Organising a trip to Belgium to race can be seen by many as a dark Art and there’s certainly a lot to think of, but its not that complicated if you know how. Here’s some guidance from Paul Berry, who has made several such trips.
You have to do all the usual things as you would with any trip, one thing to consider is when looking for accommodation is that Belgium is only the size of the Midlands, so picking a central sport means most races are only 30 minutes away from anywhere. Obviously it’s best to pick a spot as close to the races you plan to do as possible but it’s not essential to move around and follow, We are lucky enough to have our Campervan, but that means living like a turtle and carrying everything with you all the time and planning where you are going to sleep each night, which on one hand is great as you can be on the doorstep of each race but it can be difficult to find a safe sport to stopover. Most towns have free places to park campervans with varying facilities for filling up water and emptying toilets or none at all.
Applying to race, I’ll do a list of things that are important happen:
- Request a permission letter from BC , you do this by ringing or emailing member services. They will email it to you.
- Register on the Belgium Federation (BF) website – this is how you apply to enter for races.
- I used Google Chrome when using this website as it automatically translates it for you.
- Look for the races you want to do, check your age category and just press the subscribe button.
Once you subscribe you then upload a copy of your BC letter, in theory you then get an Amber light meaning you can race and are just waiting for the BF to accept you entry. Once thing to take note of is that all UCI races are limited to 100 riders, this year the “big” races were well over subscribed so there is no guarantee you will get a spot unless you have numerous UCI points.
There is nothing to stop you applying to race in what they call national calendar races which is a level below the big Belgium races, this I think would be more like a BC national race, there are also age group races at this level which I know some league members have entered and enjoyed greatly. These races seem to be a good alternative to fill in if you can’t get into the big televised races. You will probably have to pay an entry fee for these races though maybe around 10 Euros and the infrastructure isn’t as good. Often pressure washers are still provided but not in the same way or level as the big pro races.
If you have a green light on your BF dashboard you are good to go, but beware this can be pulled if someone with more points than you decides to enter so there is no guarantee in races that are over subscribed although normally 3 days before the race, entry is closed. There is also a possibility that if you had an amber light (so are ok to race) and didn’t get accepted that you can hang around sign on and get an entry if not everyone turns up. This is a bit of a risk but does work sometimes.
Most of the big series like Superprestige and X2O Trofee series have split age categories for the men so it is a bit easier to get entry but the Women only have Junior Girls and Elites so the elites can fill up over the Christmas period. The Exact Cross series doesn’t have an U23 category, so while it is generally considered a smaller series the Elite race can be fill up over the Christmas period. The National Calendar/age group races rarely fill up.
Practice for the big races can be done anytime, the course is pretty much set up the day before, the great thing is that anyone can go on the courses, so little brothers and sisters and even parents can go round on the day before which is great to keep them interested during a trip away. It’s also an opportunity if your just going to watch or support to have ride round if you fancy it.
Parking for race day is allocated by race category with U23/Elites being closest and Juniors furthest away. Again you are generally directed by the event staff and the various websites give the parking addresses of where to head for, more often than not this is on a close road.