East Egg Race   

Like the old Monaco of the F1 world, only better. Welcome to the south of Belgium.
F1’s Monaco wasn’t about a race, it was about a promotional spectacle being presented to the wealthy willing to throw their excess cash around at the glamour.

In the same way, the East Egg Race isn’t just about a race. But while Monaco was about attracting wealth, this OCM event is about attracting talented public relations ...

Read more

Like the old Monaco of the F1 world, only better. Welcome to the south of Belgium.
F1’s Monaco wasn’t about a race, it was about a promotional spectacle being presented to the wealthy willing to throw their excess cash around at the glamour.

In the same way, the East Egg Race isn’t just about a race. But while Monaco was about attracting wealth, this OCM event is about attracting talented public relations & promotional managers for the teams. Every year, Belgium hosts the Public Relations World Table Tennis Tournament, where the brightest PR Managers challenge each other; plus anybody else who happens to be around. And they value their gaming quality so much they’ll offer their services to anybody who can beat them.

Thus, OCM race organisers created a race to help teams recruit this talent. And many team leaders do come. While the occasional PR Manager acquired by teams turn out to be non-conventional choices, for instance NightmareChaos’s Nikita Kaverin, who some suggest is a cross-dressing male dancer; and Jarryd Stackpole of Australian Warlord infamy, rumoured to be an alias for somebody wanted by Interpol for war crimes; most managers recruit perfectly sane talent from the world PR community.

Now while this might make the East Egg Race like Monaco, Belgium’s offering has the added advantage of being a race genuinely appealing for fans to watch, taking in some of the best the south has to offer. Referred by many as the Sambre-Meuse treat-fest, a name aided by the event being sponsored by Belgium’s chocolate companies, the race showcases the beauty of these rivers from Charleroi, into Namur, and ending in Liège, the river run periodically interrupted with liaisons into the few nearby rural foothills, making sure that the race showcases the many different talents that cyclists have to compete in the sport.
Despite spending a majority of the race alongside the Sambre & Meuse, it’s most often a strong cyclist with both descending & all-round abilities who’ll win the race; abet not always so. Indeed, with the opportunities the race offers different types of cyclists, combined with the many off race attractions, it ensures that the race attracts a great range of talented cyclists far exceeding its purse strings, or points on offer.

Wherever a team has come from, or its goals, or development level, there’s one thing you can be sure of, and it’s that most experienced OCM managers have delighted in Sambre-Meuse hospitality at least once, leaving with bellies full of Belgium chocolate, and a few extras for the team.