Derny Days

Derny and rider. The derny rider was from the Netherlands and with that mustache it made the experience even more authentic.

Last Friday Tino had to ride the qualifying heat of a tribute Derny race. Tinos father Willy being the cycling legend that he is in this country had been invited, but due to other commitments could not show up until the time of the final rounds. Therefore in his place Tino had to ride the qualification and get Willy into the big final.
This race was made up of many of Belgiums former top cyclists and various sponsors. In heats of ten the riders covered 20 laps of a 1 km course each behind his own derny. For those who are not familiar with dernys they are commonly used on the track for motorpacing and in Belgium they are sometimes used in crit style races mainly to increase the speeds and please the crowds. The rider tells the derny rider how fast to go and hangs on in the draft. Most of these races are fixed as was this one with the winner and top 5 already known before the start to the riders, just what place in the top 5 or outside the top 5 was up to the rider. It is interesting to note that dernys were used in Willys time in longer road races. Tino told me about one his father won that was 600 km long and took the riders over 12 hours!
It was a fun event to watch and Tino ended up easily qualifying his father in 3rd place, even though he was guaranteed to get to the final anyways....

A solid ride to 3rd for Tino

Each rider got a specail gift pack from sponsoring candy producer Sweet Paradice. Observant cycling fans will recognize this company as a sponsor of past and present Belgian cycling squads.