Both of these towns are within 40k of our house in Zingem. And if you find these mesmerizing, there are more than 500 additional videos.

More on why Kermesse are so intoxicating click here

Arrival: Monday, November 19 with access to the house after 4:00 PM

Depart: Monday, November 26, ready to depart by 9:00 AM

Race Dates: Tuesday 20 to Sunday, November 25

Cost: $895 person: Includes 7 nights housing, 2+ meals a day, entry to 6-day ($200 value), the use of a city bike for the week, and beer at the house — but do not be afraid to share the Belgium beer that you love with the rest of us!. Not Included: Airfair, train expenses, meals in cafés and in velodrome.

Total participants: 7. Reserve your place with a 50% ($450) deposit refundable only if your spot is filled. Contact Rick Adams (oldtrackie@gmail.com) Balance ($445) due 30 days before departure.

THE MAIN SHOW

Racing starts daily at 7:00 PM and ends at 1:00 AM. Racing typically begins with the “Future-six-day riders” (a U23 group). In the main program expect: points race, madison, elimination (hopefully team elimination), time trial, sprint and derny.

HOUSING

Our house is a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house is spacious and bright and located in the center of Gent with a grand living room, full kitchen, laundry and garage for bike storage. The house is equipped with high speed internet, large flat screen TV.  The house is 2 miles from the velodrome and the Gent-Sint-Pieters train station. For details of the house click here. Each participant will be sharing a bedroom with one other participant. Google Map of the house location click here. The velodrome is southwest of the house in the park Citadelpark.

TRANSPORTATION

Upon arrival at Brussels International, take a train to Gent, a 60 to 90 minutes ride that will cost about 15e. Belgium Train schedule is here. Detailed instruction on getting to the house via the train will be provided. The house is a 10 minute walk from the Gent-Dampoort train station, one stop past Gent-Sint-Pieters.

DAILY TRANSPORTATION

A “City Bike” will be available for your use during the day and will be the suggest means of transportation to and from the velodrome. The city of Gent is well lit, but please bring your own set of lights for riding at night.

RENTING A ROAD BIKE

If you would like to rent a road bike for your stay, we will secure you a bike and pass the direct cost on to you. Expect to pay 25e or $40 a day

MEALS

For the duration of your trip you are at home in Gent. The house will always have food in the refrigerator and snacks available.

•  Breakfast: Fresh bread, pastries, butter, jam and other spreads, milk, yogurt, cereal, and fresh fruit. Eggs and meats will be available for self-preparation. Juice, coffee and tea.

• Lunch/Dinner: A late afternoon meal will normally be a grazing, self-construction affair of salad, meat, cheese, nuts, fruit, bread and makings for sandwiches. Dinner can either be purchased separately inside the velodrome or at a Café.

SIDE TRIPS

Gent: Start with a stroll or bike along the cobblestone banks of the stunning canal that cuts through the middle of Ghent. This stunning European city has abundant shopping, café life and historic architecture dating back to the Renaissance. You can easily spend 6 days in Gent and not run out things to see.

Oudenaarde and Brugge are easy train rides

Oudenaarde is the arrival town of the Ronde van Vlaanderen and home to the Tour of Flanders Museum

RIDING A BIKE

• The hills of the Tour of Flanders: Oudenaarde is a 30 minute train ride and just 5 k south is the Koppenburg, and also close by are Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, Eikenberg, Molenberg. Weather permitting, riding these will be important.
• Last 100 k of Paris-Roubaix: Roubaix is a 1-hour train ride from Gent. Weather permitting, a trip to ride the last 100k (Arenberg to the Velodrome) can be organized
• Going to UCI Cycle Cross: This will be right in the middle of Cross season and there will be many day trip opportunities to see high level cross races.

Elite and U23 Kermesse racing are so prolific that during July and August one takes place practically everyday within 50k of our house in Zingem. Check out the map and city list below. All of these Elite and U23 Kermesses are easy to either ride to and/or take the train. For example, Landskouter on July 22 is 18k from the house, Deinze on July 24 is 14k, both area an easy bike ride away. Kermesses near Roeselare and Kortrijk can be easily traveled to with the use of the train. Roeselare is 60 minutes by train and Kortrijk is 35 minutes by train from Zingem. To see the Belgium train schedule to Kortrijk click here. 

Most Kermesses are about 120 kilometers. The race is typically 10 to 20 laps, of between 5 and 10 kilometers. The race almost always begins and ends in the center of the town which is hosting the day’s race. There is usually a pay out of 670 euro or 800 euro. Traditionally the 670 euro race will pay out 35 deep and the 800 euro race will pay out 50 deep. For a great review of Kermesse racing, see Wikipedia (click here)

To do your own search of Kermesses, see the Wielerbond Vlaanderen’s web site (Belgium UCI Federation) 

You probably will want to limit your search to – 1.12B – ind.reg.wedstr.(100-120 km) Elite z.c./U23. The Chain Stay has a great list of kermis racing categories.

