my tour of flanders
hi all
so there I was reading 'cycling weekly' about doing the Tour Of Flanders bike sportive. A race full of history and I googled it, 5 mins later and an impulse purchase was made. on friday I found my way to bruges via eurostar and onto the hotel cassle bergh both highly recommended.
opened my bike and found that my headset had come apart! bit of a nightmare trying to find a bike shop open in an unfamiliar town at 5.45pm on good friday but fluked it. then
took my bike for a spin in bruges on friday and thought these cobbles aren't too bad. felt in good shape, ate well and off to bed.
woke up early to eat and it was pouring and the flags were flapping...........er great only
255km of wind rain hills and cobbles to go. 100's of bikers all anxious to sign in and ge off quickly out of the cold. got captured by belgian radio who tried to give me the impression that it was complete madness to do 'flanders' on my own. the penny had already dropped and realised it was important to find some friends(!) to ride with or the wind would just do me in.
found a bunch of fellow londoners and got to first feed. rain cape on and off all day.
worst part for me was the first 50Km to osstende. so windy and hardly anyone working together effectively. when we hooked back inland the wind was mainly to the side and with the showers made it hard work. took care to eat, drink, pee, rest when required but often co-incided with very good feed stations.
having french and enough spanish allowed me to tag in and out of groups as needed making sure I did my turn on the front. the only issue really was both my knees started aching about 140km (probably because saddle mispositioned). blagged a couple of painkillers at a feed station and on I went. got lucky a few times, missing crashes in front of me and cars (oops).
now those cobbles.........the cobbles on the course are way, way different to the ones in bruges. you've got big cobbles with wheel sized gaps inbetween that could be a worm hole that takes you into a different dimention (e.g. the nearest hospital). so much rain had made the cobbles very greasy, difficult almost impossible to get out of the saddle at all. that's why it favours strong guys who can push that gear round rather than pedal floaters such as contador. I appreciated every gram of my 82kgs but always kept the cadence 55+ with 90+ on the flats.
however did all the climbs except patenberg, busy so had to get off and the muur which I totally messed up forgeting the 2nd part beyond the little square - blew up big style. did koppenberg by waiting for a clear run at it (and a very helpful big push from a very helpful big dutchman) and all the others including getting 2nd wind and dropping my group on the last climb the bosberg.
tagged onto a pair of local belgians did the last 20km or so back into ninove, by which time it was dark. hard, hard day took me 12hrs with stops but got my card checked so happy. blagged a ride off some more lovely belgians back to bruges from ninove as there were no buses left.
finally got back to bruges, showered and ate myself silly on 'chips with fremish stew' (which could have been horsemeat which I love by the way). clean, fed, watered in a very comfy bed with 'match of the day' on the hotel tv - as near to bliss as possible!
right that's flanders done, next year paris roubaix or milan san remo!!!!!
for you tecnocrats;- used kuota kom with dura ace 7900 53/38 13/27 mavic r-sys ssc and continental 4000gp (NO PUNCTURES!!!!)
take care all,
marat