START OF A LONG WEEKEND

Today I did a race in Melle right by Ghent it was a 1.12A race which means its a little longer than a regular kermis, at just under 140kms it was a very hard race for a kermis but it had all the big teams there so it was ridden like a Interclub. This race differed from a regular kermis because it was a lot smother through the corners and just a constant fast pace, quality of racing. so the race was supposed to start at 230 and then the organizers decided to delay the start for 15min for whatever reason, I don't know. When we finally started I was trying to stay at the front as much as possible but in some of these races it is impossible to start at the front, I lined up at the line and crept up as people kept coming in and we where probably 10 meters in front of the line and still 40 back in the peleton, its is crazy at the start. the race started somewhat tame, about halfway through the first lab the pace started to pick up considerably, but we had yet to get to full throttle. laps 2-6 where however where fast, with the occasional hot lap, or full gas lap. laps 7 & 8 where relatively easy and then the last two laps where full on, good quality racing for a kermis thats for sure. I ended up getting caught behind a crash on the last lap so a young kid and I rode in by ourselves in front of a group of about 40-50, and I ended up about 60th of about 130 finishers so not too bad at all.

That race however is just the beginning of a very long weekend, last weekend we did 4 races in a row and this weekend I will also be doing the same, this weekend however will be harder because of the quality of racing. MELLE was today, tomorrow we go 8ks north to ZOTTEGEM, then Monday we go 8ks east to NINOVE,and those three races are all kermises, then finally we have a race only 2ks away from the house to wrap it all up in LIERDE, and that is a local race. I expect to be so nuckerd after tuesday that I might have to sleep for two days straight, for the next two weeks I will have a lot of rest and coffee shop rides, after that I should be on the best form yet. It is truly amazing how much racing there is in this country and how much racers can develop here, I truly think that Belgium is the worlds cyclist factory.