What is a kermesse ...

A kermesse (also sometimes written as kermese or kermis) is your standard typical race for a cyclist in Belgium. In Belgium racing is pretty much summed up into two categories, Elites with contract (professional) and Elites without contract (amateur). There are master (30+) races available to racers, but not nearly as many as the Elite Z/C (zonder contract or without contract) races. You also have open “Gentlemen” races (1.18) which are shorter at 80km’s, but are sometimes just as hard as an amateur race. The same goes for the masters races.

In general a kermesse will be between 100 and 120km’s (62 miles to 75 miles) and usually 8 to 20 laps. There can be as little as 30 riders, but usual races will attract around 80 riders and some races will see upwards of 160+ racers.