I was a bit fervent about cobbles, but now Strava is turning me into a complete cobble-oholic. They are seducing me with Taylor Phinney’s Roubaix sector times! And now I have to know: can I beat him?

Of the 15 sectors on Strava from Trouée d’Arenberg to the velodrome, Phinney only owns ten of them. Strava provides proof that Phinney is beatable especially when he is on a reconnaissance ride and the rest of us mere mortals are at full speed. Phinney is atop the Arenberg leaderboard, but he is only 23 second ahead of Australian veteran (non-pro) Scott Hunter. And on Sector 9 and Sector 8, Phinney is hovering around 8th place – 30 seconds back. Hey – get me to Roubaix fast so I can climb on those Strava leaderboards.

For us who harbor a burning desire to climb on those leaderboards we are grateful that Phinney did not post his race data to Strava. And we thank god Boonen did not post the data from his Garmin 500 either.

Sector 10 does give us a bit of insight into Boonen. These 3,000m are rated the hardest level of difficulty, five stars. On this Sector, Boonen rode an un-Strava time of 5:20 – 30 seconds faster than Phinney’s Strava record – on race day, in a solo break and after 130 miles. Wow!

So as the old saying “you have to show up to win” is transformed into “you have to post to win,” let us hope Taylor, Tom, Thor, Alessandro, Juan Antonio and the rest keep their data to themselves.  :)

A question every competitive cyclists needs answered is, how do I compare to the pros on the great climbs of cycling? For climbs like L’Alpe d’Huez, Col du Tourmalet, Col du Galibier, the record times are well-known and over thirty minutes. But hey, for one-day race junkies the Paterberg, Oude Kwaremont, and Koppenberg are some of the most important climbs of the year. And last Sunday, Ted King (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Strava gave us real window into these climbs during the Tour of Flanders. Wow, finally we can find out how us mere mortals compare to the pros on these important bergs.

First unlike the longer grand tour climbs, you have a chance of actually beating the pros. Ok, you will have to sprint for one to five minutes and the pros do these climbs during a 164 miles gallop through Flanders, but lets forget about that detail.

On the Koppenburg (http://app.strava.com/segments/608880) Ted King was with the peloton and crested in 2:44 – 23 seconds off the Strava record.

On Oude Kwaremont, (http://app.strava.com/segments/608879 ) second assent, King crested in 6:01 – 33 seconds behind the Strava record.

On Paterberg, (http://app.strava.com/segments/640400) second assent, King crested in 1:33 – 28 seconds off the Strava record.

In all three of these climbs, even after the 2012 Ronde, amateurs still own the Strava record. So, yes, you might dream beating the pros, but with Strava and the bergs of Flanders you can beat them and Strava will prove it!

Now back to reality. After nearly 6 hours of hard racing on the last climb of the day – the Paterburg – Pozzato, Ballan and Boonen (these three are not on Strava) were off the front with the peloton chasing hard. Pozzato and Ballan crested in 1:12 and Boonen was nearly dropped. So after 156 miles, Boonen missed the Strava record by 14 seconds but still produced about 550 watts for 1:13 – on cobble no less. Ted King finish a mere 4:43 back of Boonen and you need to ignore that King’s heart rate never exceeded 162 bpm on all of these bergs. Go to Flanders and test yourself soon.

The Belgium kermesses have been pronounced by many pros as the hardest races to ride. Races are on tiny farm roads, often with a small cobble section, incredible cross winds, and some wicked tough Belgians who all want to win. The kermesse race is often 6 to 20 laps of a 5 to 10 k course that has the technical demands of a criterium combined with physical demands of a road circuit race.

Yet this description misses the heart of the kermesse because these races are deeply rooted in the small farm communities that create the roads, the festivals, and the crowds where these races take place.

After registering in a pub and passing the start/finish in downtown, the course will nearly always be on farm roads that are often 8 feet wide (road that could never meet the regulations of the USA) wind though corn and cows over cobble and small hills. These roads are still used by local farmers everyday. The small town in the USA has been relegated to darkness. Yet, in Belgium agribusiness has not yet completely leveled the family farms. Central business districts are still alive with pubs, shops, restaurants, and specialty stores.

In these villages scattered throughout Flanders, the bike race is regular entertainment. The locals will be on the sidelines, beer in hand, cheering for whom ever is racing: Kids, Elite, Women, Masters and Pros.  Many elite kermesse races are on the same day as the festival of the town’s patron saint and that is always a good reason to get together and party.

