Some thoughts about Belgian racing...

One of the most interesting things about the racing over here is the difference in mentality compared to American racing. The guys are super-aggressive, angry, rude racers. They’ll attack from the gun until the finish, yelling the whole way, accelerating full-gas out of every corner. There’s a seriously smash-mouth mindset about the whole thing - its strongman’s racing for sure. I think all Belgian racers feel a certain patriotic duty to be as impolite as possible to Americans racing over here. One time in my first kermis, I got gapped a bit out of a corner (ok, it happened more than once) and was met by a flurry of Flemish curses from the guy behind me as he came past to fill in the gap. His anger was justified, I guess, but you would think that the energy used for the cursing would have been better spent turning the pedals to close that gap. I suppose it was because he was using all his oxygen yelling at me that he didn’t have the energy to close the gap himself; naturally he grabbed my side and gave himself a hard hip-sling up to the wheel in front of him. It is much more important to stand your ground out here than back in the States. I have already gotten pretty good at: a) cursing, loudly, in English or Spanish (still working on Dutch and French); b) completely ignoring someone yelling at me; c) shaking my head in disdain; d) cutting people off to assert myself… I have found all translate pretty well despite the cultural and language barriers.

So like I mentioned, the racing is super-aggressive with attacks fired as relentlessly as anywhere in the States. The accelerations are pretty violent coming out of corners and the pace never really slackens at any point… But here’s the contradiction: going into a corner, turnaround, tight roundabout, or even a narrow bend, they grab brake and lots of it! Partly this is tactical, I guess, since it makes life at the back miserable as the accordion effect dishes out hearty helpings of suffering on those unfortunate souls at the back. But more it seems like guys over here are afraid of going down. Back in the States, if you don’t dive into every corner sans-brake, you’re getting gapped before even starting to sprint, then burning matches accelerating back up to speed in the wind. Here, it is easy to keep wheels through corners, but coming out you better be ready to sprint 100% or else you open a gap and when you open a gap and the dude at the front is giving full gas, it ain’t easy to close. Just a different style I guess, but I have yet to feel like I have to risk my arse just to be competitive. Back home either you lay it all on the line through the corners or you might as well just pack it in and call it a day.

Maybe the coolest thing about cornering here is that you don’t know a corner is coming because of the smell of roasting of carbon or the squeal of dirty brakes, but rather because of the whistles being blown on each corner. It really puts you at ease, sitting 20 riders back, not having to think about whether that road on the left is on the course or if you turn right at the intersection up ahead. You hear a whistle, you brake, you turn, you jump. It makes life pretty easy. Or at least it means you have to be less focused on trying to figure out where the course goes, which gives you more time to pick your gears and get yourself all set for the jump out of the corner. Once you get to the corner, if you aren’t at the very head of the pack, the pace is low enough that you can probably find some kind of sidewalk, bike path, or cobbled shortcut to sneak up a few extra spots. Guys ride over anything here and as they say if you aren’t moving up you’re moving back!