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Tour of Flanders sportive, Saturday 4 April 2015
![Forum Admin [Martin]](https://forum.ccashwell.co.uk/uploads/userpics/965/nPDJKRPRUHOC1.jpg)
I'm going for this in 2015.
I'm looking at the full beans route, though the maths on me doing 153 miles before the cut-off is hard to work out, having never done all those cobbelsh before.
I have an alternative idea: to ride to Oudernaarde and do the medium route of just the climbs/cobbles. Day 1, Ashwell-Ashford/Calais [avoiding nasty roads]. Day 2, Calais-Oudernaarde [via Cassel, Paschendale etc]. Both rides being 100 miles. Day 3, the sportive.
I'm erring on just doing the full proper sportive on the Saturday. And then having a Saturday night oot in Oudernaarde. I might hang around for the pro ride the next day and then drive back.
Either way, I'd love to catch up with anyone who has done it before or interested in joining in the fun, at the next club night, Tues 4th Nov. Entries open 1st Nov.
cheers
Martin L
I'm looking at the full beans route, though the maths on me doing 153 miles before the cut-off is hard to work out, having never done all those cobbelsh before.
I have an alternative idea: to ride to Oudernaarde and do the medium route of just the climbs/cobbles. Day 1, Ashwell-Ashford/Calais [avoiding nasty roads]. Day 2, Calais-Oudernaarde [via Cassel, Paschendale etc]. Both rides being 100 miles. Day 3, the sportive.
I'm erring on just doing the full proper sportive on the Saturday. And then having a Saturday night oot in Oudernaarde. I might hang around for the pro ride the next day and then drive back.
Either way, I'd love to catch up with anyone who has done it before or interested in joining in the fun, at the next club night, Tues 4th Nov. Entries open 1st Nov.
cheers
Martin L
Comments
Kenny's tipsh ... brilliant. I bet his radio show is a barrel of laughs!
I've went to watch the pro race in 2012 and 2013 and its well worth hanging around for, lots of brits do the Sat ride and watch the pro race. For the last couple of years the race has gone up the Oude Kwaremont 3 times and this is a great place to watch. If you get up to near the top then there are a couple of spots with giant screens, cheap extremely strong beer served from farmyards and crowds screaming for anyone remotely Belgian to beat Cancellara. Fantastic fun....
I am torn between The Ronde sportive or the following weekend for Paris Roubaix - having ridden Roubaix last year I now know what the fuss is all about - yes it is that painful!
Having read about The Ronde sportive quite a bit on the forums and magazine write ups the concensus is to avoid the uber-long route - whilst it has bragging rights it also has 2-3 hours of the dullest flattest roads all out before you hit the hellingen. If I'm going to do it then it will be the 150-170k route not the long one (I don't think the route has been published yet for 2015) The other advantage is also makes the logistics much easier as you can stay in/near Ourdenaarde, which in itself is a nice town and also has the Ronde Van Vlaanderen museum - best visited after sampling some Duvel or Kwak!
The only other consideration is that this is all happening on Easter weekend, which does make the family pass out more difficult?!?!?
Let me know what you are planning and I'll see if I can get the brownie points banked...
JRVM
BTW - still not worked out how to get an image uploaded!
I fancy the full version. I don't mind that banal Flandrian terrain. I find it quite fascinating. Stopping off at some weird village bar thing for a chocolate mousse. Besides, I sort of want the challenge too.
So, I'm booked into the ibis brugge centrum station, 2.5 miles from the start. And the new Leopold hotel in Oudenaarde the following night. I've drafted in my dad as transport.
I won't be able to hang around for the pro race on the Sunday. I didn't realise it was the Easter weekend and it's gone down like a lead balloon. But for now: game on.
If anyone wants to chat more, I'll be around on the club pub nite, tues 4th Nov, Three Tuns.
Paris Roubaix bound to be a cracking ride too the following week. Another time for me with that one.
Stevie and I have ridden this before and it's a great event. We did the Oudenaarde start/finish version which takes in all the best sections.
Fit very low gears and practice your track stands! The climbs get very packed with riders stalling and getting off half way up.
