In an attempt to prove the experts wrong, and, those who doubted I’d ever ride a bike again after my crash, Suzy & I had entered the Tour Of Flanders Sportive which takes place the day before professionals actually race it.
When I say Suzy & I had entered it, what I really mean is I entered it, choosing the longest distance possible (240km) and then somehow talked Suzy into it and then entered her for the exact same distance, although there were smaller distances available (74,128 & 159km) but I missed that detail out when I signed her up!
Suzy has a bit of a fear about cobbles after I signed her up for Paris-Roubaix 2019 Sportive where the biggest cobbles known to man – “Pave” as they call them formed 58km of the 176km route, there were blues skies but there was a north-wind which meant the whole ride was a headwind. Pave, if you’ve ever seen it on TV is horrendous, so much so the organisers rate each “secteur”. One star being mildly uncomfortable and five starts being horrific. The pro’s make a lot of this look easy but you start to look at the finer detail and it does live up to the name – “hell of the north”.
So, with this PTSD I thought I’d make amends by letting Suzy try some Belgian cobbles at the Tour Of Flanders which were somewhat smaller and (you’d think) somewhat easier to navigate!
The Sportive and the Professional Mens (and Womens) race covered the Easter Weekend so booking annual leave wasn’t an issue. As soon as Suzy signed off from work I was waiting for her in the car park with the car already loaded up with bikes & the necessary kit to handle all weathers. Suzy was working at her works’ HQ in Cambridge for the week so I travelled from home to meet her at her work before we travelled down to Kent for the night before setting off to Europe the following morning. It seemed that everyone else had similar ideas so what was a 3hr journey turned into a 5hr journey. I was trying not to notice the blowing gales and driving rain at times throughout this journey but I could not help think this might be the weather on Saturday on our ride.
Easter Friday, instead of starting my racing season by competing in the Gt Yarmouth Good Friday 10-mile TT (standard practice), I was instead queueing up at the EuroTunnel to go to Belgium. As pretty much standard, the checking in process was fairly smooth but then the France & British passport controls, all within 50yds of each other proved too bloody slow…as it always is! It’s a good job we set off about an hour before we were supposed to be there as we were just about on-time by the time the passport checks were complete. After a short 30-min train ride we were in France and heading for Oudenaard in the car. We were there before we knew it and the signs that there was quite an important bike race going on at the weekend became quite apparent.
We found a parking space and headed to registration to pick up our numbers, our medal (weird before completing the event, right?) and accidentally bumped into some friends from Norwich. It seems I can’t go anywhere in the world without knowing someone. After a Belgian beer and am apple tart (of course) we headed to the centre of Oudenaard to get our bearings and see where we needed to go on the Sunday to get the best view of the racing. We then headed to our Hotel for the next 3 nights situated in Horebeke which is about 10k out from the centre. We fixed our numbers to our bikes, got our kit ready and tried to have an early night.
Saturday morning I was up & awake at 3am in advance of the 3:30am alarm. After a croissant, a banana and some energy bars we were off to Oudenaard by car to park near where we were being shuttled at 5:15am by bus to Antwerp for our start at 7am. Everyone in our bus were quite quiet and I’m guessing it was because of the monumental distance, the bergs (19 of them) and the horrific weather. As I was trying to relax I kept looking at the bus’s thermometer which said 11c and I thought to myself “I’ve ridden in that temperature – it’s ok”. We arrived at Antwerp, off the bus and then do the startling just in time for a few selfies and then off we went!
The weather wasn’t getting better and my choice to ride in shorts wasn’t my best idea, passing through towns it soon became apparent that the bus’s temperature gauge was lying to me – as I was passing chemists in the towns their signs were clearly displaying 8 or 9 degrees! That, and the rain, and the water and mud kicked up by the riders in front of you and it soon became apparent that hypothermia might be an issue. I was riding in a fairly large group for the first two hours and this helped keep the speed up but because the effort was lower than if I was on my own I started to get really cold. To warm myself up I was getting to the front of the groups and putting in some surges to either move that group along or to bridge across to another group some 200-300m in front. A couple of times I stopped to have a wee to then force myself to put in a bit of an effort to catch up to the group I was originally in. The first feed station came at 47k and I stopped by almost 30 seconds before realising that I was shaking uncontrollably so I just carried on.
The 2nd feed station at 95k came and I was a bit warmer as I was pushing a lot more in the group I was in and the hills (the bergs) started to show up on the course. I lasted about 5 minutes at that one! Then the hills and cobblestones kicked in – lovely. I bumped into another cycling friend along the route and the comment “fancy seeing you here” kept spirits up despite the torrential rain, the bergs & the cobbles. Before we knew it the 3rd feed station had arrived where pasta was on the menu! The rain had stopped (for now) and I managed to start a conversation with some riders around me as opposed to feeling sorry for myself.
