Day 17 - Zutendaal Kermesse

Written by Stephen Hall with Glenn Harris, Matt Irvine & Brad Robson

I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been hit by a car. My leg was aching and knots had found their way into both my arms but I was still determined to race today so I left at 9am with Matt and Brad on their recovery ride. I felt very stiff and it was quite difficult to find a comfortable position to hold the handlebars with such a large piece of my palm missing. We tapped along the canals very slowly and were back home by 10.30. Originally we had planned to race in Tisselt but on checking the race guide (looks like a tv guide and lists every race in Belgium for that particular month) found that there was another race on Zutendaal which was actually closer. Matt called up and confirmed we would be able to nominate at the race. I had to make a few calls regarding insurance which was both extremely frustrating and time consuming. After icing my leg for awhile I made an executive decision to skip today's race and instead focus on trying to get my body right for Sunday's race in Westerlo. 

A few wrong turns and faulty directions left us running several minutes late to the race so Glenn was forced to use his best smile to get Brad and Matt a start. Everything was smoothed over and with a solid team effort both boys were on the line kitted up, numbers pinned on and bikes running smoothly. The race was held on a beautiful course in the French speaking region of Belgium. Laps were approximately 7km long and quite undulating, weaving through the narrow roads surrounded by cornfields and open paddocks. There was a massive field in today's race with 112 riders on the start line. Once again we were blessed with beautiful weather, almost the entire field had their jerseys unzipped from kilometre 1. Right from the gun the pace was poured on with many rider's being caught out by the sudden acceleration. By the second lap rider's were already pulling out and there was still over 100km remaining. I was pretty shattered not to be out there getting a flogging also so Glenn and I began to walk the circuit, snapping photos and encouraging the guys as we made our way around the course. Matt had a tough day out and met us on the side of the road where we chatted and played with some friendly farm animals. Back in the race Brad was riding superbly and had managed to reach the break away which was putting minutes into the peleton. The group of 17 quickly built an advantage and the peleton never got close to bringing them back.

The race was over for the other 80+ riders in the peleton but they still tried to escape the bunch and bridge across so there were literally 4 or 5 groups out on the road. As Glenn and I walked the circuit we  refilled some biddons and spent a couple laps trying to give them to Brad. After a few unsuccessful attempts he finally had 2 full biddons to see him through the remainder of the race. The break away continued working together until about 2 laps to go when the attacks began. Glenn knew a few of the rider's in the break, notably Kurt Geysen (a training partner of Tom Boonen). We tried our best to rely what we knew of the rider's in the break to Brad to help him in distinguishing who were the real 'hitters' in the group. Despite Kurt's best efforts the break didn't give him an inch and was constantly reeled in and counter attacked. Glenn and I managed to make our way to the finish line just to time to see the bunch kick (the main peleton often will get withdrawn a lap early). We found a good position and started to get excited about what was happening out on the course, and were eagerly anticipating the finish. It seemed the grueling but gradual ascent to the finish was the perfect place for the front bunch to be blown apart with the eventual winner Roy Jans crossing the line solo. Of the original 17 riders, about 6 groups came into the finish with about 10-15 seconds between them. Brad had fought desperately to stay in contact but the frequent attacks had sapped everything that was left in his legs, he went to battle against those around him and claimed 11th in a very quality field.

We were all ecstatic in Brad's ride and congratulated him as we made our way back to the car. The race directors are very professional at these races and give every rider a placing (which is very time consuming) so once the car was packed we wasted a bit of time by driving to a nearby supermarket and picking up some lunch. When we made our way back to the race the boys returned their numbers and Brad collected some prize money. Unfortunately there isn't huge amounts of money in kermesses which is strange considering how incredibly hard they are! The drive home took at least an hour because we had to make several detours with the many steets blocked off in preparation for the annual light show tonight in Mol (the floats Martijn showed us on Monday were for the parade). When we finally arrived home Matt cooked up some dinner while Glenn and I had another epic chess battle and Brad played around on the computer. By the time we'd finished dinner the sun had gone down so we jumped on our bikes and rolled 200m down the street to see the light parade. There were many different floats as well as marching bands and children dancing. People lined the streets and Glenn informed us the parade had been running for over 100 years. All the floats do a big lap of Mol and eventually return back to the beginning about 2 hours later. We sat on the side of the road and watched all the different displays come past and eventually saw one of Martijn's projects. All the floats in the parade are manually pushed by a group of people so he popped his head and said hello for a minute while there was a pause.

We waited until the last float in the parade came past before we rode across the road to the Nacht Winkel (night shop) and grabbed an ice cream. Back at the house we played some chess and mucked around on the internet before we made our way to bed. While I have the chance Happy Father's Day to all our Dad's back home for tomorrow, we hope we can put on a good race and continue to improve on our results. Best wishes also to Matty Irvine who turns 19 tomorrow, everyone has a good ride on their birthday so we hope its his day out on the road! The kermesse tomorrow is in the town of Westerlo which is only 20min or so away. At this stage I plan on racing and hope I can get through it because being on the sidelines is definitely no fun!