better the second time around but we stomached them and hopped on the bike by 9.30. We headed out for a short ride to Geel just for a coffee and a few extra kilometres before the race. Brett misjudged a curb / drain / cobble section / pot hole and found himself losing a bit of skin on belgian footpath. He was okay in the end just some bumps and bruises luckily. While the Belgians make a lousy coffee they make up for it with their Hot Chocolate Cecemel which was unreal. A cruisey ride home past a festival and some shopping malls was relaxing before we got home and started to pack our bags for the race. Some creative bike maneuvering on Brett's behalf made it possible to fit 3 Eddy Merckx bike frames into the back of a Audi A3 Hatchback. We had printed the instructions off the night before but finding the race was still a mountainous task, finally arriving one hour before race time. 10 euro got us a start in our first kermesse race, surrounded by a festival with beer, children and marching band. A litre of leg oil and a quick roll around later we were ready to start.
The race consisted of laps of a 6km circuit with 6 tight corners, a long sweeping back straight and a complicated finish. It was a messy start with several small breaks going up the road however nothing managed to stick. After three laps of the circuit a break of 10 riders snuck away off the front of the peleton, which quickly gained an advantage as the rest of the bunch looked at each other to pull a turn. Glenn commented quickly to me that the winning break had just gone as he noticed the speed rapidly decrease in the bunch. A chasing group of 5 riders formed and kicked off the chase to the breakaway. I watched a few riders try and get to the chasing group before I jumped on an attack and followed it. The riders were messing around so I had to make my move on the outside. I attacked the group and bridged the gap to the chasers solo, finally reaching them after 3km on the rivet.
The chasing group worked well and we crawled our way to the front group after a few laps, we made it to 50m off the back before they sat up and waited to form a group of 16. We rolled through consistently and besides a few Dutch obscenities we managed to fight off the chasing groups. Meanwhile Glenn had escaped the peleton and was stuck in no mans land with one other rider swapping turns for 6 laps before another 4 bridged across possibly saving Hiroshima in Glenn's quadriceps. The race up front was controlled until one lap to go when the attacks began, I was caught out with a solid attack 2km from the finish. I was stuck in the middle and swamped by a few riders before the finish but held on to finish 8th. Glenn's group finished a minute behind us and Brett finished a solid day in the bunch a further minute behind. Everyone managed to stay upright and was happy with our performance in the first race of our racing schedule. We packed up the car and I collected my 10 euro prize money before the 45min drive home. Glenn and Brett were mesmerized by an old 6 series Coupe once owned by Glenn back home.
Our dinner consisted of tuna pasta & a kilo of veges thrown together by Brett the chef. We talked bikes while we stretched and watched tv before retiring for the night. Tomorrow we back up again and head to Booischot for another Kermesse starting at 6PM. So far we've been blessed with uncharacteristically beautiful weather and should continue through til tomorrow where it doesn't get dark till at least 830PM.
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