The intoxicating part of the Belgium kermesse bike race is tied directly to the culture of Belgium, a country where the small farm town is thriving, town fairs are alive and bike racing is king.

To find Elite level kermesses, click here

To find Master kermesses, click here

For ramblings and photos of a young guy racing kermesses, click here

A World Championship bike race is loaded with fierce, abundant, and skilful competitors – attributes that the UCI cannot monopolize. Many northern European cyclists know that the most competitive age group cycling races for a Rainbow Jersey are those promoted by the ICF and held this year in Belgium.

Within a 90-minute drive of Oudenaarde there are at least 150 master races a year promoted by independent Belgium cycling federations with acronyms WAOD, VWV, ECW and OVWF. These organizations are part of an 11-federation group called the International Cycling Federation (ICF).

For the past 30 years, on the first Sunday in August between 80 and 130 guys – in four different age groups – take to the starting line all believing that the ICF Rainbow Jersey is within their grasp – and all perfectly willing to rip each other‘s legs off in the process – which appears to be perfectly legal in Belgium. As Australian Ray Rhodes writes:

gaps everywhere, the riders I could see were the winning break! 10 to 12 riders at that time. First things first I had to start crossing gaps, attacking them one at a time, some were riders that just couldn’t hold the pace and didn’t let the riders behind know, some of them riders at least doing the right thing and pulling out of the line as soon as they realised that they couldn’t hold the wheel. You still have a gap to cross but they are much smaller if you get into it early. One of the guys pulled out of the line quite early which surprised me, he said to me after that we were sitting on 52kph

And this from the 60+ group!

So if you seek the opportunity to test yourself against the best, go to the 2012 ICF World Championships in Moorsel-Aalst, Belgium on August 5th. Join Immersion Cycling’s Post-Tour de France trip and be completely prepared.

Race flyer is here.

Results from 2011 are here.

Expect to race 50 to 100 kilometers depending on the age group.

If by chance you do not go home with the rainbow jersey, you certainly will take home great stories, exceptional chocolate and a belly full of fine beer.

Juniors / U23

vertexcycling.com/european_racing_trips

Tim Redus trip’s are for juniors age 15-18 and for U23s. Vertex offers the perfect balance between experiencing the kermesse racing culture, training rides over some of the most iconic roads of Flanders, and visiting historic sites.

Elites

www.thechainstay.com

The Chain Stay is a fully equipped guesthouse in the heart of the Flemish Ardennes, in Oudenaarde. Operated by former pro Gregg Germer and his wife Holly, The Chain Stay is set up for cyclists and cycling enthusiasts. The large majority their guests are racing cyclists aged 18-30, though they do welcome masters level racers and tourists.

Masters

immersioncycling.com

For master cyclist looking for the fully supported Belgium race experience. Riders will race in age groups races in east and west Flanders, ride the famed cobbles climbs of Flanders, stay in a comfortable Belgium home and be treated to chef prepared meals.

The Chain Stay also has a very good Q & A page

www.thechainstay.com/bicycle-racing-in-belgium-guide-help

Forget waiting around in fog and blowing wind atop the Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux or the Col de Madeleine to see Contador, Evan, Leipheimer or Schleck zip by once. Spectating at pro bike races bike doesn’t have to mean hiking several hours, sitting and freezing.

Instead, go watch Gilbert, Sanchez, Basso, Hushovd, Farrar, Evans, Schleck race by 50 times in small towns five feet from your comfortable café seat, where you have cold Belgium beer and hot frits in hand.

Every year nearly 50,000 mad cycling fans see their heroes in person at the post-Tour de France criteriums in towns like Aalst, Roeselare, and Wolvertem.

Think – your local crit on crack! The bars are packs and the party often shuts down the town. Yea, not all of these races are fully contested. Occasionally a guy like Lance Armstrong will out sprint Mario Cipollini and Giovanni Lombardi. Yet each night there are dramatic breakaways, fast racing, attacking and some grimacing on the faces of the riders. There is only one important thing: guarantee a big name wins; but, which one, humm, not so sure.

In Belgium, the carnival or ‘feest’ is an ingrained part of the culture. Folks like having a bicycle race to go with their beer: an ideal form of entertainment.

For riders, a good Tour de France (like winning the Green Jersey) gives them glory and satisfaction, but as McEwen says, “Crits give you the money. You could make a quarter of a million euros in a month.”

So go cheer as Gilbert puts the hurt on everyone. Have a beer while standing amongst the Belgian crowd. Go party on into the night and watch the best riders up-close-and-personal.