The Most Belgian Weekend Ever

Ghent and Koksijde

By John Braynard

Say what?

So, Yes. All of this happened within a 48 hour period.

After very little planning - and a drive across half the European continent, we somehow ended up in Ghent Belgium during the weekend of both the Ghent 6 day track event and the Koksijde World Cup Cyclocross race. Toss in another day of cycling around the hills of Flanders and you have the god damn sickest 48 hours of cycling on the planet.

Here are some snaps and details about what went down. Enjoy.

Ghent 6 day

I have never seen an actual velodrome in my entire life. So, even seeing one was already a pretty rad thing. Unfortunately, we arrived in Ghent without tickets to get into the 5th day of the track cycling race. Luckily a friend came through and was able to hook me and my girl up with some VIP tickets - which included a buffet of free beer, assorted cheeses, and the largest plate of canned pineapple I have ever seen. The racing was really enjoyable, but I honestly had no clue who was winning or what exactly the point of each race was…other than to go in a circle.

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But for real, the coolest thing was the derny race. These old overweight dudes drive little motorbikes around the track while the cyclists ride behind them or something. Actually, I have no clue what they are doing, but it’s fun to watch!

As the motorbikes circle around, the velodrome starts to fill with the scent of gasoline. This is probably the most watched event of the night, so all eyes are on the track. The combination of the tension, the smell, and the race really give a unique vibe.

Around 2am the crowd has been drinking for about 6 hours. This is when it gets wild. While the races were still going on, the infield crowd built an obstacle out of trash cans and took turns seeing who could jump over it. One guy didn‘t quite make it over and ended up head first inside the bin. If you made it over you got a bigger cheer than the riders winning a race. The event security wasn’t so happy with this and at one point were tackling any participants. Soon after a group made a tower of beer cups. The game started again like some drunken biathlon of jumping over shit.

After multiple texts from my friend Tim on Sunday evening, we ended up at the bar owned by the father of the Ghent 6 day winner Iljo Keisse throwing back drinks with the winning riders. No pictures were taken…but lots of beers were drunk.

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KOKSIjde CYCLOCROSS WORLD CUP

OK, only 5 hours after we left the velodrome we were already jumping out of bed. We rushed to the car - and speed off down the highway an hour west to the oceanside town of Koksijde.

What get’s more Belgian than a cyclocross cup race? This race was an absolute banger. Everything you could ever ask for in a cross race. Beer, Frites, Mud, Rain, and Sven Nys. Yeah…

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The racing was nuts and the course made it great for watching. The crowd was worshiping Sven’s every pedal stroke. When he won the race, the crowd went absolutely insane.

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RIDING IN FLANDERS

To finish off the weekend we decided to do some riding ourselves. Once again, Merci Cycling came through with a killer route that included some great sections of some of the Flanders Classics. The roads were nasty muddy and the temps were freezing at the start, but we had a blast. It is an amazing feeling to ride the roads that we have all seen on TV in the Spring lined with people cheering. Today, there were no fans - hell, we barely saw another person the entire day.