For those of you who arent aware the Tour of Flanders is one of the “monuments” of cycling, one of the big spring classic races that covers 260km of the Belgium country side with this being the 100th edition of the race. Its starts off flatter for the first 100km or so, but then it hits the bergs, short sharp climbs with some having pitches >20% and to make it even more fun most are cobbled as well. The picture below gives you a little glimpes into what it looks like.
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I have had the opportunity to come over to Europe to both ride part of the course and watch the Pro race as well (along with Paris Roubaix next weekend). The Sat before the Pro race they hold a cyclosportif which allows anyone to come and ride part of the race route that the Pro’s ride. I was there to ride the 130km loop that included all of the main hills of the Pro course, me along with 16,000 other rides, this is a big event!!
It was quite the experience, you can start anywhere between 7-9am, we choose almost 9am as it was freezing in the morning, and there where riders everywhere, which was both fun and bit scary as well. Hitting the first climb of the day which is actually probably the hardest climb on the course, the Koppenberg, we turned the corner only to see a complete blockage of riders on the hill, cobbles, 22% grade, 6 feet wide and 16,000 people mean there was no riding this climb, I walked it, but as you can see from the picture below there wasnt much choice! And it wasnt even easy to walk with bike shoes and cobbles! But thankfully that was the only climb I had to walk on the day
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The ride overall was incredibly run, you can see from the Garmin map below how complicated a route it is and they had marshalls and signage for everything, very impressive, and massive aid stations as well (all for 30Euro, great deal, much better than my drink stop on Mon that cost me 11Euro for 1.5L of water and 400ml of Coke!). But the cobbles and hard nature of the ride was definitely evident, hundreds and hundreds of waterbottles everywhere from all the bouncing on the cobbles, I actually saw a guys seat rattle loose and fall off! And every 500m or so there was some kind of mechanical, but luckly me and my bike made it through unscathed
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Thanks to Gerard Vroomen who organized everything, and here he is mid climb, looks like fun!!
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On Sunday we then got a chance to watch the Pro’s race, and having ridden it on Sat this really put into perspective how hard this race is. But it also was a chance to see how great a sport cycling is and being in a country with such a passion for cycling and seeing all the people was awesome, so was being able to be right on the road side watching the riders go by. This video is the Oude Kwaremont, 3rd time up it at about the 240km of the race
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Then on Monday we got a chance to ride parts of the old course (they changed it 2 year ago which was not very popular over here!) and the infamous Muur Geraardsbergen and the Bosberg which are no longer part of the race. The Muur is amazing, steep, twisty, cobbles and then you get to the church at the top that has been in so many classic pictures from the race in years past, here it is below (they are now turning the decent which was smoothly paved into a cobble decent):
Here is the Garmin map, I did have some directional issues and ended up getting a lift back to the middle loop that I missed (great to have a support van!), but I hit the 3 of the famous climbs last, so after 5hours of riding
Oude Kwaremont – 6.5min, 310 watts
Paterberg – 2min at 400watts (this is where Cancellara drop Sagan on race day, he likely held 550-600watts on the climb)
Then much to my surprise (I didnt really know what order everything was in) I hit the Koppenberg, this time with no riders in sight, but me thinking that I still might need to walk it again (some of the Pro’s had a few steps on it on race day!). In the end I did make it to the top, but it hurt!
Koppenberg – 2:45 at 375watts
Overall 5.5hours at an AP = 215 and NP = 240+ and an average speed of <28kph for 150km, at home on my tri bike these types of numbers would see me ride well over 200km!
The one thing that I cant imagine is to do this in the rain, I could feel my wheels slip a bit with it being perfectly dry (riding 25mm Vitorria Rubion Pro Tech rain tires with 80psi), in the wet it would be incredibly hard to do it
I am now in Amsterdam to put in a few big rides up here in the Dutch Mountains (ie Wind!) and then off to Paris Roubaix for a 170km tour of the cobbles on Sat