Owen Harrison - Belgium Trip
May 21, 2009

I’ve been here in Oudenaarde, Belgium, for just over a week now. I flew over on May 10 and will be staying until the 31st. I am here with Cody Campbell, Nathan Macdonald, and Jackson Beuhler, a rad bunch of young BC riders. We are staying at the house of Gregg Germer (www.thechainstay.com), located in cycling-crazy Flanders. Gregg is a ex-pro who now does tours during the spring classics and provides accommodation to racers giving the Belgian scene a shot. Also staying here at the house are two young Aussies, Matt and Tim.

We got to the racing right away, it was sure an eye-opener. The majority of races here are kermesses of about 120km, pretty much guaranteed to be blasted by wind and held on small roads in and around any town or city. The first race we did was classified as Elite/U23, held in a town about a 25km ride away. As I’d heard before getting to Belgium, the race is pinned right from the start, strung out in the gutter due to the wind and some hammer-head on the front. The roads are very twisty and gaps open easily between racers after only about 20 minutes of racing, so positioning is very important. At this first race, I lasted only one hour. Ya...hard blow to the ego after racing at home has been going so well. All the races here – even mid-week regional races - have at least 80 riders in the field. Some are full-time kermesse racers, others are U23’s decked to the nines with pristine Euro-mullet-hawks and spare bikes costing as much as I’ve probably spent on all my past bikes combined. But, in the combined Elite/U23 races, it takes only an hour or so for the race to be trimmed down to 20 racers left, the rest pulled by commissaries. So, I didn’t feel too bad when I was pulled as well. It seems it takes a long time to develop the strength and insane threshold to be able to do well in one of these races.

The next races we did over the weekend went a lot better. Both were U23 races, again with big fields. The atmosphere at the races here is awesome: lots of spectators, frite vans parked on the corners selling chips with mayo, and loud music playing. The U23 races included the US development team, and Lotto and QuickStep feeder teams, so definitely a solid bunch of racers. It’s funny watching the parents of the young racers here, its like hockey in Canada, so definitely some crazy dads out watching. Both races were very hard, but few of us managed to stay in there well enough to make a bit of cash. Doing these races is awesome training, especially adding in the 25-ish kilometres we have to ride each way to get to-and-from, making up some loooong days in the saddle. One of the funniest things I’ve seen is another U23 racer getting a thorough warming-oil leg rub down from his mom before the race, his own personal masseur, I guess.

The group is getting in a bit of tourist action as well. We just spend the day in Gent, only a half-hour train ride away, eating a lot of ice cream, waffles, frites, some unreal fruit cake, and of course, some 11% beer! We checked out the sights including an amazing old church which was build in 1440, some castles, and the cool downtown scene where modern designer shops and expensive restaurants are built in historic stone buildings. Lots of photos were taken and we were all tuckered out from spending way more time on our feet than we’re used to. Also pretty touristy, we rode a good chunk of the Tour of Flanders course, including some of the key cobbles and climbs which are just as hard as they look on the TV and in the magazines. Awesome ride, the roads were unreal and it turned out to be a nice day, pretty rare here I’m starting to think.

We’ll continue racing 3 or 4 times a week for the rest of the month, then fly back home to have one day of R & R, then its off the Oregon for the Mt. Hood Stage Race, K-Town Classic, Banff Stage Race, and Nationals. Nice! Looking forward to getting back together with the TR gang for some mega-hilly events and a style of racing I’m a bit more used to!