KUURNE’S PERFECT WINNER
Kuurne locals go by the appellation ‘ezels’ – donkeys – by inhabitants of nearby Kortrijk and recall a time when Kuurne farmers rattled into the Grote Markt with produce pulled by the beasts of burden. “It’s meant in a good way,” said Bram Schietgat, the co-ordinator of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and president of the cycling club which runs it. Other connotations associated with the uncomplaining donkeys – arduous work for scant reward – seem apt for the KBK organising committee. “It takes six or seven months of prep for one day of racing,” said the tired looking Schietgat, who was beginning to think about a day off after the 70th edition of his race. KBK is managed by 25 volunteers and disburses between 400 and 500k each year on the men’s and a junior event. The race was first paired up with Omloop Het Volk in 1961 and the ‘opening weekend’ became a traditional fixture a decade later. “We’re part of the opening weekend and the Omloop is happy we are here,” said Scheitgart. “We bring something else to the weekend. It is the first measurement of how the teams and the guys are going and if they go well here they may get a special role in other races later. They have to prove they’re good here,” he said. “After Omloop we provide a chance to put things right.”
Where Omloop channels its inner Ronde at every chance, KBK isn’t nearly as hard. The race’s climbs are packed into the middle 100km, and the final 50km are flat and include two 15km finishing circuits. Chief among those is the Oude Kwaremont, the much loved grind up Kluisberg hill. In the Ronde, the Kwaremont is the centrepiece climb, crossed three times, while KBK makes do with a single ascent. Like the bigger race, in Kuurne the parcours takes the riders all the way to the top, at the junction with the N36. Here the race was given its internal tension as a 30-strong group of good Classics riders coalesced around Vanmarcke and built a 50-second advantage over the bunch, which was packed with sprinters’ teams. The latter prevailed and brought the race back together. “We also choose to give guys like Dylan Groenewegen, Sonny Colbrelli and Arnaud Démare a chance to win in Flanders,” Scheitgart added. “When you copy another Ronde van Vlaanderen course, it makes it too hard. It’s too early in the season.”
Easier parcours often make for more entertaining racing. Scheitgart was rewarded with an exciting finale, as Julien Vermote - usually an ezel par excellence for Dimension Data’s Mark Cavendish – clipped off the front with two others with 10km to race. They survived into the final 200m, when Groenewegen opened his sprint and won the first semi-Classic of his career. In the press conference afterwards, as Belgian journalists considered what angles would mollify an audience who’d hoped for a home winner over the weekend, Groenewegen dissected his race. “It was a really good win for me. It was really hard with all the small climbs,” he said. “On the local laps we were riding for a sprint. For me it’s a really big Classic. I do my best and I hope this year to win a lot more races.” ‘Kuurnenarens’ would appreciate his humility at least.