From this point the course profile looked like a sawtooth, up & down, berg after berg, some cobbled and some smooth but, if you’ve ever watched “De Ronde” on TV, this is the exciting part where the riders struggle to get up the hills, where they attack and where the winner is often decided before there’s any sight of the finish line. I was riding pretty well, no major loss of power but when I got to the Koppenberg it was one hill too many – I got halfway up it and my back wheel slipped on the wet cobblestones and I had to put my foot down and walk up the rest of the hill – this one had beaten me. I managed to hit every berg after that and enjoy the atmosphere as this is the unofficial World Championships as far as the native Belgians are concerned and pretty much every house on the course came out to cheer us on despite the wind & rain. About 8k after the Koppenberg the Taaienberg also got me due to the wet cobblestones and I found myself walking again!
From then I refused to let another berg get the better of me – and it didn’t! I just rode smoothly up each & every one of these climbs and enjoyed every second of it soaking up the party atmosphere. My new Wahoo bike computer has an added feature where it tells you you are on a climb and when you reach the summit. Around the local lanes of Suffolk there rarely a yellow (5% or more) but here there were yellows, oranges, reds and dark reds (20%+) and my computer was telling me what I kind of already knew – it was steep!
After Oude De Kwaremont and Paterberg I knew there was only 13k to go, just as I have watched on the TV for many years and I knew we were on a main road for all of it before finishing in Oudenaarde. I decided to sit in a small group which splintered fairly fast as the pace went up as the riders knew the finish was in sight. I went into full “race-mode” and hid in the bunch. About 8k to go a group of 8 riders flew past our group and I instinctively sprinted from the group I was in and attached myself to this racing group. Old habits die hard I guess! The last km was just as if we were racing – and I managed to have a sprint across the line with some laughter to add to the occasion.
Once into Oudenaarde centre – only 1k later my attention turned to where Suzy was. As luck would have it she was at the last feed station some 35k away so I quickly had a Belgian beer (why not) and made my way to the car to put some warm/dry clothes on as I was soaked through and still shivering. I then rode back to the finish line to meet Suzy come in a short while later. I think it was quite easy to understand she thought this event was just as horrific as Paris-Roubaix and the added distance just prolonged her hating the Belgian cobblestones! I think it’s safe to say she won’t be revisiting this event, or any other “Ardennes Classic” event for quite the foreseeable future. After having a beer back at the registration place we headed to the car to pack up and find something to eat – in the end it was a quick trip to McDonalds and then back to the hotel to collapse.
The next day was a more relaxed affair, an easy breakfast at the hotel and a short drive to our VIP car park which put us into the centre of Oudenaard in readiness for the Professional Men & Womens races. The mens race was starting in Antwerp, just as we had yesterday so we would only get to see them as they passed through Oudenaard with around 100km to go and then at the finish. The Women’s race was starting in Oudenaard so we got to see the teams presentation in the centre and then the official start. My overriding thoughts of the Womens peloton was how small the riders were – all under 5ft 4″ and thin as a rake…but with pretty big legs! Just after the mens race came through the centre at a pretty high speed we made our way to the VIP area right next to the finish line. These VIP tickets were a little bit of a present to myself after all the ups & downs over the past few years so I didn’t feel any issue with parting with a little bit of money to get front-row seats.
The VIP menu was excellent, all the food you can eat and all the drink you can drink, a mix of pasta dishes, tapas and roast beef as well as copies amounts of wine, Belgian beer and soft drinks kept us busy whilst we people-watched the Belgians getting absolutely drunk and disorderly whilst there happened to be a major bike race going on outside! We managed to grab a couple of seats at table with a lovely couple who fetched us food & drinks as we did them.
As the mens field ascended the Oudenaarde De Kwaremont, some 20k away we headed out to the finish line to get a good spot and we definitely got one – literally 5 metres from the finish line where we saw Matthew Van der Poel, in his White World Champion Colours lift his bike in the air just after he crossed the line to win another “Monument” bike race.
We went back inside to watch the Womens race continue and again, with 20k to go we went outside, this time in torrential conditions to watch the Womens race finish. Speaking of weather, the professionals has sunshine for the majority of their race, right up until about 50k to go and then the heavens opened, just as they did all day for us yesterday and things go a bit slippery.
In the mens race I watched only 3 riders – Van der Poel, Jorgenssen and Pedersen ride up the Koppenberg, every other rider had to walk up it which made me realise that my walking up this climb the day before not something to be ashamed of considering the conditions. I looked at Suzy and said – well if they can’t do it no wonder I had to walk! The Belgian couple we were sharing the table with also commented in their very well-spoken English that they had overheard us saying that we had done the 240k ride the day before in horrible conditions and congratulated us.
I did actually say “I wonder if I could’ve got up over the top if it was dry” to which Suzy said I was on my own in trying that again with her!
With both races completed it was time to make a move and head back to the hotel as it was pushing 7pm, not before having just a few more drinks and watching the locals ordering a vast amount of beer and then trying to consume it before they were kicked out of the VIP tent!
Easter Monday and it was time to go home, not before having a civilised breakfast at the hotel and trying to navigate the French-side of Eurotunnel which always poses problems with even slower passport controls and delays of over an hour due to signal problems (apparently). We got back to the house at 5pm and after unpacking the car it was time to call it a day and we both collapsed absolutely knackered.
Would I do it again? – Yes
Would Suzy? – Definitely not!
Only a few days at home before we go for our annual April jaunt to Mallorca…