Izegem, Belgium. This little farm town out in West Flanders is where the USAC cycling house is and where we base most of our 15-16, 17-18 and U23 racing trips. It’s a house full of rooms and bunk beds, bike rooms and wheel holders, and a grand dining table usually full of hungry athletes refueling after a long day in the saddle.
This year I received an email detailing the trips I was heading over for. My first adventure is a two week trip, with a bunch of races consisting of a kermesse, a Junior Interclub (think big, important Junior race), and a 4 day stage race, Ster van Zuid Limburg, then I come home get over jet lag and head back to Belgium 12 days later (but that’s another story).
We’ve got 6 guys ready to compete here and are rearing to go, Gregory Daniel, from Colorado, Matt Lipscomb, from Georgia, Tyler Williams, Kyle Torres and Scotty Stern, from California, and Colby Wait-Molyneux from Washington. It was unfortunate that David Benkoski came down with the flu just prior to this trip and stayed home, but we hope to see him over here on the next trip in early May. All the guys flew over a few days ago, dealt with a bit of jet lag and after a couple of light rides are ready to race. Scotty has been living in Belgium for the last month or so, familiarizing himself with all the subtleties of Belgian racing and he’s become the source of information for the others who haven’t been here yet.
Today is their first race, a kermesse in Geluveld, which is only about 30 minutes from the house, therefore logistically super easy. 15 laps of a 6.2km circuit will make for a quick day, about 2.5 hours and then we’ll be back home eating dinner and preparing for Sunday’s Interclub race. Kermesses are local affairs with a start finish line taped to a road, a beer tent, a casual feed zone and no caravan. They are the most basic of Belgian races, but some of the most difficult to win. Local team politics and where a rider is from can influence a kermesse like nothing else. Imagine there were a lot of races in America, local races that had riders living near or in the towns where they were held. You’d do anything to win in front of your Mom, wouldn’t you? Belgium has this scenario in spades. For example: today, a Saturday, there are 13 races, for different categories, in West Flanders alone. West Flanders is about 1200 square miles, around the same size as Rhode Island.
Sunday’s Interclub race, being held in Pommeroeul, Wallonia (the French speaking region of Belgium, 6600 square miles) is a much larger race and one that resembles our National Championships in terms of size and material, but these races take place around 4 times a month, or more. It will have a managers meeting, free coffee for all who attend (important to me), race bibles, podium girls, flowers, trophies, a feed zone, an extremely hectic caravan, race radio, and a lot of spectators. Suffice it to say that Belgians are used to more in their races than we are back in the States-sometimes on a Wednesday.
Having a house in Europe, as a base of race operations is unbelievably crucial to the development of our athletes, wherever they may land and wherever their careers take them. The lessons learned from racing here go so very far. Parking lot criteriums will not make Olympians.
Much more to come…
R-L: Matt Lipscomb, Colby Wait-Molyneux, Tyler Williams, Gregory Daniel, Kyle Torres, Scott Stern
No comments:
Post a Comment