Scott SoCal/Flanders Cyclo

[GreggGermer]

Well, both of us forgot gloves.

Ouch ... I had on my long finger winter gloves at the start and then wanted to take them off but didn't have anything else with me, so I kept them on the whole ride despite it warming up so much.

Our group rode from Arenberg to the Velodrome and it was brutal ... I hadn't done that many cobbles in a long time and hit the knock right before all the L'Arebre sections but pushed through to the finish. The other guy to finish the distance is still in bed now (over 12 hours of sleep and counting ) ... a good smash up of a day with no flats the whole day!

Only 364 days till I get to do it all over again!

-Gregg-

 

[Bala Verde]

2010 Trek Madone 6.9 (sorry), single tape on the bar, Fizik, carbon bars and stem, Zipp Team Issue clinchers (fantastic wheels for this type of environment), Vittoria EVO Pave 24mm clinchers.

As for the gearing, it's the set-up for Flanders which is a compact crank set 50-34, and 11-26 rear cog set. Probably not ideal for Roubaix but I never came close to getting to the 11 on the pave.

I read where Hushovd is using 27mm Vittoria tubulars. That's probably smart. Also, the pros are running air pressure around 90psi. I didn't do that as I didn't want to deal with pinch-flats so I ran 105psi. I'm told that's a big reason why my eye-balls were rattling around in my head.

Great! Thanks for the update.

 

[craig1985]

Scott, when you did RVV did you have a head wind or tail wind, and was it blowing a gale, or were the winds not a factor?

 

[Anonymous]

Scott, when you did RVV did you have a head wind or tail wind, and was it blowing a gale, or were the winds not a factor?

We had wind and rain most of the day. The wind was mostly from the west. The wind was managable for the first 4 hours or so, then it just sucked. It was not gale force, just enough to keep me in the gutter for much of the day.

The course turns so many times the wind is in every direction, sometimes a head wind, side wind and tail. But, storm or no storm, the wind blows here so that is part of it.

 

[craig1985]

I have done a 212km ride this year and I rode with somebody else, and despite it being 34 degrees (that's centigrade), we had side/head wind on the leg home, and by the end I was soft pedalling because I kept dropping the other guy I was riding with, whether it being uphill or on the flat (still averaged 30km/h). So in training today I thought I could easily the 260km in less then 9 hours, but it was nothing like the climbs in Flanders, there was nothing that was at 18% and over 15 climbs and were cobblestones. I soon reasoned that I was getting a bit ahead of myself.

 

[Anonymous]

Some photos from the ride on the Roubaix course Friday;

Camphin en Pevele

Carrefour d'Labre.. the turn where Hushovd crashed behind Boonen last year.

 

[pmcg76]

Cool photos, I like the one of Camphin en Pevele with the cows, its right at the start where the farm is. I lived only 16km away from there and it was the first section of P-R pave I ever rode on and I also watched the 2008 race from the corner halfway through.

 

[Anonymous]

Ouch ... I had on my long finger winter gloves at the start and then wanted to take them off but didn't have anything else with me, so I kept them on the whole ride despite it warming up so much.

Our group rode from Arenberg to the Velodrome and it was brutal ... I hadn't done that many cobbles in a long time and hit the knock right before all the L'Arebre sections but pushed through to the finish. The other guy to finish the distance is still in bed now (over 12 hours of sleep and counting ) ... a good smash up of a day with no flats the whole day!

Only 364 days till I get to do it all over again!

-Gregg-

It is strange. While riding the pave I am asking myself "why"? But I am looking forward to next year too.

 

[Anonymous]

A Belgian friend took me along for a ride while in Watou. He surprised me by including the Kemmelberg. The berg gets really steep at the top (21%) but the incredible part is where they used to race down the back side, which is cobbled AND steeper than the front at 23%!! The stones are really rough on the decent too. Frickin' crazy.

Top of the Kemmelberg looking down what I just had ridden up;

The cobbled back side descent looking up what I had just come down;

 

[craig1985]

When Jimmy Casper came a cropper on the Kemmelberg:

Matt Wilson's take of it:

Wilson added his voice to criticism of the inclusion of the treacherous cobbled descent that felled so many riders. "Has anyone considered sealing the descent? It's yet another example of the riders being put last. Pat McQuaid said 'Danger is part of cycling' and 'it would change the character of the race to remove the Kemmel'... Say that to Jimmy Casper who is today getting his lips and tongue sewn back together."

 

[LugHugger]

Whilst I acknowledge that Matt was speaking in the immediate aftermath of a team mate suffering a terrible injury, I suspect that he looks back at that comment and thinks that he over reacted. Re-routing the descent has avoided metalling yet another stretch of cobbles and allowed riders to experience the Kemmelberg in multi dimensions on the 364 days that the Pro's are not racing down it. Oh, and this is possibly the only time that I agree with McQuaid's sentiments - sometimes riders need to man up!

 

[craig1985]

Matt was racing for Discovery Channel. You are thinking of Michael Wilson.

 

[Anonymous]

I would like to say 'thank you' for the well wishes and encouragement. To those thinking of doing the Flanders Cyclo next year, I say do it. You only live once...

Race Radio, this pic's for you;

Mussels, frites with extra mayo and a Le Trappe Brune for lunch. I miss Belgium already...

 

[scribe]

To those thinking of doing the Flanders Cyclo next year, I say do it. You only live once...

And die trying!

 

[Race Radio]

I would like to say 'thank you' for the well wishes and encouragement. To those thinking of doing the Flanders Cyclo next year, I say do it. You only live once...

Race Radio, this pic's for you;

Mussels, frites with extra mayo and a Le Trappe Brune for lunch. I miss Belgium already...

Yeah! that is what I am talking about!

Mumm, I am only a short Eurostart ride away from Belgium right now, wonder if I should blow off that meeting tomorrow?

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah! that is what I am talking about!

Mumm, I am only a short Eurostart ride away from Belgium right now, wonder if I should blow off that meeting tomorrow?

Uh, yes?!?

 

[craig1985]

Yeah! that is what I am talking about!

Mumm, I am only a short Eurostart ride away from Belgium right now, wonder if I should blow off that meeting tomorrow?

Cycling and Belgium >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> work. Call in sick, which would be true after a night of trying out some of the local product. Just the excuse that the Flemish were very persuasive and you had to stay.

That's what I would do