Yesterday, I raced another kermesse in the town of De Haan on the coast. We began our race day by riding about an hour and a half to the race start. When we arrived we did the usual of locating the registration area and finding a spot to pin our numbers. Our team director/manager, Bernard Moerman, showed up to watch the race and help out as well. We loaded our bags into the team van and began our warmup.
It was a sunny and fairly clear day with mild temperatures of about 40-55 degrees depending on when the sun would expose itself. The only downfall was that there was a fairly strong wind, which I guess is just typical anyways. The race consisted of a 9 km loop that began with a long headwind section on the highway which then turned back 180 degrees with a tailwind. The end of the tailwind section would lead to a left hand turn onto small windy neighborhood roads which also included a small “climb”. After meandering through the residential area we made our way back into the heart of De Haan onto a cobbled section of road through the start/finish area.
I began the race in the second row of the peloton of 113 riders. The whistle was blown and we made our immediate left hand turn onto the headwind section of the highway. I was at the front and saw my teammate, Evan, try to go with some moves and make some of his own. After maintaining my position for the first lap I tried going with a small break on the second lap which was easily caught. Nothing really was able to get away on the headwind straight. It seemed as though I had already burned my match, so I would just sit in the pack to rest. I made my way up to the front a few times but my legs just didn’t seem to be all there. I raced for about an hour and a half and then popped. After the race finished, we rode back to the house where I made some dinner and got some much needed rest. I have another kermesse on Sunday followed by a UCI race in Anzegem next Saturday which I will be prepping for this week.
