Racing
Want to have a go?
Anyone can have a crack at racing in Belgium under the rules of the WAOD, a seperate body from the mainstream cycling authority, the UCI. If you are British all you need for a WAOD race is a licence from The League International (www.theleagueinternational.com) or the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (www.lvrc.org)

The full year's WAOD programme is now on line at users.belgacom.net Click on 'categorien' at the top of the front page to work out what age category you are in, A,B,C etc, then click on 'wedstrijdkalender' for the races.

What you will see is a series of entries that give the date of each race, where the race HQ is (usually a cafe), what categories are catered for and what time each category race starts and how many laps they do. All you do is turn up at the HQ (if you click on 'locatie' on each entry there is a map showing how to get there) a good bit before your start time, pay the entry fee and show your licence and get ready.

Like most Belgian racing, the WAOD races are in Flanders, on flattish short circuits of 5 to 10 kilometres and they are fast, so warm up well. The atmosphere is great though, and once you get used to the fast starts the races are a lot of fun with most competitors having a high standard of bike handling.

Graham Webb adds that this link has even more information on it that might be useful to any masters wanting to race in Belgium www.belgiancyclingselection.be He also talks about the ICF world championships on this link www.theleagueinternational.com

Good luck