Originally Posted by roadwarrior
BTW...I'd first contact USA Cycling, but if you can deal with the French/Flemish,
here's the website for the Belgian Cycling Federation.
The biggest issue is that you'll have to deal with the language as in the depths of Belgium in "their sport" it gets a bit more dicey communicating. My advantage is I was on a Belgian team and could manage both languages.
Good advice.
I ended up racing in Belgium after writing letters (this was pre-www) to the cycling federations in germany, france, the netherlands, and belgium for info on races.
the belgians published my letter in their newsletter/magazine that licensed racers get, which llead to a letter being sent to me from a family outside of antwerp, who gave me room and board, and drove me to races, for about 10$ a day. this was back in 1993.
it was an eye openiong experience. as roadwarrior and ymca has mentioned, the kiermesses last about 120 km, and start out at a ballistic speed. at least beack then there were no cats - just 120+ riders.
fwiw i didn't speak a word of french or dutch/flemish, and managed to get by alright.