It's a shame you can't stay, the pro-race is fantastic to watch. All the best climbs are packed in a small area. We rode up the Oude Kwaremont not long before the pros and got huge cheers and pushed most of the way up. (Stevie got far more pushes than me for some reason!) We then rushed back to the museum at Oudenaarde to watch the finish. Jamie's right, you have to go to the Museum.
Mark.
Top ride. All the classic climbs. BRUTAL Belgian weather of the highest order.
Report to follow. But just enjoying things here in oudernaarde right now. Ta!
155 miles at 15.5mph. The last two bergs... Ouch. Check em out tomorrow. Kwaremont and paterberg. I told em the paterberg is tough but no mow cop!
Cobbles... Flippin eck. Stef/Jamie: get extra bar tape for PR!
Hope you get to catch some of the pro race atmosphere this morning before heading back.
Thanks for bar tape tip, will definitely stick a second layer on.
Good luck to the P/R contingent. Was thinking of doing this but nowhere fit enough at present...Enjoy.
This must have been an awesome experience, it's a great race.
Stick it on your to-do list. In a nutshell: feel like youre in some kind of epicentre of road cycling being in the heart of cycle loving Belgium on their biggest cycling weekend of the year. 86% of the population watch the professional ride the next day on telly or drinking beer on a berg.
Its a full weekend. Its under 2hrs by car from Calais to Oudernaarde to complete your registration the Friday before the cyclo. The whole thing is a bargain: pre-register for something daft like £15. Note: it sold out for the first time this year. The reason: apparently the Brits! 17,000+ riders.
I register among the stalls and concessions at the next days finish line in pretty enough Oudernaarde with 15 mins to spare before closing time due to duff Google directions [alternatively register on the day in start town Bruges but that is fafforama with the registration venue being far away, queuing and then all the messing about with timing chips]. I should have joined the pasta party and simply, cheaply carbed up, instead it was a 45 min drive to the start town in Bruges, and a late meal in a rubbish expensive tourist restaurant. 600ml super jug of Jupiler nice enough but about £9. Thats two-thirds the blooming event cost nearly!
Bruges is super twee. Nice but lacking the authenticity and liveliness that Gent has just 25 mins away. Bruges feels a bit grown up and dull. Rabbit leg and chips done: its off to the new 2 star Centrum Station ibis hotel 5-10 mins ride away from the start. Recommended. Walking up to it at night, every window has the silhouette of a bike. Inside, nervous, furtive riders from all over the world [40 nations represented!] are fettling and pacing around. Its at this point I upload the latest forecast and understand why.
Bedtime, biketime. One final check and review of the tyres of choice for this, 25mm Vittoria Open Pavés carrying a bad cut from the previous weeks Hardriders. Superglued that and to bed. Set tyres to 90-100psi. On reflection too hard for the cobbles.
The rain is coming down hard as I enter the main town square to start. No problem: itll pass soon right? So, I spot a large group going over the start timing mat and opt to join them. Its not closed roads and instantly find myself going against the morning lorries dropping off waffles, but quickly enough its on to the canal paths and out on to the flat Flandrian lanes.
I didnt mind the first 2hrs of rain. In fact this time was amazing. Huge, huge pelotons sweeping along the roads. Its not closed-roads, but bar essential occasional stops for major crossroads, every junction is manned with marshalls to hold the traffic back. Outriders are guiding traffic elsewhere and we speed along with a general tailwind for the arrival into the hills south. You feel honoured. All around its a United Nations of cobble fans. I mix with a group of dudes from Memphis, U S of A. And there are tonnes of Italians.
The rain just doesnt stop though. Its strange and somehow different coming off the North Sea. Huge, dark rolling low clouds tipping down on us again and again. Its very reminiscent of last years London ride. But it was 19 degrees there. Its 4 degrees here. When a usefully large Belgian strikes up a chat to say how bad the weather is, I began to worry a bit. Indeed afterwards, some other local who has been doing this event for 20+ years said this was the worst weather he could remember. Awful spray and the very definition of Belgian toothpaste. A lot of slurry and pig muck. This is not an aesthetic ride really. But we are going fast. No one wants to get cold [Those neoprene wet glove things work a treat]. The first feed stop on 38 miles and the average speed somewhere near 20mph.
