Kerstperiode Notebook | Diegem and Loenhout
Here's a travel tip: Christmas time in Belgium is not a heavily sought-after vacation destination on Air BnB. For instance, you can get a sweet-looking loft apartment on the Paterberg for $93 a night. I will go out on a limb and speculate that if you wanted that same place the last weekend in March (the weekend of The Tour of Flanders), it would be much more. This is all to say that as big as cyclocross and Kerstperiode may be in Belgium; spectators are mostly homegrown. Good rentals are a bargain and readily available.
After several years of traveling to Belgium during winter and staying in the old USA Cycling road team apartments in Izegim, technically called the Belgian Cycling House, I wanted to branch out and find a place more convenient for the Kerstperiode races. That place was Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, a small city in the Flemish Brabant province. It's about 45 minutes East of Brussels, and If you're a hardcore road cycling fan, you may know it as the host of the opening stage of the 2023 Baloise Belgium Tour.
We arrived in Belgium on the morning of Superprestige Zolder. Grabbed a rental van, packed a few CXD Trek Bikes gear and riders into it and headed to our makeshift HQ. We didn't make it to Zolder, despite it being 25 minutes away, but instead made the smart decision to call it a day and let the jet lag do its thing. Racing would come soon enough, however, with the insanity that is the Superprestige Diegem less than 24 hours away.
Diegem is part hilly criterium, part urban cyclocross race, and all an excuse to have the rowdiest party under the lights and in the shadows of Brussels International Airport. The Diegem track can be broken down into three tiers. The lowest level is a public park with football fields and that nasty off-camber feature you know well if you've ever watched this race. The middle level is more of a transition tier. An uphill flyover and a significant cobbled climb leads into a bridge over some train tracks. This middle sector is the same on the way back down: more streets, an alley or two and some high-speed, dimly lit descending. The highest tier is a short, wooded section, a sand pit, and planks all smashed together in an "oh crap, we need to make sure this looks like cyclocross" bit of course design. It's unique, challenging, and the biggest drunken spectacle this side of a Lost Frequencies set at Tomorrowland.
The best part of Diegem is that despite all the craziness and the peculiar track setup, the racing is spectacular. Possibly powered by the sheer volume and enthusiasm of the crowd, riders come into Diegem motivated for the win. The worst part, on a personal level, is that it is nearly impossible to photograph. It's more like a gravel race in that you may get one opportunity to get a shot, so make it count.
This is not a complaint, however. Unless the race organization starts handing out jetpacks to photographers, there isn't much that can change. The sidewalks are jam-packed, and if you want to shoot the sand and the finish, you better do the former on lap one if you hope to get to the latter for the last lap because you're looking at a 30-minute journey to go about three city blocks.
Thankfully, for me, my photo work was light at Diegem. CXD had three riders in the women's race; shooting them was my only assignment, and that was plenty.
I secured a spot on the off-camber for lap one of the women's race with mixed results. I then worked my way to the sand to shoot the leaders on the final lap. Other than that, I think this shot of the men's junior race during the gloaming may be my favorite from the race.
We took off after the women's race to ensure we arrived home before midnight. With a lot of racing ahead, there was no point in staying out all night on day two of the trip.
The next day, I headed to Loenhout for Azencross with fellow Bulletin contributor Ethan Glading. None of the riders or teams I usually work with were racing Loenhout, which allowed me to shoot a race just for the heck of it. It's been a while since I did this, and it allowed me to do things I usually can't do, like sit in the warm media center while Ethan shot the junior men's race in a downpour. I also had the opportunity to take my time, find different shots, and not worry about cameras or deadlines. It turned out to be a nice day, too. There was no rain (other than for the junior men's race), a little sun, and a lot of mud. For me, those are ideal cyclocross conditions.
We also got to see Sanne Cant win a race, and Mathieu van der Poel continue to destroy the souls of his fellow competitors mercilessly.
That about does it for the first few days of the trip. I will stop there because Substack gets mad if your posts are too long. I'll be back with some thoughts from the next few races, including a look back at the January 2022 version of the Hulst World Cup, that took place during lockdown, and the 2023 version. But before I go, here are my initial grades for the Kerstperiode media rooms.
Press Room Ratings:
Diegem: A bit removed from the venue, but not too far away. There were no drinks or food, but they did have coffee and some cookies and waffles. I'll go B-.
Loenhout: Right on the course. Kitchen on site serving soup and sandwiches. And, amazingly, they had vegetarian sandwiches. It's a solid A. Would recommend.
Love the write-up Bill!
Excellent work Bill and a semi no spoilers post (I save these races for the trainer so haven’t watched Diegem yet. Curious though if all the Belgian AirBnB’s are also “rare finds as they are usually fully booked” as here in USA.?