Soigneur Dad goes to Belgium and becomes spectator dad

I've been remiss, but it's time for a new update.

So, Jake's 3 week adventure racing in Europe is halfway done.  4 Belgian "Kermesses" have been a learning experience by fire.  A Kermesse is a local race, typically a circuit about 5km (3.2) miles long around some small town.  Jake is racing in 15-16 year old category races,  a category that the Belgians call "Nieuwelingen." The fields can be very big, and they are as super aggressive as we had heard. He has been pushed off the road twice (into the bushes one of them) and gotten a face full of mud and cow poo.

Poo face and drool chin after a race in the Belgian rain

On Sunday, August 11th, me, Loren, and Liam made our way from Amsterdam to Heers, Belgium.  (side note, the driving is awesome. Everyone goes fast but stays to the right lanes except to pass).  Heers is a very small town in the eastern part of Belgium.

In advance, we had been emailing with the parents of Cooper Willsey, from Vermont, who would also be making their way to the race after spending a few days in Luxomburg.  We decided to meet at the local pub that was the start/finish/registration point for the race.  After some minor GPS issues and missed turns, we got there around 12:30 for the 3pm race.  The Willseys got there just moments later.

So the "pub" was very small and very much locals only.

Crowd around the pub

The local masters cycling club was in there having their post ride beers when I walked in to ask if it was the right place and where we could get lunch.  They didn't sell food but pointed us toward the only restaurant in town.  That place was occupied by the sunday lunch crowd who very much scowled at us.  So we at outside (it was a really nice day).  A nice young couple from the Netherlands helped translate for us with the local waitress.  The most interesting thing was the "hamburger" that Liam and Cooper's younger brother Camden ordered, it looked like this 

The "Hamburger"

Service in Europe is slow and we finally had to track down our waitress to pay the check.  Then we drove back down to the start area and parked.  It really was not much different than any race in the US.  There were parents dealing with bikes and setting up to take pictures (it's not just me).

parents are the same everywhere

We saw the boys starting to ride around a bit.  It was exciting to see Jake in his USA Cycling jersey on his bike with USA on the downtube.  I took some pictures (because I had promised other parents and just because) but Jake objected.

damn paparazzi

The boys lined up.  They did gear roll out before the race.  Jake got a good spot on the front line.

The families sat by the pub to wait.

Liam, Loren, Cynthia Willsey & Camden Willsey

 I went down to the first corner to get some video, and I talked to the USAC soigneur, Vigo (I think that was his name).  He said that the first lap was supposed to be neutral, but that clearly went out the window within the first 100 meters.

After just one lap there was already a small breakaway group that had Jack Maddux and Gage Hecht, and Adrian Costa was bridging up.  Jake, Cooper and Marcello Cesario were in the main pack.

By the end of the second lap, the break was 7 boys and had a sizable time gap.  I lose track of the laps, but we moved up the hill to see some different action and after another lap maybe 2, Cooper went off the front with 2 other boys on the hill.  They were almost 2 minutes behind the lead group.

Jake and Marcello stayed in the pack, which was shedding boys off the back.

 We were watching up at the top of the hill, and talked to some of the locals who were watching. It was quite the event, with people having beers in their front yard to watch.  Liam was "bored" and read a book.

party in the front yard

 

At some point, maybe 7 or 8 laps in, the ambulance went up the hill, and we said, "oh, that can't be good."  Well, the next time around, the pack came through and no Jake.  You can hear me on the video say "you've got to be kidding me."

Well, maybe 20 seconds later Jake came up the hill, dropping some boy that was trying to follow him.  I encouraged him to make it back to the field.  But the next time around he hadn't been able to close and the officials stopped him.  Oh, he was pissed off.  I was able to get out of him that some boy slid out in front of him and Jake hit him and flipped over the handle bars (the boy ended up in the ambulance).  Jake wasn't badly hurt but was very frustrated and angry to have been knocked out of the race.  Now, the next lap they rang the bell early for the field because the leaders were about the catch them.
In the end, Jack and Gage broke away on the last lap and Jack won.

Gage and Jack after the race

Adrian was 4th.  Cooper's little group became 5 or so boys and Cooper was 10th.  Marcello finished just off the back of the field after last lap attacks, 24th.
All of the videos are collected here: Heers Kermesse Video Collection
It was really tough to have to watch Jake's frustration.  He's had terrible luck.  Now, we did find out the next day that because of the crash they didn't count him as DNF, but rather scored his place and even gave him the same time as the main pack.  So he was 26th, and he sent me a text message that he won 5 Euro (he said they noted "crash" next to his name, so must have treated it as essentially a free lap and placed him at the back of the field).  It's not going to make up for the stupid crash, but it must help a little.

I've stolen a few photos of the boys that USA Cycling's Billy Crane has posted on Instagram.  Otherwise, communication is sparse.

Dirt Roads, Flat Tires, Castles -- riding in Europe (photo by Billy Crane)

they will do a Team Time Trial at West Vlaanderen

On Friday we will go see Jake and boys in the West Vlaanderen Cycling Tour, a 3 day, 4-stage UCI stage race.  In that race, they'll wear these -- pretty cool.