Day Two: Tour of Flanders Race Day

Day two...a chance to see the Pro's tear up the course. Weather clear and cold. Ambiance warm.

   

Early morning sign on in Brugge. A reasonably popular event.

On course on the Paterberg. Where Cancellara makes his decisive break.

Some random local enjoying the ambiance

A few more locals enjoying the facilities

Big screen a great assistance in race comprehension

The Womens race..won by Marianne Vos. Who else?

A very happy punter on course

Day One: Tour of Flanders Sportif

Saturday saw the running of the Tour of Flanders (or the Ronde Van Vlaanderen as we like to say here in Belgium) sportif as a pre cursor to the Pro race the next day. The choices of distance on offer were roughly 80m, 140km or the daunting 240 km option. Lew and I cautiously chose the 140km ride as this covered 16 of the 17 climbs that the Pro's would do on Sunday....and we both felt that this was quite enough having just got off the plane from Australia the night before (excuses, I know).

It was a little disconcerting when a seasoned European campaigner like Lew got up in the early hours of Saturday morning, went out and checked the weather and finding it to be somewhat sub zero (literally!) proceeded to put on five layers of state of the art winter cycling clothing. It says something about the temperatures here that he completed the whole ride and never shed a single item. The maximum temperature for the whole day was two degrees.  Fortunately it only snowed very briefly, and that was just after we finished.

So how was the ride?

Just fantastic. Seriously well organised and certainly the middle distance was a challenge, but was quite achievable for average riders like us. The atmosphere of the place is just terrific...think Around the Bay meets Mur de Hoy. The event is capped at 16,000 riders, but the start time is anywhere between 7am and lunchtime so that helps spread the field out. The roads are narrow and generally very quiet country lanes or dedicated bike paths so it all feels quite safe and the course is well marked out.

The route is almost impossibly convoluted. Someone described it as a plate of spaghetti dropped over a map of northern Belgium. The Pro race uses much of the same route but repeats some of the tougher bergs up to three times.  A mindboggling effort.

The other aspect of the day that surprised me was the high standard of almost all of the riders (and bikes!). Most people looked like they were in good shape and rode regularly, which is not something that is always the case in mass rides in Australia.

Needless to say both Lew and I were very happy to cross the finish line.... and be met by the La Fuga team with a warm van, food and the obligatory Belgian beer. A great day out.

  

Start and finish town...Brugge.

        Typical Flandrian countryside of most of the ride

These boys got our award for brightest bikes and kit. About 10% of the field used MTB's

Typical signage for all the 17 short but sharp bergs

This was the first climb for the ride...the famous Koppenberg. Regrettably with 16,000 riders the distance from Brugge was not enough to spread everyone out. Once a couple of people have to walk...everyone walks. Thankfully it was the only berg where this happened...for us anyway. 

Typical northern Belgian countryside at this time of year

Leonardo (our Brazilian mate) can't quite work out why he has to sit next to this idiot.

The field starting to spread out

A triumphal Lew conquers another sportif... acquires another whole outfit for the wardrobe

Flanders teaser

The images posted on Instagram by Jered Gruber and Matthew Beaudin just whet the appetite for a chilly ride over the cobbles.

And Chimay at 90 euro cents a bottle looks pretty attractive too...

Cobbled Classics Week with La Fuga

I'm happy to say Lew and I leave this week for a taste of the Spring Classics in Belgium.
The following is a brief outline of the program provided by La Fuga, the British tour company arranging the logistics for us. Needless to say we have both opted to use rental bikes for the ten days, checked our health insurance and have packed all the warm clothing we can muster.

For 2013, La Fuga are offering a Cobbled Classics Week, which will connect the Flanders and Roubaix Ride & Watch weekends. Guests on this trip will be able to ride both the Flanders Sportive and the Roubaix Sportive, as well as watch the world's top professional racers at both events. Between these two monumental weekends, we'll ride on the historic roads in the area, including iconic climbs like the Kemmelberg and Muur van Geraardsbergen, take in the Ronde van Vlaanderen museum and watch the pros rip it up once again at the mid-week classic Scheldeprijs.

This week is a pilgrimmage to the holyland of professional cycling, encompassing two of the most important one day races on the calendar. Not only will we be able to watch the pros demostrate their prowess, but we'll also be able to try our hand on the same courses. 

We start the week off with the Tour of Flanders weekend, riding the RVV Sportive, one of the most purely enjoyable & celebratory events in all of cycling. We then zigzag our way across the Flanders fields, chasing the race, as riders do battle on the very course we rode. Last year saw a triumphant Tom Boonen capitalise on the bad luck of Fabian Cancellara to take manificent win in his home race. To say it was a popular victory is an understatement.

Our base for the first part of the trip is the beautiful city of Gent, with it's magnificent gothic arichecture and waterways. We will use this as a jumping off point to explore the rest of Flanders before visiting Antwerp to watch the pros again at the midweek Scheldeprijs.

One last brush with Flanders takes us to Kortrijk before we leave behind the bergs for the flat open tracks of Roubaix. We practise on the cobbles ahead of our own event, the Paris-Roubaix Sportive on Saturday. Watching the pros on Sunday, will know exactly what they feel as they race across the secteurs we rode a day prior, including the famous Forest of Arenberg and Carrefour de l'Arbre.

This is seriously exciting!