By JEFF HELSDON
The News-Record

The craze created by Godelieve VanMaele winning gold last month in Louisiana has started bicycle fever in Delhi.

Victims of this ailment can get their fill of bike racing at the annual Belgian Days races this weekend, when cyclists from all over the province will be competing for $2,000 in prize money. The town's heroine on two wheels will be starting one of the Saturday afternoon events.

Pat Murphy, a Hawtrey native and the top cyclist in the country in the 1950s, will start another event. He represented Canada at the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.

Organized by the Silver Spokes Cycling Club, the event will run a one-kilometre route from Pine Street to Highway 3, down William Street to Queen Street and back to Pine.

Bikers in three Canadian Cycling Association classes (senior' 3, senior 4 and vet) will compete together for 30 laps of the course. The event will be run in two heats (1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. start times) with the top seven from each advancing to the final.

A consolation final for 'all bikers who didn't make the top seven will run at 3:30.

The final will be a 25-kilometre event, starting at 4:30. After 12 laps in the final, the last contestant is eliminated and automatically places 14th. Elimination continues until 20 kiometres and sixth places to let the final five racers battle it out for the last stretch.

The bike races are just one of many events in the celebrations put on by the Delhi Belgian Club. The annual event commemorates the Belgian independence of July 21, 1830. It has been run annually since the Belgian Club opened on July 21, 1948.

Events for the weekend include traditional Belgian activities as well as some Canadian events. All activities are centred around the Belgian Hall. They began Monday and continue until Saturday.

Card tournaments start off the week with enthusiasts playing wiezen Monday, euchre Tuesday and bieden, Thursday. The former two events draw between 80 and 100 people while the latter brings smaller numbers.

On Friday afternoon, an archery tournament will take place in the basement of the hall, to be followed by darts at 8 p.m. The lounge will feature local band Ivory Tower later that evening.

A craft and bake sale — a new event at Belgian Days - will be in the upstairs hall from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Both Belgian and Canadian baking will be for sale, and door prizes will be drawn every half hour. This event is organized by the Belgian Club ladies' auxiliary.

Enthusiastic young partiers are expected to pack the upstairs of the hall on Saturday night for Ivory Tower's second appearance of the weekend. Downstairs, Night Magic will provide polkas and other dance music for the older crowd.