Diegem is situated in the northeast corner of the Brussels metro area, just next to Zavetem, the national airport of Belgium. For the past thirty years, Diegem has been host to this classic of cyclocross on Christmas Eve, which has been part of the Super Prestige series for the past twenty four years.

The race course encompasses two athletic fields, one corn field, crosses the tram line, and encircles much of the town of Diegem. In many ways, it resembles a hillside crit course as it uses many of the town’s streets and the residents are captive to the race. That said, I think that much of the town volunteers to run this race. As I understand, the race organization is comprised of 140 people, most coming from this area. The Elite race is covered live on a Flemish television station (Kaanal Twee) and was viewed live by 10,000 spectators around the course.

Having arrived only the day before, my family was sound asleep an hour before the race in our apartment in Brussels near the European Community headquarters. Fortunately, Diegem was only a fifteen minute taxi ride away. I arrived at 9am for the opening of the permenance (race headquarters), which was situated in the town’s cultural center at the town center plaza. At 9am, two hours before the first race, one team was already setting up in the plaza. Low and behold, it was one of the team vans from Geoff Procter’s Euro Camp setting up before anyone else! The US entourage would have six more vehicles arriving during the course of the day.