Race #2 Denderhoutem Elite z/c & U23 Kermesse

Good thing I went to Belgium, if I was in Calgary I still wont have seen the start of the season. My thoughts are with you all who were robbed of a rip around that race track.
On Saturday I lined up to my first kermesse of the year. The weather was a chilly 12 degrees and the wind was rolling in from the west at a good clip. The course was 120 km on 8 km laps with more corners than an entire Alberta road season would ever see and very narrow, lots of one car wide roads and no flat sections longer than a couple hundred meters. 170 riders rolled up to the start and the scene was set for another great day at the races.
This was a huge field for the roads we were racing on so position was vital. I started right in the middle of the peleton and worked for the first half of the race just to maintain position and stay out of trouble. After about 70 km a 12 man break was up the road and the heat was on at the front to get things going to either bring them back or get out of the peleton and up the road. This was my cue to call the front lines and after a lap of darting around, hopping on trains and sidewalk and gutter riding I was sitting pretty at the front trying to get in on the action. By this time half the peleton was gone and about 90 riders remained. I was trying to pick my battles going with riders from teams I knew were strong (Flanders, Unibet - Davo, PictoFlex, Josan, Colba). The pace was hot and after some time jumping on wheels to no benefit other than not getting dropped from the ever diminishing peleton I had to drop back and take a break for a bit. Sure enough a group of about 20 ended up forming just up the road and that was that. I road the rest of the race at the front of the second group. I had the speedo going and thought the race was coming to a close a lap early so with about a km to go I attacked, got a good gap and along with a couple of others thought I might take the group, but as we came to the line one lap to go was announced so much for 114 km, it ended up being 120. I hung on the last lap and finished in about 45th position.
It was a solid performance that I was reasonably happy with. I was happy that I felt strong enough to get in on the action and finish, but not happy about missing the 20 man split late in the race.
A Jartazi rider from Britian ended up taking the race. 40 km/hr average.