The cultural center had two main rooms and of course working heated mens and womens restrooms. The main room on the left was for the race organization welcoming of sponsors and VIPs. Here were issued colored wrist bands (the type they tag you with in the hospital) allowing free access to the race course. Remember, in Belgium spectators pay to have access to the race course. The people working this room had lists of who has been authorized to have these wrist bands: green for sponsors, yellow for VIPs, red for teams and riders. The race organization had credentials that hung around their necks.

The other main room to the right was for the race organization and commissaries. Race registration was in this room along with fresh coffee. There’s something so elegant about having coffee served in cups on saucers with real coffee spoons to stir the cream and sugar --- not quite the Dunkin Donuts styrofoam cups that we subsist on at US races!

Upon entering the room, Andre, a member of the race organization, who previously had worked as a race judge for 42 years, greets you. The first race was for juniors 16 and under, who paid three Euros to enter the race. Once they paid Andre, they received an envelope with their race number marked on the outside and contained two wrist bands to allow a support person in each of the two pits.

The rider then took this envelope to the next table where a commissaire and a race registration person logged them into the computer. The Belgian Federation provides the regional federations with a database of all licensees and their licenses are bar coded. So registration of a Belgian licensee is as simple as scanning the license and all of their information enters the race start list automatically with the computer operator only needing to add the race number for the day. Complete information would only need to be hand entered for foreign licensees. Two such computer stations and operating pairs were in use.

For the two junior races, Belgian riders also had to provide their "health booklet". This is a booklet issued by the Federation where the race they are entering is logged. Why? In Belgium, for health reasons juniors are only allow to race two races a week.

For the Elite race, the envelope given out was often to team personnel. Inside the envelope were formal neck credentials: two labeled for mechanics (one for each pit) and one for the soigneur. During the junior races, a senior Belgian UCI commissaire, Patrick De Munter, worked with the computer operator to enter the Elite pre-registration information, including UCI numbers and their current ranking for use in assigning these riders starting grid place. By the time the U23 race was starting, complete Elite race start lists were available.

In regards to the commissaries, there were two UCI commissaries from Belgium plus the President of the Jury from Italy. There must have been another ten regional commissaries. Why so many? Two for each pit; one for checking the health books, three on the finish line, and one to act as President for the non-Elite races. The positions were rotated for each event, as well as the President position was changed and not everyone worked every race. In contrast in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, UCI events are normally conducted with five officials plus the UCI commissaire as President, making six who work all the events. On the other hand, the Belgian commissaires are only paid forty Euros each plus travel by the Federation.