Too risky to loiter and get cold, so its a quickly stuffed in waffle and off again with the nearest large group. Cross winds at times now, bringing on echelons and alliances that last sometimes for miles or minutes. People are really suffering now. There are lots of punctures, and Im not sure how you fix that in these conditions. At the next feed, I watch a man shaking so violently, he shakes his entire bidon of energy gloop out of the bottle while trying to fill it up. Then again, others are in shorts laughing and looking indifferent ot the conditions. I am somewhere in the middle at this point. Its 4hrs of relentless weather now. A bit worried why I can be going full beans and still cant stop my teeth chattering. I struggle forever to reach in my back pocket for a bar to eat only to pull out a spare phone battery. I pass the time being fascinated by these crumby towns and villages, with odd bars and cafes the size of tiny houses and factories selling palette lifting forklifts with ads where theyve got a bikini girl leaning on one.
Almost to signify the change in terrain, the rain at last gives up to grey sky. Oh happy day. As we enter among the rolling hills, cobbled sections and bergs, its simply a different ride. And if you do the medio version this is the start. From here there are 16 named bergs many famous climbs youve seen in old pictures or as recently as last Sunday. And 8 named cobbled sections. Each one smartly with its own sign letting you know its difficulty.
The mood lightens as the weather improves. Highlights would be the locals at the top of most climbs. If there was a rider struggling to the top, local bands would do a prolonged drum roll and then, finally, blast a trumpeted Ta-Daaah! to the relief/humiliation of the rider. There were many shouts of Courage and Bravo. Nice.
The Koppenberg inevitably went wrong. Thick in mud and no wider than a little car, a rider in front goes down and we all come to a shuddering stop/fall. Some foolishly try and clip back in and go down again. So we walk like penguins to the top.
The second last Feed has a booming DJ booth that underlines how much these people invest in this event. Then theres a Red Bull sponsored stop-off and mechanic proving a ride-saver to me as the cobbles had almost shaken off my left cleat. They replaced the missing bolt in seconds, oiled by chain and wished me success just as I bumped into a friend. What are the chances?! We ride the last 20 miles together with his mate as a Brit trio now a bit giddy we had this ride nailed.
They save the best til last. The impressive looking Kwaremont snakes up the hill and along with the final climb of the Paterberg which is reminiscent of a cobbled Mow Cop, are clearly the places to watch the pro race. By now, the sun is out and we have dried off, bar sloshy shoes. We bag these and its then an endorphin fuelled 15 mile battle into the headwind to Oudernaarde with two finish lines the official one the pros do and the cyclo one back at the registration zone a few miles after. A bit weird. The mood is jumping at the end cycle circus, but its soon off to Oudernaarde town square nearby to meet my driver father, where the pro podium is and all the bars around are heaving with cheery muddy blokes enjoying post-ride beers and frites with mayo. Its a carnival atmosphere, just a few doors down from the Tour of Flanders museum, as we celebrate around the TV gantries being set-up etc. Discussion flows freely about the ride and the next days race with other riders, over large glasses of Bruges Blonde.
Inevitably, I dont get back to the brilliant Leopold hotel behind the museum til near midnight, getting a standing ovation rolling my bike in, from everyone at the bar who think Ive only just finished. I do nothing to tell them otherwise.
The next day its a beautiful day. We leave the hotel at 10am, passing the pro teams setting up their vans etc. Not for us the pro race gotta get back. We arrive in Guilden Morden 2.30pm. Its not far at all! So consider this ride for 2016. Do the full one I say, though the medium and short distance ones are brilliant routes and would make a great weekend. The effort sits above the Chiltern 100 and 3 Cafes Ride, but under the Marmotte.
Id do it again, if only to enjoy better weather next time. But am also aware there are similar events for the other Classics and have my eye on Gent-Wevelgem. Back on more familiar west-Flanders terrain and the Kemmelberg and Mont Cassel some know from previous CCA trips. And demands two nights in Gent. Something to think on for 2016 anyway.
Cheers!
There's me on the left. Feeling a bit gutted on the Koppenberg.
http://i.imgur.com/tO0IdDW.jpg
Why is the the worse you make the ride sound, the more it makes one want to ride it.
Well done and thanks for the motivation.
Adam